Advisers

Jinky A. Gutierrez, MSCrim

Discipline

Criminal Justice

Abstract

This study examined social, economic, and institutional factors that may increase minors’ vulnerability to sex trafficking in Barangay Novaliches Proper, Quezon City. Despite child-protection laws and local interventions, continuing cases may indicate gaps in prevention, awareness, and community response. The source methods section describes a planned quantitative descriptive design intended to identify and quantify contributing factors without manipulating variables. However, it uses future tense and does not report the sample, sampling procedure, instrument, data-collection process, ethical safeguards, or statistical procedures actually used. The source results identify a culture of silence and pervasive poverty as central concerns. They state that silence may allow trafficking to remain undetected and call for economic-support programs, stronger family- and community-based child-protection mechanisms, increased awareness and education, improved interagency coordination, and safe reporting systems. The discussion describes irregular income and economic instability as increasing susceptibility to trafficking schemes presented as employment or financial assistance. It states that children in low-income households may be viewed as economic assets and that caregivers may consent, explicitly or implicitly, to exploitative arrangements in expectation of immediate financial relief.

Keywords

poverty, community response, minor sex trafficking, child vulnerability, exploitation, child protection, reporting systems