The Level of Awareness of Fresno County Child Welfare Social Workers on Commercially Sexually Exploited Children

This research seeks to identify the current knowledge of Commercially Sexually Exploited Children (CSEC) of Fresno County child welfare services (CWS) social workers. This study employs the use of quantitative surveys to assess the knowledge of CSEC among CWS social workers. The researcher partnered with Fresno County CWS in order to investigate whether social workers who attended a training in November of 2018 were more knowledgeable about CSEC than those who did not attend the training. The sample consisted of Fresno County CWS social workers in all departments of CWS including, but not limited to: emergency response, hotline, family reunification, permanency planning, and adoptions. The survey was sent to 40 workers via email. A total of 11 social workers participated in the survey. Survey responses were analyzed, though the low number of responses limited the results. For this reason, the study was not able to link a direct relationship between whether or not social workers who attended the CSEC training were more knowledgeable about CSEC than those who did not attend. Despite this, significant findings were present and implications for future research were described to help Fresno County CWS to identify the knowledge of CSEC of their social workers and subsequently improve future CSEC trainings.