Human Trafficking in [USA] [other countries]Street Children in [USA] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [USA |
Child Prostitution The Commercial Sexual Exploitation of
Children The The |
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CAUTION: The following links and
accompanying text have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation
in the ***
FEATURED ARTICLES *** www.counterpunch.org/rosen08022008.html
It points-out that “the vast majority
of youth involved in prostitution are girls, although some service providers
see an increase in the number of boys.” It notes that the average age
most girls get involved in prostitution is at 14-years and the median age of
involvement is 15.5-years. However, it reports child prostitutes
being picked up by police at only 11 or 12-years and even 9-years of
age. It stresses that child prostitutes come from throughout the
country, inner-cities, suburbs and small-towns, and from all
walks-of-life. But it notes, “larger cities are more likely to have a
higher proportion of boys involved in prostitution”. [Department of
Justice, NIS-MART, 2002] There is a second, and apparently
growing, form of prostitution that is apparently “voluntary” and involves the
exchange of “favors” like dope, money or other presents. A study by
Jessica Edwards, of the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, found
that an estimated 650,000 American teenagers exchange sex for favors.
More surprising, more boys were likely to sell themselves than
girls. Cops
shift focus, treat child prostitutes as victims CHANGED BY TECHNOLOGY - Police are finding the business
of prostitution is much more sophisticated than it was a decade ago. Technology, the Internet, and cell phones
have all changed the game. Pimps now use technology to sell girls as young as
11 or 12 for sex on the Internet and on the street. "The younger the girls, the more
protected by the pimp," Wiley said. When children are arrested on the
street, typically their pimps are watching from nearby, making it difficult
for police to go after them because the No. 1 rule of prostitution is to
"never give up your pimp," Saleda
said. Some prostitutes answer to a
"bottom bitch," or a senior girl tasked with disciplining, training
and collecting money. "They are
the buffer between the pimp and the girls, which makes it harder to bring a
case against a pimp," Saleda said. Many girls are manipulated and forced into
prostitution by their pimps who provide them with a replacement family for
the troubled homes they come from. Other "guerrilla pimps" rape and
beat the girls before putting them on the street. "No one wakes up in the morning and says,
'I want to be a prostitute, this is great,'" Saleda
said. "They are constantly raped and robbed and it's glamorized in pop
culture." Teen suicide spurs war on US prostitution At the age of 15, Samantha Walker
was lured into prostitution on the streets of Toledo, Ohio, then
taken against her will to Atlanta. What makes her story unique is that
she testified against one of the men who paid for sex with her, helping to
send him to prison. But just weeks after the trial she took an overdose of
drugs she was taking for depression and died at the age of 18. More
than 300,000 children are being sexually exploited in the US, according to a
study by the University of Pennsylvania. Many of them end up in Atlanta,
which has become a hub for prostitution in part because its busy airport
makes it a destination for men seeking sex. How an eastern Iowa teen prostitution, human trafficking ring took root In the basement of an ordinary-looking Williamsburg home, the 13-year-old girl was given a choice. Either she would have sex with two men nearly twice her age or she would be given back to her kidnapper. Already in the week since Demont Bowie told the suburban Minneapolis girl she belonged to him, he'd beaten and abused her, starved her and deprived her of sleep. He traded her body to his friends and even a mechanic. When Demont told her to do something to someone, she did. There was no refusing. He'd said he'd kill her, kill her family, if she tried to leave. – htcp Film
documents Valley child sex slavery struggle Many girls begin working the
streets before they are teenagers, and police say that prostitutes continue
to get younger because that age group generates more money. Child prostitutes are sometimes runaways or
girls with unhappy home lives, police said.
These girls are referred to as "throwaway children" - they
have no family that cares for them, and are alone. But police also are seeing
many coming from middle-class and sometimes wealthy families. "It's gotten to the point where there
is nothing specific or definite about what girls end up in
prostitution," Schemers said. Pimps, usually men younger than
25, recruit the girls from shopping malls, schools and over the Internet.
When drawing girls into the sex trade, pimps make them feel like part of a
family. But then pimps turn on the
girls and use threats and physical abuse to enslave them. "It's so powerful that once they are
brought into that environment, there's no getting out," Schemers said. ***
ARCHIVES *** Runaways - Where To Turn For Help Before You Are Homeless Here are the best phone numbers to
call …They are Confidential - which means they won't tell anyone about your
call unless you want them to talk to somebody for you, or you are in
danger. They are open 24 Hours - it
doesn't matter what time you call. In
the USA, call 1-800-621-4000 Most runaway children do not
realize the dangers of living on the streets. According to the National
Runaway Switchboard, 75% of runaways will become involved in theft, drugs or
pornography. One out of every three teens on the street will be lured into
prostitution within 48 hours of leaving home. Young
workers in the oldest profession www.columbian.com/article/20081207/NEWS02/712079963
Sarah was 16 and addicted to crack
cocaine when she heard there was easy money to make in the parking lot of a
fast food restaurant off Fourth Plain Boulevard. “I went there to pick up guys,” Sarah, 22,
said. “They would buy me what I wanted as long as I had sex with them.” After working for a year in Vancouver,
Sarah ventured to Portland. Willowy, her greasy blond hair pulled tight into
a bun, she looks exhausted. “I got
here on Sandy and 82nd, and this guy, D.C., asked me if I wanted to get
high,” she said one morning last summer, sitting on a curb in northeast
Portland. “Then he told me I owed him money and to go get money.” Sarah was trapped. She’d fallen prey to a
pimp’s come-on and become one of the 20 to 30 juveniles Portland police say
work the streets at any given time. Like more than a third of those girls,
she is from Vancouver. And like many of them, she remains beyond the reach of
police efforts to separate her from her pimp. It’s been six years, and Sarah
is still on the streets. ‘SNITCHES DIE, YOU KNOW’ - “I can cite case after case of
girls coming from average families, and once the pimp was able to intervene,
the family didn’t matter anymore,” Dick said. “I know of officers’ daughters
who got into it, a federal prosecutor’s daughter, a DA’s daughter, a
politician’s daughter.” Cherise was a rebellious 15-year-old when she met her first
pimp, Deandre Green, at Lloyd Center in Portland.
Green was a 25-year-old Bloods gang member from Aloha, Ore. He sweet-talked her to a nondescript,
two-story motel and told her the rules: This is business, don’t be out of
pocket, respect your pimp and give me all your money. According to court documents, when Cherise said she had second thoughts, Green said, “I know
where you live and where your family lives. I will kill you and your family
if you say anything to anybody. You’re mine now.” 2 Houston Men
Accused In Child Sex Ring www.click2houston.com/news/17817123/detail.html
Two Houston men were arrested in a
nationwide crackdown on child sex rings and prostitution, KPRC
Local 2 reported Monday. A total of
642 people were arrested in the three-day sting. Across the country, 73 pimps and
518 adult prostitutes were arrested under the crackdown in 29 different cities,
FBI officials said. Forty-seven
children were rescued. Their ages range from 13 to 17 years old. Ten of them had been reported missing to
the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. "This operation targeted known street
tracks, in and out call services, truck stops, casinos and Internet
sites," said John Pistole, the FBI deputy
director. "Child prostitution is a growing problem across the
country." Most of the victims are
runaways lured by child predators, officials said. actioncenter.polarisproject.org/the-frontlines/recent-federal-cases/326-connecticut-man-sentenced-to-360-months-in-prison-for-leading-brutal-sex-trafficking-ring-that-victimized-us-citizens
Evidence presented at trial
demonstrated that Paris operated a prostitution scheme in the Hartford,
Conn., area in which he exploited young, uneducated girls from troubled
backgrounds and forced them to perform commercial sex acts for his financial
benefit. The evidence demonstrated that Paris used a combination of
deception, fraud, coercion, brutal rapes, threats of
arrest, physical violence and manipulation of addictive drugs to maintain
control over his victims. The evidence established that
Paris "purchased" two of the victims from a co-defendant, Brian
Forbes, who previously pleaded guilty to five counts of sex trafficking and
was sentenced to 13 years in prison for his role in recruiting and exploiting
minors and vulnerable young women into prostitution, as well as using
beatings, rapes, drug withdrawal, threats and unlawful restraint, to compel
them to perform commercial sex acts. - htcp www.ecpat.net/A4A_2005/PDF/Americas/Global_Monitoring_Report-USA.pdf There is limited information
available on the commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) and adolescents
within the United States. The absence of published facts and figures beyond
estimates and small-scale local information highlights the pressing need for
systematic and verifiable qualitative and quantitative information to guide
national level action. The prostitution of children is a
widespread phenomenon, and over the past couple of years several articles in
prominent press media, such as Newsweek magazine,1 have highlighted a growing
problem of prostitution of girls from many different income levels. Sadly,
members of the public and law enforcement view children in prostitution as a
public nuisance or as immoral, bad kids, if not criminals. They tend not to
see American children in prostitution as “innocent victims”, in the same way
as they might see poor, young foreign children who may be kidnapped, sold or
trafficked to the US for such purposes. Rather, American girls are seen as
willing participants, mostly inner city teenagers who “know just what they
are getting into and deserve what they get”. Hidden
epidemic: Children recruited to be sex slaves www.wtop.com/?nid=596&sid=1457483 "They seek out children who
may have any sort of vulnerability -- vulnerability from sexual abuse as a child,
vulnerability from homelessness, vulnerability from all different hosts of
issues." "This fellow would drive
around the District, see teenage girls on the street, entice them into his
car, force them to disrobe and perform sex acts, hold them captive and then
force them into acts of prostitution."
Myles notes that the pimps have learned to go after children in or
around places that are hard for kids to avoid. "They target schools. They target
parks. They target bus stops. They target malls," he says. "They
even target places like group shelters and group homes. If your full-time
effort, all-day, every-day is just to recruit children, you really learn to
focus on the different places the kids are." www.counterpunch.org/rosen08022008.html
It points-out that “the vast
majority of youth involved in prostitution are girls, although some service
providers see an increase in the number of boys.” It notes that the average
age most girls get involved in prostitution is at 14-years and the median age
of involvement is 15.5-years. However, it reports child
prostitutes being picked up by police at only 11 or 12-years and even 9-years
of age. It stresses that child prostitutes come from throughout the
country, inner-cities, suburbs and small-towns, and from all
walks-of-life. But it notes, “larger cities are more likely to have a
higher proportion of boys involved in prostitution”. [Department of
Justice, NIS-MART, 2002] There is a second, and apparently
growing, form of prostitution that is apparently “voluntary” and involves the
exchange of “favors” like dope, money or other presents. A study by
Jessica Edwards, of the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, found
that an estimated 650,000 American teenagers exchange sex for favors.
More surprising, more boys were likely to sell themselves than
girls. Statement of
Chris Swecker Assistant Director, Criminal
Investigative Division www.fbi.gov/congress/congress05/swecker060705.htm The average age of a child first
used in prostitution is 11 to 14, with some as young as 9 years of age.
Children used in prostitution consist of both male and female victims and
come from all ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds. A large percentage of
these children left home because of physical, sexual, and psychological
abuse. These children often have low self-esteem and are extremely
vulnerable. These runaways become a prime target for sex offenders,
pornographers, and pimps. Prostitution is a continuation of the victim's
sexual exploitation, not the beginning. According to U.S. law and
international agreements, children can never consent to prostitution; it is
always exploitation. www.nytimes.com/2008/07/29/opinion/29tue2.html?_r=1&ref=opinion Child prostitution, a large and growing
problem across the United States, is especially severe in tourist and
convention cities. Atlanta, for example, has been identified by the Federal
Bureau of Investigation as one of 14 American cities with the highest rates
of child prostitution. A report earlier this year by the
Barton Child Law and Policy Clinic at Emory University estimated that
hundreds of children were being used as prostitutes throughout Georgia. They
come from troubled families and often have histories of truancy. They typically
run away from home after being sexually abused. Once on the street, they face increased
risks of being battered or killed. They are also likely to experience drug
addiction or psychiatric disorders and contract — and spread — diseases. They
may eventually recreate their personal disasters in the lives of their
children. Children
of the Night: Child Prostitution Is America’s Dirty Little Secret www.rutherford.org/articles_db/commentary.asp?record_id=544 Amazingly, many children are
introduced to prostitution by family members or acquaintances such as
parents, older siblings or boyfriends. The internet, especially websites such
as Craigslist, Facebook
and MySpace, has made it even easier to prey on
children without being easily detected by law enforcement. Child prostitution is America’s
“dirty little secret,” one that cuts across racial and socio-economic
divides. As Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin observed, “It’s one of those
issues that doesn’t get discussed and therefore there’s an assumption that
perhaps either it doesn’t exist at all or the young women and girls who are
prostitutes are there by their own free will.” Yet there is little to suggest
that these children ever willingly choose such a lifestyle. Even the term
“child prostitute” is something of a misnomer, suggesting that it is the
child—and not the adult handler—who has opted to sell him or herself for sex.
Children who are sold for sex (the
majority are female) typically range in age from 11 to 17, with some as young
as 9 years old. Once they have been lured or forced into prostituting
themselves, these children are subjected to a full range of injuries,
diseases, pregnancies, mental issues such as post-traumatic stress disorder
and depression and drug addiction, not to mention criminal and delinquency
charges if they are caught. For those who are “rescued” out of the system,
the stigma of having once been part of the sex trade is hard to overcome. U.S. sex trade
consumes thousands of children www.newsbull.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=65455 www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=186462 The National Center for Missing
& Exploited Children says between 100,000 and 300,000 underage boys and
girls -- some as young as five years old -- are abused in prostitution each
year in the United States. Pat Trueman, the former
chief child exploitation prosecutor for the U.S. Department of Justice, says
the public needs to understand what that number really means. "I've actually seen kids on
the streets of New York who were 12, 13 years old prostituting themselves,
with a pimp down the street watching their every move," shares Trueman. "So this is not unusual; if anything, it's
quite a commonplace occurrence in your bigger cities. But you're seeing it in
mid-level cities, as well." Trueman says children end up in
prostitution in a variety of ways, almost none of which are completely
voluntary. "What pimps do is find vulnerable kids -- who are either
runaways, throwaways, or they might find them online where they're willing to
be more risqué. New
York struggles over child prostitution - Criminals or abuse victims? www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/07/18/new_york_struggles_over_child_prostitution/ She seems like a typical shy high
school kid. Little about her suggests the tortured story she tells: At 14 she
ran away from sexual abuse at home and met a 24-year-old guy who seemed like
he wanted to be her boyfriend - until he told her he wanted to be her pimp.
"I was like, wow," recalled the girl, now 16, though she looks
younger. She was shocked, but desperate, she said. "At the time I needed
a place to sleep, so I was like, 'Fine, I'll go along with it.' " On and off
for the next two years, she said, she traded sex for cash, under the control
of several different men who took most of the money for themselves. Her work
as a child prostitute caused her to be arrested in March and placed in
detention. Now New York is struggling with
the question of how to treat young girls who are involved in prostitution.
Are they criminals - or child abuse victims? A
Look at the Harrowing Lives of Child Prostitutes "Very Young Girls” is an
83-minute documentary film that opens on Friday at the IFC
Center in Greenwich Village. The film offers a vivid and
disturbing look at the sexual exploitation and trafficking of teenage girls
in New York City. The average age of girls when they enter the sex industry
is 13. 2
child prostitutes discovered in Phoenix, 6 males detained Officers discovered two minors
involved in prostitution during a sweep in Phoenix on Tuesday evening. Maryvale Precinct
Patrol Officers found the first victim during a sweep in the area of McDowell
Road from 35th to 51st avenues at approximately 8:40 p.m. The 14-year-old admitted prostitute had
been listed as a run-away since she was 13-years-old. Phoenix Police Department was contacted for
further investigation into the victim's involvement in child prostitution and
it was discovered that she had been working for a "Pimp" since the
time she ran away from her home. 'Innocence
Lost' initiative rescuing child prostitutes A recent spate of arrests in 16
cities put 345 people behind bars accused of involvement in child
prostitution -- and 21 children were rescued. But that's only the tip of the
iceberg, according to one pro-family advocate. There are likely many thousands of
children, mostly runaways or throwaways, on the streets of this nation,
largely supporting themselves through prostitution. Chris Gacek
of the Family Research Council believes child prostitution is a big business
now, partly because of the Internet. Child
prostitutes sell themselves on Craigslist But why would a girl sell her body
online? To help answer that question,
Sacramento police made arrangements for CNN to interview a 14-year-old girl
who said she'd started selling herself as a prostitute at the age of 11. "I wanted to feel loved. ...
I wanted to feel important," said the teen, who did not want to be
identified. She said she used Craigslist because it was free and she could post dozens
of ads a day. Even though she understood the seriousness of what she was
doing, she said she didn't care. "You could put stuff in your
ad like 'wet and wild,' 'fun and sassy,' things like that to catch their
attention, to make them want you," she said. Human Trafficking
in our rural heartlands-Part 1 The federal indictment alleges
that from January 1, 2000 to February 20, 2005, Barkau
trained the minor to be a sexual dominatrix by engaging her in bondage
activities with himself and forcing her in other
sexual activities while he watched. With extensive force and violence Barkau made the girl serve as dominatrix beginning at 12
years old. When the girl was 14 years old, the motion alleges Barkau created his online business for "Mistress Alisha," both Barkau and
the child’s mother earned tens of thousand of dollars. The Department
of Justice says it is the first time in the United States that parents have
been alleged to profit from their own child this way. Study
details concerns about Spokane-area human trafficking [scroll down]
Prostitution accounts for the largest form of human trafficking in the
region with an estimated 500 adult women and an unknown number of men and
underage boys and girls providing sex for money through escort businesses,
massage parlors, drug houses and on the streets, the study found. One of those surveyed in the study
said about a third of those selling sex in the Spokane area had been sold
into prostitution by their mothers.
Male prostitution is "much hidden" and those involved
"are especially vulnerable," DuPey
wrote. "Spokane has a significant
teen prostitution problem and is considered an entry area for child
prostitutes," the study found. The youngsters "are initiated here
and then moved into larger metro areas." Prostitute
series raises dispute behind the scenes One of the most disturbing stories
in the Tribune series was reporter Kamika Dunlap's
interview with a 14-year-old girl who was identified only as Desiree. Here's what our readers who have been
following the series know: Desiree ran away from home after a trip to the
mall and ended up being sold as a prostitute on Craigslist.
She was forced by her pimp to have sex with as many as five men a day. She
contracted a painful venereal disease that made it impossible for her to work
and eventually made her quit and return to her family. Cops
shift focus, treat child prostitutes as victims CHANGED BY TECHNOLOGY - Police are finding the business
of prostitution is much more sophisticated than it was a decade ago. Technology, the Internet, and cell phones
have all changed the game. Pimps now use technology to sell girls as young as
11 or 12 for sex on the Internet and on the street. "The younger the girls, the more
protected by the pimp," Wiley said. When children are arrested on the
street, typically their pimps are watching from nearby, making it difficult
for police to go after them because the No. 1 rule of prostitution is to
"never give up your pimp," Saleda
said. Some prostitutes answer to a
"bottom bitch," or a senior girl tasked with disciplining, training
and collecting money. "They are
the buffer between the pimp and the girls, which makes it harder to bring a
case against a pimp," Saleda said. Many girls are manipulated and forced into
prostitution by their pimps who provide them with a replacement family for
the troubled homes they come from. Other "guerrilla pimps" rape and
beat the girls before putting them on the street. "No one wakes up in the morning and
says, 'I want to be a prostitute, this is great,'" Saleda
said. "They are constantly raped and robbed and it's glamorized in pop
culture." How
an eastern Iowa teen prostitution, human trafficking ring took root In the basement of an
ordinary-looking Williamsburg home, the 13-year-old girl was given a choice.
Either she would have sex with two men nearly twice her age or she would be
given back to her kidnapper. Already
in the week since Demont Bowie told the suburban
Minneapolis girl she belonged to him, he'd beaten and abused her, starved her
and deprived her of sleep. He traded her body to his friends and even a
mechanic. When Demont told her to do something to
someone, she did. There was no refusing. He'd said he'd kill her, kill her
family, if she tried to leave. – htcp When an 11- and 12-year-old girl
disappeared last month, and police suspected they ended up prostituting
themselves on the streets, the entire community took notice. But what many don't realize is that those
missing girls are just two of the legions of children turning tricks in an
exploding local prostitution business, filling the pockets of pimps. In the past 10 months alone, at least 170
children between 11 and 17 were referred to a local counseling agency because
they'd been peddled on the streets for sex.
These exploited children work for pimps who quit drug dealing for the
more lucrative and less risky trade of selling young girls for sex. Film
documents Valley child sex slavery struggle Many girls begin working the
streets before they are teenagers, and police say that prostitutes continue
to get younger because that age group generates more money. Child prostitutes are sometimes runaways or
girls with unhappy home lives, police said.
These girls are referred to as "throwaway children" - they
have no family that cares for them, and are alone. But police also are seeing
many coming from middle-class and sometimes wealthy families. "It's gotten to the point where there
is nothing specific or definite about what girls end up in
prostitution," Schemers said. Pimps, usually men younger than
25, recruit the girls from shopping malls, schools and over the Internet.
When drawing girls into the sex trade, pimps make them feel like part of a
family. But then pimps turn on the
girls and use threats and physical abuse to enslave them. "It's so powerful that once they are
brought into that environment, there's no getting out," Schemers said. Report:
NW a ripe ground for child prostitution The preliminary report, released
this week, describes Las Vegas as a hub for child sex trafficking. More
than 400 children were found working as prostitutes in Las Vegas during a
single month last year, according to the study. Statistics show many of
the girls are recruited from Oregon and Washington. They are beaten and
tortured by pimps. “The runaway child here or the child recruited or
snatched from the mall is sold in Seattle, or California, Las Vegas, Atlanta
Georgia, wherever there is a critical mass of buyers,” says Linda Smith,
founder of Shared Hope International. FBI:
Pimps force child prostitutes into underground networks In 2006, around Hillcroft and the Southwest Freeway, the teen – then 13
years old—and three other women were arrested during a sting targeting
prostitutes. It’s prevalent in
southwest Houston, and all too often the women turning tricks aren’t women at
all – they’re girls. The FBI says many
of the child prostitutes are brought to Houston by pimps. Special Agent Walther said many of
the child prostitutes no longer work the streets, but now they’re involved in
organized underground networks. Just this past Saturday, for
example, a 13-year-old girl was arrested inside a Dallas bar for allegedly
recruiting her middle school classmates to dance and sell sex there. “One of the remarkable things that we have
learned about this is that there really is a tremendous amount of money
involved. There is a high demand for young girls in the prostitution world,”
Lt. Ches Williams of the Dallas Police Department
said. Prostitution,
even when legalized, destroys lives Most prostituted women and youth
are coerced by poverty, racism, lack of opportunity, and drug and alcohol
addictions. The average age of prostitution is 13 in the United States, so a
woman has likely been abused for five years when she turns 18 and supposedly
chooses to be a whore. Human trafficking steps from the shadows www.berkeley.edu/news/berkeleyan/2008/03/12_trafficking.shtml Describing herself as "a nice
Catholic girl who lived in a large, suburban house" near Detroit during
her teenage years, she said she was targeted by traffickers, drugged, and
date-raped at the age of 15 - "I was just a kid," she said - and
then blackmailed and forced to work as a prostitute "for two long
years." "They said they would kill me
and my family and my dog if I didn't do what they said," reported
Flores, adding that she was "beaten into silence every night" by
her captors. Throughout her ordeal, she said, she was permitted to live at
home, sneaking out every night to turn tricks, and then returning home and
going to school the next day. Once, she said, she was kidnapped, taken to
inner-city Detroit, and "tortured for hours and hours and left for
dead" before being returned to her emotionally absent parents by an unsympathetic
police officer. Only when her father moved the family to another city after a
job transfer, she said, did she finally break with her captors. A
Prostitute´s View of the Spitzer Sex Scandal Runaways, very young, who fall
into whoring as a way of finding love, acceptance, and survival
are the norm, not the exception in America. You don´t
have to go to Bangkok or Cambodia to find girl exploited by the sex industry.
A thriving child prostitution busi-ness in Atlanta,
Georgia sells ones as young as 11 and 12 and these girls (mostly black)
report being raped up to 30 times a night. National
CyberTipline Marks 10 Years of Operation The CyberTipline,
http://www.cybertipline.com, the nation's system for reporting suspected
sexual exploitation of children will celebrate 10 years of operation this
week. Operated by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), the CyberTipline has
processed more than 570,000 reports of sex crimes against children, some as
young as two weeks old. Woman
faces 11 years prison for kidnapping El Mirage girl Police said Butler and five others
abducted the 15-year-old girl from El Mirage and sold her as a prostitute
over the internet. They initially
forced the girl to sleep caged in a dog kennel, according to
authorities. She was rescued by police
after 42 days of captivity. Recent quarterly results from an
ongoing independent tracking study indicate that more than 250 adolescent
girls are being commercially sexually exploited each month in Georgia through
the Internet, escort services and on the streets. This survey was
commissioned by the "A Future. Not a Past" campaign to stop the
prostitution of children in Georgia. These
young girls are often runaways from the communities we call home. They are
from Atlanta, from Savannah, from Macon, from Albany, from Dalton —- and even
from towns like Cairo, Jesup and Sylvania. Many of
these runaways are escaping homes where they have been physically and
sexually abused. But they are running from a bad situation into something
even worse. Over the past decade, juvenile
justice authorities and police have noted a significant problem of children
being sexually exploited by pimps in the Southeast and especially on the
streets of metropolitan Atlanta. "Commercial sexual exploitation"
describes children engaging in sexual activities for money, profit or any
other consideration due to the coercion or influence by an adult, syndicate
or group, and it's not new to the United States. It's a problem that child
advocates in other parts of the country, such as the Children of the Night
organization in California, have been fighting for three decades. An
estimated 300,000 children in the United States are current victims of
commercial sex exploitation. Imagine this: you're 12. Your
parent has a drug problem. Your parent's "significant other" enjoys
coming in your room late at night when your parent is passed out. Every time
you get angry about it and try to vent, your parent either hits you or calls
the police and has you locked up in the youth detention center. Your whole
life has been like this, and you're angry about it. What would you do? Like
many children of troubled families, you run away. Unfortunately, you will likely go from the
frying pan to the fire. Half of
runaways are approached for sex and prostitution within 48 hours of hitting
the streets, experts say. Records of recent federal pimp prosecutions in
Atlanta reveal a world in which adult men and women lure these girls and boys
in with offers of friendship, money, or drugs and then beat them into
submission with coat hangers and baseball bats. 18-year-old
charged with prostituting child An 18-year-old woman has been
charged with prostituting a child after advertising on the Internet,
officials say. Suburban
Houston mom accused of prostituting her child For the second time in as many
weeks, a Texas woman is accused of prostituting her child. In the latest case, authorities say
Stephanie Hays (right), a 33-year-old suburban Houston woman, offered to let
a Missouri man have sex with her 11-year-old son, 2-year-old niece and
5-year-old nephew. This is the second case in less than
a week involving a Texas parent charged with offering their child for sex.
Last week, a 25-year-old San Antonio mother and her married boyfriend were
charged with trying to prostitute the woman's 5-year-old daughter. ARIZONA:
DVD Reveals Risk of Child Prostitution And according to an undercover
sergeant with the Phoenix police vice enforcement unit, seven years ago the average
age of a child prostitute was 15. Today, it is 13, the sergeant said. Teen
suicide spurs war on US prostitution At the age of 15, Samantha Walker was lured into prostitution on the streets of Toledo, Ohio, then taken against her will to Atlanta. What makes her story unique is that she testified against one of the men who paid for sex with her, helping to send him to prison. But just weeks after the trial she took an overdose of drugs she was taking for depression and died at the age of 18. More than 300,000 children are being sexually exploited in the US, according to a study by the University of Pennsylvania. Many of them end up in Atlanta, which has become a hub for prostitution in part because its busy airport makes it a destination for men seeking sex. Ghana: Rescuing the Child Prostitute, Whose Responsibility? allafrica.com/stories/200711051563.html RESEARCH FINDINGS - It is believed that one third of
street-level prostitutes in the U.S. are less 18 years old while fifty
percent of off-street prostitutes are less than 18 years old.Off-street
prostitution includes massage parlors, strip clubs, and escort services.
According to Estes and Weiner, 12 to 14 is the average age of entry into
prostitution for girls under 17 years old in the United States while the
average age of entry into prostitution is between 11 and 13. Report
from Toronto 2007: Very Young Girls WHAT DREW YOU TO THE SUBJECT
MATTER? - We were
researching topics for a proposed series about kids in conflict zones, and
one topic on our list was international sex trafficking, you know, young
girls bought and sold in Russia or Cambodia. We looked into the issue, and
found sex trafficking was going on right near our office, in our city. It turns out if you are seduced and coerced
and brought to New York City for the purposes of prostitution from the
Ukraine, and you're caught, under the 2002 Human Trafficking Act you will get
help and social services. But if you are seduced and coerced and brought to
New York City from Bridgeport, Connecticut, and you’re caught, you are going
to jail WHAT DOES THAT SAY TO YOU, ABOUT
SOCIETY? - I think
we, as a society, are ready to accept as a victim any 12, 13, or 14 year old
who is seduced or manipulated into sex by a soccer coach, an uncle, a
self-styled religious prophet, or a priest. But we don't, yet, if the
predator is a pimp. I think that is because historically we’ve accepted
prostitution, here and there, more or less, as not so bad, like gambling. But
now that we live in a world where sexual exploitation begins so young, we
really have to rethink that view. Officer,
workers honored for busting child sex ring Investigator John Cleere and case workers Connie Foster and Lynda Stanistreet were part of a joint investigation that began
in December 2005 and ultimately unearthed several victims ranging in age from
1-year-old to 15-years-old. The types of abuse and exploitation included
sexual abuse, physical abuse, neglect, drugs and child prostitution. Feds
jail man for being a child pimp FBI Special Agent Vanessa Walther
says two girls, ages 14-and 15-years-old, testified against Anderson. “These guys prey on girls with low self
esteem,” said Walther. “They look for what makes that girl tick. Maybe she
comes from a poor background and needs money or she is just looking for a
boyfriend who loves her and she doesn’t feel pretty.” Prostitution
sting nets 2 - Man forced young girls to sell selves, prosecutors say A 15-year-old girl told police Veidt raped her in Hutton's apartment after Veidt forced her into a car driven by Hutton on Aug. 29. Hutton, who drove a silver
Suburban and a black Mercedes and used the moniker "MC," attracted
young runaways or girls not living with their parents, court documents said.
He coerced them into working as prostitutes, sometimes after harassing, beating
and threatening to kill them, according to documents. Exact numbers are hard to come by,
but from the OPD’s report and Brantley’s experience
interviewing and counseling hundreds of girls seeking to leave prostitution,
a few generalizations can be made about the girls Ms. Babaoye
and others see every day: the majority are fifteen years of age or younger,
most are from outside of Alameda County, and many are from outside of
California. The vast majority suffer reproductive health problems, and most
have lived in group homes, and have suffered physical or sexual abuse in
those homes. But Ms. Brantley’s favorite number
is 95 percent. That percentage refers to the girls she speaks with at
juvenile hall who tell her that they want help leaving prostitution. The
problem is not one of will, but one of resources. While Oakland and Alameda
County are praised for the progressive collaboration between social services
and law enforcement to combat child prostitution, most girls who go through
the system return to the streets. “In six months, sometimes we see a girl in
juvenile hall and under arrest... three or four times in six months,” says
Ms. Brantley. What she wants to see is a safe
house where child prostitutes can live for a month to escape the pimps
fighting to drag them back to the streets. Without that, many girls now are
placed in group homes that perversely become the targets of pimps and
predators looking for vulnerable girls. Guam: Police can help parents with children
beyond control More than a dozen minors were
taken into custody on Friday charged with accepting money for sex and
stealing cars and breaking into homes. Those involved range in age from 11 to
19. The male minors would seek out potential "John's", those
willing to pay for sex. The female teens would then have the men take them to
various places for sex in return for money, alcohol, and marijuana. In some
cases the men would have sex with the minors, then stop by a store to
purchase alcohol. When the man returned from the store he'd find his car was
stolen by the very people he had just paid for sexual acts. Shared Hope
International - Students Take Action SEX TRAFFICKING AWARENESS AND
PREVENTION COLLEGE MATERIALS - Are you a student or professor who wants to raise awareness about
sex trafficking and modern-day slavery? Shared Hope International’s Sex Trafficking Awareness and Prevention
College Materials includes two ground-breaking documentaries with
undercover footage from sex markets around the world, educational Power Point
presentations, discussion guides and other valuable resources. Help prevent
the horrors of modern-day slavery by educating your community. Middle
Tennessee sees rise in human trafficking GIRLS LURED INTO SEX TRADE - As a result of November's
arrests, Nashville resident Cristina Andres Perfecto pleaded guilty to two
counts of commercial sex trafficking and admitted luring two Mexican girls to
the United States by telling them they would be employed at a restaurant in
Nashville. Perfecto admitted she knew all
along that the girls, who were 13 and 17, would be coerced to engage in
prostitution in brothels in Memphis and Nashville. Perfecto said physical force
and threats against the victims and their families were used to force the
girls to engage in prostitution. Houston Mother Accused Of Child Prostitution www.kxan.com/Global/story.asp?S=6655994 A Houston mother is accused of prostituting
her two teenage daughters to men looking for sex with underage girls. Investigators said the mother distributed
business cards advertising sex with children and negotiated the arrangements. Funds
Earmarked for Young American Prostitutes in Atlanta To help young girls who have been
prostituted, Georgia lawmakers have earmarked $140,000 - far less than
advocates wanted. The Juvenile Justice Fund had sought $700,000 from
Georgia's 2008 general budget. Its goal was to open a seven-bed regional
assessment center and emergency shelter for sexually exploited children. Many prostituted girls end up
locked in youth detention centers or back on the streets. One option is
Angela's House, a group home in rural Fulton County, that the Juvenile
Justice Fund owns. But the house has
room for only six girls at a time, and they stay for up to six months. In
five years, more than 90 girls, some as young as 11, have come to Angela's
House for help. Some were runaways lured into prostitution, some were
kidnapped and forced into prostitution, some were homeless and desperate. Study
Reveals Surprising Findings About Child Prostitution In City Teen prostitution. The words
usually conjure up images of young girls walking the streets. But a new
study, the first in the city to extensively interview sexually exploited
children, suggests that many of the conventional stereotypes are wrong. "The most surprising is the amount of
boys that are doing this,” says Meredith Dank. Pimp called ‘Knowledge' sentenced to 23 years The prostitutes the group
recruited were as young as 13 years old. One victim told the FBI that Thompkins promised her a cell phone, a house and a car if
she made enough money prostituting in Atlantic City. When she told him she
was only 14, he said “A lot of the girls started working for me when they
were that young.” The ring operated
from 1999 through 2005 in Atlantic City, New York, Las Vegas, Boston and
Miami. On Friday, Thompkins,
who is from the Bronx, was sentenced to 280 months in prison. There is no
parole in the federal system. Thompkins also must pay
a $5,000 fine and will be supervised for the rest of his life upon his
release. Police
report reveals more about Phoenix prostitution ring Their stories could be about any
prostitute really. The youngest one, the 12-year-old, said she was molested
by her father and a repeat runaway.
Until one day at a mall she met the wrong man. The girls were forced to work up to 16
hours a day, walking the streets, like 27th Avenue and Glendale. Sometimes they were taken out of state, to
Los Angeles and Las Vegas. Keeping
our teens safe from exploitation Minske, from north central Minnesota,
has been speaking on the topic for several years. This grandmother to 12
hopes her educational message will help end the commercial sexual
exploitation of children that is occurring throughout rural and urban parts
of the state, and across the nation. While many rural residents think child
prostitution is an urban problem, Minske said there
have been several high profile cases in northern Minnesota, including areas
around Duluth and Brainerd, where teens have been recruited into
prostitution, often by men or women who find vulnerable children at malls or
other teenage gathering spots, then befriend them and often trick them into
prostitution. The number one area in Minnesota
for recruiting teens to prostitution is the Mall of America, Minske said, where pimps will befriend teens, buy them
meals and clothes, and then gain enough control to get them into the trade. The average age of a teen entering
prostitution is now between 13 and 14, Minske said. Los
Angeles Charity Rescues Teen Prostitutes in US Teenage prostitutes in the United
States can escape life on the streets with help from a Los Angeles charity,
called Children of the Night. VOA's Mike O'Sullivan
reports, the group has helped thousands of youngsters since it was
founded. For 27 years, Children of the
Night has helped young prostitutes find shelter and get away from life on the
streets. Woman
Pleads Guilty to Forcing Juvenile Girls Into Prostitution In Memphis At her plea hearing, Perfecto
admitted that she told the girls, who were 13 and 17 years of age at the
time, that they would be employed at a restaurant in Nashville, knowing all
along that the girls would be coerced to engage in prostitution in brothels
in Memphis and Nashville. Perfecto
further admitted that co-defendant Juan Mendez then used physical force and
threats against the victims and their families to force the victims to engage
in prostitution. Arrests
made in forced child prostitution case Lexington County Sheriff's
Department detectives on Sunday charged three men with having sex with a
girl, now 15, whose mother forced the girl to work as a prostitute in order
to provide money to finance the mother's crack cocaine habit. Phoenix police targets rising child prostitution It's hard to believe, but Phoenix
police say they have noticed an alarming increase in child prostitution in
the past couple of years. Girls as
young as twelve are recruited from shopping malls, arcades, schools, parks,
chat rooms and social networking sites on the Internet. They make 500 to a thousand dollars a
night. That money goes to their pimps who promise them fancy cars and
clothes. Instead, they are sexually abused, beaten and threatened. Chelsea
Woman Convicted of Engaging in Child Prostitution Scheme As part of the plea agreement,
DIAZ admitted that between approximately July 2003 and May 2005, she operated
an escort service that advertised in multiple publications and websites, and
sent individuals – including minors - - on prostitution calls in and around
Boston. DIAZ primarily operated the business out of her home in Chelsea. In
addition, DIAZ at times traveled to other states for the purpose of having
individuals -- including minors -- engage in commercial sex. DIAZ kept all or
part of the money obtained for the sex acts performed. DIAZ also admitted that in July of 2003,
she transported Minor A and Minor B, ages 15 and 13 respectively, to New York
City to engage in prostitution. DIAZ arranged this meeting through her
business, paid for the hotel, supplied condoms and received the money paid by
the callers. Harris, Quan Fight Child Prostitution "This year, we [were heading]
toward over 600 arrests of girls under 18," she said. "We didn’t
know [how big the picture was]. We had a woman come in from the Asian [Health]
Clinic a year ago who said, ‘We couldn’t figure out why these girls had so
many sexually transmitted diseases, and we figured it out that these girls
are working as prostitutes.’" "What’s troubling is that the
girls are younger and younger," said Quan.
"The girls that are targeted now are between 13 and 15 years
old." To compare, older high
school girls are less vulnerable. "They know that they have options;
they’re stronger," she said. Women
charged with offering girls for sex Two Chicago women are accused of
using a popular Internet site to sell sex with girls as young as 14,
authorities said today. The women
placed pictures and advertisements for sex with adult women on craigslist.com,
Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart said at a news conference today. But undercover
sheriff's officers who responded to the ads discovered the girls involved
were as young as 14, the sheriff's office said. The arrests are the first time the
Cook County sheriff's police have arrested anyone in connection with child
prostitution on the Internet. RECRUITED IN SCHOOLS AND CHURCHES - Nicole’s striking good looks
always attracted the attention of older men. One 28-year-old boyfriend
continued to have sex with her even after she admitted she was 14. He invited
friends to have sex with her, too.
Girls such as Nicole often engage in “survival sex”—trading sex for
food or shelter—says McCullough. That’s due in part to the fact that 68
percent of adult prostitutes were sexually abused as children; many, like
Nicole, actually became prostitutes as children. Oakland
Sees Spike In Child Prostitution A recent prostitution sweep
conducted by Oakland police led to 48 arrests -- 8 of them minors -- one,
just 13-years-old. The department calls the human trafficking of minors
"organized crime" that's making Oakland's streets a magnet for
child predators. Eight minors were
arrested for prostitution on Thursday night in this sweep --
13,14,15-years-old. And this summer, police broke up
an alleged child prostitution ring that brought young girls from Mexico and
forced them into prostitution to pay off their “debt” for bringing them
across the border. Exposing
the dark underworld of Atlanta It is beyond unusual for a mayor,
especially the mayor of a city that depends as heavily on tourism as Atlanta,
to shine a spotlight on a problem as repellent as child prostitution. I asked
the mayor why she went ahead with such a high-profile campaign, which
includes a "Dear John" initiative that has flooded the city with
posters and public service announcements declaring that the men who "buy
sex from our kids" will no longer be tolerated. But that's not stopping Ms.
Franklin. "We take the position in my administration that the best way
to solve a problem is to face the facts," she said, adding: "We
know the problem is here. It's happening on our watch. It's unacceptable
behavior, and we are not going to stand for it. So look for us to do
everything in our power to change it." Rising Child Prostitution in America [scroll down] LEADERS UNITE TO FIGHT PROSTITUTION - Community leaders admit they let their guard down a bit, and once again young girls are being exploited and pimped. In the last battle against the problem, city of Atlanta leaders went after adult entertainment clubs, shutting many of them down. Now, they say their approach needs to be much more sophisticated, and it's going to take the entire community to pitch in and help. It was a problem Atlanta community leaders thought they had tackled years ago -- child prostitution. Girls as young as 11 and 12 years old being exploited, placed on the streets of Atlanta ... Officials
pledge to fight a rise in child prostitution More than 30 public and private
agencies joined today in a coalition to try counter child and teen
prostitution, a problem Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley
described as "the nation's least recognized epidemic." "Child prostitution is
trending upward," said Boston Police Superintendent Margo Hill.
"Technology has helped. Cell phones have taken a lot of it inside. Gang
affiliations (with prostitution) also are disturbing. Child
prostitution becoming more common in Arizona "Child prostitution has
become and is growing epidemic in the state of Arizona and the city of
Phoenix," said Chief Jack Harris of the Phoenix Police Department.
"There have been over 35 child prostitutes. These are girls ranging from
the age of 13 to 17 years of age." Officials name sex slave suspect www.jacksonholestartrib.com/articles/2006/09/21/news/wyoming/a5bdcb468a2de556872571ef008133cd.txt Investigators say the girl, who
was 13 years old at the time, told a teenage girlfriend, also alleged to have
been smuggled and forced to have sex for money with many men here, of her plan
to escape to Mexico. Affidavits say the friend informed one or both of their
captors, a reportedly 32-year-old Idaho carpenter and a 42-year-old Jackson
restaurateur -- both in custody -- of the escape plan. That caused the
alleged coyote-ringleaders to threaten to kill a man the 13-year-old victim
said she “had met and liked” in Phoenix if she tried to run away, the
documents say. Expert:
Up to 600 child prostitutes on Houston streets Two teenagers testifying in a
child sex-trafficking trial are like hundreds of child prostitutes working
the Houston streets in a struggle for survival, an expert on child
prostitution said Wednesday. The children often willingly become prostitutes
because they are fending for themselves on the streets, are abandoned by
adults, and have no other way. Notable New Yorkers: Rachel Lloyd wcbstv.com/seenon/local_story_247230333.html She is the kind of woman many would
have counted out, having seen and experienced atrocious abuse. But it was
that abuse that fueled her ability to make a powerful difference. Three plead guilty to interstate transportation of minors
for prostitution detroit.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel06/de082806.htm At today’s plea hearing,
defendants admitted that in May 2005, Deric
Willoughby and Brandy Shope brought two minors,
aged 14 and 15, to Willoughby’s residence in Toledo, Ohio and, along with
Jennifer Huskey, agreed to prostitute the minors.
Defendant’s Shope and Huskey
instructed the minors that they would have to engage in commercial sexual
acts for money, including sexual intercourse and oral sex, that they would be
required to call Deric Willoughby “Daddy” and that
they would have to respect and obey Willoughby in all things. Prostitution
of Girls a Growing Problem The Phoenix Police Department
recently identified 60 pimps in the city bent on luring children into
prostitution — by trolling area malls. More shockingly, it's not just
happening in Phoenix. The Phoenix
Police Department spends as much as 40 percent of its work combating juvenile
prostitution. In response, City Councilwoman Peggy Bilsten
has created a task force to study child prostitution — and initiate community
conversations in an effort to toughen Arizona laws. Bilsten warned that the predators are
targeting girls as young as 11.
"They take an average-looking girl and they go and start telling
her how beautiful she is," she told Family News in Focus. "For an
example, they say, 'Hey, we'd like you to be a model.' And, within about 90
minutes, they have this young person where they want them." Anti-trafficking
expert teaches training course Another emerging problem in the
human trafficking world is gangs, he said. California gangs are starting to
venture into the lucrative crime by recruiting girls from U.S. elementary and
high schools into prostitution with the promise of good money and nice
clothes, he said. But conditions soon change and girls are forced to stay, he
said. Some girls are trafficked out of state, said Castro, noting that San
Diego law enforcers have three or four such open investigations. Child-prostitution
cases reveal cruel underworld A harrowing picture of the seamy world
of child prostitution is emerging in court documents stemming from a
nationwide crackdown that has produced 543 arrests and 94 convictions. Intelligence
Analyst Works to Save Kids I recently worked on a major child
prostitution investigation called "Precious Cargo," which centered
on sex trafficking in Pennsylvania, but reached as far away as Florida,
Michigan, and Oklahoma. We had intelligence that showed Harrisburg was a hub
for trafficking and that minors and adult victims were being prostituted at
truck stops. I worked alongside the Pennsylvania State Police, the Internal
Revenue Service, the U.S. Attorney's Office, and the FBI's office in Harrisburg.
The evidence we gathered exposed the massive scope of the prostitution ring.
Last December, a Federal Grand Jury returned indictments against 21
individuals on charges of sex trafficking of children, money laundering, and
conspiracy. Man
held on $50,000 bond in child prostitution case Victor Diaz, 23, and his niece,
Evelyn Diaz, 22, of Chelsea, were arrested Friday on a charge of conspiring
to engage in a child prostitution scheme. Prosecutors allege that between
2003 and 2005, the couple operated an escort service that sent adults and
children on prostitution calls around Boston. They advertised their service
in publications and websites, according to a federal indictment. Rising Child Prostitution in America [scroll down] MAN ACCUSED OF CHILD PROSTITUTION - In a statement to investigators, one victim said "I don't like where I’m staying. Our mother just pimps us." The three girls, including two sisters, say the abuse happened in Hatch's office at his used car lot. Man
accused of pimping teenagers The teens, who had run away from
home, told police they had been working as prostitutes since meeting Elbert
at a liquor store about a month ago. They said he took all of their earnings
as payment for a place to live, clothes and food. County
holds conference over exploitation of minors Every year the number of child prostitutes
on the streets of Alameda County grows. The number of people working to
reverse this alarming trend grows just as rapidly. Last Wednesday, more than 200 of them
gathered for a two-day Sexually Exploited Minors Conference -- about 50 more
people than event planners anticipated. A
horrible achievement - Atlanta's child prostitution business is booming "They throw the children in
the trunk of a car, take them to another city and trade them to another
pimp," Espy says. That's a possible death sentence. At the very least,
the children know they may never see their families or homes again. The Growing
Cancer of Child Sexual Exploitation on the Web There were also 2,669 reported
incidents of online enticement of children for sexual acts, 611 for
unsolicited obscene material sent to a child, 841 misleading domain names,
1,640 reports of child sexual molestation by other than family members, 553
of child prostitution and 202 for child sex tourism. This practice involves
adults traveling to foreign countries to engage in sexual activity with
children. It is estimated to draw more than one million children into the sex
trade each year, especially in developing countries. Three
convicted of forcing child into prostitution The defendants transported the
girl from Massachusetts to Maine, Connecticut, Rhode Island and New Hampshire
to engage in prostitution between October 2000 and September 2002 when she
from 13 to 15 years old, prosecutors said. Area
Juvenile Sex Rings Targeted Using Anti-Trafficking Laws They performed sex acts with men
in cheap motel rooms, alleys and the back seats of cars, they said. Clients
had 10 minutes or it cost extra. One girl, 14 when she was recruited, said
her quota was $500 a night, with various sex acts ranging in price from $50
to $150. Three Mexican Nationals Convicted of Sex Trafficking houston.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel06/ho20606a.htm At their re-arraignment hearings, the men were convicted of being part of an organization that operated between early 2004 through the summer of 2005, to (1) recruit, entice, harbor, transport, provide and obtain young Mexican women and girls, and benefitting financially from participating in a venture knowing that force, fraud and coercion would be used to cause the young Mexican women and girls to engage in commercial sex acts, and to (2) entice, harbor, transport, provide and obtain young Mexican women and girls, and benefit financially from participation in a venture knowing that the girls, not yet the age of 18, would be engaging in a commercial sex act. Captive
teenage cousins suffer crash course in forced sex trade The rain began to fall harder. The
cousins, ages 14 and 15, took the adults up on their offer of a ride. The
girls later told police they picked up some Chinese takeout and went over to a
Downing Avenue house. Once inside,
police said, Willoughby locked the door and set an alarm system. "It was made clear to them they
weren't free to leave," said Detective Raisanen.
"They were told, 'This is your house now. Deric
is your daddy, and that's how you'll refer to him, and this is what you'll be
expected to do, and if you don't comply, there's going to be consequences,' …
arguably for the rest of their lives." Prostitution
in Region 8: Monica's Story Monica Sartin
came to Jonesboro last year, escaping what she calls an abusive relationship
with her ex-husband. Addicted to crack cocaine and meth,
Monica has fought demons since she first tried drugs at age 11. She turned
her first trick at 12. Crackdown
exposes Toledo as a hub of teen prostitution If the brutal world of teenage
prostitution were a legitimate business, Toledo would be among its top
employment agencies. It has supplied
top management — iron-fisted pimps who demanded worker productivity and
loyalty. Disturbing
trend: More and more young girls are being drawn into sex trade Prostitutes as young as 11 or 12
are often lured into the business by pimps who promise money, clothes and
other niceties. They then work for operations that claim to be escort
services or massage parlors and recruit customers online or in newspapers,
O’Connell said. Through His Webcam, a Boy Joins a Sordid
Online World Justin's dark coming-of-age story
is a collateral effect of recent technological advances. Minors, often under
the online tutelage of adults, are opening for-pay pornography sites
featuring their own images sent onto the Internet by inexpensive Webcams. And
they perform from the privacy of home, while parents are nearby, beyond their
children's closed bedroom door. SEATTLE IS A HUB FOR LURING TEENS
INTO LIVES OF PROSTITUTION - The Seattle that Alisha knows is not a city of social liberalism or
glittering scenery. For her, it is just a series of worn-out highways where
men will happily pay a 15-year-old for sex. In the past several months, the Child Prostitution Ring Shut Down In one of the largest coordinated
enforcement actions ever taken against child prostitution rings in the Area study says female teen prostitution
'common' Based on their experiences, the
report said, most of the girls, 86 percent, engage in prostitution at least
once a week, and almost two-thirds of the girls have pimps over the age of
18. "A lot of these girls are
runaways," said sheriff's Deputy Rick Castro, a former DETROIT,
MICHIGAN/HONOLULU, HAWAII - The indictment alleges that during May 2005, defendants
Willoughby, Shope, Huskey,
and Gordon engaged in a conspiracy to commit the offenses of sexual exploitation
of children and transportation of children for the purposes of prostitution.
Specifically, the defendants are alleged to have transported two minor girls
from their hometown of Toledo, Ohio to Michigan for the purpose of forcing
the two minors to engage in commercial sexual acts for money. Enslaved in America: Sex Trafficking in the United States I was 14 years old
when I was forced into prostitution. Like many teens at that age, finding my
own identity and defying my parents were top on my list. So when a man came
into my life and showered me with attention and listened to me when I
complained about my parents, I did not think twice that he was ten years my
senior. After all, he said I was mature for my age and told me I understood
him better than anyone his own age. Human Trafficking Seen as Threat Within
Nation's Borders Johnny Gosch was a victim in 1982 at age 11 when he was abducted
by kidnappers in Martinez Mom Allegedly Offers Daughter, 4, For Sex cbs5.com/local/local_story_315105708.html The Martinez Police
Department reports that a 22-year-old resident was arrested Tuesday for
allegedly offering her four-year-old child for sex. Police received a tip from the Runaway raped, held as sex slave Since September, the
15-year-old girl had been raped repeatedly, threatened with death and sold
for sex over the Internet, police said.
Her captors hid the runaway in a hollowed-out box spring covered with
a piece of wood and tucked underneath a bed in a small apartment complex
adjacent to Interstate 17 in west Suspect in runaway prostitute case was
child prostitute Woman Tells Terrifying Story Of Teen Prostitution Countywide, 76 girls
were arrested last year on suspicion of teen prostitution -- a 27 percent
increase over a one-year period. And a majority are coerced -- some by family
or friends. Others like Sarah are forced by strangers. Sex trafficking hits home www.mndaily.com/articles/2005/10/31/65875 You couldn't spot them
on the street, but right now there are slaves living in local neighborhoods,
hidden in basements and being transported along area highways. The CIA estimates 50,000 women and children
are transported each year throughout the To stop a forced sex trade www.mndaily.com/articles/2005/10/31/65899 She said she was
trafficked by her family as a young girl and escaped by saving money for
college. Stark attended the University her first year and transferred to
University of Wisconsin-Madison to get away from her family. Rural ECPAT: Fifth Report on implementation of the Agenda for
Action [DOC] www.ecpat.net/eng/Ecpat_inter/publication/other/english/Doc_page/ecpat_5th_a4a_2001_full.doc [B]
COUNTRY UPDATES – UNITED STATES OF AMERICA – ECPAT USA has carried out research into child
prostitution in New York City. The research highlights a number of alarming
trends. Firstly, the average age of prostituted youth is decreasing from
fourteen to thirteen and even twelve years of age. It is believed that in Report
by Special Rapporteur [DOC] [77] Children in prostitution
under 18 but over the age of sexual consent may incur criminal liability and
be dealt with by a juvenile court. The age of consent ranges from
14 to 18 years throughout the 50 states. Information was received
about the particular situation of children in prostitution in The
Life of a Teenage Prostitute To Jessica's mother, transactional
sex has its advantages. "You
marry a guy and you gotta give him sex and you're
not even getting basically nothing out of it," she said. "These ones I can send home when I'm
done with them." WHY MORE
KIDS ARE GETTING INTO THE SEX TRADE--AND HOW THE FEDS ARE FIGHTING BACK - Kristie was 13 when she met the first of
her four "daddies." She had run away from home in the Southwest,
and friends introduced her to a tall, good-looking man, who said the
red-haired teenager was sexy and had potential. Pretty soon, he had her prostituting
herself on the streets of The indictment alleges that he
recruited females as young as 14 years of age to engage in prostitution for
his own financial benefit. He caused these females to prostitute in D.C. and
other locations, including Teen's Horror Story
Leads To Prostitution Ring Bust Ending
the quiet tragedy of modern-day slavery In the past 12 months, immigration
agents have raided a number of suspected brothels in quiet GEORGIA: Child Prostitution: The Hidden Crime The report found child
prostitution prevalent in rich and poor neighborhoods. Children were forced
into sex work from south Two indicted in child prostitution case Specifically, Doss and Ford
allegedly conspired to recruit a 14-year-old female and a 16-year-old female
to work as prostitutes for Doss. Once the victims were recruited, the
indictment alleges, the defendants transported them to various locations in Underage
prostitution reaching crisis level on streets of Oakland "It's a geographic
epidemic," said Nola Brantley, director of parenting and youth
enrichment for the Oakland police net 34 in prostitution sting The "most alarming
thing" is the increased number of juveniles and how young the teen
prostitutes are, said Lighten. The youngest to be arrested on suspicion of an
act of prostitution was 12. More than
800 suspected prostitutes have been arrested in the last year, said Officer
Mark Turpin of the Special Victims Unit. And, about one in every five is a
juvenile. THE GUΛRDIΛN - Children's issues addressed in each week's episode [scroll down] TEEN PROSTITUTION - Teen prostitution and the sexual exploitation of children is a growing problem in the United States. Government statistics report a substantial increase in teen prostitution, and indicate that thirteen is the average age of newly recruited teen prostitutes. Although the majority of teen prostitutes are runaways from poor and inner-city neighborhoods, the percentage of teen prostitutes from upper and middle class homes is trending upward. Concrete Is Cold And
Hard At Night: The Children’s Voices RUNAWAY
AND DISCARDED CHILDREN
- “At least I’m not on the corner trickin’ and smokin’ rock,” she says, while missing the irony of her
statements. “If I gotta give up my ass I’m gonna do it my way. If I don’t like a guy I’m stayin’ with I just find another one. Lots of guys out
there would kill to have a fourteen year old livin’
with ‘em and givin’ up
ass.” Exploited Girls in U.S. Seek Same Protection Afforded Foreign Women Children forced to become
prostitutes in the Special Report: Selling Atlanta’s Children "I think I have been locked
up long enough," the girl said in a small, high-pitched voice. She began
to cry and rubbed her eyes with balled-up fists. "If you would just let
me go home…" But for children
like her and her 11-year-old sister, also an alleged prostitute, it’s not
that simple. In Thailand
Ranks Third in Number of Child Prostitution – [Editor’s note: U.S.A
Ranks Second] Statement of Chris Swecker Assistant Director, Criminal Investigative Division, FBI Juveniles who become involved in
sexual trafficking face a myriad of obstacles and enormous needs if they want
to leave that life, including very basic needs such as safe housing,
subsistence, and schooling. In addition, they may need drug treatment,
medical treatment, and mental health services. They may have problems related
to victimization prior to their life on the streets. Most cannot return to
their family of origin, so they need help to prepare for independent living. Sex trafficking is known to
destroy the lives of women and children internationally, but it is also
"homegrown" and devastates the lives of American youth from all
economic levels. Summer is fast approaching and with it an increase in the
number of children living on the streets at risk for increased commercial
sexual exploitation. They live in fear of losing their coping mechanisms
(drugs and alcohol), and fear of losing a place to live and food to eat.
These children are also ashamed and fear their families will find out what
they have been doing. They fear the police and fear being returned home. Sex
Trafficking of American Youth [PDF] This issue highlights factors
affecting the trafficking of American children Fact
Sheet: Commercial Sexual Exploitation FACTS AND
FIGURES - An
estimated 2 million children, the majority of them girls, are sexually
exploited in the multi-billion dollar commercial sex industry. At the end of
2000, as many as 325,000 children were at risk of commercial sexual
exploitation in the United States alone. Teen prostitution is also a suburban problem, says former
Minneapolis mayor Hofstede www.hometownsource.com/capitol/1999/november/1104teens.html The most vulnerable category of
children susceptible to becoming involved in prostitution are
runaway or homeless youths, the report notes.
A child is usually approached by a person willing to pay for sex
within 36 to 48 hours of the child being on the street, the report states. While a 1997 Wilder Research
Center study estimated that there are some 730 homeless youth s in Minnesota
on any given night, other social agencies put the figure much higher ó as
high as 2000 to 3000. Children of the Night is dedicated to assisting
children between the ages of 11 and 17 who are forced to prostitute on the
streets for food and a place to sleep. Covenant House New York is the
nations largest adolescent care agency serving homeless, runaway and at-risk
youth. Our doors are open 24 hours a day for youth in need. Each year nearly
7,000 youth seek out our Crisis and Community Centers for safety, shelter,
food, and someone to talk to – and that’s just the beginning! Covenant House begun over 30 years
ago when six young runaways were given shelter from a snowstorm, in the lower
east side of Manhattan. Covenant House now has programs in 21 U.S. cities and
Latin America. More than 77,000 young people are aided annually by Covenant
House in its national and international programs. City
Announces Crackdown On Child Prostitution A Sexual Slavery in Southern California Today? Epidemic, say officials She was a teenage girl from an
impoverished village in Bangladesh. The American couple offered her transport
to America and a better life: a nice job as their nanny and housekeeper,
wages and opportunity. The dream offer dissolved into a nightmare as soon as
she reached sunny Southern California. The couple informed her she owed them
a huge sum for bringing her into the country and forced her to work without
wages for years in their home, where she was repeatedly raped and beaten by
the husband and abused by the wife. After three failed attempts, and with the
help of good Samaritans, she finally escaped. Prostituted Youth in New York City: An Overview [PDF] On child prostitution in
particular, hardly any comprehensive research has been done to document the
number of prostituted children or the circumstances that have led them into
prostitution. Much less do we provide
adequate services for them. Yet, there
are as many as 400,000 prostituted children in the Atlanta
Combats Child Prostitution Georgia Public Radio reports on
new efforts by state and local officials to combat child prostitution in CSEC in the U. S., Canada and Mexico – Abstract diary.bluemango.in/?p=35 MAJOR FINDINGS - Patterns of child sexual
exploitation are fueled by: 1) the use of prostitution by runaway and
throwaway children to provide for their subsistence needs; 2) the presence of
pre-existing adult prostitution markets in the communities where large
numbers of street youth are concentrated; 3) prior history of child sexual
abuse and child sexual assault; 4) poverty; 5) the presence of large numbers
of unattached and transient males in communities--including military
personnel, truckers, conventioneers, sex tourists, among others; 6) for some
girls, membership in gangs; 7) the promotion of juvenile prostitution by
parents, older sib-lings and boy friends; 8) the recruitment of children by
organized crime units for prostitution; and, increasingly, 9) illegal
trafficking of children for sexual purposes to the U.S. from developing
countries located in Asia, Africa, Central and South America, and Central and
Eastern Europe. The Sexual Exploitation of Children - A Working Guide to the Empirical Literature [PDF] [page 22, section D] RUNAWAY,
"THROWAWAY" AND STREET CHILDREN IN THE UNITED STATES 1. Prevalence 2. Causes/Risk Factors Associated With Running Away 3. Social and Health Risks of Runaway & Street Youth--Including Sexually Exploited Youth 4. Gangs and Gang Culture Among Runaway/Street Youth 5. Homeless Youth - sccp All material used herein
reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107 for noncommercial,
nonprofit, and educational use |
Human Trafficking in [USA] [other countries]Street Children in [USA] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [USA