In the last 15 years, terms such as prostitution, sex trafficking, sexual exploitation, modern-day slavery, and sex work have elicited much confusion and debate as to their definitions. Consequently several challenges have emerged for both law enforcement in the prosecution of criminals and practitioners in service provision. This article reviews the state of the literature with regard to domestic, sexual exploitation among women and girls in the United States and seeks to 1 provide definitions and describe the complexity of all terms relating to domestic sexual exploitation of women and girls in the United States, 2 explore available national prevalence data according to the definitions provided, and 3 review the evidence of mental health, social, and structural risk factors at the micro-, mezzo-, and macrolevels.
The Trafficking Victims Protection Act TVPA of defines a sex trafficking victim as a person induced to perform a commercial sex act through force, fraud, or coercion regardless of citizenship or national origin 22 U. Numerous overlapping yet contrasting terms such as sex trafficking, prostitution, survival sex, sexual exploitation, and sex work provide much confusion and many challenges in victim identification, in large part because of the theoretical and philosophical perspectives influencing these concepts.
Recent studies in the United States have focused on understanding the prevalence and risk factors of sexually exploited women and girls, yet there is still a dearth of information to comprehensively serve women and girls. In order to fully understand the complexity and breadth of sexual exploitation, relevant definitions are outlined here. Subsequently it is imperative to explore the different definitions pertaining to domestic sexual exploitation as well as the various criticisms of the terms as they apply.
On October 9, , United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan issued a global bulletin defining and prohibiting sexual exploitation and setting the precedent for the world Annan, On October 28, , U. Congress passed the Trafficking Victims Protection Act TVPA , which would become the first comprehensive federal law to address trafficking in persons in the United States, and it has been reauthorized four times , , , ; Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, In its simplest form, the law indicates that this crime occurs when an adult is induced by force, fraud, or coercion to perform a sex act for money or anything of financial value Human Trafficking, n.
A delineation was made to describe severe forms of trafficking, which occur when a sex trafficking in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such act has not attained 18 years of age; or b the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery 22 U.
