Although there are high rates of commercial sexual exploitation of Native American children, there are still not established best practices for interviewing them about their experiences. This pilot study sought to learn more about best practices for interviewing Native including gender diverse youth in the United States about sex trafficking. In the process, lessons were learned about conducting this kind of research. The initial practices suggested included ways of linking with participants, incorporating culturally-specific healing elements, orienting clinicians to cultural humility and agility, and preparing to provide a clear rationale for how and why the information learned would be disseminated.

Background Child sexual abuse (CSA) is a significant public health problem, with a small but important subset of crimes committed by strangers, often facilitated through luring. Understanding the characteristics of individuals who engage in luring is essential for developing effective prevention and intervention strategies. Objective This study aimed to analyze the demographic characteristics and criminal histories of individuals convicted of luring a minor and to examine the types of crimes committed before and after conviction. Participants and setting The study included all individuals (N = 115) convicted of “luring a minor” between 2011 and 2021 in one county in Oregon. Methods The study used demographic data and frequencies to provide an overview of who is being convicted of luring and what other crimes they have committed prior and after their conviction. Results Most were male (97.39 %), White (70.43 %), and the average age at first arrest was 33.06 years. Before conviction, 35.65 % had prior arrests, with assault (34.15 %) and probation violations (24.39 %) being most common. After conviction, 98.26 % were rearrested, with luring (60.34 %) and online sexual corruption (41.38 %) being the most frequent charges. Crimes against children were the most prevalent type of crime. Conclusions This study provides valuable insights into the characteristics and criminal histories of individuals convicted of luring minors. The high prevalence of child-related crimes after conviction, including progression to commercial sexual exploitation and child sex trafficking, underscores the need for comprehensive interventions, robust monitoring, and ongoing community education to prevent further harm to children. Future research should replicate this study across different jurisdictions to identify regional differences, examine the relationship between jurisdictional definitions and crime patterns, and evaluate the effectiveness of various supervision and monitoring strategies in reducing recidivism among those convicted of luring.

Homelessness is a public health crisis both nationally, in the United States, and internationally. Nevertheless, due to the hidden vulnerabilities of persons who are without shelter, little is known about their experiences during periods of homelessness. The present research adopts a network approach that conceptualizes how the major risk factors of homelessness interact, namely substance abuse problems, poor mental health, disability, and exposure to physical or sexual violence by an intimate partner. Our analysis draws on a large demographic survey of over 5,000 unsheltered homeless persons conducted in 2017 by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority. We estimated a network structure for 12 survey items tapping individual risk using the graphical least absolute shrinkage and selection operator algorithm. We then examined network centrality metrics and implemented a community detection algorithm to detect communities in the network. Our results indicated that mental illness and intimate partner violence (IPV) are central measures that connect all other mental and physical health variables together and that post-traumatic stress disorder and IPV are both highly affected by changes in any part of the network and, in turn, affect changes in other parts of the network. A community detection analysis derived four communities characterized by disability, sexual victimization and health, substance use, and mental health issues. Finally, a directed acyclic graph revealed that drug abuse and physical disability were key drivers of the overall system. We conclude with a discussion of the major implications of our findings and suggest how our results might inform programs aimed at homelessness prevention and intervention.

Understanding the motives, behaviors, demographic characteristics, and deterrence strategies of those involved in purchasing commercial sex have focused on samples of men. Through an online survey of men (n = 381) and women who purchase sex (n = 143) in the United States, this study provides an exploratory examination on the differences of purchasing by gender. While men reported purchasing sexual services at a higher rate, women who purchased were less likely to be in a relationship. No differences in the deterrence of purchasing were found by gender, yet current deterrence strategies were not found to be effective among the sample.

BACKGROUND:Previous research has tied adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) to a variety of deleterious mental health, physical, and behavioral outcomes. There has been some examination of the relationship between ACEs and selling sexual services, but not on the relation of ACEs to purchasing.OBJECTIVE:We hypothesize a cumulative impact of ACEs on the propensity to purchase and buy and sell sex. We further hypothesize that childhood sexual abuse will have unique impacts on buying and selling.PARTICIPANTS & SETTING:We recruited participants who had ever/never exchanged money or things of values for sex through Amazon MTurk (n = 930).METHODS:Using logistic regression, we examined how cumulative ACEs and each separate ACE increased propensity to buy or sell sex. We controlled for sex, age, race, employment status, and sexuality.RESULTS:Utilizing the analysis from cumulative ACEs found that the propensity to buy (odds ratio 1.11***) and sell sex (odds ratio 1.094**) increased as cumulative ACE score increased. Bisexuals had high propensity of both buying (odds ratio 2.12) and selling sex (odds ratio 2.74). Women (odds ratio 0.53) and people of color (odds ratio 0.65) where more likely to sell than others. For odds of buying sex, childhood sexual abuse (odds ratio 1.57) had the most impact. For selling sex, childhood sexual abuse (odds ratio 1.96) and household physical violence (odds ratio 2.73) increased propensity while household mental abuse (odds ratio 0.57) decreased propensity.CONCLUSIONS:Understanding the impact of ACEs is important to understand participation as a buyer and seller in the commercialized sex market.

Worldwide, more than half of all human trafficking victims are engaged in forced labor. Such conditions often include long work days, with little or no pay, and repeated exposure to dangerous working conditions. This entry outlines the definition of labor trafficking, gives examples of such exploitation, points to health consequences, and offers brief critical comment on the role that globalization plays in perpetuating such exploitative practices in both the United States and around the world.

Purpose: Estimating the size of the sex buyer market in the United States has been stymied by methodological and sampling challenges. Given known methodological issues in self-reporting and the sensitive nature of purchasing sex, current research faces challenges in providing estimates of demand for purchasing sex. This study used a unique approach to estimate the prevalence of sex buying by men over the age of 18 in the United States. Methods: This study employed a double list experiment and a direct ask question to a nationally representative sample of 2525 adult males to estimate the size of the sex buyer market in the United States. Results: The double list experiment found the prevalence of sex purchasing is roughly 1 of every 50 adult males in the U.S. (2%) over the 3 years. The direct ask questions found that roughly 1 of every 25 males in the U.S. (4%) had purchased sex in the past 3 years. How they purchased and who they purchased sex from was also explored. A total of 80 respondents reported buying sex during the past 3 years. They spent an average of $120 for their most recent sex-buying encounter. Most sex buyers reported buying sex from an offline venue (street, bar, or massage parlor) and 81% purchased sex from a female. Applying the estimate of sex buying behavior to the general male population in the U.S. results in approximately 4 million men over the age of 18 purchasing sex the past 3 years. Conclusions: The findings from both the double list experiment and the direct ask question indicate that buying sex is a relatively rare phenomenon among adult males, however, when accounting for multiple purchases and extrapolating to the entire population the estimated purchases is in the millions. Applying the double list experiment and a direct ask question to a nationally representative sample provides a new way to capture estimates while addressing some of the limitations of previous methods. Such findings have implications for both the criminal justice and public health sectors.

The international Palermo Protocol (2000) was adopted and ushered in an international emphasis on understanding the exploitation of individuals through forced labor and commercialized sex. By referencing current scholarly literature, this entry provides an overview of sex trafficking, including its prevalence, the recruitment tactics of perpetrators, and responses to sex trafficking.

Prisonization theory asserts that inmates who internalize the attitudes and behaviors of a criminal lifestyle are most likely to continue their criminal careers and thus less likely to desist from crime. Unfortunately, virtually all prior studies of prisonization have used male samples and ignored female inmates. Using official data from 174 female inmates in Arizona, the current study examined predictors of 10 forms of institutional misconduct. Net the effects of demographic, social history, criminal career, and other risk factors, women who had served prior prison terms were significantly likely to commit all forms of misconduct. The effect of prior prison experience was separate from other measures of criminal career/criminal propensity, which suggests that recurrently going to prison exerts a unique and powerful effect on inmate behavior. Implications for prisonization research are provided.

Sexual violence in the military is woven into history, with stories and myths that date back to the times of ancient Rome. For example, military conquests thousands of years ago involved looting, pillaging, and raping—the "spoils of war" for the winning side. Over time, women, seen as sexual outlets, continued to be used to boost soldier morale in combat. Today, instances such as the Marine sexual misconduct scandal are still associated with notions of male empowerment through victimization of enlisted and civilian women, despite female officers making up 14% of service members across all military branches. To determine if the optics of violent and predatory behavior within the military has changed from the "spoils of war", the current study utilized qualitative content analysis to analyze the media frames of military sexual assault and sexual harassment over the past 20 years. Through holistic reflection, the inquiry explores military framing by the media during high-profile incidents of misconduct from 1996 to 2013. The Aberdeen Proving Ground, Lackland Airforce Base, and Airforce Academy sexual assault cases demonstrate that responsibility and human-interest frames are the most prominent optics used by the media to describe these events. Further, since the first case in 1996, media coverage of sexual harassment and assault within the military has declined significantly. This suggest that, while media framing may accurately reflect these offenses, these offenses are considered less and less news worthy.

The power of social media may be best captured in high-profile criminal cases where the court of public opinion can comment, often anonymously, and instantly re-share case information. In a poignant example of how social media can generate national and international attention on criminal behavior, this research explores the 2012 Steubenville, Ohio sexual assault case. Using qualitative textual analysis, news articles and social media content were coded for to assess how existing rape myth narratives were depicted in the Steubenville case. Emphasis is placed on how reporting and social media responses characterized the victim, perpetrators, and the rape itself. The study found that depictions included both legitimizing rape myths and subverting myths through social media and news coverage. Implications for how social media materials were used as evidence in the Steubenville case are also discussed.

In light of the expansion of punitive “get tough” policies for juvenile offenders, some researchers have uncovered evidence that juveniles who are waived to the adult court receive more severe sanctions than retained juveniles. Theoretically, the transfer status of delinquents may serve as a cognitive heuristic in criminal justice system (CJS) actors’ “focal concern” judgments. Understood through this framework, transfer status may signify to CJS workers, and especially Whites, that a juvenile offender is especially dangerous or blameworthy, thereby justifying harsher punishments. To examine these relationships, two experimental vignettes were embedded in a national survey of CJS workers in which the transfer status of the offender was randomized. Analyses reveal that respondents did not prefer harsher sentences for the transferred violent male delinquent, but they did recommend significantly harsher sentences for the transferred nonviolent female delinquent. White respondents, however, were especially punitive in their sentencing preferences for the transferred violent male delinquent. The findings are partially consistent with the theoretical expectation that transfer status functions as a heuristic in CJS actors’ assessments of juvenile offenders. The results also suggest that White CJS workers may racially typify violent youth who have been transferred to adult court.

Purpose: Prior research documented the efficacy of family-centered interventions at reducing juvenile delinquency. Parenting with Love and Limits (PLL), a community-based and family-focused approach to treating juvenile offenders was piloted in Florida as part of the Florida Redirection Project enacted by the state legislature to divert youth from residential facilities to community-based services.Methods: Using propensity score matching, all youth who completed the PLL program in Florida during the three-year period from fiscal years 2007-08 through 2009-10 (n = 92), were matched to similar risk youth who completed residential services during the same time period (n = 92) and compared to examine 12-month, post intervention recidivism outcomes.Results: Results revealed that youth completing PLL had, on average, lower rates of recidivism. The community based intervention achieved lower rates of reconviction, felony conviction, and subsequent justice system placement (juvenile and adult) one year following the completion of services.Findings: These findings suggest that community-based programs that integrate family-focused individual and group therapy may be an effective alternative to more restrictive, institutional placements for delinquent youth.

The biosocial theoretical perspective is a growing area within criminological theory; however, skepticism remains toward such new research endeavors. Uncertainty may come from a perceived lack of connection to existing theories of criminality and/or the apparent resources required in conducting biosocial research. Therefore, the aim of this study was twofold. First, by utilizing the public version of National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) data, this study provides an example of biosocial research that does not require the use of expensive laboratory equipment or restrictive datasets. Second, by utilizing a sample of 1629 individuals followed from age 13 to 29, a longitudinal latent class analysis was estimated to explore the relationship between low-resting heart rate and antisocial behavior for both males and females. Doing so, the current study integrates a well-researched correlate of biosocial criminology with mainstream criminological theories (i.e. developmental theories), while also employing a fairly novel approach to group-based trajectory modeling.

Page 1. Violence and Victims Volume 29, Number 4, 2014 CONTENTS The Association Between Protective Actions and Homicide Risk: 543 Findings From the Oklahoma Lethality Assessment Study Jill Theresa Messing, Jacquelyn C. Campbell, Sheryll Brown, Beverly Patchell, David K. Androff, and Janet Sullivan Wilson Anger-Related Dysregulation as a Factor Linking Childhood Physical Abuse 564 and Interparental Violence to Intimate Partner Violence Experiences Katherine M. Iverson, Katie A. McLaughlin, Kathryn C. Adair, and Candice M. Monson Administrators' Perceptions of College Campus Protocols, Response, 579 and Student Prevention Efforts for Sexual Assault Angela F. Amar, Tania D. Strout, Somatra Simpson, Maria Cardiello, and Sania Beckford An Exploration of the Role of Employment as a Coping Resource for 594 Women Experiencing Intimate Partner Abuse David Beecham …

The cycle of violence thesis posits that early exposure to maltreatment increases the likelihood of later maladaptive and antisocial behaviors. Childhood sexual abuse (CSA) specifically has been shown to increase the likelihood of sexual offending, although less is known about its linkages to other forms of crime. Based on data from 2,520 incarcerated male juvenile offenders from a large southern state, hierarchical logistic regression models suggested that CSA increased the likelihood of later sexual offending nearly sixfold (467% increase). However, CSA was associated with an 83%reducedlikelihood of homicide offending and 68% reduced likelihood of serious person/property offending. These findings suggest further support for the cycle of violence where CSA promotes sexual offending but novel findings regarding the linkages between CSA and other forms of crime.