The Problem

pexels-iamikeee-3304341

Confronting Commercial Sexual Exploitation in Healthcare

Commercial sexual exploitation is a growing health crisis in America. Every day, victims enter hospital emergency departments but are not recognized as such and thus are not given the help they desperately need.

Asking “Are you safe in your home?” is not enough

  • In 2004, The Joint Commission implemented Standard PC 01.02.09, which mandated healthcare organizations utilize written criteria to identify possible victims of various forms of abuse and neglect. The resulting industry standard became the query, “Are you safe in your home?”
  • The number of abuse victims largely stabilized around 2003 (until 2020, when lockdowns caused a spike), whereas the number of human trafficking victims continues to rise annually.
  • Asking, “Are you safe in your home?” has yielded no measurable impact on identifying either intimate partner violence or human sex trafficking victims.
  • Despite widespread efforts through new legislation and educational initiatives, the count of human trafficking victims persistently grows.
  • At least 88% of human trafficking victims receive healthcare at some point during their exploitation but are not correctly identified.
  • Victims of human sex trafficking report feeling judged by healthcare personnel, making them hesitant to seek necessary medical care.
  • Factors like trauma bonds, substance abuse, fear, and shame contribute to a victim's difficulty in leaving their abuser or disclosing their exploitation.
  • Nurses frequently report insufficient training concerning human trafficking identification, and many acknowledge holding a negative bias toward individuals involved in prostitution, failing to recognize that these individuals may have been trafficked.
68fbad663a92b_pexels-didsss-1871342
20251021_192308 (60363edf-a621-4006-88ed-2cdb7d355382)

Closing the Critical Gap

Traditional assessment methods have failed to adequately identify these individuals, leaving countless victims trapped in cycles of abuse. We understand that healthcare professionals face an impossible challenge: how do you identify a victim of commercial sexual exploitation when conventional question-based assessments fall short? The Scarlet Scale addresses this critical gap with our objective identification tools.

Healthcare professional consulting with a female patient.

Human Sex Trafficking 101

Sex trafficking is defined by the United States as the “recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, obtaining, patronizing, or soliciting of a person for the purpose of any commercial sex act where such act in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion” or when the person is under the age of 18 years.

  • A commercial sex act is defined as any sex act where goods of value are exchanged for sex, including money, drugs, food, or shelter.
  • All statistics regarding human trafficking are estimates, as victims nor perpetrators self-disclose.
  • Every year, approximately 4.5 million people become victims of forced sex trafficking.
  • Human trafficking is a $236 billion annual criminal enterprise.
  • The sex trafficking industry globally exceeds the worldwide cocaine market—you can only sell a drug once, but you can sell a human being over and over again.
  • Sex trafficking is the most common type of trafficking in the U.S.
  • The U.S. is the most common destination for sex trafficking victims.
  • The average age of entering prostitution is 13. There is no such thing as a “child prostitute”, as all minors involved in commercial sex acts meet the definition of a human sex trafficking victim.

Our Assessment Solutions

The Scarlet Scale provides quantifiable metrics crucial for identifying and addressing commercial sexual exploitation. See how we are revolutionizing commercial sexual exploitation identification.