Human Trafficking Cases Presenting within Child Advocacy Centers.

Although human trafficking of minors is an increasing concern within the United States, very little information is known about how trafficking cases are processed within child advocacy centers (CACs). The current study addresses this gap in the literature by providing descriptive information about victims, service referrals, and prosecutorial outcomes for human trafficking cases presenting at CACs across a Midwestern state. The data originates from a state-wide study focused on understanding the scope of human trafficking cases. Specifically, the dataset includes 210 youth presenting at CACs over a three-year period of time. In this sample, the typical human trafficking case involved sex trafficking of a self-identified white female victim, with an offender known to the victim. Most child survivors passing through CACs were referred to medical and mental health services, although these service referrals did not greatly differ across at-risk versus substantiated trafficking cases. Overall, the findings suggest that CACs are uniquely positioned to encounter human trafficking cases and provide needed services to trafficking survivors. Finally, recommendations are provided for CACs regarding the intake and identification of trafficking cases more broadly.

Victim or Prostitute? The Classification of Commercial Sex Events Involving Minors in the National Incident-Based Reporting System.

Sex trafficking is recognized as a national problem that inflicts serious harm on its victims, yet, legislative responses to trafficking vary depending on jurisdiction. Federal legislation considers youths who engage in commercial sex acts as trafficking victims. States, however, vary in the evidence required to prove a juvenile is a victim of sex trafficking, as opposed to an offender of prostitution. Using four years of data from the National Incident-Based Reporting System, we compared details of commercial sex incidents involving youths who were identified as trafficking victims or arrested as prostitutes. Beyond legislative differences, comparisons between cases are discussed to illuminate how state law enforcement officials legally classify these events involving adolescents (i.e., as victims or prostitutes). Further, we consider the policy implications of the findings.

Estimating the Prevalence of Human Trafficking in Ohio, 2014-2016.

Objectives. To develop statewide estimates of known victims and individuals at risk of human trafficking in Ohio.Methods. We collected information from 12 state and local sources including child welfare, legal services, and law enforcement data. We collected the data from agency records dating 2013 to 2018. However, the majority of data were from calendar years 2014, 2015, and 2016 (roughly 95% across individual and aggregate sources). We used probabilistic matching to estimate victim and at-risk cases-accounting for duplicates.Results. According to available data, there were 1032 known victims during the study time frame. We identified approximately 4209 at-risk individuals based on youths presenting with common risk factors for trafficking victimization.Conclusions. Estimating the prevalence of human trafficking is an important public health research priority. As the first "cataloging" of existing record systems in Ohio to our knowledge, this study provided a comprehensive overview of the number of victims and the type of information that is available in the state. This study highlights the importance of moving toward the use of epidemiological approaches to measure the prevalence of human trafficking.

Judging veracity impairs eyewitnesses' memory of a perpetrator.

Witnesses to crimes sometimes perform cognitively demanding tasks while simultaneously observing a perpetrator. This division of attentional resources can cause witnesses to remember the perpetrator less accurately. We hypothesised that judging the veracity of a target individual can impair subsequent memory for his or her appearance and message. In Experiment 1, we demonstrated that the veracity judgement task is cognitively demanding by having participants perform a concurrent secondary task. In three additional experiments, we confirmed that witnesses who judged the veracity of a target remembered his or her appearance and message less accurately than witnesses who simply observed the target. We also extended this result by showing that suspicion amplified the memory impairment effect, apparently by inducing witnesses to allocate even more resources to the judgement task (Experiments 2a and b), and that witnesses' memory was less accurate when they used a cue within the message content rather than a nonverbal cue to judge veracity (Experiment 3). Contrary to our prediction, however, witnesses who monitored two cues versus one did not display worse memory performance.

Personality and Adolescent School-Based Victimization: Do the Big Five Matter?

Self-control has provided a useful framework for understanding both offending behavior and victimization risk. As a theory of victimization, research has established that low self-control is directly related to victimization risk beyond a range of other factors. This finding raises the issue of whether other personality traits are associated with an increased risk of victimization. Using a sample of ninth-grade adolescents (N = 2,912) from the Rural Substance Abuse and Violence Project (RSVP), we tested whether the Big Five Inventory (BFI) of personality traits predicted adolescent school-based victimization above and beyond low self-control and rival explanations of victimization. The results indicate that, after controlling for risky behaviors, school attachment, and low self-control, neuroticism is positively related to victimization. This finding suggests that examining traits other than low self-control is important to capture fully what makes someone vulnerable to crime. Further, we consider the theoretical and policy implications of the findings.

Cognitive effects of bilateral high frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation in early phase psychosis: a pilot study.

Cognitive dysfunction is a core facet of schizophrenia that is present early in the course of the illness and contributes to diminished functioning and outcomes. Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is a relatively new neuropsychiatric intervention. Initially used in treatment resistant depression, investigators are now studying rTMS for other psychiatric diseases such as schizophrenia. In this study we examined the effect of high frequency rTMS on cognitive function in a group of individuals with early phase psychosis. Twenty subjects were randomized (1:1) in double-blind fashion to rTMS or sham condition. Over two weeks subjects underwent ten sessions of high frequency, bilateral, sequential rTMS targeting the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). Prior to beginning and following completion of study treatment, subjects completed a cognitive assessment and magnetic resonance imaging. Subjects receiving rTMS, compared to sham treatment, displayed improvement on a standardized cognitive battery both immediately following the course of study treatment and at follow-up two weeks later. Imaging results revealed that left frontal cortical thickness at baseline was correlated with treatment response. The study treatment was found to be safe and well tolerated. These results suggest that rTMS may hold promise for the treatment of cognitive dysfunction in the early phase of psychosis, and that MRI may provide biomarkers predicting response to the treatment.

Continuity and Change in Adolescent Victimization: Examining the Effects of Stable and Dynamic Influences.

After decades of treatment as a fairly distinct topic, recent research on victimization has begun to draw on theoretical approaches previously directed at understanding criminal behavior. The current study expands this research by studying victimization and its relationship to key developmental influences with data from 3,976 adolescents. We first detail the longitudinal process that underlies continuity and change in victimization and then consider the impact of time-stable and time-varying covariates that reflect mechanisms within those explanations. Findings suggest that time-varying markers of risky lifestyle and attachment affect victimization, but also that victimization affects risky behaviors and prosocial ties.