Human Trafficking in [USA] [other countries]Street Children in [USA] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [USA |
Child Prostitution The Commercial Sexual Exploitation of
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FEATURED ARTICLE *** 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. ***
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 Human
trafficking steps from the shadows 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? 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 - [Editor’s note: article may not be accessible via Internet Explorer] 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 - [Editor’s note: article may not be accessible via Internet Explorer] 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] [B]
COUNTRY UPDATES – 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. |
