O'Brien Jennifer E, Jones Lisa M, Mitchell Kimberly J, Kahn Gina Zwerling
Crimes against Children Research Center, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, USA.
Public Health Rep. 2025 Jan-Feb;140(1_suppl):67S-73S. doi: 10.1177/00333549241267721. Epub 2024 Aug 15.
Child sex trafficking (CST) is the involvement of minors in the commercial exchange of sex for goods, services, drugs, or money. The COVID-19 pandemic negatively affected many risk factors associated with CST victimization and the availability of CST services. We examined service providers' perspectives on how the pandemic affected trajectories of CST victimization among young people in the United States.
We collected qualitative data from 80 law enforcement professionals and service providers working with young people affected by CST from 11 US cities. Semistructured interviews lasted approximately 1 hour and were digitally recorded, transcribed verbatim, and coded via a grounded theory approach.
We found 3 overarching themes related to the pandemic's effect on CST victimization trajectories: grooming, perpetration, and service provision. Participants described how increased online activity may have increased the risk of CST, even among children without traditional risk factors. However, technology also facilitated young people's agency in seeking help and receiving services. In addition, participants reported increases in virtual service provision that facilitated access to, and availability of, CST services more generally.
Technology use among young people increased during the pandemic, leading to increases in the risks of experiencing technology-facilitated CST. Technology use among young people who experience CST victimization-and how it may differ from young people more generally-is underexplored and may provide insights into prevention and treatment. Collectively, results highlight the need for epidemiologic research to help identify how global and national events affect trajectories of victimization among young people.
儿童性交易（CST）是指未成年人参与以性换取商品、服务、毒品或金钱的商业活动。新冠疫情对许多与儿童性交易受害相关的风险因素以及儿童性交易服务的可及性产生了负面影响。我们研究了服务提供者对于疫情如何影响美国年轻人中儿童性交易受害轨迹的看法。
我们从美国11个城市的80名执法专业人员和与受儿童性交易影响的年轻人合作的服务提供者那里收集了定性数据。半结构化访谈持续约1小时，进行了数字录音，逐字转录，并通过扎根理论方法进行编码。
我们发现了3个与疫情对儿童性交易受害轨迹的影响相关的总体主题：诱导、犯罪行为和服务提供。参与者描述了在线活动的增加可能如何增加了儿童性交易的风险，即使是在没有传统风险因素的儿童中。然而，技术也促进了年轻人寻求帮助和接受服务的自主性。此外，参与者报告虚拟服务提供有所增加，这更普遍地促进了儿童性交易服务的获取和可及性。
疫情期间年轻人的技术使用增加，导致技术促成的儿童性交易风险上升。经历儿童性交易受害的年轻人的技术使用情况——以及它与一般年轻人的情况可能有何不同——尚未得到充分探索，可能为预防和治疗提供见解。总体而言，结果凸显了开展流行病学研究以帮助确定全球和国家事件如何影响年轻人受害轨迹的必要性。
