Okay, so I want to share this article with you about the link between ACEs and sex trafficking in the USA. It is titled, "Youth Arrested for Trading Sex Have the Highest Rates of Childhood Adversity: A Statewide Study of Juvenile Offenders".
However, I need to explain something to you (i.e. vent) first...
The researchers and article publishers use the term "arrested for trading sex" because in the early part of the century (c. 2014) that was the unfortunate state of the law in the USA where youth who were actual sex trafficking victims under federal law were being arrested under state laws for trading sex for their very survival. Such was the case in Florida where this work was done. Thankfully, the situation has changed and trafficked children are not falling through the cracks as often through the justice system.
Not surprisingly, Rachel Naramore and her colleagues found that youth with violations related to sex trafficking had higher rates for each ACE as well as the number of ACEs, particularly sexual abuse and physical neglect.
The researchers compared ACEs data reported by 102 youth who were arrested for trading sex with 64,227 offending youth arrested for various other crimes from 2007 to 2012. The ACEs data was extracted from Florida’s Positive Achievement Change Tool (PACT), a comprehensive assessment tool administered to all youth offenders.
An in-depth analysis of the research was done in a post on Aces Connection back in 2015. That post by Sylvia Paull can be found here and provides images from the report. So check it out for more information.
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