Abstract: Evidence of Child Welfare System Response to Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children: Administrative Data (Society for Social Work and Research 28th Annual Conference - Recentering & Democratizing Knowledge: The Next 30 Years of Social Work Science)

Schedule:

Saturday, January 13, 2024

Marquis BR Salon 14, ML 2 (Marriott Marquis Washington DC)

* noted as presenting author

Ivy Hammond, MSW, Doctoral Student, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA

Joseph Magruder, PhD, Specialist, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA

Wendy Wiegmann, PhD, Project Director, California Child Welfare Indicators Project, University of California, Berkeley

Daniel Webster, PhD, Principal Investigator, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA

Background: In 2014, the federal Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act (PSTSFA; P.L. 113-183) tasked state child welfare systems (CWS) with identifying and responding to the needs of children and adolescents that have experienced or have a high likelihood of experiencing commercial sexual exploitation (CSE). In addition, the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act of 2015 modified the definition of child maltreatment to include the sex trafficking of minors. In response, California’s 2014 Senate Bill 855 created the Opt-in CSEC Program (SB 855), which provided participating county child welfare agencies with guidance, technical support and flexible funding to facilitate cross-system interventions on behalf of children and families affected by CSE.

Methods: This study used administrative child welfare records from California’s CWS case management database, county-level CSEC program implementation records, and survey responses from 47 county child welfare agencies that received funding through SB 855. We described child welfare system performance outcomes and examined associations between county-level implementation and CWS responses to CSE. Child Protective Services (CPS) reports and CWS client-level case notes were used to identify minors with some documented CSE concern identified by opted-in counties between state fiscal years 2015 and 2021. County characteristics and SB 855 implementation scores were grouped by terciles (low, medium, high). Chi-squared tests were used to identify differences in CSE identification and case openings by implementation.

Results: The magnitude of the detected problem is small: On average, the child population residing in opted-in counties between 2015-2022 totaled about 9.1 million, and 40,389 minors had CSE concerns identified in opted-in counties during that time. Of those identified, 9,366 minors (24.5%) had confirmed CSE victimization. Among all minors with some CWS-identified CSE concern, 16% had a prior closed CWS case, 14.2% had an open case at the time CSE was identified and 19.5% had a case opened after CSE identification. Chi-squared findings revealed significant differences in identification of CSE victimization (p<.001) and case openings (p<.001) by counties’ overall implementation score.

Conclusions and Implications: Findings from this study reveal significant heterogeneity in the identification of CSE victimization and case openings following CSE identification among county-operated child welfare agencies in California. These results likely reflect both potential variation in the incidence of sexual exploitation within specific counties, as well as how effective county CSEC programs are in identifying youth experiencing sexual exploitation. Findings from this analysis will drive continuous quality improvement efforts within California. Further, these findings can inform CSE prevention and intervention efforts in other states with locally-administered child welfare services.