Recent studies (Lederer & Wetzel, 2014) reveal near 88% of trafficked victims are examined in a healthcare facility while in servitude. Several researchers (Becker & Bechtel, 2015; Shandro et al., 2016; Gibbons & Stoklosa, 2016; Mumma et al., 2017) identified the following health issues occurring to trafficked victims: physical injuries, infections particularly urinary tract, head trauma, untreated chronic health conditions, diseases from unsanitary housing and dirty needles, substance abuse, sexually transmitted diseases, OB/GYN issues, and psychosocial distress. Unfortunately, only a limited number of victims are identified even though health professionals, especially nurses (currently 3.8 million), have the opportunity to assess the victims in a private and safe examination environment. A three-contact hour continuing education course on human trafficking, including recommendations from the Florida Board of Nursing and Sevens & Berishaj (2016), was developed and piloted by twelve nurses. From the initiation of the human trafficking course in July 2018, 1,250 nurses participated in the course. A pre-and post-test using Survey Monkey regarding confidence in assessing patients for signs and symptoms of trafficking was added to the course. Data were collected until 100 participants had completed the surveys. A 3 to 6 months post course Survey Monkey questionnaire about applying the information from the course in the clinical area was carried out and is ongoing. Data analysis demonstrated a pre-course knowledge base deficit with a post course significant increase in knowledge and desire for action (Lawrence, 2010). When trafficked victims come into emergency departments, urgent care clinics, and doctors’ offices, a nurse is there. This talk includes a discussion about collaborating with nurses and nursing organizations to identify and assist trafficked victims.

Presentation Objectives:

· Describe the knowledge base of nurses before and after a human trafficking continuing education course

· Discuss how confident nurses are after taking a human trafficking continuing education course

· Describe how nurses assess for trafficked victims in their clinical practice area after taking a continuing education course

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The U.S. Victims of Trafficking and Violence Prevention Act requires the U.S. government to evaluate other countries' anti-trafficking policies and impose economic sanctions on those countries which are not making significant efforts. Sanctions have been controversial, with some scholars arguing that they are counter-productive (e.g., Chuang 2006). Until now, no scholar has tested whether the threat of sanctions has encouraged desired policy outcomes. This study asks: Has the threat of U.S. sanctions promoted anti-trafficking policies? To overcome selection bias, the researcher first models whether a country eligible for sanctions is, in fact, sanctioned, and then estimates the credibility of the threat of sanctions for other countries in danger of becoming sanctionable. Survival analysis is used to estimate the influence of the threat of sanctions on the time to the introduction of six anti-trafficking policies: criminalization, any revision to the trafficking legal regime, first institutionalization of an intersectoral coordinating body, initiation of a national action plan, formalization of a National Referral Mechanism, and institutionalization of a victim reflection period. The analysis controls for the influence of reputational concerns, the actual imposition of sanctions, and many other factors. Findings indicate that the threat of sanctions has promoted criminalization, intersectoral coordinating bodies, and national action plans, but not other legal change or victim protection policies. In general, countries which have lower sanctions credibility are more likely to introduce the desired policy, suggesting that uncertainty is encouraging policy change. The presentation concludes with recommendations for further research, policy advocacy, and for the conduct of U.S. diplomacy.

Presentation Objectives:

· Provide an overview of the study (existing literature, research question, method, and findings)

· Discuss implications for policy advocacy and U.S. diplomacy

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Enacted in 2015, the Modern Slavery Act (MSA) is the United Kingdom’s response to ending modern slavery on a global scale. But how did it come to be? And what does the history of anti-trafficking law in the UK tell us about how the MSA is implemented today? Going back to the movement against white slavery in late nineteenth century London, this presentation will examine how anti-trafficking policies have shifted over time to produce tactics, such as border monitoring, employed in the MSA (Lammasniemi, 2017). First called white slavery, a phrase used by early campaigns to refer to young women forced into prostitution (Faulkner 2018; Knepper 2010), trafficking individuals has been a crime that both defies and defines international borders. This project uses discourse analysis and archival research to study how these early conceptions of human trafficking influence the MSA today. By examining the archives of the National Vigilance Association (NVA), a social reform group dedicated to ending white slavery, the presenter has found that race and gender were used to personify victims and perpetrators alongside personal accounts (Attwood 2015; Kempadoo 2015; Laite 2017). This encouraged the NVA to call for increased immigration monitoring networks and stricter border control. Now a bedrock of UK anti-trafficking policy, these approaches to curb trafficking often recycle – knowingly or not – white slavery discourse. Although this work focuses on the UK, fears over white slavery spread to the U.S. These discussions are relevant to all those working against human trafficking globally because it challenges today’s assumptions about survivors and perpetrators using a historic lens.

Presentation Objectives:

· Introduce the history of white slavery panics in the UK and U.S. to the audience

· Demonstrate how early formations of victims or perpetrators are racialized and gendered

· Discuss how these conceptions might influence policy today, like the UK Modern Slavery Act of 2015

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The phrase "Nothing About Us Without Us" has become a rallying cry for the inclusion of marginalized communities in research, programming, and dissemination. While this tenant is fundamental, it poses challenges when engaging with vulnerable populations. In their work with the coalition, the presenters create opportunities for people with lived experience to hold compensated professional roles without the expectation that the individuals disclose lived experience or the details of that experience. While this may sound obvious, it is not a blanket approach. We often see the concept of lived experience used to provide legitimacy and value. Moreover, that value is usually derived from trauma porn or the expectation that having lived experience means sharing that experience with others freely and often. This approach contributes to an emerging dichotomy of "professionals" vs "people with lived experience" as if they are not one-in-the-same. All this begs the question: How do we ethically navigate engaging people with lived experience in the work? In this presentation, the presenters will explore the ethical challenges of engaging people with lived experience, the importance of ensuring those who do engage in the work feel valued beyond their lived experience, and how to provide support and recognition of the work done by experiential voices without requiring disclosure. They will do this by drawing on their work with the Empowering Voices of LiVed Experience (EVOLVE) program for survivor leadership and the coalition. Attendees will reflect on the ethics underlying how they engage people with lived experience.

Presentation Objectives:

· Discuss the importance of engaging people with lived experience as experts in sexual exploitation

· Explore the ethical tensions that are inherent in engaging experiential voices without expecting discloser or identification

· Explain how the presenters navigate these tensions within their program and the challenges they continue to face

· Offer recommendations for more ethical engagement and provide space for reflection

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Education is a vital dimension of the human trafficking prevention toolkit. Many of the highest-risk sex-trafficked populations are school-age youth (U.S. Department of State, 2019). Among these youth, Black girls are disproportionately vulnerable to sex trafficking. This is attributable to the complex trauma experienced because of systemic racism and a legacy of colonial body politics. The modern fetishization of Black bodies is a product of European colonial expansion. The hypersexual scripting of the Black body helps explain why sex trafficking impacts Black girls at higher rates than other groups. The notion of sex-trafficked Black girls as a victimless crime stems from these historical narratives where these girls are perceived as sexually promiscuous and incorrigible (Phillips, 2015; Morris, 2015). Data reveals that when sex trafficked Black girls are identified, the criminal justice system treats them more harshly (Phillips, 2015). These same racial and sexual stereotypes have created a culture of punishment within schools, wherein youth of color are more likely to experience exclusionary discipline in comparison to their White counterparts. Presenters connect the disproportionate impact of sex trafficking to reporting barriers and the often harsher, exclusionary discipline and punitive treatment of Black girls experienced in the K-12 setting. This presentation calls attention to the pivotal role educators and educational leaders can play in identifying and preventing the exploitation of Black girls.

Presentation Objectives:

· Discuss the history of racism in the U.S. as it relates to the hyper-sexualization of the Black body

· Note how racial disparities heighten the risk of sex trafficking among Black girls

· Discuss how trauma and generational trauma impacts sex-trafficked youth

· Highlight the role of schools as it relates to mandated reporting and what educators and school leaders can do to help identify and protect sex trafficked Black girls

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Too often, well-meaning care providers participate in a system that re-traumatizes survivors of childhood abuse and interpersonal violence (Elliot, Bjelajac, Fallot, Markoff, & Reed, 2005). Providers often misunderstand the presentation of trauma, misattribute behaviors to apathy or defiance, and focus disproportionate attention on the choices of domestic minor sex trafficking (DMST) victims instead of on oppressive social structures and practice standards that recreate their harm. DMST victims’ responses to their trauma, like cursing and insulting, can cause significant discomfort for providers, who respond in ways that echo the autonomy-limiting, dignity-denying patterns DMST survivors have learned to avoid. As social workers who observed our DMST survivors’ interactions with countless providers, we propose a relationship-based lens for applying trauma informed care. A relationship-based lens examines the provider’s relationship with their clients, and their relationship to the social obstacles that trap clients before, during, and after their exploitation. Specifically, we recommend leaning into one’s discomfort to better understand DMST survivor needs, applying specific interpretive and communication skills when a survivor’s cursing and trauma-informed behaviors escalate. Through active listening and consistent expression of regard, providers can more effectively recognize client-centered narratives and model new, healthier relationships which survivors can reference during their recovery. This presentation will assist providers who want to develop and apply skills to understand DMST’s client-centered narratives can help victims overcome their hesitancy to engage and begin to build trust, possibly for the first time.

Presentation Objectives:

· Educate attendees about how DMST survivors and victims present for care, given their exposure to compounding traumas

· Invite providers to identify their internal biases that can hamper client recovery

· Provide specific clinical tools to help providers engage appropriately and effectively with domestic minor sex trafficking survivors and victims

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Over the past 20 years, there has been increased attention on the involvement of strangulation within interpersonal violence and sexual violence situations from law enforcement and medical professionals as the prevalence, lethality, and near invisibility of the evidence has emerged. Little research has been done to explore the use of strangulation by sex traffickers. From a nine-year study of 725 police records in Las Vegas, 118 (16.3%) reported experiencing strangulation during their sex trafficking victimization. Non-fatal strangulation was more often reported by adult victims when compared to minor victims. Victims who reported non-fatal strangulation were more likely reported along with experiencing kidnapping, their sex trafficker had a weapon, and were more likely to report having been recruited through romance. The implications of this study are critically important to how society views sex trafficking victims and their forced criminal behavior.

Presentation Objectives:

· Provide an overview of non-fatal strangulation in interpersonal violence relationships

· Provide an overview of the study, including research questions, methodology, and findings

· Discuss how this information can be used by practitioners, law enforcement, and prosecutors

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For survivors working to regain a life post trafficking and learn ways to help their mind heal from trauma, bodily healing is just as important. It's not only good mental health practices, but also physically restorative practices that will bring survivors from surviving to thriving. This session will teach participants the positive impacts of fitness and wellness programming for survivors of trafficking. They will learn about approachable activities well suited for survivors to take part in, ways to encourage others to pursue activity to bolster their healing journey, about trauma informed fitness instruction, and helping survivors find their “fit.”

Presentation Objectives:

· Offer compelling and meaningful messaging to survivors and service providers, encouraging them to pursue health and wellness activities

· Discuss wellness activities that are appropriate, effective, and sustainable for survivors

· Identify qualities of an affective instructor and ways to help the instructor be trauma informed in their role

· Address vicarious trauma/self-care for providers

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