First Advisor

Emily Salisbury

Date of Publication

1-1-2011

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (M.S.) in Criminology and Criminal Justice

Department

Criminology and Criminal Justice

Language

English

Subjects

Human trafficking -- United States, Child trafficking victims -- United States -- Identification, Child sexual abuse -- United States, Child prostitution -- United States

DOI

10.15760/etd.305

Physical Description

1 online resource (v, 70 p.)

Abstract

Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking (DMST) is a severe form of child sexual exploitation. Thus far, DMST studies have been qualitative or relied on secondary data. There has been no quantitative attempt to directly identify victims in a methodical way in order to determine the prevalence of DMST at a local level or the nature and strengths of its correlates. The present study used a three-tiered screening process to identify victims of DMST in a juvenile detention center. All youth taken into custody over a three and a half month period (N = 738) received a short assessment to identify those most at risk and in need of additional screening. During the study, six youth were identified as DMST victims and statistically significant differences were found between youth referred for additional screening (N = 47) and youth who were not. The results suggest that detention and probation staff identified the presence of DMST risk factors in youth screen interviews and were making referral decisions based on the presence of those risk factors. Practical implications of the findings are discussed along with suggestions for future research.

Rights

In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).

Comments

Hatfield School of Government. Division of Criminology and Criminal Justice

Persistent Identifier

http://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/7010

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