Human Trafficking of Children in Illinois: Prevalence and Characteristics of Children Who Come to the Attention of Child Protective Services

Background & Purpose:          The Preventing Sexual Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act (P.L. 113-183) was signed into law on September 29, 2014. This law requires child welfare agencies to develop policies and procedures to identify, document and determine appropriate services for victims of human trafficking in and out of foster care. The study we present uses administrative data from the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (IDCFS) to describe the prevalence and characteristics of children who have been referred to child protective services (CPS) for allegations of human trafficking of a child. In 2010, Illinois became one of the first states to pass comprehensive legislation to address the human trafficking of children under the age of 18. Under the Illinois Safe Children Act, children who are coerced into prostitution are immune from criminal prosecution and are diverted to CPS instead of the criminal justice system. The newly amended ‘Human Tracking of a Child’ allegation provides an early opportunity to describe prevalence and characteristics of children who come to the attention of CPS given how little is known.

 Method: This study uses administrative data from the IDCFS. We specifically rely on de-identified administrative data from the Child Abuse and Neglect Tracking System (CANTS) for child abuse and neglect investigations and the Child and Youth Centered Information Systems (CYCIS) for child welfare services. The study population includes all children with an allegation of abuse or neglect from FY 2012 to 2014. First, descriptive statistics are used to describe the percentage of human trafficking allegations. Next, descriptive statistics are used to describe cases with a human trafficking allegation. Finally, we describe case characteristics of children with an allegation(s) of human trafficking.

Findings: Between FY 2012 and FY 2014, there were 409,473 investigated allegations of maltreatment. Compared with neglect (38%), risk of harm (32%), and physical abuse (23%), allegations of human trafficking of a child represent a tiny fraction of all allegations of maltreatment (335 allegations; 0%). Among the 227,709 children who came to the attention of child protective services in FY 2012 to 2014, there were 252 children with an allegation of human trafficking (0.1%) compared with 48% of children with an allegation of neglect, 48% of children with an allegation of risk of harm and 34% of children with an allegation of physical abuse. Of these 252 children, the majority were female (92%) and 12 years or older (90%).

Implications    Allegations of human trafficking of a child are relatively rare when compared with other types of maltreatment allegations. This low rate differs from annual estimates in the state (Kyckelhan et al., 2009). The data do not specify reasons for the low frequency of allegations though a few speculations are offered. Cases may be unobserved due to a lack of understanding about how human trafficking manifests. Cases may also be misidentified due to existing procedures.