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Which comes first: Sexual exploitation or other risk exposures among street-involved youth?

Which comes first: Sexual exploitation or other risk exposures among street-involved youth?. Dr. Elizabeth Saewyc UBC School of Nursing Vancouver. Co-authors and Funding Acknowledgments. Dr. Laura MacKay Dr. Angela Henderson Dr. Maya Peled Melissa Northcott Funded by CIHR’s

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Which comes first: Sexual exploitation or other risk exposures among street-involved youth?

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  1. Which comes first: Sexual exploitation or other risk exposures among street-involved youth? Dr. Elizabeth Saewyc UBC School of Nursing Vancouver

  2. Co-authors and Funding Acknowledgments • Dr. Laura MacKay • Dr. Angela Henderson • Dr. Maya Peled • Melissa Northcott • Funded by CIHR’s • Institute for Population & Public Health • Institute of Gender & Health • Office of Ethics

  3. Street-involvement • Creates health challenges for youth • Risk-laden environments • Unstable housing • Alcohol and drugs • Violence • Infectious disease • Erratic access to basic necessities • Sexual exploitation / survival sex

  4. What is sexual exploitation? • In BC, occurs when youth under age 19 trade sexual activities with adults in exchange for resources such as money, drugs, food, shelter, gifts, transportation or other material considerations • Illegal to exploit, regardless of presumed or explicit consent

  5. But what comes first? • Sexual exploitation due to risk exposures once on the street? or • Sexual exploitation leads to other risks afterwards?

  6. Purpose • Timing of patterns of risk behaviours among sexually exploited youth in British Columbia • Suggestions for points of intervention to prevent exploitation

  7. Methods • 3 surveys of street-involved youth in cities across BC (all regions) • SY 2000: 12-19 y.o., n=523 • SY 2001: 18-25 y.o. Vancouver only, n=180 • SY 2006: 12-18 y.o., n=762 • Participatory epidemiology approach

  8. Methods • Pencil and paper surveys, read aloud • Questions assessed various life experiences, risk behaviours • Included age of first experience, i.e., age first tried marijuana

  9. Analyses • Timing of exploitation calculated as: • Prior to other risk behaviour • Same year as other risk • After other risk • Analyses separately by gender with cross-tabulations with 2 to test gender differences

  10. Results

  11. Results • In all surveys, both risk exposures and sexual exploitation occur at young ages: • Exploitation, 14 to 15 years on average • Alcohol & marijuana use, 12 to 13 years • Running away and being kicked out, 13 years • Majority experienced other risks first • 10-30% other risks, exploited same year • Few gender differences

  12. Leaving home: Kicked out (SY 2006 data Only)

  13. Leaving home: Running away

  14. Street involvement

  15. Alcohol use

  16. Marijuana use

  17. What does this tell us? • For most youth, sexual exploitation occurs • once street-involved • after leaving home, and • after exposure to alcohol and drugs • All of these exposures happened very early for most youth

  18. What can we do? • Intervening early in the cycle of leaving home, working with families • Services for younger teens with patterns of running away, those newly on the street

  19. Thank you! For pdf copy of report: saewyc@interchange.ubc.ca

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