This book addresses child sex trafficking in the era of digital technology. As a global problem, human trafficking frequently victimizes the most vulnerable: children. Offenders often use the Internet as a vehicle for criminal activities, including acts to sexually exploit them. With Internet access growing exponentially, more children are online every day, increasing their risk of becoming involved in sexual exploitation or being treated as a commodity. Inconsistent law among countries and the lack of adequate cooperation across borders make combating this issue increasingly difficult. Using a human rights approach, this book offers alternative solutions and recommendations, including establishing a legal protection framework to fight practices that sexually exploit children in cyberspace. In addition, it promotes multi-stakeholder collaboration in the context of corporate social responsibility to prevent and combat these offenses. This book explores the intersection of children’s human rights, online sex trafficking, and international legislation. It provides helpful insights for lawmakers, legal practitioners, scholars, law enforcement officers, child advocates, and students interested in human rights law, criminal law, and child protection.

"Keith Harmon Snow's meticulously documented investigation into sex-trafficking of children by American judges is not to be missed. This scandal is one of the most important censored stories in our country today. I might not believe what Mr. Snow has written if I had not independently investigated two dozen cases not discussed in his article, and found ample evidence of the precise dynamics he lays out for us here. Anyone who says they care about child welfare needs to learn what is happening in family courts and take action until it is stopped. Once you start reading this expose, you won't be able to put it down." -Lundy Bancroft Author of Why Does He Do That? History's largest-selling book on domestic violence"

Every day in the United States, children and adolescents are victims of commercial sexual exploitation and sex trafficking. Despite the serious and long-term consequences for victims as well as their families, communities, and society, efforts to prevent, identify, and respond to these crimes are largely under supported, inefficient, uncoordinated, and unevaluated. Confronting Commercial Sexual Exploitation and Sex Trafficking of Minors in the United States examines commercial sexual exploitation and sex trafficking of U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents of the United States under age 18. According to this report, efforts to prevent, identify, and respond to these crimes require better collaborative approaches that build upon the capabilities of people and entities from a range of sectors. In addition, such efforts need to confront demand and the individuals who commit and benefit from these crimes. The report recommends increased awareness and understanding, strengthening of the law's response, strengthening of research to advance understanding and to support the development of prevention and intervention strategies, support for multi-sector and interagency collaboration, and creation of a digital information-sharing platform. A nation that is unaware of these problems or disengaged from solutions unwittingly contributes to the ongoing abuse of minors. If acted upon in a coordinated and comprehensive manner, the recommendations of Confronting Commercial Sexual Exploitation and Sex Trafficking of Minors in the United States can help advance and strengthen the nation's emerging efforts to prevent, identify, and respond to commercial sexual exploitation and sex trafficking of minors in the United States.

Each year, more than two million children around the world fall victim to commercial sexual exploitation. The numbers of children sexually abused for non-commercial purposes are even higher. Put simply, the growing, increasingly-organized epidemic of child exploitation demands a coordinated response. The aim of this book is to bring some fresh thinking to this complicated area of the law, and to help erase some of its counterproductive mythology. The book provides the first comprehensive, practical introduction to the history and present-day reality of child sexual exploitation, as well as to the interconnected web of domestic and transnational federal laws and law enforcement efforts launched in response thereto. It is written from the distinctive perspective of those who have spent their careers in the trenches investigating, prosecuting, and adjudicating these intricate and commonly emotional cases. Relying on real-world examples, the authors offer proscriptive and descriptive practical advice and reform proposals aimed at those involved at all levels in this difficult area. Serving as a “first-line” resource for clear, practical thinking on the range of complex, and often misunderstood, investigative, prosecutorial, and rehabilitative issues surrounding child exploitation cases, this work is a must-have for anyone with interest in the protection of children from sexual exploitation and trafficking.

How can a public health approach advance efforts to prevent, identify, and respond to child trafficking? Child trafficking is widely recognized as one of the critical issues of our day, prompting calls to action at the global, national, and local levels. Yet it is unclear whether the strategies and tools used to counter this exploitation—most of which involve law enforcement and social services—have actually reduced the prevalence of trafficking. In Preventing Child Trafficking, Jonathan Todres and Angela Diaz explore how the public health field can play a comprehensive, integrated role in preventing, identifying, and responding to child trafficking. Describing the depth and breadth of trafficking's impact on children while exploring the limitations in current responses, Todres and Diaz argue that public health frameworks offer important insights into the problem, with detailed chapters on how professionals and organizations can identify and respond effectively to at-risk and trafficked children. Drawing on the authors' years of experience working on this issue—Diaz is a doctor at a frontline medical center serving at-risk youth, victims, and survivors; Todres is a legal expert on legislative and policy initiatives to address child trafficking—the book maps out a public health approach to child trafficking, the role of the health care sector, and the prospects for building a comprehensive response. Providing readers with advice geared toward better understanding trafficking's root causes, this revelatory book concludes by mapping out a "public health toolkit" that can be used by anyone who is interested in preventing child trafficking, from policymakers to professionals who work with children.

Trafficked children are portrayed by the media—and even by child welfare specialists—as hapless victims who are forced to migrate from a poor country to the United States, where they serve as sex slaves. But as Elzbieta M. Gozdziak reveals in Trafficked Children in the United States, the picture is far more complex. Basing her observations on research with 140 children, most of them girls, from countries all over the globe, Gozdziak debunks many myths and uncovers the realities of the captivity, rescue, and rehabilitation of trafficked children. She shows, for instance, that none of the girls and boys portrayed in this book were kidnapped or physically forced to accompany their traffickers. In many instances, parents, or smugglers paid by family members, brought the girls to the U.S. Without exception, the girls and boys in this study believed they were coming to the States to find employment and in some cases educational opportunities. Following them from the time they were trafficked to their years as young adults, Gozdziak gives the children a voice so they can offer their own perspective on rebuilding their lives—getting jobs, learning English, developing friendships, and finding love. Gozdziak looks too at how the children’s perspectives compare to the ideas of child welfare programs, noting that the children focus on survival techniques while the institutions focus, not helpfully, on vulnerability and pathology. Gozdziak concludes that the services provided by institutions are in effect a one-size-fits-all, trauma-based model, one that ignores the diversity of experience among trafficked children. Breaking new ground, Trafficked Children in the United States offers a fresh take on what matters most to these young people as they rebuild their lives in America.

This book provides practical information on offenses and offenders in child sexual trafficking, including child pornography, juvenile prostitution, procuring, pedophilia, sex tourism, indenturing, and sex rings. The information is based on 5 years of field research through interviews with victims, offenders, and agency practitioners; field observations; and case studies from police and social service files. Chapters on offenders and victims define the major terms, describe the various markets, and survey types of child sexual exploiters, with particular attention to pedophilia. Four aspects of child sexual trafficking are then examined in detail : hustling, pimping, child pornography, and the international child sex trade. Chapters on ways to counter child sexual trafficking include a weighing of the prospects for reform through State and Federal statutes and judicial advocacy, alternative sentencing, and improvement in the quality of relevant professional services. An examination of the victimization cycle addresses types of exploitive parents, with attention to the role of dysfunctional families in the sexual victimization of their children. The discussion of victim advocacy reviews victim treatment, federal child sexual exploitation task forces, police-social worker teams, and case preparation. (NCJRS, modified).