Assessing the predictive utility of Florida's human trafficking screening tool among dual system-involved youth

The fourteen-item Human Trafficking Screening Tool was developed by the Florida Department of Children & Families (DCF) and Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) to identify trafficking victimization among DJJ involved youth, a setting and population that lacked a validated sex and labor trafficking screening tool prior to this study (Florida Department of Juvenile Justice, 2021). The predictive validity of the HTST was assessed for two outcomes: [1] DJJ designation of likely experienced trafficking, and [2] a verified outcome of a DCF investigation for human trafficking. Analyses were replicated in two populations, a sample of all DJJ youth screened with the HTST, and the subset of youth referred to DCF among whom 23.8% had verified trafficking allegations. Logistic regression results show the HTST has good to excellent predictive validity for the full sample and attenuated predictive validity in the subsample, as would be expected due to the restriction in range for higher risk youth referred to DCF. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) results indicate good internal reliability and three factors: sex trafficking risk; labor trafficking risk; environmental risk. Overall, results indicate the HTST can be adopted in other JJ populations, and EFA results suggest that an HTST short form could be developed to reduce staff and youth burden and improve predictive validity.