Child Sex Trafficking Team
Sadly, children are sexually exploited in Texas every day. They are forced to engage in sexual activity, often for the financial gain of their abuser.
The Child Sex Trafficking Team (CSTT) in the Office of the Governor is fighting to end this crime and to help its young victims.
Our mission is to build sustainable capacity, enhance expertise, promote policies, and create new and leverage existing collaborations to:
- Protect children from sexual exploitation
- Help the public recognize signs of sexual exploitation
- Help victims recover
- Support healing
- Bring justice to those who exploit children.
Texas' Child Sex Trafficking Team has implemented a number of statewide initiatives to help bring an end to the horrendous practice of child sexual exploitation, but we still have much work to do.
Governor Greg Abbott
Please view this 3-minute animation from our friends at Texas Christian University that accurately, succinctly, and artfully describes the realities of child sexual exploitation and how we can help survivors heal. Feel free to share this video to educate and empower others to engage effectively in the fight against child sexual exploitation.
Latest Updates for Governor Abbott's Strategies
- CSTT Implementation Summary - a quick look at CSTT's latest progress under each point of the star.
- CSEY Advocacy: An Overview
Human Trafficking Fusion Center
The Human Trafficking Fusion Center provides innovative tools that streamline and enhance investigations and prosecutions, including:
- intelligence analysis to put actionable intel into the hands of investigators
- curated proprietary data focused specifically on information necessary to identify sex and labor traffickers,
- shared data from law enforcement agencies across the country, including thousands of known traffickers,
- artificial intelligence to collect and analyze large amounts of data quickly and accurately,
- networks of like-minded investigators and prosecutors, and
- expert and hands-on training and technical assistance.
The Fusion Center empowers investigators to plan proactive operations and investigations and build cases against traffickers while being truly trauma-responsive to potential victims, without having to rely on victim cooperation and testimony. In its first year, the HT Fusion Center has already resulted in 124 cases referred for prosecution for trafficking arrests, including felony buyer arrests, and 87 victims connected to services.
Lighthouse
CSTT funds Allies Against Slavery to integrate the Commercially Sexually Exploited - Identification Tool (CSE-IT) screening tool within Lighthouse, a software tool that enables users to complete screenings easily and securely online. Users can access and analyze their CSE-IT data at any time.
Roadmap for Texas Communities
The Child Sex Trafficking Team has partnered with the Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute to develop a Roadmap for Texas Communities to Address Child Sex Trafficking. The Roadmap provides research, emerging practices, lessons learned, and resources for communities to effectively engage in the fight against child sex trafficking and align themselves with statewide strategies and goals.