Human Trafficking and the Child Welfare Population in Florida

Trafficking victimization is under-identified, and research about children who are victims is needed to inform policy and practice. Research is particularly needed for those working in child welfare, since federal law imposes mandates on that system in preventing, identifying, and responding to human trafficking involving children and youth.

 

Florida's Department of Children and Families (DCF) has been recording allegations of human trafficking in its data tracking system since 2009, well ahead of many states. RTI International, an independent research institute, partnered with DCF in the largest study to-date of human trafficking within a child welfare population. The study uses DCF data for all children with allegations of child abuse and neglect maltreatments between 2011 and 2017 - more than 1 million children.

 

In this webinar, DCF's Human Trafficking Regional Coordinator, Sue Aboul-hosn, and RTI's Senior Health and Social Research Analyst, Deborah Gibbs, will share what the data from 8,044 allegations of human trafficking - of which 90% relate to sexual exploitation - reveal about the characteristics of children with human trafficking allegations.