We Need 21st Century Abolitionists
The Civil War didn’t end all slavery. We must end sex trafficking in the U.S.
The average age of a victim of sex trafficking in the United States is 12 years old. Twelve.
Sex Trafficking is the fastest growing enterprise of organized crime. Sex trafficking is the market-driven industry of forced enslavement and prostitution of young girls and boys. We tend to think of the victims as girls, but according to Ark of Hope for Children, in fact, boys comprised about 1/3 of exploited children, and they are abducted for sex and labor.
According to the Ark of Hope,
· Up to 300,000 Americans under 18 are lured into the commercial sex trade every year.
· From 14,500–17,500 of those victims are trafficked into the United States each year.
Traffickers prey on youths from overseas looking for a better life. Many youths come from Mexico, Central America, and Asia. While California has the largest amount of sex trafficking, Texas ranks second. Houston is a major hub due to the number interstates, its international airport, international port, and proximity to the border. The United States is the largest importer of sex trafficked victims, a horrible accolade.
Trafficking occurs in a range of venues including fake massage businesses, via online ads or escort services, in residential brothels, on the street or at truck stops, or at hotels and motels. Dr. Vanessa Bouche, a professor at Texas Christian University, estimates that in Houston, Texas alone, 2,369 men visit illicit massage parlors daily. This staggering number does not even include cantinas or Backpage/Craigslist online sites. Thus, her most recent work combating human trafficking has been developing a comprehensive database to track victims’ paths and traffickers’ networks.
Domestic Trafficking
While victims do come from overseas, many victims can come right from our backyard. Perpetrators prey on youths in places like shopping malls. And, malls in good neighborhoods, too. Kids who are educated and uneducated. Kids from good families and at-risk families. No one is exempt.
The perps look for girls and boys who may be shy or vulnerable. They will look for conversation pieces, such as the concert t-shirt the child is wearing, or they may simply compliment their hair. The perp can quickly assess if he can walk out of the mall with that child or not. Once a rapport is created and the girl willingly walks out the door with him, she’ll get into his car. And she’s gone. She’ll be driven to another state, held in an unsuspecting home or business. This makes it extremely difficult for families to find them.
Runaways are another vulnerable population and easy target for these pimps. In 2016, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, 1 out of 6 runaways become a victim. And, once a young adult has “aged out” of the sex trafficking system, where do the kids go with no skills, poor health, no education, and a feeling of no hope?
It gets worse. It’s not just trolling perps at malls and young runaways that are “sextored” (sexually exploited), a growing way predators recruit their victims is online. Backspace.com has been criticized heavily for allowing sex trafficking marketing through its site. To order a girl online is as easy as ordering a pizza. Let that sink in.
Where do we go from here? We do have solid laws on the books giving law enforcement, prosecutors, and state and federal agencies the tools and power to act. Local law enforcement is improving in their knowledge and experience prosecuting the perpetrators (both pimps and johns), but the bad guys have to be located and arrested first. The victims are almost always afraid to speak up. The pimps use physical force, false promises, and coercion to create unfathomable fear. Furthermore, these pimps move the victims around, too, abandoning detected locations or creating “delivery” systems.
Both Democrats and Republicans support the end to these disgusting crimes. The momentum is strong right now to stop these predators, and help our children by providing temporary beds and transition back to society. It’s our job to help the victims and stop the market-driven demand. Like illegal drugs, until demand is stopped, supply will continue.
For more information on our federal laws to help combat these horrors, click here.
