@article{ref1,
title="Sex trafficking screening tool in the emergency department",
journal="Journal of pediatrics",
year="2021",
author="Scott-Wellington, Felicia",
volume="234",
number="",
pages="286-288",
abstract="Participants 12- to 17-year-old English and Spanish speaking youth, presenting alone, for psychiatric or genitourinary complaints, sexual abuse, sexual assault, or law enforcement concern for trafficking.   Intervention A 6-item, confidential, previously validated sex-trafficking screening tool, with >2 questions answered &quot;yes&quot; scored as a positive test result. Social worker referral to the Department of Human Services served as the gold standard.   Outcomes Screening tool diagnostic characteristics.   Main Results Trafficking prevalence was 12.3% (26/212). Sensitivity and specificity of the screening tool were 84.6% (95% CI, 70.8%-98.5%) and 53.2% (95% CI, 46.1%-60.4%), respectively.   Conclusions A previously validated screening sex-trafficking tool appears to function well in a busy ED setting.   Commentary Hurst et al define sex trafficking as the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act. The study concludes that by administering a validated 6-question, confidential screening tool, a provider can accurately identify sex trafficking among minors; however, the possibility of sex for survival is overlooked. &quot;Survival sex&quot; refers to the selling of sex to meet subsistence needs. It includes the exchange of sex for shelter, food, drugs, or money. Approximately 11%-40% of youth experiencing homelessness and 9%-19% of sheltered youth report participating in survival sex. These behaviors were associated with a history of suicide attempts, familial substance abuse, and having been in substance treatment. A report reviewing Labor and Sex Trafficking Among Homeless Youth states that 84% of youth who engaged in the sex-trade, without being forced by a third party, pointed to economic factors as the primary reason for doing so, highlighting other structural issues contributing to the prevalence of survival sex in this population. Forty-eight percent of the study sample population identified as runaway youth; therefore, exploring survival mechanisms commonly demonstrated in runaway youth is imperative to an accurate assessment of this population.  Keywords: Human trafficking; <p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0022-3476",
doi="10.1016/j.jpeds.2021.04.052",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jpeds.2021.04.052"
}