We depend on foster care to take care of the children whose families do not have the proper resources or stability to do so themselves. In the foster care system, children who are removed from their parents or guardians or surrendered to the state by their parents are placed with foster families or relatives along with a stipend. However, there is often little that the foster care system can do to fully replace the emotional bond that these children have lost due to being separated from their families. As a result, these children are left vulnerable and are greatly susceptible to the psychological manipulation of human traffickers.
According to the National Foster Youth Institute, an estimated 60% of child sex trafficking victims have been a part of the foster care system. Black children and those who identify as LGBTQ+ are at an even higher risk of being trafficked due to the increased probability of them ending up homeless. Nearly 40% of homeless youth identify as LGBTQ+ as opposed to 7% of the general population and 38% of homeless youth identify as black or African American.
How are Foster Children Targeted by Traffickers?
There are several ways in which children who are part of the foster care system can end up being trafficked and exploited. The first process occurs when fostered children run away from their foster families and homes. This can be because they are neglected, abused, or because they feel that their foster homes are an unsafe and hostile environment. Other foster children might run away because they feel misunderstood or unwanted by their foster families. Of the 1.7 million foster care youth who run away each year, around 6,300 of them do not return and many report being sexually assaulted during their time away. Many of the children who do not return to their foster families end up homeless, and are easily lured by human trafficking techniques such as boyfriending and lucrative job prospects.
The second most common way in which foster care youth can end up being trafficked is when they age out of the foster care system. When a child turns 18 or graduates high school, they are considered to be aged out of the foster care system and are now responsible for their own well-being without state assistance. Out of those who age out of the system, at least 22% end up homeless and a third of all homeless teenagers are lured into human trafficking within the first 48 hours of leaving home.
The final most common way in which foster care children are trafficked is through psychological manipulation by a trafficker while they are living with their foster family. Due to past trauma, vulnerability, and a stable support system, many foster care children can be lured by the attention, safety, and friendship that their traffickers offer. During the time that traffickers are talking to their victims, the trafficker will put in any amount of time needed to gain a victim’s loyalty and trust, as one child can potentially make their trafficker up to $600,000 a year. In addition, children in the foster care system are used to their worth being tied to a paycheck and can easily overlook the fact that they are being taken advantage of for personal financial gain.
In a study conducted by senior researchers Brenda Myers-Powell and Jody Raphael from Depaul University, 25 ex-pimps located in the Chicago metropolitan area were interviewed using a 91-question survey. Powell and Raphael found that 24% of the former pimps interviewed were committed to the foster care system as children and 88% of them had experienced physical or sexual abuse as children in their home or foster care placement. Traffickers who target children in the foster care system often look for their victims at group homes, juvenile facilities, homeless shelters, on the streets, and at alternative high schools. In modern times, technology, usually social media, is the easiest way for traffickers to introduce themselves to children seeking attention and stability.
In order to reduce the number of children who are being taken advantage of, youth in foster care, as well as their foster families, must be made aware of the dangers of human trafficking. More programs that focus on the mental health and stability of adolescents must be created in order to counteract the growing number of children who are being trafficked. Only then will we be able to reduce the number of children in foster care who end up exploited or trafficked.
Originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, Chloe is currently a rising sophomore at the University of California, Santa Cruz pursuing a major in Comparative Literature. As someone who loves to read and who is always looking to learn something new, she enjoys writing about and researching topics that allow her to expand her knowledge of the world. In Chloe’s free time, she loves to bake, paint, spend time with friends, and watch her favorite shows.
