Addressing Racism in the Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking of Black Girls: The Role of Public Health Critical Race Praxis

Author: Cook, Mekeila; Le, PhuongThao & García, Jennifer

Abstract: In the United States and worldwide, the Black Lives Matter movement and the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on communities of color have sparked challenging conversations about the deeply ingrained structural causes of racial disparities in the criminal justice system and other health-related aspects of life in the United States. In the anti–sex trafficking field, the relationship between racial inequity among Black girls and domestic minor sex trafficking (DMST) is largely unexplored. In this article, we define DMST as the commercial sexual exploitation of a minor aged <18 years in the United States.

Keywords: sexual exploitation, child trafficking, structural racism, public health, critical race praxis