Social Learning Theory: Sex Trafficking In The United States

While practicing social work it is important to understand how an individual’s system and environment can

Social workers must strive “for a full understanding of the complex interactions between the client and all levels of the social and physical system as well as meaning that the client assigns to each of these interactions” (Andreae, 1996, p. 605).

System perspective see’s human behaviors as the outcome of interactions within and among social systems of interrelated parts. These social systems of interrelated parts consist of people within the family, friends, school and work. System perspectives can be understood as the subsystem of larger systems, where each system has its unique identity but they are all interdependent. From a system perspective, behaviors are influenced from the past which are learnt from within the family and other social systems. Within a system perspective, there are smaller systems that a Social Worker may consider for a more holistic view. This is done by considering the role the physical and social environment has on a person’s behavior as well as protective and risk factors that influences positive and negative outcomes.

Social work professions need to understand the importance of how individuals interact both with other people and their environment, to have an understanding how individuals are affected by these interactions (Rogers, p. 2). According to Rogers (2016), “Social workers are knowledgeable about human behavior across the life course; the range of social systems in which people live; and the ways social systems promote or deter people in maintaining or achieving health and well-being. Social workers apply theories and knowledge from the liberal arts to understand biological, social, cultural, psychological, and spiritual development (p. 2). Their work with clients begins with assessments to evaluations of intervention and is based in and supports of the core value system of the profession.

According to Gardiner and Kosmitzki (2008), most recently the ecological perspective has become a leading approach towards addressing the relationships among persons and environment. In Essentials of Human Behavior, Hutchinson (2013) uses a multidimensional approach to better understand social work practice. Using this approach, one can analyze the connection between a client’s person, such as psychologically or biologically, a client’s environment, such as families or communities, and a client’s time, such as their linear time in past, present, or future. Specifically analyzing the environmental component, Uri Bronfenbrenner’s (1999) ecological perspective identifies four levels of systems a client may be associated with: microsystems, mesosystems, exosystems, and macrosystems.

People, especially younger children, are learning daily from their role models and the environment. Any type of behavior display socially is learned primarily by observing and imitating the actions of others. The social behavior is also influenced by being rewarded and/or punished for these actions.

Human sex trafficking and its sister category, Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking also referred to as DMST, (Kotrla,K. 2010) is the most common form of modern day slavery. In the United States there are an estimated 293,000 youth who fall under high risk factor or DMST (Walker-Rodriguez, A. & Hill, R. 2011). Many men prey on the at risk youth to make a fortune for themselves. DMST exposes the youth to a life filled with violence, abuse that is both mental and physical as well as a isolation. The Victims of the Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000 defines sex trafficking, “in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion or in which the person induced to

Empowerment and a strengths perspective which support the development of innate abilities and recognize differences in a positive manner are also helping social workers increase the individual client’s capacity to learn to use his or her own systems constructively

According to the National Association of Social Work, “The primary mission of the social work profession is to enhance human well-being and help meet the basic human needs of all people, with particular attention to the needs and empowerment of people who are vulnerable, oppressed, and living in poverty. A historic and defining feature of social work is the profession’s focus on individual well-being in a social context and the well-being of society. Fundamental to social work is attention to the environmental forces that create, contribute to, and address problems in living.”

In the generalist social work practice, a social worker is a change agent due to the expansive and complex umbrella of social and human services and roles. A change agent works to promote positive changes for the well-being of an individual, family, group, organization or community. In order to fulfill the tasks of a social worker, one should be trained and equipped with a wide variety of skills: such as setting appropriate boundaries, possessing and utilizing self-awareness and the ability to counsel or advocate for clients. In addition to many skills, the generalist social work practice includes a surplus of methods to either prevent or intervene when necessary. A method often utilized by social workers is the person-in-environment conceptualization. The person-in-environment perspective considers factors, such as familial or economic, beyond the individual to better understand the client’s behaviors or situation. Another method is the strengths perspective. The strength-based perspective focuses on the client’s or client system’s positive qualities to build upon those capabilities. And the recognition of strengths helps to achieve goals in a more client-led approach. Generalist practitioners are professionals with a wide range of knowledge and a repertoire of diverse skills in order to enhance the social functioning of all within society.

The social structure and personality perspective represents the connections between the conditions of society and the individual. In child abuse, this perspective fits in due to parent having a role as either a mother or father to protect the child from harm and raise them, but if that role fails and the child is abused or neglected by the parents, the child can suffer while growing up. Child abuse happens for multiple reasons that include the child’s parent might have unrealistic expectations that deals with what parenthood is all about and realize it is extremely difficult or

It means being able to handle all systems, including community, organization, individual, and group. Their job is broad and they do not focus on just one aspect. They must solve many problems and be attentive. It prepares them to be able to handle a situation, no matter how difficult. One thing that they are held accountable for the most is their client’s well-being. They are to make sure that their clients know that they can count on them no matter what it is. It is important for them to make sure that they do all they can to meet their client’s needs. The advanced generalist method is the generalist method, but as a master social work. They are to go even further beyond what they normally would do at an even higher rate. The ecosystems perspective is something that helped develop the generalist approach. It helps them realize that when they work on one level will help them get to other levels. The levels of intentions that the social workers are to focus on, like stated before are, the individual, the family, the group, the individual, the organization, and the community. It is important that they continue to focus on that, being that it will shape them the

The ability of an individual to learn from other people’s experience is a unique character associated with conditioning controlled behavior. Children are more likely and willing to repeat certain behaviors in cases where they have been rewarded, as they have developed the feeling that what they did is acceptable.

“The unique contribution of the social work practice is the duality of the professions person and environment mandate: social workers must help society work better for the people and help people function better within society.” (Segal, Gerdes, and Steiner, 2016, p. 3).

.I agree with the fact that social workers are using Bio psychosocial model in clients such as by looking at the clients biological, psychological ("which entails thoughts, emotions, and behaviors"), and social ("socio-economical, socio-environmental, and cultural") factors that affect the clients because by doing that the social worker will get to know the entire information about the client rather than the client problems only. As a result, that is how the social worker will help the client with his or her problem.