Vidra, Zsuzsanna, et al. “State Policies and Institutional Procedures and Practices Addressing Prostitution and Sex Trafficking of Children in

Hungary.” Critical Social Policy, vol. 38, no. 4, 2018, pp. 645–666., https://doi.org/10.1177/0261018317748318

The author, Zsuzsanna Vidra has a Ph.D. in sociology and an MA in Nationalism studies; with her research focusing on racism, migration, and minorities, she provides accurate insight into institutional laws that fail to fulfill the needs of trafficked children and how racism/prejudice also play an important role. This research article examines sex-trafficked children, the lack of state support, laws that properly protect the children, and prosecuting the traffickers. Hungary, specifically, is lawfully required to see children in sex work as victims who need to be protected by their state. However, Hungary and many other countries fail to comply with these requirements, and the legal/policy gaps contribute to trafficked children going without protection from the government. The child protection system often leaves sex-trafficked children without any aid; though most children aren’t saved until it’s too late, the ones that are aren’t provided with trauma-informed care and professionals that can properly support them. In fact, the lack of treatment victimization can cause relapses into the trafficking cycle, and most institutions that re-home the children fail to protect them from “pimps” that continue to exploit them sexually. On top of lacking support and proper care, police corruption and racism play a big role in the ever-growing gap between a high number of CST cases and a low number of registered cases. For example, police use the Act on Petty Offences to criminalize children between 14 and 18 as offenders of sexual services rather than victims. Social workers victim blaming due to their attitudes and perspectives of ethnic and cultural traits. I will use this article to prove how passing a Child Protection Act simply isn’t enough; this points out the gaps in the legal system and the insufficient support and protection of impoverished and vulnerable children that are sexually exploited. 

1. “Our analysis confirmed that the lack of relevant and effective policies leads to structural challenges for the child protection system and the law enforcement and judiciary with regard to how children in prostitution and trafficking are handled”
2. “The Child Protection Act does not mention prostitution of children, while the police and the judiciary criminalise child victims. In the meantime, the anti-trafficking policy leaves the duty of prevention, protection and assistance of child victims to an unprepared child protection system.”