When Your Client is a Survivor of Sex Trafficking

This interview starts with Prof. Emma Hetherington explaining why she thinks a huge barrier to effectively serving HT/CSEC populations is that stakeholders don’t fully understand what trafficking is. In this powerful podcast, Prof. Hetherington, from the Wilbanks Child Endangerment and Sexual Exploitation Clinic at University of Georgia School of Law (CEASE Clinic), reveals how children’s circumstances and behaviors need to be examined differently when exploitation and trafficking issues are involved. She discusses tips for attorneys representing HT/CSEC survivors, screening tools, the harm reduction approach, and how to build trust with youth. We hope you learn as much as we did! Here are the resources referenced in the podcast: Red Flags of CSEC and Child Trafficking, New York State Office of Children and Family Services: https://ocfs.ny.gov/programs/human-trafficking/assets/docs/red-flags-of-CSEC-and-child-trafficking.pdf Trust-Based Relational Intervention: https://child.tcu.edu/blog-tbri-ffpsa/#sthash.c5E1aPKh.dpbs For a deep dive, check out these resources: How can the child welfare system protect young people from commercial sexual exploitation?, Casey Family Programs Strategy Brief (November 2022): https://www.casey.org/media/22.07-QFF-SC-CSEC-update.pdf Child Sex Trafficking Warning Signs, Shared Hope International: http://sharedhope.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/General-Warning-Signs.pdf Summary of Screening Tools: https://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/documents/opre/IAHT%20Screening%20Brief%204.22.pdf Criminalized Survivors: Today’s Abuse to Prison Pipeline for Girls (April 2023): https://genderjusticeandopportunity.georgetown.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Criminalized-Survivors_Georgetown-Gender-Justice.pdf Sexual Abuse to Prison Pipeline: The Girls’ Story (2020): https://genderjusticeandopportunity.georgetown.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/The-Sexual-Abuse-To-Prison-Pipeline-The-Girls%E2%80%99-Story.pdf Harm Reduction Series Introduction, California Child Trafficking Response Unit (2018): https://www.courts.ca.gov/documents/BTB25-3E-01.pdf Harm Reduction Series Caregiver, California Child Trafficking Response Unit (2022): https://file.lacounty.gov/SDSInter/lac/1125790_CaregiverHarmReductionI-31_22.pdf