305240
Commercial sexual exploitation of children: The Los Angeles County approach from a public health perspective
LA County is the most populous county in the US, home to 10 million people sprawled across vast urban communities, suburban enclaves, and rural neighborhoods. Because of the County’s large size, for health care delivery, wellness programs, and planning purposes, it is divided into 8 geographic Service Planning Areas, or SPAs. While human trafficking occurs all over the region, from Beverly Hills to Long Beach, the majority of girls who have been identified as sex trafficking victims – that is, who have been arrested for prostitution -- reside in South SPA, or SPA 6. This chronically economically disadvantaged region consistently fares worse than other County communities on many key indicators of health, placing youth at higher risk to become CSEC.
In September 2013, the LA County Board of Supervisors passed a motion charging county agencies to create a multi-agency response to address CSEC. County agencies are working together to develop an identification, response and service protocol to better serve children and transitional age youth who are being sexually exploited or are at risk for CSE. The Department of Public Health participates in this effort, bringing a prevention and health perspective to the implementation process. The approach, led by the Probation Department and Child and Family Services, focuses on secondary and tertiary prevention.
Learning Areas:
Other professions or practice related to public healthPlanning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs
Public health administration or related administration
Learning Objectives:
Describe risk factors for child sex trafficking and list public agencies that interact with these youth
Explain steps a local public health department can take to better identify and treat commercially sexually exploited youth
Demonstrate how collaboration with other county departments and community stakeholders enables system-wide improvements to prevent and address child sex trafficking
Keyword(s): Children and Adolescents, Violence & Injury Prevention
Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am a preventive medicine and public health physician who has worked on human trafficking issues in Los Angeles since 2005, and represent the Department of Public Health on the LA County CSEC Task Force.
Any relevant financial relationships? No
I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.