A longitudinal study of justice characteristics among girls participating in a sex trafficking court program
Date
2021
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Health & Justice
Abstract
Background: Sex trafficking is a public health and social justice issue that has traditionally been addressed with
criminal justice solutions. Because many sex trafficking survivors are incarcerated for crimes related to their
exploitation, specialty, human trafficking courts were developed to offer resources and assistance to labor and sex
trafficking survivors. This study assessed justice-involved youth participating in a specialty, anti-trafficking court
program. The purpose of this study was to investigate justice-related outcomes of participants in a specialty court
program. We examined: (1) the relationship between age at first citation and justice characteristics (number of
bench warrants, number of citations, number placements, and number of times ran away); and (2) the number of
months between first citation and enrollment into the program with the aforementioned justice characteristics. We
used negative binomial models to estimate the relationships between age at first citation, number of months
between first citation and program enrollment, with the four justice characteristics (n = 181).
Results: Adjusted models showed that younger age at first citation was associated with significantly more bench
warrants and citations while in the program. Likewise, fewer months between first citation and program entry was
related to more bench warrants and citations.
Conclusions: There is a need to evaluate the appropriateness of specialty, trafficking court programs in reducing
continued justice involvement and these programs ability to meet the evolving needs of sex trafficking survivors
over time. We recommend universal screening for trafficking indicators for all systems-involved youth and
relocating trafficking specialty courts out of juvenile courts to dependency courts.
Description
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Article
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Keywords
commercial sexual exploitation, child abuse, research, juvenile justice, sex trafficking
Citation
Cook, M. C., Talbert, R. D., & Thomas, B. (2021). A longitudinal study of justice characteristics among girls participating in a sex trafficking court program. Health & Justice, 9(1), 1-12.