Penn Law’s Hannah Elias Sbaity recently co-published a paper in the Mitchell Hamline Law Journal of Public Policy and Practice looking at the effectiveness of Treatment Courts for survivors of the Commercial and Sexual Exploitation of Children (CSEC). 

Human trafficking is a $150B business worldwide with 70% of women first exploited under the age of 18. One-third of all cases in the United States involve minors and most are U.S. citizens. Most young women involved in human trafficking have had a life experience that has made their daily life more difficult, be that poverty, homelessness, substance abuse or familial factors. Children who identify as LGBTQIA and children of color are also more likely to be victims of human trafficking.

Sbaity, with Emma Hetherington and Allison Dunnigan, looked at CSEC treatment courts to determine if they provide a way to treat survivors and empower them to leave the cycle of abuse many of these women are in and struggle to leave.

The article entitled “CSEC Treatment Courts: An Opportunity for Positive, Trauma-Informed, and Therapeutic System Responses in Family and Juvenile Courts” can be found here via the link below.

https://open.mitchellhamline.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1068&context=policypractice