Peterson, Loralie J., et al. “Implementation of a Screening Tool for Child Sex Trafficking among Youth Presenting to the Emergency
Department – A Quality Improvement Initiative.” Child Abuse Negl, vol. 125, 2022, pp. 105506–105506.,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2022.105506.
Loralie J. Peterson is a research coordinator at the University of Minnesota and specializes in the Department of Pediatrics, making her a credible and well-informed source on a heavy topic like child sex trafficking. Her article discusses the importance of the healthcare system providing resources for sex-trafficked children and proposes different tools that can be implemented. Routine standardized screening, for example, was something that the authors believed could benefit patients in child sex trafficking (CST). Most people within the healthcare system aren’t trained to identify CST, so these screenings will involve specially trained teams that, with the help of validated tools, can identify whether or not a child is at risk for trafficking and exploitation. Once they are identified, a comprehensive assessment with resource provision will be utilized to fully make sure that the child is being trafficked at the time of their healthcare visit. Since one prevalent issue in human trafficking is simply correctly identifying if someone is being trafficked, a tool like this for children can save lives. This article can be used to propose more ideas that can bring awareness to and protect exploited children.
- “Screening and identification of youth at risk for CST allows healthcare providers to tailor referrals and resources to mitigate risk of exploitation, and to complete appropriate mandatory reporting when exploitation is disclosed.”
- “In one study of sex trafficked youth, 82.5% of adolescents had received care in a pediatric healthcare system within 1 year and 95.2% had been seen in the emergency department (ED) or urgent care.”
