University of Kentucky researchers seek to end child sex trafficking
LEXINGTON, Ky. (FOX 56) — In 2021, Kentucky had the nation’s highest child abuse and neglect rate for the third consecutive year, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
A unique program created by a pair of University of Kentucky researchers is aimed at stopping these heinous acts.
Dr. Ginny Sprang is one of the researchers leading this initiative. Sprang is the director of the UK Center on Trauma and Children. She said child sex trafficking (CST) is often the result of other types of problems, such as poverty, parental substance abuse, and drug use.
That’s why Sprang and her research partner, Dr. Ann Coker, created the program CSTOP Now, aimed at training middle school staff when it comes to CST.
Often, because of our own experiences, biases, and lack of knowledge, we fail to act, Sprang said.
CSTOP Now uses the bystander model as a guiding principle and encourages community members to employ the “Five Ds”:
- Disrupting Harmful Attitudes
- Decide
- Direct Intervention
- Delegate
- Document
“We wanted to make sure that we were keeping them in their scope of practice,” Sprang explained. “So we weren’t asking them to be investigators; we weren’t asking them to interview the child because that’s not their skill set. We wanted to put indicators together that they would observe or things they might know.”
Phase one of CSTOP Now included a billboard campaign across 24 Kentucky counties. Phase two has it being employed in roughly 50 different middle schools.
prang said even those who might want to help oftentimes don’t know what to look for when it comes to CST. Some of the most common warning signs include children meeting with people who are significantly older than them or people they have only talked to online. Other red flags might be if the child has been missing from class for a long time or if an older relative is coming to school and restricting who the child can and cannot talk to.
Sprang admits CST is difficult to think about, and often people don’t want to ask the questions they maybe should.
As CSTOP Now is developed, it was designed to not be a one-size-fits-all approach, as every school is different. This way, each teacher knows what to look out for and how to intervene. One way to do this is by giving multiple examples of those previously mentioned warning signs.
So far, Sprang has said there is a complete buy-in to end these crimes.
“We’ve got multiple members of the school saying we need this,” Sprang outlined. “‘We just had this incident. It opened our eyes that this could happen. Please, can you come to our school? We’re working with those schools. Parents are reaching out to us, saying, ‘Please come to our school and do this. I’d like to be able to know that, you know, the people around my child know what to do and are looking out for them with a watchful eye.'”
Sprang noted that there is a learning curve when doing a study that is this complex.
Looking to the future, Sprang is hopeful that they’ll be able to dive deeper into the education aspect for middle school students. They would talk about healthy relationships and give them a better understanding of their bodies and the changes that come at that age.
To learn more about CSTOP Now, you can find information here.
by: Tyler Melito
Posted: Feb 5, 2024 / 07:13 AM EST
Updated: Feb 5, 2024 / 07:13 AM ES