A Shift: Teen Prostitutes Seen As Victims

Calif., N.Y. Treat Girls As Victims Of Trafficking And Abuse, Not As Perpetrators

(AP)  By the time she was 8, Amanda had been sexually abused by her father's friend for four years. At 12, she was peddling crack. At 14, she was selling sex on the sidewalk.

Her pimp beat her weekly to keep her working, stitching up her wounds himself to avoid questions at a hospital. Her average earnings of $600 for a 13-hour day of turning tricks bought him a car.

Now 15, Amanda is rebuilding her life. Caught when a cop stopped one of her customers for a broken tail light, she was sent to Children of the Night, a residential program in suburban Los Angeles that rehabilitates teen prostitutes.

"All my life my plate was like overfilled with problems," she said. "I always asked God to give me something good, and this is it."

The fact that Amanda was rescued instead of arrested reflects not only a stroke of luck but a decidedly different take on tackling the juvenile sex trade. Courts and law enforcement are increasingly treating young prostitutes as child abuse victims - and their pimps as human traffickers.

"This is an institutional shift," said Nancy O'Malley, an Alameda County prosecutor who wrote California's new sexually exploited minors law. "It's about getting people to shift their attention and judgment from the minor and seeing what's beyond this criminal behavior."

New York also has a new law that calls for underage prostitutes to be sent to rehabilitation programs instead of juvenile detention, along with more training for law enforcement in handling the troubled teenagers and taking a harder line on their pimps.

In many other states, prosecutors are charging pimps with human trafficking, or the transportation of people for illicit commercial purposes. Convictions can land traffickers in prison for decades.

The approach comes as pimps are getting increasingly sophisticated and harder to bust. They run loose networks across states lines that distribute girls like drugs and set up Internet sex operations that are tough to infiltrate.

The result: Teen prostitution has spread to towns across the country, said Michael Langeman, who heads the FBI's Crimes Against Children unit. The FBI's work is also bolstered by federal trafficking laws to crack down on pimps.

In Nevada, a man was sentenced to life for transporting two girls from that state to cities around California to work as prostitutes in 2006. Last year, three people pleaded guilty to sex trafficking of children in San Diego for running an Internet-advertised sex ring with 14- and 16-year-olds.

"This isn't like the old days of a slap on the wrist," said Keith Bolkar, who heads the FBI's Cybercrimes unit in Los Angeles.

Rescuing the girls is an important part of the equation. In most cases, they're troubled, often sexually abused, lured into prostitution by "boyfriends" who shower them with the loving attention they lack at home. Gifts and outings, though, turn into violence and emotional manipulation.

That was the case with Samantha, a 15-year-old from Orange County, now at Children of the Night, a rehab program for teen prostitutes. At 14, she said, she started using drugs and skipping school. She soon met an older man.

"He gave me money, drugs, clothes," she recalled. "I was having fun. Then he started hitting me."

The boyfriend took her to Arizona, made her pose for photos in lingerie and have sex with men who responded to Craigslist ads.

"I complained a lot so he gave me drugs," she said.

She was rescued when another girl was arrested and told police about her.

Children of the Night, which has 24 beds, is one of four similar programs around the country. The others are in New York City, San Francisco and Atlanta. Two more are planned to open this year in Oakland and Toledo, Ohio.

The dearth of programs means girls from all over the country are sent to Children of the Night.

Gladys, a 17-year-old from a Miami suburb, found herself there after she ran away from home to be with a boyfriend. The boyfriend advertised her as a prostitute on Craigslist and threatened to kill her if she didn't comply. She was shuffled around motels over a two-month period until one of his other "girlfriends" got arrested.

"I was like 'thank God. I want to go home. What did I get myself into?"' she said.

Now, she's completing high school and driver's instruction and looking for a job.

The Associated Press doesn't routinely identify the victims of sexual abuse. The names Amanda, Samantha and Gladys are pseudonyms.

Programs that build the girls' self-esteem, push them to finish high school and heal their trauma are ideal, but funding is always short for a cause that generally doesn't engender public sympathy, said Lois Lee, a sociologist who founded Children of the Night 30 years ago in her home and runs it on $2 million a year in private donations.

Once a girl becomes involved in prostitution, her prospects are bleak. An arrest usually offers the only hope for escape. Even then, there's a small chance the girl is offered rehabilitation - and accepts it. Lee said 61 percent of 94 girls at Children of the Night in 2008 completed the program.

Amanda, now studying for her high school diploma, realized that was her fate if she didn't accept Children of the Night.

"I said to myself 'If I go back to the streets, I'm there 'til I die,"' she said. "I knew this was my chance."

[concernedsista]

There are some no brainer fixes or at least help for this problem which is not going away. People have to pull their heads out of paranoia and archaic morals and get practical. Poverty is not the reason, lack of schooling and lack of sex worker regulation is the reason. Update the laws to suit the problems.

1# Prostitution needs to be legal so it can be regulated. This frees up authorities' resources to catch the nasty pimps.

2# Minimum age for all sex workers and sex or nude performers needs to be 25. So sex workers and strippers can better mentally handle work and have some chance at real life after sex work, and very importantly it is easier to spot and rescue child prostitutes.

3# Kids must stay in school until at least 21. So less young minds are corrupted and young minds are stronger and more educated before they hit the streets. Local prostitution licensing fees can go to local schools as well as rehabilitation.

4# No guns. This fixes a host of problems in the USA and in neighboring countries. As much as I love shooting, I love the health and safety of neighborhood and community much much more.

5# Life sentences for pimps. Sex Slavery is akin to murder as the victims are affected for life, very few live out physically or mentally healthy lives.

6# Clients of child prostitutes should be charged as rapists and get mandatory jail time, because to a young person's mental health (anybody under 25) it is a violent rape act, even if the client is gentle.

7# People have to stop judging prostitutes and sex workers and start making friends with them and including them in community and churches. The main reason they hide and go underground and become at risk is because they are afraid of you sitting on your moral high horse.

8# When you have a mentally healthy community and neighbors without weapons you have a safe community and neighbors. You have the power to make change, use it.

Sincerely ...

Concerned Sista

[honestabe8]

get_down: why should drug dealers be "punished" at all?

[SusanStoHelit]

They're underaged, the only appropriate response is to recognize that as children, underage teenagers, they're easy for an adult to manipulate, control. We can treat them as adult criminals, and that's what they'll remain - or we can recognize the truth, and help them to grow up into educated productive adults.

[get_down]

Any person forces other people to sell their bodies for his/her own financial gain is not a real human-being - thus must be dealt with by the court of law harshly. A law-abiding society needs to punish pimps, drug-dealers, murderers...etc with severe punishment so that they would not become repeated offenders. Amen!

[luke_4u]

First of all pythoncharly, never write a letter in all caps, it makes you look stupid. Second, why does politics have to enter into prostitution ? I can tell by your rantings, that you're a left wing liberal fool. You're tying to blame this on the Republicans ? How lame ! So far, what have the democrats done about prostitution, underage or not ? It's a local matter, a matter for each police or sheriff's dept. in the jurisdiction in question. I know, this just gave you an opportunity to show your hate for conservatives and Republicans in general. What a shame that you're such a narrow minded left wing radical. Well here's a news flash for you, by the time Obacarama get's through his four years of ruining this country, you'll be glad to see a Republican in office again. As for these young prostitutes, yes many of them really are victims, and many more are not. More than a few of these gals know exactly what they are doing, and they do it for the "money" ! As an extreme left wing whacko, you should know all about prostituting yourself for "money", democrats do it all the time. So take your political rantings to Obacarama, he's your master now. Deal with it.

[billpl-2009]

great but...

they aught to start in Elorado Texas, where old men have sex with children all the time.

[linfinster]

The video was interesting also. I can't believe how twisted we are today that the young girls can take semi nude photos of themselves and one of the mothers files a lawsuit when she can get the child some help in behavior and self esteem. SICK SICK SICK!

[valh1]

thomaso, could you be any more stupid?

[hamiltongrad]

I am confused. Who and When were these poor kids not seen as victims ?? This I think is a subtle slam against ?? who . It is unclear . This is just poor reporting.

[Chris_Butler]

Teen Prostitutes Seen As Victims.

Who in there right mind would look at these children as anything but a victim.

For anybody to think otherwise must be depraved.

[stn_sage]

From the lack of comments on this article, one can see that this is a difficult issue for most
people to voluntarily come forward and discuss.

But, I would say that I think it is good that state officials---at least some---are taking actions
designed to help women---especially young teenage girls---who have gotten involved in
the prostitution trade!

I have to believe that the vast majority of young teenage girls are doing it because they
are being manipulated by exploiting adults---usually male! Or, others do it as a matter of
sheer survival---and presented with a viable option---would choose it over what they are
doing!

In any case, the help we extend---or fail to extend---defines our values---or lack of values'
as a nation!

[barbaram99]

I don/t blame the children that get caught up in this. I do blame the parents for this more. There are adults that do this to their children. I am appalled at them. I am in my 50s. i was a teen once. I was abused in foster care. I don't blame the computer ,tv,or like items.
I do BLAME adults that should know better. Years ago I told my now dead foster father yer sick and he was, Paws off them. Males know what they fall for. It is jail bate.. Young ladies need a place they can turn to and this is child abuse.This is slavery. I pity the children.