Trafficking and child welfare
While trafficking is not new, it is an emerging area of concern for social services, including child welfare.
Young people in the child welfare system are especially vulnerable due to factors which include but are not limited to experiences of childhood maltreatment and trauma; lack of family support; insufficient parental oversight/supervision; multiple placements; separation from friends, family, and community; emotional vulnerability; and intersectional identities.
Incidence and intersection with child welfare
As previously discussed, the incidence of trafficking is widely believed to be under-reported. There is also a lack of Canadian and child welfare–specific data. A recent study resulting from a partnership between the York Regional Police and York Region Children's Aid Society begins to address this gap. This study used police and child welfare case files to identify the intersection between sex trafficking and child welfare involvement.
Based on the data reviewed, approximately 23% of the 223 victims/survivors were child welfare involved youth, 46% were non–child welfare involved youth, and 31% had unknown child welfare status. Nearly 60% of the child welfare involved youth reported growing up in foster care or in group homes.
- Sex trafficking of women and girls in a Southern Ontario region: Police file review exploring victim characteristics, trafficking experiences, and the intersection with child welfareJournal article published in the Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science. Note: you have to be authenticated by OACAS’s library databases to access
- Research partnership with police and child welfare yields data and tools to protect local girls [2020]Blog post from York University reporting on the research
- Sex trafficking of women and girls in a Southern Ontario region: Police file review exploring victim characteristics, trafficking experiences, and the intersection with child welfare [2020]Webinar recording, PowerPoint slides, and practice points. Note: login required; must be a PART member to access
- Domestic Sex Trafficking of Minors in Care of Child Protective Services: Exploring the Opportunities and Challenges in the Protection of Youth [2022]A dissertation that delves into three studies examining issues of the domestic sex trafficking of minors. Specifically, a look into "why child welfare youth are vulnerable to exploitation and the ways in which they are recruited compared to non-CW youth. Understanding routes into sex trafficking is invaluable information for service providers such as CW agencies and law enforcement."
- Missing in Action: Misty's Story [2023]The Ombudsman report that investigated what went wrong during the 47 days in 2020 that “Misty,” a 13-year-old from Northern Ontario, was living in a home operated by Johnson Children’s Services.
Background
- Human trafficking: A child welfare concern report [2018]Report by the OACAS Provincial Strategy to Respond to Human Trafficking for the Purposes of Sexual Exploitation Workgroup. Note: login to myOACAS required to access
- Human trafficking represents a growing form of child abuse in Ontario [2016]Interview with Nancy French, CEO of York Region Children’s Aid Society
- From foster care to trafficking: An analysis of contributory factors [2018]Report from ECPAT-USA examining the connections between foster care and trafficking
- Missing children, state care, and child sex trafficking [2015]Publication of the U.S. National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children
- Human trafficking prevalence and child welfare risk factors among homeless youth [2018]Multi-city study looking at the prevalence of human trafficking and histories of child maltreatment and out of home placement among homeless youth
Promising programs and practices
- Human trafficking and child welfare: A guide for child welfare agencies [2017]Bulletin for Professionals from the Child Welfare Information Gateway
- Human trafficking and child welfare: A guide for caseworkers [2017]Bulletin for Professionals from the Child Welfare Information Gateway
- Child sexual exploitation: Practice tool [2017]Resource from the UK providing an overview of current understanding of the issue and an evidence-informed set of principles for responding
- Best practices in working with sexually exploited youth [2019]From the report "Meeting the needs of sexually exploited youth: Building on the work of the Sexually Exploited Youth Community Coalition"
- Sex trafficking of children: Screening and interventions [2018]PARTicle. Note: login required; must be a PART member to access
- Working effectively to address child sexual exploitation: Evidence scope (2017)Resource from Research in Practice in the UK
- What works in responding to child sexual exploitation [2019]This publication provides a summary of research evidence to inform practice with children and young people affected by child sexual exploitation
- The relational safeguarding model: Best practice in working with families affected by child exploitation [2019]This document describes an approach to child exploitation that seeks to engage parents and family members in keeping a child safe. From Parents Against Child Exploitation (Pace) in the UK
- Community service providers and human trafficking: Best practices and recommendations for Northeastern Ontario [2018]Resource from the Northeastern Ontario Research Alliance on Human Trafficking (NORAHT)
- The NSPCC's Protect & Respect child sexual exploitation programme: A discussion of the key findings from programme implementation and service use [2019]This report presents the findings of an evaluation of the Protect & Respect program for children and young people affected by sexual exploitation
- Specialized residential placements for child trafficking victims [2019]This study outlines the policies, practices, and programming that have been implemented across the U.S. to provide specialized responses to exploited and trafficked youth within residential placement settings