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Identifying Resiliency Factors In Commercially Sexually Exploited And Trafficked Youth: A Qualitative Study, Pamela Gutherie

Selected Full Text Dissertations, 2011-

Although exact numbers are unknown, the largest prevalence study to date has estimated that between 1999-2000 alone a minimum of 244,000 children were at risk for being commercially sexually exploited in the United States, a number based on findings that approximately 70% of street youth and 30% of shelter youth engage in survival sex (Estes & Weiner, 2001). The consequences of commercial sexual exploitation can be devastating and range from mental and physical health problems, substance abuse, physical and sexual violence to death (Kramer & Berg, 2003). While some risk factors have been identified, with childhood sexual abuse being the …