Birth order as a risk factor for being victim of sex trafficking in the northern triangle of Central America

Abstract

Human trafficking networks for prostitution recruit vulnerable underage girls, especially those who are considered with no choice but to migrate north to cope with serious econo-mic problems. The aim of this work was to determine if birth order represented a risk factor associated to the vulnerability for sex trafficking of Central American female mi-nors. The interviewees presented vulnerabi-lities associated to social structures and in-dividual behaviors. On the one hand, all of them grew up in house holds characterized by extreme poverty. On the other hand, they also had vulnerabilities related to teenage pregnancy, lack of education, family dysfunc-tion and participation in illegal markets. Fin-dings suggest that occupying the first place in the order of birth raises the vulnerabili-ty of minors to being trafficked to the United States for sex trade. On the contrary, occu-pying the last place decreases this risk.