Our understanding of youths’ risk of sex trading (ST) exclusively stems from non-representative studies with high-risk populations (e.g. homeless/runaway youth), which skews our knowledge base (Middleton et al., 2018). The research question that guided this research was “What is the prevalence and associated characteristics of youth who report ST in a representative sample of high school youth?” Data comes from the 2018 Dane County Youth Assessment, a cross-sectional survey administered to 9th–12th grade students across 24 high schools in Wisconsin. All youth who answered the question, “Have you ever had sexual contact in order to stay safe or to get something like a place to stay, money, gifts, alcohol, or drugs?” were included for analysis. Our weighted sample (n=16,895) was mostly White (69.97%), heterosexual (83.07%) and included cisgender male (46.15%), cisgender female (48.18%), and trans (3.21%) youth. Bivariate/logistic regression analyses were conducted. 2.47% (n=416) of youth reported ST. They were more likely to report depression, substance use, job income that supported their family, sex with 2 or more people, out-of-school suspension at least once or two or more times, personal gang involvement, knowing a friend involved in a gang, or identifying as LGBTQ+ (p<0.001). Other statistically significant relationships (p<0.05) included higher rates of foster care involvement, prior STI testing, cutting class, or cis-gender, heterosexual women. Although the causal order of characteristics analyzed in relation to the ST is not known, these findings inform an understanding of potential ST risks and have important implications ST prevention, assessments, and interventions for youth.
Dr. Lara Gerassi (she/her) is an assistant professor at the Sandra Rosenbaum School of Social Work at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an Executive Committee Member of the Global Association of Human Trafficking Scholars. Her work aims to improve the wellbeing of people involved in the sex trades across circumstances.