Estimated time to complete activity: 60 minutes

Target Audience

This activity has been designed to meet the educational needs of nurses, physicians, and other health and legal professionals involved in the treatment and care of victims of sexual assault and domestic violence.

Statement of Need/Program Overview

Clinicians need further training regarding the three types of human trafficking, the medical problems associated with this form of exploitation and recognize that there is often a juxtaposition of labor and sex trafficking in tribal country. In addition, there is a need to understand the unique vulnerabilities of Native women and girls who are victims of sex trafficking and the generational trauma inherent in this population

Educational Objectives

After completing this activity, the participant should be better able to:

Identify the three types of human trafficking.

Define the five major medical problems seen in victims of trafficking with an emphasis on sex trafficking.

Discuss historical travesties that have increased the vulnerability and isolation of American Indian and Native Alaskan victims of human trafficking.

Faculty

Dr. Sharon Cooper MD, FAAP

CEO of Developmental and Forensic Pediatrics, PA, Fayetteville, NC

Sharon Cooper is the CEO of Developmental and Forensic Pediatrics, PA a consulting firm which provides medical care, research, training and expert witness experience in child maltreatment cases as well as medical care for children with disabilities. She works regularly with numerous national and international investigative agencies on Internet Crimes against Children cases. Dr. Cooper spent 21 years in the Armed Forces retiring as a colonel, and has for the past several years, worked in both the civilian and military arenas in child abuse and developmental pediatrics. She holds a faculty position at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill School of Medicine and the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland. She is an instructor at the Army Medical Education Department Center and School at Ft. Sam Houston, Texas where she provides multidisciplinary training in all forms of child maltreatment to health care providers, law enforcement, attorneys, judges, therapists, chaplains, and social workers. For the past several years, Dr. Cooper has served as a consultant to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children where she teaches about the victim aspects of Internet crimes against children and sexual exploitation through prostitution of children and youths. Recently, she has joined the training team for the International Center for Missing and Exploited Children to provide similar information in international venues. Dr. Cooper has lectured both nationally and internationally in well over 300 conferences for the US Department of Justice, the FBI, the North Carolina District Attorney's Association, several Attorney General's conferences in various states in the US, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Interpol among others. She has published chapters in texts, and is the lead author of the first comprehensive textbook on the medical, legal, and social science aspects of child sexual exploitation and Internet crimes against children. Dr. Cooper has provided congressional testimonies regarding compliant victimization of youths who are exploited through Internet technology. She is also a member of an international Expert Working Group on Children and Young Persons with Abusive and Violent Experiences Connected to Cyberspace hosted by the Council of the Baltic Sea States and the Swedish Children's Welfare Foundation. She is a board member of several organizations and is a member of several professional groups including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children, the International Association of Forensic Nurses, and the International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect.