SEX TRAFFICKING PREVENTION TRAINING

Our center, A Child’s Voice Child Advocacy Center, provides forensic interviews, forensic medical examinations, and family support services, including counseling, for victims of abuse in Newton, Walton and surrounding counties. We work through the context of a multidisciplinary team made up of law enforcement, Department of Family and Children's Services, the District Attorney's Office, Mental Health providers, Child Advocacy Center Staff, and school system. This approach ensures that local agencies work together on these complex cases to provide effective, trauma-informed services to all victims of abuse in our counties to allow them to heal from the abuse they have experienced.

As experts in the field of child abuse, we know that sex trafficking can look diferent than most people may think. We have seen cases where children who are trafficked are home in their own beds every night. We have seen cases where children are trafficked by their neighbor, or by their parents. Per Polaris Project, children are far more likely to be trafficked by people they know – including members of their own family. 60% of youth are trafficked by someone they already know, and 52% of traffickers use financial motivation to manipulate victims (Moore, et al). One study (Landers, et. al) found that 86% of trafficking youth were previously victims of child sexual abuse. Moore, et. al found that 88% of trafficking victims were previously exposed to some form of child maltreatment. A third study (Naramore, et. al) found that youth sex trafficking victims had higher Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) scores, or higher rates of childhood trauma, particularly physical and sexual abuse. 

Per Polaris Project, “Law enforcement is an important partner in the work but arrests alone will not solve this. Building and supporting strong families and communities will help prevent child sex trafficking before it happens.” To prevent sex trafficking, we need to reduce risk factors. We do this by building strong families and communities, helping children heal from abuse when they have experienced it, and preventing all types of child abuse from occuring in the first place. 

A Child’s Voice agrees. Many individuals feel stirred to action to combat human trafficking- a vile and unfathomable crime against children. We know that most child abuse occurs close to home. We know that experiences of abuse, neglect, substance abuse, being removed from their home, and running away from home increase a child’s risk for human trafficking. Therefore, we can make the largest impact by working together as a community, in our community. When we support strong families, help children heal from abuse, and empower all adults to protect children, we will reduce human trafficking in our community. 

 A Child’s Voice provides training for the community to educate adults to create strong families and communities .The training programs we offer are backed by state and national organizations. We offer Darkness to Light’s Stewards of Children (sexual abuse prevention, recognition, and response), Prevent Child Abuse Georgia’s Mandated Reporter training (recognizing and reporting all types of abuse),and Prevent Child Abuse Georgia/ Georgia Center for Child Advocacy’s Connections Matter (a connection building, resilience based response to Adverse Childhood Experiences or ACEs). 

We are available and flexible to provide any of this training to our community. Currently, we can provide all of the training we offer virtually to groups and individuals. If you’re interested in attending one of our trainings or bringing a training to a group of adults you are part of, let us know! Costs and more information, including how to sign up, is on our website at www.achildsvoicecac.org/request.
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*In one study (Landers, M., McGrath, K., Johnson, M. H., Armstrong, M. I., & Dollard, N. (2017). Baseline characteristics of dependent youth who have been commercially sexually exploited: findings from a specialized treatment program. Journal of Child Sexual Abuse, 26(6), 692-709.). 86% of comercially exploited youth were previous victims of child sexual abuse. 

*Moore, J. L., Houck, C., Hirway, P., Barron, C. E., & Goldberg, A. P. (2017). Trafficking experiences and psychosocial features of domestic minor sex trafficking victims. Journal of Interpersonal Violence. Online ahead of print. DOI:10.1177/ 0886260517703373

*Most patients lived at home and/or were accompanied at the evaluation by a parent/guardian. High rates of alcohol or substance use/abuse (92%), being placed in a group home or child protective services (CPS) custody (28%), a history of runaway behavior (60%), and/or exposure to other child maltreatment (88%) were identified. Our data indicated variation in reported trafficking experiences; however, patients commonly reported an established relationship with their trafficker (60%) and recruitment occurred primarily as a result of financial motivation (52%). Patients were prevalently recruited in settings where there were face-to-face interactions (56%), whereas the solicitation of sex-buyers occurred primarily online (92%)

*Naramore, R., Bright, M. A., Epps, N., & Hardt, N. S. (2017). Youth arrested for trading sex have the highest rates of childhood adversity: A statewide study of juvenile offenders. Sexual Abuse, 29(4), 396-410.
 Youth with violations related to sex trafficking had higher rates for each ACE as well as number of ACEs, particularly sexual abuse and physical neglect. These findings have implications for identifying adverse experiences in both maltreated and offending youth as well as tailoring services to prevent re-victimization.