Abstract
This content analysis examined assessments available for the screening of sex trafficking to provide professional counselors further insight into the features of sex trafficking and how to best identify and measure this phenomenon. The authors reviewed 12 articles that included a complete or partial use of 13 instruments and completed a content analysis using Krippendorff’s procedures. The final analysis resulted in five overarching categories: (a) commercial sexual exploitation, (b) risk factors, (c) forms of abuse, (d) mental and physical health assessment, and (e) unstable living conditions and caregiving. The authors also provide psychometric information for each available sex trafficking instrument. Discussion, implications for clinical practice, and recommendations for future research are provided.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
American Counseling Association. (2014). ACA code of ethics. https://www.counseling.org/resources/aca-code-of-ethics.pdf
American Educational Research Association, American Psychological Association, and National Council on Measurement in Education. (1999). Standards for educational and psychological testing. AERA.
Banovic, B., & Bjelajac, Z. (2012). Traumatic experiences, psychophysical consequences and needs of human trafficking victims. Vojnosanitestski Pregled, 69(1), 94–97. https://doi.org/10.2298/VSP1201094B
Baskin, D., Sommers, I., & Kaufka Walts, K. (2014). Childright: New York. Child trafficking rapid screening instrument (RST). https://www.luc.edu/media/lucedu/chrc/pdfs/ChildRight_RapidScreeningInstrument_CHRC_FNALDRAFT_JULY%20(1).pdf
Basson, D. (2017). Validation of the Commercial Sexual Exploitation-Identification Tool (CSE-IT). Technical report. West Coast Children's Clinic. http://www.westcoastcc.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/WCC-CSE-IT-PilotReport-FINAL.pdf
Bernardo’s. (2013). SERAF risk assessment form. Retrieved from https://democratic.bridgend.gov.uk/documents/s10520/21.11.16/20-/20CSE/20-/20Appendix/20D/20-/20
Boyce, S., Brouwer, K., Triplett, D., Servin, A., Magis-Rodriguez, C., & Silverman, J. (2018). Childhood experiences of sexual violence, pregnancy, and marriage associated with child sex trafficking among female sex workers in two US-Mexico border cities. American Journal of Public Health, 108(8), 1049–1054. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2018.304455
Browne-James, L., Litam, S. D. A., & McRae, L. (2021). Child sex trafficking: Strategies for identification, counseling, and advocacy. International Journal for the Advancement of Counselling. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10447-020-09420-y
Clawson, H. J., Dutch, N. M., Solomon, A., & Goldblatt G. L. (2009). Human trafficking into and within the United States: A review of the literature. http://aspe.hhs.gov/hsp/07/humantrafficking/litrev/
Clutton, S., & Coles, J. (2007). Sexual exploitation risk assessment framework: A pilot study. Barnardo’s Cymru. https://www.slideshare.net/JANCOLES/sexual-exploitation-risk-assessment-framework-a-pilot-study
Cole, J., Sprang, G., Lee, R., & Cohen, J. (2016). The trauma of commercial sexual exploitation of youth: A comparison of CSE victims to sexual abuse victims in a clinical sample. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 31(1), 122–146. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260514555133
CSEC Collaborative Response Team. (2015). Commercially sexually exploited children (CSEC): Screening tool. https://www.cwda.org/sites/main/files/file-attachments/slo-csec-screening-tool-3-5-15.pdf
Cutliffe, J. R., & McKenna, H. P. (1999). Establishing the credibility of qualitative research findings: The plot thickens. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 30(2), 374–380. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2648.1999.01090.x
Dank, M., Yahner, J., Yu, L., Casquez-Noriega, C., Gelatt, J., & Pergamit, M. (2017). Pretesting a human trafficking screening tool in the child welfare and runaway and homeless youth systems. Urban Institute. https://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/publication/93596/pretesting_tool_0.pdf
Fink, L., Bernstein, D., Handelsman, L., Foote, J., & Lovejoy, M. (1995). Initial reliability and validity of the childhood trauma interview: A new multidimensional measure of childhood interpersonal trauma. The American Journal of Psychiatry, 152(9), 1329–1335. https://doi.org/10.1176/ajp.152.9.1329
Greenbaum, V. J., Dodd, M., & McCracken, C. (2015). A short screening tool to identify victims of child sex trafficking in the health care setting. Pediatric Emergency Care, 34(1), 33–37. https://doi.org/10.1097/PEC.0000000000000602
Greenbaum, V. J., Livings, M. S., Lai, B. S., Edinburgh, L., Baikie, P., Grant, S. R., Kondis, J., Petska, H. W., Bowman, M., Legano, L., Kas-Osoka, O., & Self-Brown, S. (2018). Evaluation of a tool to identify child sex trafficking victims in multiple healthcare settings. Journal of Adolescent Health, 63(6), 745–752. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2018.06.032
Gonzalez-Pons, K. M., Gezinski, L., Morzenti, H., Hendrix, E., & Graves, S. (2020). Exploring the relationship between domestic minor sex trafficking myths, victim identification, and service provision. Child Abuse & Neglect, 100, 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2019.104093
Grosso, A., Busch, S., Mothopeng, T., Sweitzer, S., Nkonyana, J., Mpooa, N., Taruberekera, T., & Baral, S. (2018). HIV risks and needs related to the sustainable development goals among female sex workers who were commercially sexually exploited as children in Lesotho. Journal of the International AIDS Society, 21(1), e25042. https://doi.org/10.1002/jia2.25042
Hays, D. G., & Singh, A. A. (2012). Qualitative inquiry in clinical and educational settings. The Guildford Press.
Hays, D. (2017). Assessment in counseling: A guide to the use of psychological assessment procedures (6th ed.). American Counseling Association.
Hays, D. G., & Emelianchik, K. (2009). A content analysis of intimate partner violence assessments. Measurement and Evaluation in Counseling and Development, 42(3), 139–153. https://doi.org/10.1177/0748175609344090
International Labour Organization. (2017). Global estimates of modern slavery: Forced labour and forced marriage. https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/@dgreports/@dcomm/documents/publication/wcms_575479.pdf
Krippendorf, K. (2014). Content analysis: An introduction to its methodology (3rd ed.). Sage.
Litam, S. D. (2017). Human sex trafficking in America: What counselors need to know. The Professional Counselors, 7(1). 45–61. https://doi.org/10.15241/sdal.7.1.45.
Litam, S. D., & Lam, E. T. (2020). Sex trafficking beliefs in counselors: Establishing the need for human trafficking training in counselor education programs. International Journal for the Advancement of Counselling, 43(1), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10447-020-09408-8
Lutnik, A. (2016). Domestic minor sex trafficking: Beyond victims and villains. Columbia University Press.
Muftic, L. R., & Finn, M. A. (2013). Health outcomes among women trafficked for sex in the United States: A closer look. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 28(9), 1859–1885. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260512469102
Mumma, B. E, Scofield, M. E, Mendoza, L. P, Toofan, Y., Youngyunpipatkul, J., & Hernandez, B. (2017). Screening for victims of sex trafficking in the emergency department: A pilot program. Western Journal of Emergency Medicine: Integrating Emergency Care with Population Health, 18(4). https://doi.org/10.5811/westjem.2017.2.31924
O’Brien, J., Li, W., Givens, A., & Leibowitz, G. (2017). Domestic minor sex trafficking among adjudicated male youth: Prevalence and links to treatment. Children and Youth Services Review, 82, 392–399. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2017.09.026
Oram, S., Abas, M., Bick, D., Boyle, A., French, R., Jakobowitz, S., Khondoker, M., Stanley, N., Trevillion, K., Howard, L., & Zimmerman, C. (2016). Human trafficking and health: A survey of male and female survivors in England. American Journal of Public Health, 106(6), 1073–1078. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2016.303095
Panlilio, C. C., Miyamoto, S., Font, S. A., & Schreier, H. M. C. (2017). Assessing risk of commercial sexual exploitation among children involved in child welfare system. Child Abuse & Neglect, 87, 88–99. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2018.07.021
Polaris Project. (2020). Hotline statistics. https://humantraffickinghotline.org/states
Reid, J. A., & Jones, S. (2011). Exploited vulnerability: Legal and psychological perspectives on child sex trafficking victims. Victims & Offenders, 6(2), 207–231. https://doi.org/10.1080/15564886.2011.557327
Romero, D. E., Interiano-Shiverdecker, C. G., Castellon, N. E., & Strentzsch, J. (2021). A review of child sex trafficking instruments. Journal of Child and Adolescent Counseling, 7(1), 56–69. https://doi.org/10.1080/23727810.2020.1835421
Scott, E. L., & Ramey, L. R. (2009). Human trafficking: A call for counselor awareness and action. The Journal of Humanistic Counseling, Education, and Development, 48(1), 36–47. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2161-1939.2009.tb00066.x
Simich, L., Goyen, L., Powell, A., & Berberich, K. (2014). Out of the shadows: A tool for the identification of victims of human trafficking. https://www.vera.org/publications/out-of-the-shadows-identification-of-victims-of-human-trafficking
Smith, L., Vardaman, S., & Snow, M. (2009). The national report on domestic minor sex trafficking: America’s prostituted children. https://sharedhope.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/SHI_National_Report_on_DMST_2009.pdf
Thompson, J., & Haley, M. (2018). Human trafficking: Preparing counselors to work with survivors. International Journal for the Advancement of Counselling, 40(3), 298–309. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10447-018-9327-1
U.S. Department of State. (2020). Trafficking in person report: June 2019. https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/2019-Trafficking-in-Persons-Report.pdf
Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000, Pub. L. No. 106–386, § 103, 114 Stat. 1470.
Funding
The authors did not receive support from any organization for the submitted work.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Interiano-Shiverdecker, C.G., Romero, D.E., Anderson, A. et al. A Content Analysis of Sex Trafficking Instruments. Int J Adv Counselling 44, 373–394 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10447-021-09463-9
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10447-021-09463-9