Force, Fraud, and Coercion Profiles Among Children Meeting a Trafficking Classification In Sierra Leone: A Latent Class Analysis

Background and Purpose:
Research on child trafficking in low-resource settings has focused on prevalence, with less attention to heterogeneity in children’s experiences of force, fraud, and coercion (FFC). This gap matters for social work because prevalence-based classifications do not indicate whether children experience similar forms of coercive control or require similar levels of protection, referral, and intervention. In Sierra Leone, children may meet a trafficking classification through multiple pathways, including hazardous labor sectors, hazardous work conditions, and direct FFC indicators. As a result, prevalence estimates may obscure variation in coercive control within trafficking-classified populations. Using pooled household survey data from four districts in Sierra Leone, this study examined whether children meeting a trafficking classification form distinct coercive-control profiles, whether age, sex, orphanhood, school enrollment, work-sector involvement, and district differentiate profile membership, and whether profile prevalence varies geographically.

Methods:
Data were drawn from pooled baseline prevalence studies conducted in Kailahun, Kenema, Kono, and Kambia. Analyses focused on children ages 5 to 17 who met the study trafficking classification. To preserve clarity for a labor-related FFC typology, children reporting sex work involvement were excluded, and the analytic sample was restricted to those with at least one response on the eight FFC indicators (N = 2,618). The binary indicators captured forced work outside the household, debt-related forced work, little or no wages, work not agreed upon, forced begging, illegal or immoral work, work to pay school fees, and restricted ability to leave or contact caregivers. Latent class analysis identified patterns of coercive control. Multinomial logistic regression examined correlates of profile membership. Posterior-weighted district-specific prevalence estimates were also computed to assess geographic variation.

Results:
A four-class solution was retained and identified interpretable profiles spanning lower to higher coercive control: Minimal overt control (66.7%), Wage deprivation only (14.8%), Economic coercion and forced work (13.5%), and High-intensity multi-FFC control (5.0%). Findings showed that children meeting a trafficking classification were not a homogeneous group, but differed in both the pattern and intensity of coercive experiences. Older age was associated with greater likelihood of membership in all non-reference profiles. Girls were less likely than boys to belong to the Wage deprivation only and Economic coercion and forced work profiles. Orphanhood was positively associated with the Economic coercion and forced work and High-intensity multi-FFC control profiles. School enrollment was inversely associated with the Wage deprivation only and High-intensity multi-FFC control profiles. Hazardous sector involvement was associated with the more coercive profiles, and district-level estimates indicated geographic variation across settings.

Conclusions and Implications:
Children meeting a trafficking classification in Sierra Leone are not a uniform group. Instead, they differ in meaningful patterns and intensity of coercive control, with implications for social work research, child protection screening, and service delivery. Findings support moving beyond prevalence-only classifications toward typology-informed approaches that can guide tiered assessment, referral, and place-based intervention planning. This study adds to the social work knowledge base by showing how person-centered analysis clarifies heterogeneity within trafficking-classified populations and supports more context-sensitive, prevention-oriented, and protection-focused responses for exploited children.