Understanding and Communicating with Youth Survivors of Sex Trafficking: Mitigating Trauma

Judge John Romero (Ret.) and Toni McKinley, M.A., L.P.C., discuss steps that can be taken to mitigate trauma in the courtroom for youth who have survived sex trafficking trauma. Building a healing-centered and trauma-informed courtroom can mitigate some of the harmful effects of trauma. Toni McKinley shares that we do not need to wait to prove that a young person has experienced trauma, “if they are there, they are more than likely to have experienced some form of trauma… Parents are hurt, foster parents are hurt, the kids are hurt, heck even the PO is hurt and the lawyer is hurt, you know everyone’s hurt that’s why it is so important to really understand how to have compassion. All the way around we are all dealing with stuff and how do we help each other and help someone come out with a better outcome instead of being re-traumatized, re-exploited, victimized, incarcerated as an adult, and so on and so on that trauma has an impact on.”