Berrien County Trial Court-Family Division Judge Jennifer Smith says, “The children of our communities are vulnerable in so many ways. It is imperative for us to recognize this and to accept that human trafficking is one of the dangers facing children in all of our communities today. It is our duty to create tools to identify those most at risk and put safety nets in place to assist them.”
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| The Berrien County Trial Court's juvenile human trafficking screening process flow. |
The facts make a convincing case:
- Between 1.6 and 2.8 million youth run away each year in the U.S. An “endangered runaway” is a child under 18 years old who has run away from a parent, guardian, or state care facility. (Source: National Center for Missing and Exploited Children).
- One in six U.S. runaways in 2014 were likely victims of child sex trafficking. (Source: National Center for Missing and Exploited Children).
- Lower income, under-served populations, including children in foster care, are at higher risk for being targeted by traffickers. (Source: http://humantraffickingsearch.org).
In Berrien County, we have seen these young victims of trafficking and been able to help. Here is the story of one girl:
“Cindy” (not her real name), age 13, initially came to the attention of our court on a charge of a Minor in Possession of Alcohol. She had previously displayed runaway behaviors and had been placed in an inpatient drug treatment program by her parent. She had a history of mental health issues and taking prescribed psychotropic medications. At age 14 she became involved in a situation where a pizza delivery driver was set up for a robbery in a promised exchange of sex with the adult driver. She had CPS involvement due to allegations of parental substance abuse. When placed in secure detention, she exhibited highly sexualized behavior and speech. She also reported engaging in self-harming behavior (cutting). We subsequently discovered she had been very active on social media and had met an adult male who would pick her up when she would run away, provide her with drugs, and sexually exploit her with other males. The assigned probation officer, community therapist, and detention therapist contacted law enforcement to alert them to her possible sexual victimization. The court subsequently placed this youth into a specialized girls’ residential program.
Berrien’s Juvenile Human Trafficking Screening Protocol: How it Works
To proactively identify possible trafficking victims like Cindy, the Berrien County Trial Court-Family Division developed a Juvenile Human Trafficking Screening Protocol through a partnership with key stakeholders. Our specialized screening tool is administered to all youth at two key intercept points: 1) as part of the initial intake process when a youth is detained at the Berrien County Juvenile Center; and 2) during the pre-disposition interview when a youth is adjudicated on a delinquency petition.
The key to successfully using this tool is early identification of youth who are one bad decision away from danger. As a border county containing a major freeway corridor, we noticed a pattern of youth from other states entering our juvenile justice system who were possible victims of trafficking. We also serve a population of youth who have been solicited online to engage in sexual activity by older adults.
The protocol, which became effective January 1, 2018, consists of the following:
- Screening - Juvenile probation officers and designated Juvenile Center staff screen all youth at key entry points using a specialized juvenile human trafficking screening tool.
- Report - A screening packet is securely e-mailed to the review team that contains results of the screening tool and a general profile report on the youth.
- Review - A designated multidisciplinary review team comprised of representatives from law enforcement agencies, the prosecutor’s office, and the court[1] reviews the screening packet of any youth with concerning scores from the screening tool.
- Action Plan - The review team completes the review within 72 hours and determines a course of action. This could include, but is not limited to, a Children’s Advocacy Center interview; further law enforcement investigation; interview of youth by a specialized FBI agent if needed; and more.
Our screening tool is to be used when conducting face-to-face interviews with youth and initially prompts screeners to ask youth questions such as:
- Do you associate with people older than you? If yes, what age?
- Do you have any social media accounts? If so, what are they?
- Do you meet or have relationships with individuals that you meet online?
- If yes to meeting online, where do you meet and what do you do?
This is followed by a second set of questions that dive more in-depth about specific activity such as:
- Do you have a profile on Craigslist, Tinder, or any other website that is specifically for dating or offering adult services?
- Has anyone ever taken sexual photos of you and/or posted them online? Have you sent these type of photos of yourself at the request of another person?
- Have you ever exchanged sex for food, a place to stay, drugs or alcohol, money, or other things you needed?
Staff using the tool also have observational questions to complete regarding evidence of physical and emotional trauma.
The above chart provides an overview of all screenings conducted during 2018 of youth entering the juvenile justice system in our county. A subset of youth that scored positive for tracking concerns after the initial screening were referred to the review team. Of those youth, a smaller number warranted additional follow-ups that involved forensic interviews by the Children’s Advocacy Center and/or local law enforcement.
Judge Smith commented, “Although many of our flagged cases resulted in a decision of no additional action needed, the importance of assessing new or additional risky behaviors and vulnerabilities for even just one of our juveniles cannot be overstated.”
Moving Forward
Our team supported implementing the following additional initiatives in Berrien County:
- Creating guides for adult trainings and student awareness curriculums;
- Creating a comprehensive resource guide;
- Currently in talks about opening a shelter locally;
- SW Michigan Human Trafficking Task Force Scholarship;
- Leah Roberts Planting Hope Scholarship;
- Soon to be released SOS (Support Our Survivors) White Wine.
Following our team’s attendance at SCAO’s Child Welfare Services: Collaborating to Combat Human Trafficking statewide conference held on January 17, 2019, we developed the following action steps:
- Develop a county-wide protocol in the investigation of human trafficking for law enforcement and service providers, similar to that in place for domestic violence and sexual abuse;
- Arrange trainings for parents/teachers on warning signs for trafficking and a list of trafficking resources;
- Provide training for students, coaches, and teachers on child exploitation/trafficking;
- Expand the “Play It Safe! Program” in schools; and
- Gather data on current runaway children from our county who are not yet formally involved in child welfare or the juvenile justice system.
Resources
In developing our protocol, we collaborated closely with the Southwest Michigan Human Trafficking Task Force and we recommend their training and education resources to any court seeking to implement a similar protocol. Their website is http://swmihumantrafficking.org.
Please feel free to contact me at EGonzale@berriencounty.org if you would like further information about our protocol.
Websites for further information about human trafficking:
https://humantraffickinghotline.org/
https://polarisproject.org/
http://humantraffickingsearch.org/
Mr. Gonzalez has more than 34 years of experience working in the juvenile justice field, including detention facilities, residential treatment, intensive probation services, and management of Probation and Court Services Departments in DuPage County, Illinois, and in Michigan. He has served as a progressive leader in organizational change management in the juvenile justice field by championing evidence-based practices and data-driven decision-making.
[1] The review team members include the assistant prosecuting attorney; FBI Special Agent; Michigan State Police; Berrien County Sheriff Department; Victim/Witness Unit; probation supervisor; Juvenile Center supervisor.