Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in the United States, 1997-2000 (ICPSR 3366)
Version Date: Mar 30, 2006 View help for published
Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s)
Richard J. Estes, University of Pennsylvania, School of Social Work, Center for the Study of Youth Policy;
Neil Alan Weiner, University of Pennsylvania, School of Social Work, Center for the Study of Youth Policy
https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR03366.v1
Version V1
Summary View help for Summary
This project undertook the systematic collection of first-generation data concerning the nature, extent, and seriousness of child sexual exploitation (CSE) in the United States. The project was organized around the following research objectives: (1) identification of the nature, extent, and underlying causes of CSE and the commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) occurring in the United States, (2) identification of those subgroups of children that were at the greatest risk of being sexually exploited, (3) identification of subgroups of adult perpetrators of sex crimes against children, and (4) identification of the modes of operation and other methods used by organized criminal units to recruit children into sexually exploitative activities. The study involved surveying senior staff members of nongovernment organizations (NGOs) and government organizations (GOs) in the United States known to be dealing with persons involved in the transnational trafficking of children for sexual purposes. Part 1 consists of survey data from nongovernment organizations. These were local child and family agencies serving runaway and homeless youth. Part 2 consists of survey data from government organizations. These organizations were divided into local, state, and federal agencies. Local organizations included municipal law enforcement, county law enforcement, prosecutors, public defenders, and corrections. State organizations included state child welfare directors, prosecutors, and public defenders. Federal organizations included the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Federal Public Defenders, Immigration and Naturalization Service, United States Attorneys, United States Customs, and the United States Postal Service. Variables in Parts 1 and 2 include the organization's city, state, and ZIP code, the type of services provided or type of law enforcement agency, how the agency was funded, the scope of the agency's service area, how much emphasis was placed on CSEC as a policy issue or a service issue, conditions that might influence the number of CSEC cases, how staff were trained to deal with CSEC cases, how victims were identified, the number of children that experienced child abuse, sexual abuse, pornography, or other exploitation in 1999 and 2000 by age and gender, methods of recruitment, family history of victims, gang involvement, and substance abuse history of victims.
Citation View help for Citation
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Funding View help for Funding
Subject Terms View help for Subject Terms
Geographic Coverage View help for Geographic Coverage
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Date of Collection View help for Date of Collection
Data Collection Notes View help for Data Collection Notes
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(1) The data in this collection came from a larger project studying CSE and CSEC in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. ICPSR did not receive data pertaining to Canada or Mexico. (2) The principal investigators also used data from the NATIONAL INCIDENT-BASED REPORTING SYSTEM, 1998 (ICPSR 3031) and the UNIFORM CRIME REPORTS (UCR) AND FEDERAL INFORMATION PROCESSING STANDARDS (FIPS) STATE AND COUNTY GEOGRAPHIC CODES, 1990: UNITED STATES (ICPSR 2565) for this project. (3) The user guide, codebook, and data collection instruments are provided by ICPSR as Portable Document Format (PDF) files. The PDF file format was developed by Adobe Systems Incorporated and can be accessed using PDF reader software, such as the Adobe Acrobat Reader. Information on how to obtain a copy of the Acrobat Reader is provided on the ICPSR Web site.
Study Purpose View help for Study Purpose
The benefits of economic globalization, internationalization, and free trade have brought with them an unanticipated set of social problems. Among them is what appears to be a dramatic rise worldwide in the incidence of child exploitation. Among the most virulent forms of this exploitation is child sexual exploitation (CSE), including the commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC). The extent of these problems in the United States has been unknown, although most experts dealing with CSEC regard it to be a serious problem in North America. This project undertook the systematic collection of first-generation data concerning the nature, extent, and seriousness of child sexual exploitation in the United States. The project was organized around the following research objectives: (1) identification of the nature, extent, and underlying causes of CSE and CSEC occurring in the United States, (2) identification of those subgroups of children that were at the greatest risk of being sexually exploited, (3) identification of subgroups of adult perpetrators of sex crimes against children, and (4) identification of the modes of operation and other methods used by organized criminal units to recruit children into sexually exploitative activities.
Study Design View help for Study Design
This study involved surveying senior staff members of nongovernment organizations (NGOs) and government organizations (GOs) in the United States known to be dealing with persons involved in the transnational trafficking of children for sexual purposes. Part 1 consists of survey data from nongovernment organizations. These were local child and family agencies serving runaway and homeless youth. Part 2 consists of survey data from government organizations. These organizations were divided into local, state, and federal agencies. Local organizations included municipal law enforcement, county law enforcement, prosecutors, public defenders, and corrections. State organizations included state child welfare directors, prosecutors, and public defenders. Federal organizations included the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Federal Public Defenders, Immigration and Naturalization Service, United States Attorneys, United States Customs, and the United States Postal Service. Surveys were originally mailed to the organizations. Researchers used additional mailings, telephone calls, and faxes to encourage responsiveness.
Sample View help for Sample
Stratified random sampling.
Universe View help for Universe
Government and nongovernment agencies in the United States that dealt with persons involved in the transnational trafficking of children for sexual purposes.
Unit(s) of Observation View help for Unit(s) of Observation
Data Source View help for Data Source
mailback questionnaires
Data Type(s) View help for Data Type(s)
Description of Variables View help for Description of Variables
Variables in Parts 1 and 2 include the organization's city, state, and ZIP code, the type of services provided or type of law enforcement agency, how the agency was funded, the scope of the agency's service area, how much emphasis was placed on CSEC as a policy issue or a service issue, conditions that might influence the number of CSEC cases, how staff were trained to deal with CSEC cases, how victims were identified, the number of children that experienced child abuse, sexual abuse, pornography, or other exploitation in 1999 and 2000 by age and gender, methods of recruitment, family history of victims, gang involvement, and substance abuse history of victims.
Response Rates View help for Response Rates
The response rate for Part 1 (nongovernmental organizations) was 22 percent. The response rate for Part 2 (governmental organizations) was 24 percent.
Presence of Common Scales View help for Presence of Common Scales
Several Likert-type scales were used.
HideOriginal Release Date View help for Original Release Date
2003-03-27
Version History View help for Version History
2018-02-15 The citation of this study may have changed due to the new version control system that has been implemented. The previous citation was:
- Estes, Richard J., and Neil Alan Weiner. COMMERCIAL SEXUAL EXPLOITATION OF CHILDREN IN THE UNITED STATES, 1997-2000. ICPSR version. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania [producer], 2002. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2003. http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR03366.v1
2006-03-30 File UG3366.ALL.PDF was removed from any previous datasets and flagged as a study-level file, so that it will accompany all downloads.
2006-03-30 File CQ3366.ALL.PDF was removed from any previous datasets and flagged as a study-level file, so that it will accompany all downloads.
2005-11-04 On 2005-03-14 new files were added to one or more datasets. These files included additional setup files as well as one or more of the following: SAS program, SAS transport, SPSS portable, and Stata system files. The metadata record was revised 2005-11-04 to reflect these additions.
2003-03-27 ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:
- Standardized missing values.
- Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.
Notes
The public-use data files in this collection are available for access by the general public. Access does not require affiliation with an ICPSR member institution.
This dataset is maintained and distributed by the National Archive of Criminal Justice Data (NACJD), the criminal justice archive within ICPSR. NACJD is primarily sponsored by three agencies within the U.S. Department of Justice: the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the National Institute of Justice, and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.