Rethinking primary prevention of child trafficking: Recommendations from the Human Trafficking Task Force of the Global Alliance for Behavioral Health and Social Justice

Author: Jaffe, G.; Sullivan, M.; Angelo-Rocha, M.; Cafaro, C.; Crisp, J. & Merriweather, T.

Abstract: Child trafficking is one of the most egregious violations of children’s rights and well-being. In 2014, the Global Alliance for Behavioral Health and Social Justice formed a task force to focus on the issue. After completing two comprehensive reviews and consultations with experts in the field, the task force identified the need for a coherent framework, which conceptualized the primary prevention of child trafficking, which includes children vulnerable to being trafficked and becoming traffickers. This article describes the process undertaken to develop the primary prevention framework, an innovative, aspirational plan for communities to be absent of trafficking. It describes the framework in detail, including the theories that underlie it and the principles that guide it. The framework’s flexibility is evident in its application to such worldwide challenges as racism, inequities, and a pandemic. Although the full consequences of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on children are not yet known, this article describes certain trends, which have been identified and discusses critical lessons for applying a dynamic framework, as global disruptors will continue. The article ends with examples of how the framework could be implemented by all stakeholders in the community, to address the primary prevention of child trafficking in both the physical and the virtual world.

Keywords: human trafficking, child trafficking, primary prevention, recommendations