Child trafficking is widely recognized as one of the critical issues of our day, prompting calls to action from the global to local levels. Yet it is unclear whether the strategies and tools used to counter this exploitation have actually reduced the prevalence of trafficking.
In "Preventing Child Trafficking," Jonathan Todres and Angela Diaz explore how the public health field can play a role in preventing, identifying, and responding to child trafficking. Describing the depth and breadth of trafficking's impact on children while exploring the limitations in current responses, Todres and Diaz argue that public health frameworks offer important insights into the problem and strategies for how professionals and organizations can identify and respond effectively to at-risk and trafficked children.
Drawing on the authors' years of experience working on this issue—Diaz is a doctor at a frontline medical center serving at-risk youth and survivors of trafficking; Todres is a legal expert on legislative and policy initiatives to address child trafficking—the book maps out a public health approach to child trafficking and the prospects for building a comprehensive response. Providing readers with advice geared toward better understanding trafficking's root causes, this revelatory book concludes by mapping out a "public health toolkit" that can be used by anyone who is interested in preventing child trafficking, from policymakers to professionals who work with children.