How Common is Sex Trafficking of Youth in Alaska?
No one has been charged criminally with sex trafficking a minor in Alaska at the state, federal, or municipal level since 2009.
Since the beginning of 2014 the State Trooper’s have had a special unit – the Special Crimes Investigative Unit (SCIU) – whose “main purpose” is to locate and rescue juvenile sex trafficking victims. Despite the $578,239 per year spent on the SCIU, they have not located anyone to charge with sex trafficking a minor.
This doesn’t mean that there aren’t minors who are federally defined as sex trafficking victims in Alaska. Under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, any minor who works independently in the sex industry or outside of the sex industry has “survival sex” in exchange for shelter or other survival resources is a sex trafficking victim.
Want to learn more about domestic minor sex trafficking?
A great book to read is Alexandra Lutnick’s Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking.
The Young Women’s Empowerment Project in Chicago is a group of sex trade involved youth in Chicago who have done their own awesome research about their community:
Girls Do What They Have To Do To Survive: Resilience and Resistance
Bad Encounter Line Report
One of the largest studies of the Commercially Sexually Exploited Youth (CSEC) population:
Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Youth in New York City
And a more policy oriented study that explores youth’s reasons for turning to the sex trade:
Surviving the Streets of New York