Teen escort company, also called a youth transport firm, is a term used in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

to describe a business that specializes in transporting teenagers from their homes to various facilities.

United States

As a transport option, parents in the

are able to hire teen escort companies to transport their children from their homes to

residential treatment center A residential treatment center (RTC), sometimes called a rehab, is a live-in health care facility providing therapy for substance use disorders, mental illness, or other behavioral problems. Residential treatment may be considered the "last-ditch ...

s (RTCs). Private Residential Programs go by many names, and include private religious re-education facilities, teen residential programs,

wilderness therapy Wilderness therapy, also known as outdoor behavioral healthcare, is a treatment option for behavioral disorders, substance abuse, and mental health issues in adolescents. Patients spend time living outdoors with peers. Reports of abuse, death ...

programs,

therapeutic boarding school A therapeutic boarding school is a residential school offering therapy for students with emotional or behavioral issues. Description The National Association of Therapeutic Schools and Programs listed 140 schools and programs as of 2005. Therapeut ...

s, boot camps, or behavior modification programs.The Exploitation of Youth and Families in the Name of “Specialty Schooling:” What Counts as Sufficient Data? What are Psychologists to Do?
by Allison Pinto, Robert M. Friedman, and Monica Epstein, Louis de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute,

University of South Florida The University of South Florida (USF) is a public research university with its main campus located in Tampa, Florida, and other campuses in St. Petersburg and Sarasota. It is one of 12 members of the State University System of Florida. USF i ...

American Psychological Association The American Psychological Association (APA) is the largest scientific and professional organization of psychologists in the United States, with over 133,000 members, including scientists, educators, clinicians, consultants, and students. It ha ...

, ''CYF Newsletter'', Summer 2005 (file dated September 28, 2005). Page 3. In 2004, it was estimated that there were more than twenty teen escort companies operating in the United States. Parents may use this type of service when they believe their child needs treatment outside the home, but the parent or child is not willing to travel there. The service can cost $5,000 to $8,000 U.S. dollars. Often, teens to be transported are picked up during the middle of the night to take advantage of their initial disorientation and to minimize confrontation and flight risk. Aggressive tactics, such as being punched, restrained with handcuffs, or hogtied with cable wires, are common. The use of such services is controversial, because the services are subject to little or no

government regulation Regulation is the management of complex systems according to a set of rules and trends. In systems theory, these types of rules exist in various fields of biology and society, but the term has slightly different meanings according to context. For ...

Want your kid to disappear?
by Nadya Labi, ''Legal Affairs'', July–August 2004 and

and because they are associated with treatment services, which are themselves controversial. For teenagers seized in the middle of the night by strangers, being abducted by a teen escort company may result in permanent trauma. Attempts to establish similar services in other countries have been quickly closed down by the authorities under their laws against child abuse, assault and

torture Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogational torture, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. definitions of tortur ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Teen Escort Company Transportation in the United States Human trafficking in the United States Behavior modification Euphemisms