Human Trafficking of Children and Adolescents: Recognition and Response in the Emergency Department

Points & Pearls Excerpt

• Trafficking does not require transportation away from home or across borders.
• Children and adolescents may be trafficked in legal industries, including agriculture, manufacturing, restaurant, and domestic work, as well as in illegal industries.^22,23
• Although sex trafficking receives much of the focus in the United States, research indicates that 20% to 50% of youth who experience trafficking specifically experience labor trafficking.^34-37
• The risk factors for labor and sex trafficking are multifactorial, and current studies have not established association versus causality for risk factors.
• Risk factor conditions may be compounded by larger structural factors such as poverty, racism, transphobia, homophobia, and sexism.