Resources

A Look at Human Trafficking in US Courts: This report paints a picture of the slow, but steady increases in the number of human trafficking cases the federal government prosecutes.  At the same time, when we compare the numbers with other estimates of human trafficking victims, we can identify places where the prosecution data doesn’t match the reality of human trafficking and where we have room to improve.  

A Systematic Review of Specialty Courts in the US for Adolescents Impacted by Commercial Sexual Exploitation: Nationwide efforts to enhance services for adolescents experiencing commercial sexual exploitation (CSE) in the judicial system have led to the emergence of specialty courts, including human trafficking and girls’ courts. Given that prior research has documented competing stances on the effectiveness of specialty courts for CSE-impacted populations, a systematic review of the literature was conducted to identify key characteristics of programming, profiles of adolescents served, and effectiveness of these courts. 

An Introduction to Human Trafficking in the US:  Human trafficking, also known as trafficking in persons or modern-day slavery, is a crime that involves the exploitation of a person for the purpose of compelled labor or a commercial sex act. While the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has long enforced criminal laws against involuntary servitude and slavery, the enactment of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) of 2000 brought new benefits, services, and criminal penalties to address human trafficking in a more comprehensive and effective way. 

Child Sex Trafficking in the US: Child sex trafficking is a pervasive and underreported crime, and one of the most complex forms of child exploitation. Significantly, trafficked children (who predominantly are between 14-17) are advertised and presented as adults, often appear to be adults, and are trained by traffickers to lie about their age to buyers and law enforcement. 

Countering Labor Trafficking: Two Case Studies: Human trafficking is a crime involving the exploitation of a person for compelled labor or a commercial sex act. Labor trafficking, also referred to as forced labor, is a form of human trafficking. It encompasses a range of activities, such as recruiting, harboring, transporting, providing, or obtaining, that come into play when a person uses force or physical threats, psychological coercion, abuse of the legal process, deception, or other coercive means to compel someone to work. 

Fact Sheet: The National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking: Human trafficking disproportionately impacts some of the most vulnerable and underserved members of our society.  The updated National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking responds to this predatory behavior by addressing the needs of underserved individuals, families, and communities. 

Human Sex Trafficking-LEB: Human sex trafficking is the most common form of modern-day slavery. Estimates place the number of its domestic and international victims in the millions, mostly females and children enslaved in the commercial sex industry for little or no money.

Human Trafficking Courts: Diversion To or From Justice?: As public awareness of human trafficking has increased over the past few decades, human trafficking diversion courts have emerged in jurisdictions across the United States, from New York to Ohio to New Orleans and Los Angeles.

Human Trafficking Task Force e-Guide: Developed in partnership by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) and Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), this Guide is a resource to support established task forces and provide guidance to agencies that are forming task forces.

US Human Trafficking Statistics: In this article, you’ll learn about the prevalence of human trafficking in the United States through a statistical lens. This includes exploring the number of trafficking victims, demographics, types of trafficking, and regional variation.

What is the Trafficking in Persons Report?: The annual Trafficking in Persons Report (TIP Report) is a valuable tool used by the U.S. government, foreign governments, NGOs, and the international community for understanding how countries are responding to trafficking, noting where gaps exist, and providing recommendations to address those gaps and more effectively combat trafficking.

Human Trafficking and Child Welfare: A Guide for Child Welfare Agencies: This bulletin explores how agencies can support children and youth who have been exploited as well as those who may have risk factors for future exploitation. It provides background information about trafficking, including its scope, relevant legislation and initiatives, and strategies agencies can implement to address the trafficking of children and youth in the United States. Author: Child Welfare Information Gateway

Responding to Human Trafficking among Children and Youth in Foster Care and Missing from Foster Care: This Information Memorandum (IM) elevates resources available to assist states in meeting legal requirements intended to protect children and youth in the child welfare system from negative outcomes associated with human trafficking. The IM provides an overview of federal statutes related to human trafficking among children and youth in the child welfare system and highlights resources to meet those requirements. Resources include guidance, best practices, recommendations, training, and technical assistance. Authors: The Administration on Children, Youth, and Families (ACYF), the Children’s Bureau (CB), the Family and Youth
Services Bureau (FYSB), and the Office on Trafficking in Persons (OTIP)

Domestic Child Sex Trafficking and Black Girls: Black girls are disproportionately impacted by trafficking because of the deeply entrenched systemic practices and structural responses to race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic factors. This is compounded by child welfare and juvenile justice systems involvement, making black girls particularly vulnerable to human trafficking. Author: Rights 4 Girls

Racial & Gender Disparities in the Sex Trade: This information brief discusses the disproportionality among human trafficking survivors, and the greater likelihood of women of color experiencing criminalization as a result of their involvement with human trafficking. Author: Rights 4 Girls

Snapshot on the State of Black Women and Girls: Sex Trafficking in the U.S.: This resource addresses human trafficking, specifically among the population of Black women and girls, and aims to highlight the importance of promoting policies which safeguard Black women and girls. Author: Samantha Davey Congressional Black Caucus Foundation

Collaborating with Youth-Serving Agencies to Respond to and Prevent Sex Trafficking of Youth: This resource provides state and local child welfare agencies with information on partnering with other agencies to address sex trafficking, and evidence to support how coordination and collaboration can advance effective identification, reporting, and services for youth who are victims or are at risk of becoming victims. Author: Capacity Building Center for States in partnership with the Children’s Bureau

Connecting the Pieces: A Socio-Ecological Approach to Collaboration Internal and External Resource Mapping: This workbook is meant to guide participants through a process of developing a social-ecological model for collaboration, allowing participants to identify internal programmatic and organizational capacity, identify external resources and resource gaps, and gain a deeper understanding of how an individual’s role connects and contributes to programmatic, organizational, collaborative and public policy objectives. Author: Community Solutions

Building Effective Collaborations To Address Human Trafficking: This fact sheet discusses purpose and strategy for building collaborations to address human trafficking, including partnerships, services, and elements to disrupt traffickers. Author: U.S. Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs Office of Victims of Crime

Shining Light on the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children: A Toolkit to Build Understanding: This toolkit provides resources for multidisciplinary professionals, policy makers, volunteers, faith communities, and others involved in anti-trafficking work and information on a variety of topics related to human trafficking with a specific focus on mentoring for commercial sexual exploitation victims. Here, there is information about emerging research and best practices along with implications for practice at the individual, program, and community levels. Author: Wichita State University Center for Combating Human Trafficking and Youth Collaboratory

The Sexual Abuse to Prison Pipeline: This brief examines the relationship between sexual abuse and criminalization, and how survivors with systems involvement disproportionately impacted and more likely to experience incarceration. Author: Rights 4 Girls

The Juvenile Justice System and Domestic Child Sex Trafficking: This information brief defines domestic child sex trafficking, indicators of vulnerability to dcst, criminalization of survivors, and the impact of criminalization for girls. Author: Rights4Girls

Criminalized Survivors: Today’s Abuse to Prison Pipeline for Girls: This report examines pathways into the criminal justice system for girls who are survivors of sex trafficking by way of criminalized for prostitution, for their attempts to escape their traffickers or in self-defense, or for reporting abuse to law enforcement. Advancements to state and federal legislation and policy is also examined. Authors: Yasmin Vafa, Rights4Girls and Rebecca Epstein, Georgetown Center on Gender Justice & Opportunity

At Risk for Sex Trafficking: Youth Who Run Away From Foster Car: This snapshot examines what States and counties learn from data in their child welfare case management systems and reported in the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS).This resource is intended to prompt conversations about youth who run away from State custody, how data can be used to learn more about this high-risk population, and how this knowledge can inform interventions. Author: Capacity Building Center for States in partnership with the Children’s Bureau

Blueprint: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Domestic Sex Trafficking of Girls: This report discusses the challenges of addressing the domestic sex trafficking of children and the importance of working collaboratively to help identify and support survivors, outlining the core components of a comprehensive and collaborative approach referred to as “cross-system” or “multidisciplinary”. Strategies included encourage cooperative work by relevant agencies and experts to identify and assess survivors’ needs and provide the treatment and tools required to heal and succeed. Authors: Rebecca Epstein, Center on Poverty and Inequality at Georgetown Law Peter Edelman, Center on Poverty and Inequality at Georgetown Law

Confronting Commercial Sexual Exploitation and Sex Trafficking of Minors in the United States: This report examines commercial sexual exploitation and sex trafficking of U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents of the United States under age 18. Author: The Institute of Medicine and National Research Council

Federal Prosecution of Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children Cases, 2004-2013: This report xamines commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) cases prosecuted in the federal criminal justice system,including child pornography production, child pornography possession, and child sex trafficking. The report describes persons investigated by federal law enforcement and referred to U.S. attorneys, and cases prosecuted, adjudicated, and sentenced in U.S. district court for CSEC offenses, and further includes the disposition of CSEC matters concluded by U.S. attorneys, reasons matters were declined for prosecution, pretrial release rates, demographic characteristics of suspects charged with CSEC offenses, and key case outcomes, such as rates of conviction and length of prison sentences imposed. Author: U.S. Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs Bureau of Justice Statistics

Garden of Truth: The Prostitution and Trafficking of Native Women in Minnesota: This assessment of Native American women’s needs recommends increased state and federal funding for transitional and long term housing for Native women and others seeking to escape human trafficking and for Native women’s programs, including advocacy, physical and mental health care, job training and placement, legal services, and research on these topics. Authors: Melissa Farley, Nicole Matthews, Sarah Deer, Guadalupe Lopez, Christine Stark, Eileen Hudon, Minnesota Indian Women’s Sexual Assault Coalition and Prostitution Research & Education

Human & Sex Trafficking: Trends and Responses Across Indian Country: This Tribal Insights Brief describes human trafficking in American Indian and Alaska Native communities from its root causes and historical context to current trends in order to emphasize the systemic policy and program levers that are essential in combating this crime. Author: National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) Policy Research Center

Human Trafficking and Exploitation of Children and Youth in the United States – Outcome Document: This document examines outcomes based on information collected from the national conference, “Human Trafficking and Exploitation of Children and Youth in the United States,” sponsored by the Center for the Human Rights of Children. Expert panels and workshops addressed broad categories that included information pertaining to contemporary issues in human trafficking, the implementation of promising practices, challenges in responding to human trafficking, and next steps to combat child trafficking and exploitation. Author: Katherine Kaufka Walts, JD, Center for the Human Rights of Children at Loyola University Chicago

In Our Own Backyards: The Need for A Coordinated Judicial Response to Human Trafficking: This article addresses the different types of trafficking cases that are intercepted through the criminal justice system, the current state of sex trafficking law in New York, and the role of the Human Trafficking Intervention Court (HTIC) in identifying and providing solutions for trafficking victims. Authors: Hon. Toko Serita Presiding Judge, Queens Misdemeanor Treatment Court, Mental Health Recovery Court, Human Trafficking Statewide Coordinating Judge for Problem Solving Courts, Division of Policy & Planning, Office for Justice Initiatives, NYS Unified Court System

It’s More Than Just My Body That Got Hurt: The Psychophysiological Consequences of Sex Trafficking: This article describes general physiological reactions to stress and trauma, long-term health consequences associated with trauma, and reasons for variability in the effects of chronic stress. This article also includes recommendations for multidisciplinary professionals to assist in reducing the effects of stress and trauma, as well as increase protective factors among trafficking survivors. Authors: Nathaniel A. Dell, School of Social Work, Saint Louis University, St. Louis, MO, USA Brandy R. Maynard, School of Social Work, Saint Louis University, St. Louis, MO, USA Kara R. Born, School of Social Work, Saint Louis University, St. Louis, MO, USA Elizabeth Wagner, School of Social Work, Saint Louis University, St. Louis, MO, USA Bonnie Atkins, School of Social Work, Saint Louis University, St. Louis, MO, USA Whitney House, School of Social Work, Saint Louis University, St. Louis, MO, USA

Just Response Council Field Guidance Justice for Juveniles Exploring Non-Criminal Response Mechanisms for Child Sex Trafficking: This field guidance will explore implementation of non-criminalization policies and statutes, looking to identify promising trends and avenues to overcome current system challenges and safety concerns. Author: Shared Hope International

Preliminary Recommendations to Strengthen the Nation’s Response to the Sex Trafficking of Children and Youth in the United States: This report provides a preliminary outline of recommendations for states to improve their efforts to combat the crime of child and youth sex trafficking regardless of a state’s current response level or model. Author: National Advisory Committee on the Sex Trafficking of Children and Youth in the United States

Research to Action: Sexually Exploited Minors (SEM) Needs and Strengths: This study describes the characteristics of sexually exploited minors (SEM) by building a body of knowledge around SEM in the larger community. Author: West Coast Children’s Clinic

Responding to Youth Homelessness: A Key Strategy for Preventing Human Trafficking: This whitepaper provides guidance for justice and law enforcement agencies, community leaders and policymakers, and other stakeholders to prevent and address youth homelessness and potential vulnerabilities that may lead to human trafficking. Authors: National Network for Youth

Survivor Protection: Reducing the Risk of Trauma to Child Sex Trafficking Victims: This paper describes the legal framework that justifies extending courtroom protections that are offered to other victim witnesses to survivors of child sex trafficking testifying in criminal prosecutions. Authors: Rights 4 Girls and Thomas Reuters Foundation

The Sexual Abuse to Prison Pipeline: The Girls’ Story: This report exposes the ways in which girls are criminalized (especially girls of color) who have been sexually and physically abused, and offers policy recommendations to dismantle the abuse to prison pipeline. It illustrates the pipeline with examples, including the detention of girls who are victims of sex trafficking, girls who run away or become truant because of abuse they experience, and girls who cross into juvenile justice from the child welfare system. Authors: Human Rights Project for Girls, Georgetown Law Center on Poverty and Inequality, Ms. Foundation for Women

Faces of Human Trafficking Video 1: An Introduction: This video introduces the issue of human trafficking—both sex and labor trafficking—in the United States in order to raise awareness and provide a foundation for further discussion and training.

Faces of Human Trafficking Video 2: An Introduction to Sex Trafficking: This video provides an overview of sex trafficking. It features survivors and professionals—including law enforcement, judges, and social service, legal, and health care providers—who share information on victim indicators, ways victims are often identified, how professionals may come into contact with victims of sex trafficking, and industries where sex trafficking is more common.

Faces of Human Trafficking Video 3: An Introduction to Labor Trafficking: This video provides an overview of labor trafficking. It features survivors and professionals—including law enforcement, judges, social service, legal and health care providers—who share information on victim indicators, ways victims are often identified, how professionals may come into contact with victims of labor trafficking, and industries where labor trafficking is more common.

Faces of Human Trafficking Video 4: A Multidisciplinary Approach: This video highlights task force and other multidisciplinary initiatives, demonstrating the collaborations needed to serve victims of trafficking effectively, bring traffickers to justice, and build the community’s capacity.

Faces of Human Trafficking Video 5: Effective Victim Services: This video includes information on the importance of providing victim-centered, trauma-informed services to meet the wide array of needs experienced by trafficking victims. Coordination and collaboration are critical in responding to the diverse population of trafficking survivors, as no one provider can meet all of the needs of all types of trafficking victims.

Faces of Human Trafficking Video 6: Focus on Youth: This video highlights the specific vulnerabilities, risk factors, and needs of youth, with a focus on the diverse range of professionals who are in a position to identify exploited youth and connect them with appropriate services.

Faces of Human Trafficking Video 7: Legal Needs and Rights of Victims: This video details the array of comprehensive legal needs a victim of human trafficking may have, including issues of immigration, family law, housing, bankruptcy, employment law, public benefits access, criminal defense, rights enforcement, and civil actions.

Faces of Human Trafficking Video 8: The Victim-Centered Case: This video features survivors, service providers, prosecutors, and local law enforcement who have worked on human trafficking cases that have ended with a successful prosecution. They stress the importance of proactive cases and collecting various kinds of evidence rather than relying solely on victim testimony.

Faces of Human Trafficking Video 9: Now That We Are Free: This video features survivors of human trafficking who are resilient, thriving members of their communities. They share insight on the support systems, services, and personal journeys that helped them persevere, with words of encouragement for others who were or may still be in situations of human trafficking.

Faces of Human Trafficking PSA: On January 14, 2014, OVC debuted the “Faces of Human Trafficking” public service announcement (PSA), which is highlighted in the 2014 National Crime Victims’ Rights Week Resource Guide. The goal of the PSA is to raise public awareness of human trafficking and highlight that survivors of this crime have very diverse backgrounds and experiences. The PSA is also available in Spanish, Thai, Hindi, and Tagalog. Download the PSA.

Familial Trafficking Warning Signs: This resource provides an overview of indications of familial trafficking that may be of use to educators, medical professionals, and the community. Author: Shared Hope International

Familial Sex Trafficking of Minors: Trafficking Conditions, Clinical Presentation, and System Involvement: This pilot study addresses this gap by providing an analysis of familial sex trafficking considering trafficking dynamics, and rurality. This study explores victim and trafficker characteristics, the trafficking situation, law enforcement classifications of trafficking, clinical profiles of victims, and system involvement of children and youth involved in familial sex trafficking. Authors: Ginny Sprang, University of Kentucky, Jennifer Cole, University of Kentucky

Child Sex Trafficking Warning Signs: This resource highlights potential warning signs of a child that may be being groomed or trafficked, and behaviors of traffickers. Authors: Shared Hope International

Red Flags/Warning Signs of Commercial Sexual Exploitation: This Toolkit is designed to provide information and resources to participants of the Responding to the Sexual Exploitation and Trafficking of Youth Training across Washington State and beyond, and provide standardized, comprehensive, and consistent information and resources on the topic of sexual exploitation and trafficking of youth. This should be used as a supplement by individuals and organizations as they use this foundational material and develop relationships, examples, and knowledge about their local context. Author: King County CSEC Task Force

What Can You Do? Judicial Pamphlet for Members of the Judicial System: This pamphlet provides information for members of the judicial system, including judges and lawyers, on how to recognize the signs of human trafficking, and support victims in the courtroom. Author: Blue Campaign

NCTSN BENCHCARD for the Trauma-Informed Judge: This benchcard provides judges with useful questions and guidelines to help make decisions based on the emerging scientific findings in the traumatic stress field. These bench cards assist judges and court-appointed professionals doing mental health assessment of children. Author: The National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN)

Study Revealed Safe Harbor Laws Increased Protections for Sex-Trafficked Youth, Identified Needs for Agency Support and Judicial Training: This study will aid in the implementation of evidence-informed strategies and tools to improve community and judicial system responses to cases of sex-trafficked youth. Author: National Institute of Justice (NIJ)

Foster Care, Juvenile Justice, and Domestic Child Sex Trafficking: This brief defines domestic child sex trafficking, how youth become vulnerable to dcst, and dual systems involvement. Author: Rights 4 Girls

Understanding and Addressing Trauma and Child Sex Trafficking: Provides policymakers and other stakeholders with an overview of child sex trafficking and its relationship to child trauma, as well as policy-relevant and child trauma-focused recommendations to assist them in their response to child sex trafficking. Author: The National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN)

Child Labor Trafficking in the United States: A Hidden Crime: This article seeks to provide examples of documented cases of child labor trafficking in the United States, and to provide an overview of systemic gaps in law, policy, data collection, research, and practice. Author: Katherine Kaufka Walts, JD, Center for the Human Rights of Children at Loyola University Chicago

Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act: Directs the state agency to report immediately information on missing or abducted children or youth to law enforcement authorities for entry into the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Author: Congress

Protecting Children and Youth At Risk of Sex Trafficking, Improving Adoption Incentives and Extending Family Connection Grants, and Improving International Child Support Recover: To prevent and address sex trafficking of children in foster care, to extend and improve adoption incentives, and to improve international child support recovery. Author: Congress

Protected Innocence Challenge: The Protected Innocence Challenge is built upon a comprehensive analysis of each state’s statutory scheme, which examines six areas of law surrounding domestic minor sex trafficking. Author: Shared Hope International

A Court’s All-Hands Approach Aids Girls Most at Risk: This article highlights the Girls Court in Alameda, California and their all-hands-on-deck approach to the lives of vulnerable girls, linking them to social service agencies, providing informal Saturday sessions on everything from body image to legal jargon, and offering a team of adults in whom they can develop trust. Author: Patricia Leigh Brown, the New York Times

How LA County Began to Face Its Big Problem With Youth Being Sex-Trafficked: Michelle Guymon, the director of the Child Trafficking Unit for the Los Angeles County Probation Department, aims to make LA’s efforts to combat child sex trafficking a model for the nation. Author: Kristy Plaza

L.A. County Reaching Out to Save Children from Prostitution: The Los Angeles County Law Enforcement First Responder Protocol for Commercially Sexually Exploited Chil­dren has created a system in which law enforcement officers can identify victims of sexual exploitation and work collaboratively with agencies and community-based organizations to avoid arrest, keep them safe and provide them with the services they need to escape exploitation. Author: Garrett Therolf

Sex Trafficking and Abuse in the Marijuana Industry: An Investigative Centered in Humboldt: This report examines the culture, economy and power dynamics of the marijuana industry, bringing to light numerous accounts of exploitation, abuse and trafficking. Author: Shoshana Walter

She Was a Sex-trafficking Victim, but Texas Law Labeled her a Pimp: Many laws used to put traffickers behind bars may inadvertently criminalize survivors, and a few years can mean the difference between a chance at rehabilitation and a prison sentence. Author: Morgan Smitha, Neena Satija, and Edgar Walters of the Texas Tribune

The Framework: Tools to Combat Labor Trafficking project provides a platform for labor trafficking survivors and other experts to help service providers and their community partners identify and serve survivors of labor trafficking. Its user-friendly archive of resources includes webinars, e-learning courses, tip sheets, guides, and other materials that support the identification of survivors of labor trafficking and provision of transformative services.  

The Labor Trafficking Outreach Planning Discussion Guide provides insights and examples to help anti-trafficking programs, task forces, or other community partners develop or enhance their labor trafficking outreach strategy.  

Jamie’s Story: A Journey Through (and Beyond the Legal System: This story follows a young individual who identifies as nonbinary and serves as a victim witness in a sex trafficking case. Throughout the graphic novel, Jamie and anyone following their story, learn some techniques to help cope with strong feelings.

Sergio’s Story: A Journey Through (and Beyond) the Legal System: This story describes the experience of a young boy who was a victim of labor trafficking and is part of a federal case. Throughout the graphic novel, Sergio and anyone following his story, learns some techniques to help cope with strong feelings.

Zoe’s Story: A Journey Through (and Beyond) the Legal System: This graphic novel shares the experiences of a young girl who was sex trafficked and presents in court as a defendant. Throughout the graphic novel, Zoe and anyone following her story, learns some techniques to help cope with strong feelings.

What’s Going On? Your Rights and Who You’ll Meet: This graphic novel focuses on rights, roles, and responsibilities within the justice system. This is a companion piece to the Sergio’s Story, Zoe’s Story, and Jamie’s Story graphic novels.

Trafficking Truths: A Myth-Busting Campaign: This ebook provides a first-hand account by human trafficking survivor Rebecca Bender of her experience being targeted by a trafficker, myths that are associated with human trafficking, and recommendations for professionals and the community on how to identify and provide services to survivors. Author: Rebecca Bender, Founder of the Rebecca Bender Initiative

Online Child Sexual Exploitation: Prevalence, Process, and Offender Characteristics: This review provides an overview of current knowledge and understanding of the process of sexual grooming and exploitation of children via the internet. The prevalence of online sexual grooming and exploitation is explored as well as associated challenges relating to the identification of its occurrence. A detailed outline and discussion of the process is included, as well as legal responses to this phenomenon. Authors: Juliane A. Kloess and Anthony Beech, University of Birmingham

What We Know About How Child Sex Trafficking Happens: This article dispels misconceptions about child sex trafficking, and measures to be taken to identify and prevent sex trafficking among youth.  Author: Polaris

Connecticut State Department of Children and Families Girls Services: The Girls’ Program Guidelines provided by the Department of Children and Families are the basis of the therapeutic model for all providers of girls services in the state of Connecticut and are to be used to guide programming decisions.These guidelines provide female-responsive programming that intentionally incorporate research on female socialization, psychological, cognitive and physical development, strengths and risks to affect and guide ALL aspects of a program’s design, processes and services. Author: Connecticut Department of Children and Families

Practice Guide for Intake and Investigative Response To Human Trafficking of Children: This Practice Guide (PG) is designed to be used to provide the necessary guidance to comply with the expectations of DCF Policy 31-10-6.1, and includes definitions and terms Social Workers may hear or use when working with human trafficking victims; the specific steps for intake of reports of human trafficking of children; a decision map for determining the risk of child for human trafficking; and the areas of physical, sexual, substance use, and behavioral health to be assessed. This PG provides a brief outline of duties as well as risk assessment and monitoring tools. Author: Connecticut Department of Children and Families

Safe Harbor Protocol Guidelines: The Protocol Guidelines consist of recommendations, insights, and resources to support professionals from a variety of disciplines in identifying and responding to juvenile sexual exploitation including the judiciary, education, law enforcement, child protection, health care, juvenile corrections, and advocacy. This includes information on responding to labor trafficking and exploitation and emergency placement and child welfare. Author: Ramsey County Attorney’s Office Sexual Violence Justice Institute at the Minnesota Coalition Against Sexual Assault

Washington State Model Protocol For Commercially Sexually Exploited Children: This victim-centered protocol is intended for law enforcement, the courts, victim advocacy organizations, youth service agencies and other first responders who may aid in identifying commercially sexually exploited children (CSEC) and those at risk of CSEC. This protocol provides principles and strategies for professionals to regard trafficked individuals as crime victims rather than criminals, and provide needed services. Author: Center for Children & Youth Justice

Capacity Building Webinars for Human Trafficking Service Providers: OVC TTAC has compiled a variety of web-based training tools to help victim service providers, first responders, community organizations, and allied professionals build their capacity to better serve victims of crime. Author: Office of Victims of Crime (OVC) Training and Technical Assistance Center

Report Cards on Child & Youth Sex Trafficking: This framework challenges states to enact laws that comprehensively address child sex trafficking, and acknowledges the intersection of child sex trafficking and labor trafficking. It addresses the unique challenges faced by youth age 18+, and focuses largely on victim protection laws, including policies pertaining to specialized service responses and access to justice. Author: Shared Hope International

Serving Teen Survivors: A Manual for Advocates: This manual is designed to help advocates and other helping professionals work with youth to provide services to survivors of sexual violence using a trauma-informed approach. Author: National Sexual Violence Resource Center

Seeing What’s Underneath: A Resource for Understanding Behavior and Using Language in Juvenile Court: This resource provides professionals working with youth survivors of human trafficking with strategies to identify trauma-driven behaviors and tips to respond using trauma-informed approaches. Authors: National Juvenile Defender Center (NJDC) the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ), Fair and Just Prosecution (FJP), The Georgetown Law Juvenile Justice Initiative.

The Legal Rights and Needs of Victims of Human Trafficking in the United States: This fact sheet discusses the need to provide additional supports to keep the victim informed of the status of legal proceedings and understand the complexities of the legal process. Author: U.S. Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs Office of Victims of Crime

Special Issues Facing Juvenile Victims of Human Trafficking in the United States: This fact sheet discusses the prevalence of multi-systems involved youth to be vulnerable to human trafficking, and supportive measures for professionals to consider. Author: U.S. Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs Office of Victims of Crime

Screening for Human Trafficking in Child Welfare Settings: Tools in Use: The Identifying and Addressing Human Trafficking in Child Welfare Agencies (IAHT) study conducted interviews with state child welfare leaders from 25 states about how their agencies work to identify and serve children and youth who have experienced or are at increased risk of trafficking. Authors: Samantha B. Charm, RTI International Natasha E. Latzman, RTI International Bethany Gilot, BGilot Consulting

Matrix of Screening Tools to Identify Labor-Trafficked Children: This matrix provides a variety of screening tools to help service providers identify labor-trafficked children. Author: Westcoast Children’s Clinic

Identifying Minors and Young People Exploited Through Sex Trafficking: A Resource for Child Welfare Agencies: To help child welfare agencies understand the different types of available tools, the Capacity Building Center for States developed this resource to describes the background of sex trafficking, summarizing particular risk factors for children and youth, presenting steps to take before implementing a particular tool, and listing ground rules for identifying trafficking victims. Author: Child Welfare Capacity Building Collaborative in partnership with the Children’s Bureau

Anti-Human Trafficking Resources Assessment: Futures Without Violence developed an Anti-Human Trafficking Resources Assessment to provide a guide for services providers to facilitate comprehensive responses to survivors. Author: Futures Without Violence

Screening for Human Trafficking in Child Welfare Settings: Tools in Use: The Human Trafficking Action Research Toolkit is to provide information, strategies, tools, and other resources to help organizations and programs understand and conduct action research. This resource defines action research, explains why action research is important, and provides a detailed overview of the action research process. Authors: Alana M. Henninger, Technical Advisor, OVC TTAC, Samantha Lowry, Evaluation Director, OVC TTAC, Tasneem Tripathi, Technical Advisor, OVC TTAC

Child Welfare and Domestic Child Sex Trafficking: This information brief defines domestic child sex trafficking, indicators of vulnerability to dcst, and the relationship between dcst and child welfare. Author: Rights4Girls

An Introduction to Human Trafficking in the United States: This bulletin discusses the criminal laws enforced by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has long enforced against human trafficking, and the new benefits enactment by the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) of 2000 including services and criminal penalties to address human trafficking in a more comprehensive and effective way. Author: U.S. Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs Office of Victims of Crime

Program for Empowerment of Girls: PEG Court is an intensive juvenile probation and therapeutic program serving girls between the ages of thirteen and eighteen who have a history of trauma and/or violence as a victim, witness and/or offender. The goal of the PEG program is to provide its participants a safe and structured opportunity to learn and practice positive coping skills, access community resources, to participate in and take ownership of their treatment plans, and demonstrate positive improvements. Author: New Mexico Courts Second Judicial District Court: Program for Empowerment of Girls

Administration for Children & Families: ACF announces the launch of two new microlearnings developed for frontline professionals who work with children to strengthen screening for human trafficking and safety planning. As children who have already experienced abuse are at disproportionate risk for human trafficking through coercive online and offline schemes, professionals in child welfare and other youth-serving programs are in positions to identify the risks for exploitation early, promote healing, and strengthen resiliency.

Child Trafficking Decision Map: This Decision Map is used to determine the risk level for child trafficking. Author: Connecticut Department of Children and Families

Juvenile Human Trafficking, Ohio Laws & Safe Harbor Response: This indicator brief describes red flags that may help identify juvenile trafficking victims, and represents the compilation of indicators found in research and validated by the experiences of court professionals and social service providers. Author: The Supreme Court of Ohio

National Human Trafficking Hotline: Website includes National Human Trafficking Referral Directory, National Hotline Statistics, and other resources. Author: National Human Trafficking Hotline

Responding to Sex Trafficking in Your Jurisdiction: This toolkit is a guide to help courts and communities assess their current approaches to human trafficking and develop or enhance court-based responses. The focus of this toolkit is oriented around sexual exploitation and victimization, and provides a framework to guide the assessment, concept development, planning, and implementation process. Author: Center for Court Innovation

Right from the Start: The CCC Preliminary Protective Hearing Benchcard Study Report Testing Tool for Judicial Decision-Making: This report presents findings from the Courts Catalyzing Change: Achieving Equity and Fairness in Foster Care (CFCC) Preliminary Protective Hearing (PPH) Benchcard Study, which assessed the implementation and outcomes of a template for family court preliminary hearings created and launched in a pilot program in three model courts through the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ). Author: Courts Catalyzing Change (CCC)

Right from the Start: The CCC Preliminary Protective Hearing Benchcard: A Tool for Judicial Decision-Making: Technical assistance is provided on the features and implementation of the Courts Catalyzing Change’s (CCC’s) Preliminary Protective Hearing (PPH) Benchcard, which is intended as a judicial tool for ensuring compliance with best practices for the PPH, one of the most critical stages in a child abuse and neglect case. Author: Courts Catalyzing Change (CCC)

Not A Number: Not a Number is an interactive child trafficking and exploitation prevention curriculum designed to provide youth with information and skills in a manner that inspires them to make safe choices. Youth learn to identify and utilize healthy support systems that may decrease their vulnerabilities. Author: Love 146

My Life My Choice: My Life My Choice prevention programs deliver changes in attitudes, knowledge, and skills in efforts to influence action at both individual and systemic levels. Author: My Life My Choice of the Justice Resource Institute

Sex Trafficking of Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Youth in the United States: This research brief outlines the present state of research related to the uniques pathways to human trafficking taken by transgender and gender nonconforming youth in the United States. Author: Meaghan Tomasiewicz, Loyola University Chicago

CareerOneStop (Employment, Training, and Career Resources: CareerOneStop is the flagship career, training, and job search website for the U.S. Department of Labor. The website serves job seekers, businesses, students, and career advisors with a variety of free online tools, information and resources.

Children’s Health Insurance Program: The Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) provides health coverage to eligible children, through both Medicaid and separate CHIP programs. CHIP is administered by states, according to federal requirements. The program is funded jointly by states and the federal government.

Refugee Resettlement Benefits: The Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) provides new populations with the opportunity to achieve their full potential in the United States. Our programs provide people in need with critical resources to assist them in becoming integrated members of American society.

Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children: The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) provides federal grants to states for supplemental foods, health care referrals, and nutrition education for low-income pregnant, breastfeeding, and non-breastfeeding postpartum women, and to infants and children up to age 5 who are found to be at nutritional risk.

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration Recovery and Support Programs: The Office of Recovery was established to evaluate and initiate policy, programs and services with a recovery focus and ensure the voices of individuals in recovery are represented. The Office will support the growth and expansion of recovery support services across the country.

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program: SNAP provides food benefits to low-income families to supplement their grocery budget so they can afford the nutritious food essential to health and well-being.

Supplemental Security Income Benefits: SSI provides monthly payments to people with disabilities and older adults who have little or no income or resources.

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families: The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program provides approximately $16.5 billion to states, the District of Columbia, and US territories (Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico).  Federally-recognized American Indian tribes and Alaska Native organizations may offer TANF through the tribal TANF program).