Researchers are releasing a study Tuesday, outlining evidence of 161 sex trafficking victims in Arizona’s juvenile justice system.
The study comes from the Office of Sex Trafficking Intervention Research at ASU’s School of Social Work. Researchers say they identified 161 child trafficking victims in the state juvenile court system, and that they got detailed information about 37 of them.
In a statement, Arizona Supreme Court Chief Justice Rebecca White Berch said the findings are a call to action, and that, “we must learn more about how to identify victims of this epidemic and how to stop this scourge from spreading.”
Minor victims of sex trafficking as defined by are researchers were coerced or forced into a sex act for money, drugs, or shelter. The survey found that, on average, the minors said they were first trafficked at the age of 13.