Adolescent girls with a history of Commercial Sexual Exploitation (CSE): Perceptions and characteristics of social networks
Introduction
In the United States (US), commercial sexual exploitation (CSE) of children is an especially concerning public health and human rights issue. CSE is a form of trafficking in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion in exchange for something of value (United States, 2000). For those under the age of 18, evidence of force, fraud, or coercion is not a requirement. CSE is also not limited to financial transactions and can include the exchange of anything of value (such as food or shelter) for sexual acts (Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, 2021). Miami, Florida, has been recognized as an urban center with high rates of CSE of children. Reports from the Florida Department of Children and Families (2019) shows that of the 2198 human trafficking reports made to FDCF in 2019, approximately 93 % were classified as CSE of children (Florida Department of Children & Families, 2019). The majority of which coming from within Miami-Dade County.
Racial/ethnic minority adolescent girls living in low resource contexts are particularly vulnerable to CSE due to systemic factors including income instability, low parental monitoring, and negative race relations with police and governmental systems (Epstein, Blake, & Gonzzlez, 2017; Fomby, Mollborn, & Sennott, 2010; Gerassi, 2019; Gutman, Mcloyd, & Tokoyawa, 2005; Hadley et al., 2011; Phillips, 2015). However, the cultural narrative of CSE predominately focuses on middle class, suburban white adolescent girls as victims (Gerassi, 2019; Moss, 2019; Phillips, 2015). In combination with stereotyping racial/ethnic minority girls as hypersexual, this narrative often renders these youth’s experiences invisible (Gerassi, 2019; Moss, 2019). These unique factors enmeshed within adolescents’ developmental realities contribute to the high CSE rates among racial/ethnic minority girls in these settings (Kruger et al., 2013; Phillips, 2015).
Prior research has noted that social support systems can play a role in adolescent girls’ involvement in CSE (Hargreaves-Cormany & Patterson, 2016). Specifically, adolescent girls’ relationship quality with family members and friends can either buffer or increase CSE vulnerability (Buck, Lawrence, & Ragonese, 2017; Reid & Piquero, 2016). Further, perceptions of school, law enforcement, and other relevant service organizations also influence engagement in CSE. Distrust and a lack of training in trauma-informed care in these agencies can lead youth to refuse services that may assist them in exiting from CSE (Macias-Konstantopoulos et al., 2015; Phillips, 2015). This is important to consider when examining racial/ethnic minority girls’ experiences with social support organizations as the role of intersectional identity factors may already shape their experiences and perceptions. For example, previous research has shown that this population is less likely to trust judicial or governmental social systems due to a history of negative interactions linked to systemic, institutionalized racism (Cooper, 2013; Nicolaidis et al., 2010).
Despite their significance, there is still a paucity of literature focusing on what social networks are critical to adolescents’ who have experienced CSE (Kruger et al., 2013; Reid & Piquero, 2016). To date, no studies have explored perceptions of social networks among adolescent girls who have experienced CSE, nor has this been investigated among racial/ethnic minority girls from low resource communities. The current qualitative study aims to address this void in the literature by investigating critical social networks among racial/ethnic minority adolescent girls with a CSE history. Using Social Network Theory (SNT; Berkman & Glass, 2002), the girls’ subjective reports of their social networks and the relevance of these structures to CSE vulnerability are examined.
Section snippets
Review of the literature
Several contextual and individual-level factors contribute to adolescent girls’ CSE risk (e.g., a history of child sexual abuse, substance use and abuse, homelessness). However, interpersonal relationships with more proximal social networks such as family members (e.g., Milan & Wortel, 2015; Twigg, 2017; Williams & Frederick, 2009), peers (Dank, Khan, Downey, & Kotonias, 2014; Fogel, Martin, Nelson, Thomas, & Porta, 2017; Macias-Konstantopoulos et al., 2015; Reed, Kennedy, Decker, & Cimino, 2019
Research design overview
The current study’s data draws from the data corpus of a more extensive qualitative study examining important formal and informal social networks, perceptions of trafficking, and future goals among adolescent girls identified as being at-risk or previously engaged in CSE. The data for this study is comprised of a portion of interviews from the broader study and were purposefully selected as it bests addresses our interests in the perceptions of social support held by adolescent girls who have
Participant recruitment and selection
A university’s Institutional Review Board approved the overall project (IRB#18-0201). As part of the existing intake packet given to clients at the organization, participants were given parental and adolescent consent forms, or adult consent forms if they were over the age of 18, for the project as a whole. Existing clients at the organization and their parents or caregivers were recruited and given consent forms by their assigned case manager during their regularly scheduled meetings. Flyers
Data collection procedures
The first author conducted the individual interviews during normal group activities at the center. To ensure confidentiality, the participant’s assigned case manager would request them to come to a private office where the interview would take place. The case manager would leave the room during the interview. As clients typically have private meetings with their case managers and other staff, this method was chosen so that others attending the center would not be aware that an interview was
Data-analytic strategies
Data collection occurred prior to data analysis and was analyzed using the thematic analysis (TA) method. TA is the process of identifying patterns or themes within qualitative data (Braun & Clarke, 2006). This method was appropriate, given the study design. The goal of TA is to identify latent themes, which focus on the examination of the underlying ideas, assumptions, and conceptualizations of participant’s ideologies (Braun & Clarke, 2006). A six-phase guide to TA framed our approach. In
Findings
The results presented here are organized around two major themes that emerged from the data: a) the social networks perceived as influential in participants’ daily lives and (b) if these social networks are perceived as having positive or negative characteristics (see Table 1). These are both discussed below. As the authors sought to view these networks through the lens of SNT, a modified version of Berkman and Glass (2002) original model was updated to depict these social networks and the
Discussion
This qualitative study utilized SNT to examine perceptions of important social networks and their characteristics among low resource, racial/ethnic minority adolescent girls who have a CSE history. Our findings provide information about which members of adolescent girl survivors’ social networks are perceived as important and the characteristics that shape these perceptions as either negative or positive. When examined as a whole, participants provided more richly informative data when asked to
Limitations
Although this study provides preliminary insights into adolescent CSE survivors’ perspectives on their social networks and how these networks’ characteristics may be related to their CSE vulnerability, some limitations must be considered. While rich in information, qualitative methodology limits our ability to draw causal conclusions and generalize to other adolescents with a CSE history in other contexts. The findings reflect a unique group of low resource, racial/ethnic minority adolescent
Conclusion
Despite the limitations, these findings illustrate the importance of understanding the social networks that adolescent survivors of CSE interact with within their lives. Drawing upon SNT frameworks, the study results highlight positive and negative social networks and their defining characteristics as described by racial/ethnic minority adolescent girls with a history of CSE. When taken together, this research points to key social networks for these racial/ethnic minority adolescent girls’ and
Declaration of Competing Interest
We have no conflicts of interest disclose.
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