Commercial sexual exploitation and sex trafficking of children and adolescents have both immediate and long-term physical and mental health consequences. A new IOM–NRC report argues that clinicians can help prevent these crimes and identify and respond to the victims. If they think about it at all, most people in the United States probably imagine that commercial sexual exploitation and sex trafficking of children and adolescents are problems primarily affecting other parts of the world; in reality, these crimes occur in this country every day. These abuses have physical and mental health consequences that are both immediate - such as physical trauma and exposure to HIV and other sexually transmitted infections - and long-term - such as substance abuse, post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and anxiety. Health care professionals in a variety of settings may encounter children and adolescents who are . . . Commercial sexual exploitation and sex trafficking of children and adolescents have both immediate and long-term physical and mental health consequences. A new IOM-NRC report argues that clinicians can help prevent these crimes and identify and respond to the victims. Keywords: Human trafficking, juvenile jusstice
Language: en
LA - en SN - 0028-4793 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1056/NEJMp1314927 ID - ref1 ER -