This exploratory study focuses on answering the following research questions: How can college communities catalyze interventions in potential situations of sexual violence? What do bystander intervention behaviors and programs look like across diverse college communities? Data was collected through key informant interviews with professionals in the field of sexual violence prevention, preferably holding positions in universities of participating countries and through student focus groups. The following countries participated in this study: Ireland, Spain, Tanzania, Australia and New Zealand. The study requests for increased international collaboration between partners across the globe in order to improve bystander intervention programs within universities. In addition, the study provides guidance for future research surrounding bystander intervention.

PACS AmeriCorps is a partnership program between AmeriCorps and the Maricopa County Superior Court. The program provides grant funding to staff the Court's Law Library Resource Centers with AmeriCorps members. These members provide self-represented litigants with assistance in a variety of areas, including with court forms, protective orders, and general court information and navigation. Their work is critical in providing access to justice for some of Maricopa County's most vulnerable residents who are navigating both a complex judicial system and, often, a difficult and emotional time in their personal lives. Now in its third grant year, the program has grown significantly in size and scope, and this growth underscored the need for a physical training and reference manual for the incoming class of members. The main undertaking of this project was to create such a manual. For this project, members of the 2016-2017 PACS AmeriCorps program were surveyed about their experiences with both their training and learning on the job. Members identified the strengths and weaknesses of past training sessions and provided ideas for future ones. The results of this survey were then incorporated into the development of a comprehensive training and reference manual that was utilized during training sessions for the 2017-2018 class of members on September 25th and 26th, 2017. After several weeks, a post-survey similar to the pre-survey was administered to the new class of members, and their answers were analyzed and compared to the feedback from 2016-2017. The results of the survey showed an increase in on-the-job confidence and overall satisfaction with training after the addition of the training manual, although some members noted aspects in need of development. Based on the results of the survey, ideas for further improvement in subsequent years were identified.

Sex trafficking in the United States is an enormous illegal underground business economy that involves the sexual exploitation of many persons. Due to the large nature of the sex trafficking business and the many different types of sex trafficking, it is helpful for social workers, government agencies, and activists to understand the intricacies of the various types of sex trafficking. This research focused on determining the human resources business structures behind pimp businesses that relied on mental coercion of the victim. The data source used, Pimpfeet.com—an online pimp authored blog—provided data from actual pimps on their business practices that were analyzed to determine trends in recruitment and retention. These trends were compared to human resource management theories from business literature to determine to what extent, or if at all, a pimp’s business recruited and retained workers in a way that was similar to how a legal business would, according to human resources strategies. The data extracted from Pimpfeet.com and used in this study consisted of 69 pimp quotes that were put into three recruitment categories and five retention categories based on human resource management literature in order to see which categories were used for recruitment and retention by pimps. This study found that pimp recruitment and retention followed, to some extent, the same models described in the human resource management literature, with slight modifications. This study showed that job embeddedness theory (Holtom, Mitchel and Lee, 2009) was able to explain much of why sex trafficking victims are retained so well by pimps since they are so embedded in the prostitution lifestyle. These findings show the different business techniques that pimps use for recruitment and retention of sex workers and are useful for understanding how a social worker, government entity or an activist can combat these forces to help remove victims from a pimp’s control, or keep victims from getting recruited in the first place. Further areas of research related to this topic were suggested.

Sex trafficking is an issue that is prevalent in the United States, including in Arizona. The Catholic Charities Diversion Program in Phoenix seeks to rehabilitate women who were involved in prostitution. The aim of this paper was to treat Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) through three different techniques, which will be given in the format of workshops. Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT), Dance Movement Therapy (DMT), and yoga and meditation are the three types of stress reduction techniques that have been studied in previous papers and will be used for sex-trafficked victims. It is important to combat stress and find stress reducing techniques to improve health and quality of life in an individual. This specific section of the study focuses on yoga and meditation therapy and how it helps to reduce stress. The results showed that all three techniques, including yoga and meditation, reduced levels of stress significantly, thereby giving them a tool to use on their own to improve their health, and that they can be further tested in a longitudinal study to examine the reduction of PTSD symptoms over time.

Sex trafficking is an issue that is prevalent in the United States, including in Arizona. The Catholic Charities Diversion Program in Phoenix seeks to rehabilitate adults who have been involved in prostitution. The aim of this paper was to test three pilot interventions to address stress experienced by the program clients through three different techniques that were given in workshop format. Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT), Dance Movement Therapy, and yoga and meditation are the three types of stress reduction techniques that have been studied in previous research and were pilot tested with adult sex trafficking victims. The results of the pilot studies and all three techniques reduced levels of stress significantly, and they warrant future testing.

According to the 2010 Trafficking in Persons report produced by the United States government, over 6.8 million women and children across the globe were forced into labor or into the sex trade. The Philippines was recently promoted to Tier 2 in the summer of 2011 as mandated by the United States Trafficking Victims' Protection Act after being on the Tier 2 Watch List in 2009-2010. Being on the Tier 2 Watch List means that the Philippine government did not enforce laws that combat human trafficking in 2009-2011. It was speculated that the country had the potential to be demoted to Tier 3. In 2011, they were still having problems in this area, but the Philippine government is making significant efforts to prevent human trafficking. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate forced labor and sex trafficking among Filipino women in the Philippines. The paper seeks to educate the collegiate audience on this subject and aims to inspire conversation and action. Through the course of the research study, three prominent themes emerged that could be the major contributing factors that make Filipino women vulnerable to trafficking. They are as follows: (1) the Philipine government's corruption/lackadaisical effort to fight trafficking, (2) economic factors, whereas a majority of cities and regions in the Philippines have a high percentage of people living in poverty, on top of an unwillingness to hire women in the fields other than the service sector, and (3) familial and cultural norms with their strong emphasis on stereotypical sex roles can be perceived as discrimination at birth which in turn, contributes to the victimization of the Filipina. This thesis also investigates the tactics of traffickers, how the traffic Filipinas and examines why Filipinas cannot or will not escape.

The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (2014) estimated that one in six runaways were likely to be victims of sex trafficking. Nearly 88% of trafficking survivors reported having some kind of contact with the health care system while they were trafficked (Lederer & Wetzel, 2014). In this study, the Office of Sex Trafficking Intervention Research at Arizona State University is attempting to determine the knowledge medical students and healthcare professionals have on identification of a sex trafficking victim and methods of reporting these situations within their organizations. To explore the knowledge providers and students have on sex trafficking victim identification as well as reporting protocols, our office sent out an online, anonymous survey to current medical students and healthcare professionals in the United States. The survey results will assist in the development of a training curriculum addressing the identification of sex trafficking victims within a medical setting and how to report within organizations. The anticipated outcome of this study was that medical students and healthcare professionals have not had training or continuing education on identifying a potential sex trafficking victim.

The investigation of sex trafficking and prostitution related offenses are primarily handled by local police. Despite this, state and city level responses vary widely. This paper will examine the local law enforcement response in 11 geographically diverse police departments, focusing on their operational policies, investigative priorities, community connectedness, and the impact of the local economy on investigations. Implications for further research and policy recommendations will be given.

Sex trafficking is a problem in Arizona that affects both minors and adults. There are hundreds of people who have the desire to counter trafficking in Arizona, and out of that desire numerous organizations have been created. While this can be beneficial to the cause, it can also become a hindrance by diluting resources and creating an atmosphere of competitiveness between organizations. The Inter-Faith Sex Trafficking Summit was an attempt to build unity and community between these organizations and to raise awareness of existing groups to those who are newly involved. Attendees represented over 108 different agencies, organizations, and faiths. Throughout the day, speakers shared their experiences and expertise on the results of collaborative efforts to promote change in community awareness, legislation, and service provision. Themes emerged including \u2014 1) no one can do this alone; we are stronger together, 2) regardless of our affiliation or theology we are on the same team and need to work as a team, and 3) the bad guys are strategic; we have to be strategic, too. Since the summit was held, numerous individuals have set up meetings to continue to discuss how they can work together. An attendee directory has been circulated, and a blog, Inter-faith Strategy to Stop Trafficking has been created to enhance connectivity. An exit survey reveals that the majority of attendees are interested in pursuing more opportunity for connecting and building a stronger alliance as well as discovering ways to become more strategic.

This study was conducted to look at the possible effects of art intervention on anxiety levels of homeless young adults in a local drop-in shelter. While there is a fair amount of literature on art intervention and its applicability with vulnerable populations, its specific effect on anxiety has not been extensively examined. Researchers conducted two art interventions where state-trait anxiety (STAI Inventory) was measured before and after the interventions. Researchers hypothesized that anxiety would decrease after the art sessions. Some significant results were found. Participants reported feeling less strained (p = .041), worrying less over possible misfortunes (p = .02), feeling less nervous (p = .007) and feeling more decisive (p = .001). Future research recommendations are discussed.