A Review of Sexual Exploitation Risk Factors for Our Children and Ways to Create Positive Classroom and Community Environments

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All families experience some degree of discord. When that discord becomes severe and synergistically mediated by environmental challenges such as low performance and disconnectedness at school, students may experience behavioral and psychosocial risks associated too commonly with highly undesirable outcomes. Among the most dangerous example is that students can become targets of recruiters of prostitution by human traffickers, who are often amazingly adept at exploiting the physiological and psychosocial needs of children and adolescents for nurturance and attachment in numerous ways. Predators can immerse disaffected youth into networks so convoluted that recovery is difficult, if not impossible. Engagement with the juvenile justice system is another undesirable outcome for those youth who disaffiliate from peers, family, and the school community, whether by choice, manipulation, or both. Considering the severity of the potential consequences, it is incumbent upon schools to play an assertive role in promoting resilience, connectedness, and engagement in school community membership and fostering school success.