By Alexa Bejinariu

This article aims to enhance our understanding of social assistance providers as important sites of potential human trafficking identification, prevention, and disruption, particularly in countries newly experiencing the phenomenon of mass incoming migration. We do so by examining the experiences of Romanian NGOs and other voluntary actors in Romania providing assistance to migrants traveling from Ukraine during the early months of the Russian invasion. Drawing upon data from semistructured qualitative interviews and site visits with over 20 distinct civil society initiatives in summer 2022, we identify five themes that enhance our understanding of system capacities to address human trafficking in countries unaccustomed to migration, and discuss the implications for criminal justice. The article has implications for countries encountering migration due to regional conflicts, but also for migration related to natural disasters, climate change, and other causes.

By Alice Fereday

Chad’s role as a departure and transit country for northbound migration to North Africa and Europe is often overlooked, particularly in comparison to neighbouring Niger and Sudan. However, the country’s position at the crossroads of routes connecting central and eastern Africa to Libya and Niger makes it a significant transit corridor for regional migration, and its role as a bastion of relative stability in an increasingly volatile region has further increased its importance in recent years. Since 2023, the conflict in Sudan and a major influx of refugees into Chad have further shaped these mobility dynamics, making the country a major destination and transit point for Sudanese refugee displacement in the region. At the same time, Chad is navigating a fractious and contested political transition. Political violence escalated in 2024 and remains an important source of tension and political instability. The combination of these complex internal and regional dynamics, and their impact on human smuggling dynamics, make Chad a key country to monitor. A major component of human smuggling dynamics in Chad is internal movements to the country’s northern goldfields. These mobility patterns have typically been shaped by internal factors, including political instability, rebel activity and gold mining.1 This changed in 2023 with the outbreak of the conflict in Sudan and the massive influx of refugees and returnees into eastern Chad. Though northbound movements were temporarily hindered by this shift, which resulted in a relative decrease in demand for northbound travel from eastern Chad in the early months of the conflict, by the end of 2023 human smuggling had picked up again as many Sudanese began leaving refugee camps with the intention of travelling to northern Chad, Libya, Niger and Tunisia, often with the help of smugglers.2 In 2024, these movements escalated further and human smuggling between eastern and northern Chad saw significant growth, due in large part to increasing demand among Sudanese refugees for travel to northern Chad and Libya. However, the movement of Sudanese refugees through Chad also involved travel to Niger via N’Djamena or northern Chad. Northbound movements in Chad were also driven by increasing demand for travel to the Kouri Bougoudi goldfield. The flow of prospective gold miners, which began after the goldfield reopened at the end of 2022, was also facilitated by decreased restrictions on northbound travel as risks of rebel incursions in northern Chad remained contained in 2024. This encouraged the activities of passeurs, who catered to increasing demand for northbound travel, particularly from eastern Chad.Overall, Chad recorded progressively increasing movement levels in 2024 compared to previous years, presaging its emergence as an important space to watch for migrant and refugee movement, and associated protection risks. This is the latest GI-TOC monitoring report on human smuggling in Chad. It builds on a series of annual reports – issued since 2019 – which track the evolution of human smuggling in Chad and the political, security and economic dynamics that influence it

By Alice Fereday ̵and Alexandre Bish

Human smuggling in Chad mostly involves northbound movements linking southern and eastern areas of the country to the north, in particular the gold mining areas in the Tibesti mountains, and to Libya. As a result, these dynamics are often connected to and impacted by the situation in northern Chad, where decades of political unrest, successive rebellions, intercommunity conflict, and deeply entrenched illicit economies and transnational organized crime dynamics are key factors of instability. Chadian authorities have long responded to these risks through securitization, including, in recent years, tight control over key routes and hubs, and a ban on travel to the north, further increasing demand for smuggling services among Chadians travelling to the goldfields or further afield to Libya, and in some cases, Europe. In 2022, human smuggling activity in Chad continued to be heavily affected by the political and security developments that followed the incursion led by the Front pour l’Alternance et la Concorde au Tchad (Front for change and concord in Chad – FACT) and ensuing death of President Idriss Déby, the country’s long-time leader, in April 2021. This upheaval interrupted what had been a broader rise of human smuggling from and through Chad, which, despite being illegal, had increased since 2016. This rise was in part due to the displacement of smuggling routes from Niger and Sudan, following anti-smuggling interventions in those two countries, which led to the use of Chad as a transit hub for human smuggling networks. Despite the displacement of routes, the number of migrants transiting the country still paled in comparison to the numbers that continued transiting Sudan and Niger. The most significant human smuggling itinerary in Chad remains the transport of migrants, both Chadian and foreign, to the gold mining economy along the country’s northern border with Libya. Since their discovery in 2012 and 2013, goldfields in the north have developed into major economic hubs attracting mostly poor migrants from across the region. The COVID-19 pandemic and linked travel restrictions in 2020 had little impact on movement to the goldfields. Rather, following the October 2020 ceasefire in Libya, the arrival of former mercenaries previously engaged in Libya to Kouri Bougoudi resulted in an uptick in gold mining, which in turn fuelled demand for workers. This development caused a surge in the movement of Sudanese and Chadian miners towards the goldfield since mid-2020.

By the United Nations.  High Commissioner for Human Rights

UN Human Rights is calling urgent attention to the continuing and critical need for a human rights solution to a particularly “wicked problem” - the complex crisis of trafficking in persons, slavery and other serious human rights violations and abuses that are taking place in South-East Asia in the context of extensive criminal operations set up to perpetrate cyber-enabled fraud. This report centers the lived experience of victims subjected to abuses within these scam operations and who in many cases continue to suffer human rights harms after their release. Through a behavioural science and systems analysis lens, the report also seeks to understand the barriers and enablers that lead victims into these operations through fraudulent recruitment pathways. The report concludes with key messages which call on States, and where relevant other stakeholders, to ensure a human rights-based response to this multidimensional issue, placing the rights, dignity, safety, and well-being of victims of trafficking at its core including through ensuring full respect of the non-punishment principle.

by Lord Hugh Charles Clifford. (Author), Graeme R. Newman (Introduction)

In a world still grappling with the echoes of systemic inequality, Christianity Versus Slavery (1841) emerges not merely as a historical relic, but as a prescient manifesto on human dignity and the moral imperatives of justice. This collection—comprising the fiery oratory of George Thompson, the strategic appeals of Lord Clifford to the Catholics of Ireland, and the authoritative weight of centuries of Papal Briefs—challenges the modern reader to confront the persistent "complicated interests" and "rotten politics" that continue to shape global structures of exploitation. At its heart, the work champions the "Scriptural doctrine of equality," asserting that the "innate dignity of man" is an immutable truth that transcends "complexion" or state borders. This 19th-century insistence that "God has made of one blood the varied tribes of man" serves as a foundational precursor to our modern concept of universal human rights.
The book’s relevance to the modern era is perhaps most striking in its sophisticated analysis of the intersection between global exploitation and domestic economic health. Lord Clifford’s address highlights how the "ruinous, than unchristian and inhuman traffic" of slavery in the colonies was inextricably linked to the "general distress" and "awful distress" of the manufacturing interests and the "starving workman" at home. This early critique of an "equally wicked and foolish policy" that prioritized "sordid lucre" over justice prefigures modern debates regarding ethical supply chains, globalized labor rights, and the hidden human costs of consumer goods. By linking the oppression of India and Ireland to the struggle for abolition, the text invites a contemporary audience to view justice as an indivisible, global pursuit.
Furthermore, the work offers a timeless strategy for social change through the "regeneration of public sentiment". In an age often dominated by digital echo chambers and a "venal press," the book’s emphasis on the "power of truth" and "moral power" as weapons "mightier than armies" remains a potent call to action. It warns that the struggle for justice is "slow and progressive," requiring a "struggle continued through a series of years" against "deep-seated prejudices" and "long-cherished pride". Ultimately, Christianity Versus Slavery serves as a rigorous moral compass, reminding the modern era that the "spiritual nature and affinity of the races" is the only legitimate basis for a sane and just civilization.

Read-Me.Org Inc. New York-Philadelphia-Australia. 2026. 101p.

BY HUGH CHARLES, LORD CLIFFORD.

In a world still grappling with the echoes of systemic inequality, Christianity Versus Slavery (1841) emerges not merely as a historical relic, but as a prescient manifesto on human dignity and the moral imperatives of justice. This collection—comprising the fiery oratory of George Thompson, the strategic appeals of Lord Clifford to the Catholics of Ireland, and the authoritative weight of centuries of Papal Briefs—challenges the modern reader to confront the persistent "complicated interests" and "rotten politics" that continue to shape global structures of exploitation. At its heart, the work champions the "Scriptural doctrine of equality," asserting that the "innate dignity of man" is an immutable truth that transcends "complexion" or state borders. This 19th-century insistence that "God has made of one blood the varied tribes of man" serves as a foundational precursor to our modern concept of universal human rights.

The book’s relevance to the modern era is perhaps most striking in its sophisticated analysis of the intersection between global exploitation and domestic economic health. Lord Clifford’s address highlights how the "ruinous, than unchristian and inhuman traffic" of slavery in the colonies was inextricably linked to the "general distress" and "awful distress" of the manufacturing interests and the "starving workman" at home. This early critique of an "equally wicked and foolish policy" that prioritized "sordid lucre" over justice prefigures modern debates regarding ethical supply chains, globalized labor rights, and the hidden human costs of consumer goods. By linking the oppression of India and Ireland to the struggle for abolition, the text invites a contemporary audience to view justice as an indivisible, global pursuit.

Furthermore, the work offers a timeless strategy for social change through the "regeneration of public sentiment". In an age often dominated by digital echo chambers and a "venal press," the book’s emphasis on the "power of truth" and "moral power" as weapons "mightier than armies" remains a potent call to action. It warns that the struggle for justice is "slow and progressive," requiring a "struggle continued through a series of years" against "deep-seated prejudices" and "long-cherished pride". Ultimately, Christianity Versus Slavery serves as a rigorous moral compass, reminding the modern era that the "spiritual nature and affinity of the races" is the only legitimate basis for a sane and just civilization.

Read-Me.Org Inc. New York-Philadelphia-Australia. 2026. 100p.

By Cornelius Friesendorf (Ed.)

In 2000, the international community adopted the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children. Since then, 124 countries have ratified the Protocol, and many of these have adopted legal instruments to help them in the fight against trafficking. Yet the scourge persists. Millions of people worldwide—men, women and children—continue to be exploited for their labour, for sexual purposes, for their organs. Security sector personnel are well-placed to assist in the fight against human trafficking: by identifying victims; investigating networks; disrupting operations; and prosecuting traffickers. Moreover, trafficking, like many crimes, flourishes where the rule of law is weak, such as in post-conflict situations. Restoring security based on the rule of law can reduce vulnerability to human trafficking and other types of organised crime. Strategies Against Human Trafficking: The Role of the Security Sector provides practical guidance on how practitioners in the security sector can take measures against modern-day slavery. Two points stand out. First, policy and intervention depend on evidence. Thus far, the fight against human trafficking has been handicapped by a lack of data. UNODC is working with governments and social scientists to fill this void. In 2009 we published the first Global Report on Trafficking in Persons. But the picture remains impressionistic. Security sector professionals can provide the information needed to profile victims and identify traffickers. The second major point highlighted in this study is the need for cooperation. This fight is a shared responsibility. It requires inter-agency cooperation among law enforcement personnel as well as trans-national cooperation. It also depends on effective joint work among a wide range of stakeholders, including criminal justice experts, the private sector, civil society, and concerned citizens. Disjointed efforts—however well-meaning—will have little impact on sophisticated criminal networks. This publication offers strong recommendations on how to make cooperation work. 

Vienna and Geneva, National Defence Academy and Austrian Ministry of Defence and Sports Rossauer Lände 1, 1090 Wien in co-operation with Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces September 2009. 514p.   

By The Not Invisible Act Commission

There is a crisis in Tribal communities. A crisis of violence, a crisis of abuse, and a crisis of abject neglect affecting Indian Women & Men, Indian Children, and Indian Elders. The federal government must act now; not tomorrow; not next week; not next month; and not next year. Once and for all, the federal government must end its systematic failure to address this crisis and react, redress, and resolve this. We call on the federal government to declare a Decade of Action & Healing to address the crisis of missing, murdered, and trafficked Indian people. -- The Not Invisible Act Commissioners _____________________________________________________________________________ With each passing day, more and more American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) persons are victimized due to inadequate prevention and response to the MMIP and HT crisis. Our recommendations encompass actions that must be undertaken without delay to provide AI/AN people and communities with the same sense of safety and security that other communities in the United States take for granted. The United States government’s failure to fulfill its trust responsibilities to Tribal nations, coupled with historic policies that sought to disconnect AI/AN people from their land, language, and culture, have given rise to a public health, public safety, and justice crisis in Tribal communities. The crisis is most notably reflected in the federal government’s failure to effectively prevent and respond to the violence against AI/AN people, particularly in the context of missing, murdered, and trafficked AI/AN people. Despite the best efforts of many individuals across law enforcement (LE), the judiciary, and social services, long-standing institutional failures must be acknowledged and addressed. Calls for action and funding to address these issues have been made repeatedly.1 Although there has been a growing awareness of the high rates of missing, murdered, and trafficked AI/AN people in recent years, and several federal initiatives have been launched,2 addressing the needs in Tribal communities continues to generally be underprioritized by the federal government. Until this changes, violence against AI/AN individuals and on Indian and Alaska Village lands will persist. The Commission believes that the circumstances that have created the crisis of MMIP and HT are not intractable. In fact, to see them so is to continue the unjust past. With resolve and an appropriate investment of resources, these issues can, and must, be effectively addressed. While it is imperative that the federal government take immediate and concerted action, thescale and severity of this issue, and the need for long-term healing and justice, also demand a comprehensive and sustained response. Therefore, we call upon the federal government to declare a Decade of Action and Healing dedicated to addressing this crisis effectively for future generations. Such a declaration would underscore the urgency of the matter and signify a long-term commitment to combatting the deeply rooted issues that perpetuate continued violence against AI/AN individuals and supporting individuals and communities in their healing as they seek justice. This Decade of Action and Healing must involve partnership with Tribal communities, Tribal governments, and relevant organizations, focusing on improving safety, prevention, justice, support services, and healing for AI/AN communities through increased funding, policy reform, action-oriented programs, and training and technical assistance.

Washington, DC: U.S. Department of the Interior and the Department of Justice, 2025. 212p.

By Laura Durán and Leah Davison

Definitions matter. They shape how problems are understood, which responses are triggered, and who is recognised as needing protection. In the context of the exploitation of children, however, definitions are far from settled. The legal and policy landscape surrounding child trafficking and exploitation is shaped by a complex interplay between international, regional, and domestic standards. Definitions serve multiple purposes: they not only establish the legal parameters needed to prosecute offences but also function as tools for identifying victims and determining their eligibility for support and protection.

Whilst the terms “human trafficking”, “slavery,” and “forced labour” are defined in international law and have been incorporated into UK legislation, other key terms such as “modern slavery”, “labour exploitation” and “criminal exploitation” remain undefined in law, leading to inconsistent interpretations.

These inconsistencies are not just technical or academic, they have real world consequences. They influence not only how a child is viewed, but also what support they receive by determining their access to entitlements, the services triggered, and which system is involved. Definitional instability also undermines efforts to collect reliable data and assess prevalence. Without a shared conceptual foundation, prevalence estimates vary, interventions may be misdirected, and child victims risk being misidentified or overlooked. Language choices are shaped by institutional mandates and political priorities, not just descriptive accuracy.

Formal identification as a “victim of human trafficking” should trigger specific support under international law such as protection, counselling, legal advice, safe accommodation, interpretation services, health care, special measures in court, access to education, compensation, presumption of age, provide for the possibility of not imposing penalties on victims for their involvement in unlawful activities, residence permit and a legal guardian for unaccompanied child victims.

This report explores how definitional inconsistencies across legal, policy, and practice frameworks in the UK shape the identification and protection of children who are subject to child trafficking. 

Key findings

1. Inconsistent definitions, gaps and overlaps in terminology, and varying thresholds for recognition, are undermining the identification and protection of children, leading to fractured responses and silos.

2. Preconceptions about exploitation along race, nationality and gender lines affects both identification and the determination of child NRM referrals. The proportion of child referrals refused on the basis of not meeting the definition has remained consistently high, with significant disparities by nationality.

3. An emphasis on movement in the definition of trafficking in domestic legislation in England and Wales and Northern Ireland overlooks other elements in the act of child trafficking such as recruitment and harbouring and continues to shape professional understandings of when a case constitutes child trafficking in both identification and prosecutions, particularly affecting children exploited locally to where they live, or those exploited online.

4. Age is a factor which determines the application of terminology, and perceived maturity is often interpreted as a proxy for consent, responsibility and perceived agency, affecting identification and criminalisation.

5. Child trafficking is primarily understood as abuse occurring outside of the family, obscuring the complexities of harm and affecting identification.

Key recommendations

1. Develop a Cross-Government UK wide Child Exploitation Strategy – the UK Government, Welsh Government, Scottish Government and Northern Ireland Executive should develop and implement a cross-government child exploitation strategy that recognises and responds to the overlapping nature of exploitation types. This strategy should be underpinned by integrated policy and operational frameworks across relevant departments to promote consistency in identification, protection, and support for children. Responsibility should be shared across key departments, including but not limited to the Home Office, Department for Education, and devolved administrations.

2. Align legal definitions with international standards – the UK Government and Northern Ireland Executive should reform primary legislation language in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland to reflect the international definition of child trafficking, removing the over-emphasis on movement and recognising actions such as recruitment and harbouring.

3. Establish a statutory definition of child exploitation – the Home Office should introduce a statutory definition of child exploitation that encompasses all exploitation types, allowing sufficient elasticity to evolve with emerging forms whilst clarifying current definitional inconsistencies to ensure child exploitation is always identified. This definition should be developed through meaningful engagement with children and young people, including those with lived experience, to ensure it reflects the realities of exploitation and supports effective identification and response.

4. Clarify the ‘Means’ element for children – the Home Office should review the Slavery and Human Trafficking (Definition of Victim) Regulations 2022 and the Modern Slavery Statutory Guidance to identify and amend language which indicates a means element for children is necessary such as coercion, deception, force or other terms which requires consideration of informed consent.

5. Independent review mechanisms to scrutinise NRM decision-making – the Home Office should introduce independent review mechanisms to scrutinise NRM decision-making where significant disparities exist in definition-based refusals by nationality, to assess whether children from certain nationalities are being systematically refused and to guard against unconscious bias.

Oxford, UK: Modern Slavery and Human Rights Policy and Evidence Centre (PEC) at the University of Oxford, 2025. 165p.

By Agnes Mathilde Wergeland (Author), Colin Heston (Introduction)

Slavery in Germanic Society sets out to trace the evolution of slavery from the late Roman world through the early and high medieval periods. Wergeland’s analysis begins by distinguishing classical slavery—predicated on the total alienation of the enslaved person from kinship, community, and legal personhood—from the systems of servitude that emerged in Germanic societies. As Germanic tribes moved into former Roman territories, they both absorbed and modified existing practices of unfree labor. Captives taken in war, debtors who had fallen into bondage, and the descendants of slaves formed a stratum of society that was neither fully outside nor fully within the emerging frameworks of medieval law.

Wergeland is especially attentive to the role of law codes in shaping and regulating these relationships. The Salic Law, the Lex Saxonum, and other Germanic legal compilations provide glimpses into a world where freedom and unfreedom were not binary categories but existed along a continuum. The distinction between a servus (slave), a colonus (tenant bound to the land), and a liber homo (freeman) was fluid and often contested. Her work suggests that these categories were not only legal but also deeply embedded in cultural ideas about honor, lineage, and the obligations of lordship.

Wergeland’s historiographical legacy is also tied to the broader cultural currents of her time. Writing in the aftermath of the American Civil War and during the height of European colonial expansion, she was acutely aware of slavery’s moral and political resonance. While she does not draw explicit parallels between medieval and modern forms of servitude, her decision to study the topic reflects a world in which questions of liberty, labor, and human rights were urgently contested.
In returning to Slavery in Germanic Society During the Middle Ages today, readers encounter a work that is both a product of its era and strikingly relevant to our own. It invites us to consider how deeply embedded systems of inequality are in the fabric of society, and how they can endure even as their outward forms change. Wergeland’s careful scholarship provides a foundation for ongoing conversations about freedom, coercion, and the ways in which human societies organize power and labor.
This edition reintroduces Wergeland’s study to a new generation of readers at a moment when the legacies of slavery and unfreedom are once again at the center of global debates. It offers not only an invaluable historical resource but also a reminder of the intellectual courage of a scholar who, against the odds, claimed her place in the academy and in the long conversation about justice and humanity.

Read-Me.Org Inc. New York-Philadelphia-Australia. 2025. 93p.

By Adam Gurowski (Author), Colin Heston (Preface)

Adam Gurowski’s Slavery in History is a sweeping and impassioned historical treatise that challenges the reader to reconsider the institution of slavery not as a fixed or inevitable component of human civilization, but as a corrosive anomaly that has repeatedly undermined the moral and structural integrity of societies throughout history. Written in the mid-19th century, a time when the question of slavery was at the forefront of political and ethical discourse—particularly in the United States—Gurowski’s work stands as both a scholarly inquiry and a moral indictment. His approach is not merely descriptive; it is analytical and polemical, seeking to dismantle the notion that slavery is a natural or historically justified institution.
From the outset, Gurowski frames slavery as a “general disease” rather than a social norm, arguing that its presence in any civilization is symptomatic of deeper political and moral decay. He rejects the deterministic view that slavery is a universal or necessary stage in societal development, instead positing that it is an aberration that has consistently led to the decline of the cultures that embraced it. This thesis is developed through a methodical examination of a wide array of civilizations—from the Egyptians and Phoenicians to the Greeks, Romans, and beyond. In each case, Gurowski explores how slavery was integrated into the social fabric, how it was justified or resisted, and ultimately, how it contributed to the weakening or collapse of those societies.
Adam Gurowski’s view on modern slavery, particularly as it existed in the 19th century, is deeply critical and morally charged. In Slavery in History, he argues that for the first time in human civilization, slavery had been elevated into a comprehensive ideological system—a “religious, social, and political creed” . This modern form of slavery, especially as practiced in the United States, was not merely a continuation of ancient customs but a deliberate and systemic institution, defended by theology, law, and public discourse. He is especially scathing in his critique of how slavery in the modern era had been rationalized and sanctified by political leaders, religious figures, and intellectuals. He describes this as a “new faith” with its own “temples,” “altars,” and “fanatical devotees,” suggesting that slavery had become a kind of state religion in parts of the American Republic. This metaphor underscores his belief that modern slavery was not just a social or economic system but a deeply entrenched ideology that corrupted every aspect of public life.
Finally, his introduction to Slavery in History serves as both a roadmap and a manifesto. It outlines the historical scope of the book—spanning ancient to modern civilizations—and sets the tone for a critical, morally engaged exploration of one of humanity’s oldest and most pernicious institutions. Gurowski’s work is not merely a catalog of historical facts; it is a call to conscience, urging readers to recognize the enduring consequences of slavery and to commit to the principles of justice and equality. In doing so, he positions his book as a vital contribution to the intellectual and ethical debates of his era—debates that, in many ways, continue to resonate today.
Read-Me.Org Inc. New York-Philadelphia-Australia. 2025. 172p.

By  Ivy Hammond, , Wendy Wiegmann, Joseph Magruder, Daniel Webster, Bridgette Lery, Sarah Benatar, Jaclyn Chambers, Laura Packard Tucker, Katrina Brewsaugh, Annelise Loveless,  and Jonah Norwitt  

In 2014, California’s Senate Bill (S. B.) 855 created the state’s Opt-In Commercially Sexually Exploited Child (CSEC) Program, which gives participating county child welfare agencies guidance and funding to prevent and intervene on behalf of children who are or at risk of experiencing CSE. Nearly a decade later, with most counties having opted into the program, California is well positioned to evaluate this policy’s implementation and the extent to which the legislation may be influencing desired outcomes for young people. This report contains key findings, promising practices, and recommendations from our evaluation of the state’s CSEC program.

Why This Matters

The commercial sexual exploitation (CSE) of children and young people is a human rights concern and a public health challenge. CSE refers broadly to any activity or crime that involves the sexual abuse and exploitation of a child for monetary or nonmonetary benefit. Over a six-year period, California’s child protection system received roughly 70,000 maltreatment reports alleging CSEC. About a quarter of these reports were substantiated, meaning there was enough evidence to conclude that CSE of a child likely occurred. Research suggests that CSE during childhood can have serious consequences for its survivors, including exposure to violence and other traumatic events, mental health disorders, reproductive health complications, and internalized coping behaviors.

Key Takeaways

• Implementing S. B. 855 has fostered strong interagency collaboration and communication. Interagency collaboration has improved following S. B. 855, and those we spoke with reported positive relationships among agencies engaged in the county’s CSEC response. However, counties would benefit from greater intercounty service coordination.

• Staff and placement shortages exacerbate CSE service challenges. Staff turnover reduces trust between children, families, and county agencies; fragments ongoing training efforts; and chips away at institutional knowledge about CSE. The shortage of placements appropriate for young people experiencing or at risk of CSE came up repeatedly in interviews.

• B. 855 gave child welfare agencies responsibility for caring for this population, but many feel they have inadequate tools to be successful and sometimes feel undermined by other agency priorities. Child welfare staff bear the primary responsibility for the safety and care of these children but expressed concern that their mandates sometimes conflict with other stakeholders. The lack of a shared agenda can undermine interagency collaboration.

• It is challenging to serve young people experiencing CSE who are not formally involved with the child welfare system. Many counties did not have a clear process for serving young people who do not have an open child welfare case, nor a clear understanding of roles and responsibilities for which agency has oversight for these young people.

• The majority of CSE reports are screened in for investigation, but a minority of those investigated are substantiated. Nearly two-thirds of the 70,334 CSE reports made between July 1, 2015, and June 30, 2022, in opted-in counties were screened in for investigation. Among those, one in five were deemed inconclusive and nearly one in four reports were substantiated.

• A minority of young people were in child welfare cases or placements at the time CSE concerns were identified. Among young people with confirmed CSE, 4 percent had some placement history but were not in care when CSE concerns were documented, more than one in nine were in a placement, and nearly 3 percent were absent from placement.

Promising practices

• Assign and consolidate CSE cases to specific frontline workers rather than distributing them throughout the workforce.

• Implement 24/7 dual responses from child welfare and CSE advocates (voluntary nonprofit) when going out for CSE investigations.

• On-staff clinicians and staff dedicated to recovering missing young people may improve county efforts.

• Partnering with outside organizations can be effective in connecting at-risk young people who are not child welfare involved.

• Weighting CSE cases more heavily when calculating caseloads acknowledges that they are more intensive and may protect against burnout.

• Use a trauma-informed court specifically designated to hear CSE cases.

How We Did It

Our evaluation approach for California’s CSEC program consists of two main components: an implementation study and an outcome study.

The implementation study focused on opportunities for continuous quality improvement and cross-system collaboration. We gathered data from annual county program plans and a CSEC program administrator survey. We also conducted key informant interviews with agency and provider staff and focus groups with adults who experienced CSE as minors in a subset of 12 counties.

In the outcome study, we examined child welfare system involvement for young people after S. B. 855’s implementation. We analyzed information recorded in the statewide administrative database to describe the child welfare system experiences of 38,168 young people who met California’s definition of CSEC or were identified as being at heightened risk of experiencing CSE. We studied the identification of CSE, documentation practices, revictimiz

Washington DC: The Urban Institute, 2023. 97p.