Screening for Human Trafficking of Minors in Health Care: A Systematic Review

Author: Valadez, Carrie Anne; Munro-Kramer, Michelle & Gibson-Scipio, Wanda

Abstract: Human trafficking is a form of exploitation that has significant consequences to trafficked minors. Many victims have accessed health care during their time of exploitation and are not identified. One of the greatest barriers to identification in health care is the lack of screening tools that are reliable, valid, and practical to workflow. The purpose of this manuscript is to provide a systematic review of current screening instruments for human trafficking including their performance measures and applicability to identifying minors. Forty-five instruments were reviewed in full to assess their applicability of identifying minors in the health care setting who are involved in human trafficking. A majority of the instruments reviewed are not peer reviewed nor have they reported performance measures to ensure accuracy of screening results. Only one instrument was validated and developed for the health care setting. Screening for human trafficking in minors should hold the same emphasis as screening for other types of abuse and maltreatment in health care. This article addresses the U.N. Sustainability Goal 16.2 to End abuse, exploitation, trafficking and all forms of violence against and torture of children. Recognizing and addressing the gaps in current practice such as increasing provider knowledge and working toward the development of valid and reliable screening tools will increase the efforts to identify exploited minors and assist in resource utilization to reduce the sequela from human trafficking.

Keywords: human trafficking, screening, human trafficking of minors, identification