Abstract
Commercial sexual exploitation (CSE) is a form of sexual abuse with significant implications for public health and social equity. CSE occurs when a person obtains sexual access to another person through an exchange of something of perceived value (e.g., money, housing, food, clothing, drugs, protection). CSE includes sex trafficking, the strip club, and pornography industries, as well as brothel, familial, street, gang, and hotel-based exploitation. As a result of high rates of violence and abuse perpetrated by sex buyers, pimps, traffickers, third-party exploiters, and others, and from frequent sexual use, studies indicate that survivors of CSE endure recurrent medical injuries and illnesses and negative health outcomes. Medical providers may encounter survivors of CSE more frequently than other profession. Despite these encounters, disclosure and identification is rare. Furthermore, standards of care for working with survivors of commercial sexual exploitation though needed do not yet exist. This chapter draws largely from interviews with survivors of CSE and experts in the field to provide insight and recommendations for physicians working in the USA to more effectively engage and treat commercially sexually exploited patients.
The authors would like to thank the interviewees who contributed extensive and invaluable knowledge and expertise to this article. The authors of this chapter conducted ten interviews with Survivor Leaders, advocates, service providers, experts, and activists, many of whom are leaders within the field of commercial sexual exploitation. Interviewees reflected on the barriers CSE survivors face when seeking medical care and strategies for reducing these barriers. From these interviews, seven primary themes arose as CSE-specific areas requiring physician attention. The authors would like to express their deepest gratitude to Trisha Baptie, Alisa Bernard, Marie DeLeon, Melissa Farley, Ph.D., Lexxie Jackson, Martha Linehan, Marin Malisa, Chelsea Olsen, Cherry Smiley, and Hamida Yusufzai.
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Notes
- 1.
The authors use the word “victim” in this chapter to reflect its usage in legal parlance to indicate a person who has suffered physical or emotional harm, property damage, or economic loss as a result of a crime.
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Mathieson, A., Dodge, A. (2020). Reducing Barriers to Medical Care for Survivors of Commercial Sexual Exploitation. In: Ades, V. (eds) Sexual and Gender-Based Violence. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-38345-9_4
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