Identifying Victims of Sex Trafficking: Assessing Medical Student Knowledge and Confidence After a Brief Workshop

Background Sex trafficking is a public health problem in the United States. Although most victims of sex trafficking do come into contact with a healthcare provider during the time in which they are trafficked, the majority of physicians are not trained to recognize victims of sex trafficking, intervene on their behalf, or refer victims to appropriate psychiatric, legal, and social services. While medical professionals agree that knowledge about sex trafficking is important to their clinical practice, they acknowledge a lack of knowledge and confidence regarding …