Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking in the United States: A Victim-Centered Approach

2020 ◽  
pp. 137-149
Author(s):  
Paula Songs ◽  
Janice Joseph
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Sex Trafficking ◽  
The United States ◽  
Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking

An Analysis of Romantic Partnership Dynamics in Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking Case Files

2020 ◽  
pp. 088626052096030
Author(s):  
Mary K. Twis ◽  
Lynzee Gillespie ◽  
Don Greenwood
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
At Risk ◽  
Sex Trafficking ◽  
The United States ◽  
Romantic Partners ◽  
Romantic Partner ◽  
Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking ◽  
Gang Involvement ◽  
Case Files ◽  
At Risk Adolescents

Domestic minor sex trafficking (DMST) is the commercial sexual exploitation of a minor citizen or legal resident within the United States. Previous research suggests that although DMST is often discussed as though it is a uniform phenomenon, traffickers may use different tactics and exploit different victim vulnerabilities depending upon their established relationships with those who are at-risk for trafficking. The purpose of this qualitative study, therefore, is to explore the relationship patterns and dynamics that emerge between DMST victims and their romantic partner traffickers. This study utilizes the secondary case files of 38 domestic minors who were trafficked for sex by their romantic partners in one state in the United States between 2012 and 2017. The study is conceptualized according to the principles of directed content analysis and multiple case study design and relies heavily on previous research findings related to victim-trafficker relationship typology. The authors conducted two rounds of coding before applying themes to the case files. The analysis revealed that DMST victims trafficked by romantic partners are often influenced by environmental circumstances, such as gang involvement and family systems involvement. Romantic partner traffickers use specific recruitment tactics to entrap their victims, and exercise methods such as caregiving, sexual violence, and psychological violence to maintain control over their victims. Study results provide a significant extension to the anti-trafficking field’s understanding of DMST and the romantic partner relationships that underpin it. The results suggest that anti-trafficking advocates should screen at-risk adolescents for gang involvement, family involvement in the sex industry. They should also educate at-risk adolescents about DMST as a potential component of teen dating violence.

Force, Fraud, and Coercion—What Do They Mean? A Study of Victimization Experiences in a New Destination Latino Sex Trafficking Network

2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 456-476 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauren Copley Sabon
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Social Constructionism ◽  
Sex Trafficking ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Forces ◽  
Eastern United States ◽  
Latina Immigrants ◽  
Strict Interpretation ◽  
New Destination

In response to increasing Latino new destination migration in the United States, Latino sex trafficking networks have emerged in many of these areas. This article examines victimization experiences of Latina immigrants trafficked by a regional network operating in the Eastern United States drawn from law enforcement records and interviews with legal actors involved in the criminal case. The stories shared with law enforcement by the Latina victims gives insight into their lives, experiences in prostitution, and the operation of a trafficking/prostitution network (all lacking in the literature). Through the analytical frame of social constructionism, this research highlights how strict interpretation of force, fraud, coercion, and agency used to define “severe forms of trafficking” in the TVPA limits its ability to recognize many victimization experiences in trafficking situations at the hands of traffickers. The forms of coercion used in the criminal enterprise under study highlights the numerous ways it can be wielded (even without a physical presence) and its malleability as a concept despite legal definitional rigidity. The lack of legal recognition of the plurality of lived experiences in which agency and choice can be mitigated by social forces, structural violence, intersectional vulnerabilities, and the actions of others contributes to the scholarly critique of issues prosecuting trafficking cases under the TVPA and its strict legal definitions.

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