July 23, 2009
Katie Couric Reports: "The Lost Girls"
Increasing Number of Girls and Teenagers Caught in a Vicious Cycle in Las Vegas
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Play CBS Video Video Underage Prostitution In Vegas Known as the city of sin, Las Vegas now stands as a major epicenter for underage prostitution. As Katie Couric reports, many prostitutes are as young as 12 years old throughout the city.
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Video Teen Prostitutes In The U.S. It's a growing problem in America: teenage prostitution. The problem has exploded recently in communities nationwide. Katie Couric reports on a criminal enterprise that's growing larger by the day.
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Underage prostitution in Sin City is on the rise. In the last two years nearly 400 girls under the age of 18 have been arrested or detained by the Vegas vice squad. (CBS)
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Interactive Crime Beat Statistics and specifics on crime in America.
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"So how many dates tonight?" a vice investigative officer asks a girl.
"Seven dates," she said.
"Seven dates - and you're getting 100 bucks a date?" asks the agent.
The girl nods.
"The reality is that a lot of people come to Las Vegas and they think that prostitution is legal," said Lt. Karen Hughes with the Las Vegas vice squad. "So when they come here and it's an adult playground they think that kids are for sale."
Some of the kids are as young as 12 - part of a massive workforce of prostitutes, some 35,000 strong, who operate in casinos, clubs, hotels and the streets along the Vegas strip, reports CBS News anchor Katie Couric.
CBS News spent one night with an undercover vice squad from the city's police department. Six women were arrested in five hours - two of them were under 18.
"How come you're down on the strip this hour of the night?" asked an agent.
"I was just walking," said a girl, sobbing.
"There are a lot of bad things that can happen out here to a girl your age," the agent said.
Tina - who CBS News disguised for her own safety - used to be one of those girls. Raised by an absentee mother who worked as a call girl, she was lured into prostitution by a pimp posing as a rap star looking for girls to star in a music video.
"I remember turning my first trick at 12 years old, and after that it was kind of like a whatever thing," Tina said. "I did it once, I might as well do it again."
By 17, Tina was strung out on drugs, had been arrested several times, and was being abused by her pimp. She hit rock bottom.
"I looked at myself in the mirror one day, and I didn't even recognize myself," Tina said. "I just cried and said, 'What am I doing with my life?' I didn't care about anything. I didn't want to live anymore."
After her last arrest she was placed in a group home where a former prostitute helped her find a job and get off the streets.
Tina's story is hardly unusual. Underage prostitution in Sin City is on the rise. In the last two years nearly 400 girls under the age of 18 have been arrested or detained by the Vegas vice squad. Half the pimps arrested this year had prostitutes who were underage. And these girls are not all from Nevada - 60 percent come from other states across the country.
"I believe now that children have become a commodity for these pimps no different than drugs and running guns," Hughes said. "They're just reusable."
Reusable and caught in a vicious cycle. Because they're underage, the girls aren't jailed. Instead, they're temporarily placed into detention centers or group homes where resources are limited. As a result, 80 percent run right back to the streets and into the arms of their pimps.
For Judge William Voy, this is unacceptable. For the past four years Voy is the only judge presiding over the "teen prostitution court" in Las Vegas .
His frustration shows.
"How is the system failing these kids?" Couric asked.
"We are failing these children because we're failing to recognize the problem," Voy said. "We get one jurisdiction that deals with the problem effectively, they just move them somewhere else. You need a concerted nationwide effort - you need national attention to this."
A small plot of land on the outskirts of Las Vegas is where Voy hopes to build a model for the nation. He wants to establish a specialized safe house staffed by probation officers and social workers who can de-program girls who believe pimps are their protectors - a place where the girls are not permitted to leave.
He's driven by faces he sees every day - part of a generation of young lives already destroyed before they've even had a chance to grow up.
"See that 12 year old, or 13 or 14 year old standing in front of you, and you look at that child and go, 'Oh my God, this is what's happening to you and been happening to you?' I can't let that persist," Voy said.
The recession has put his vision on hold. So the lot sits empty. And in the city of bright lights, countless teens live in the shadows, with the odds against them and nowhere to turn.
Until public funds become available, Voy is looking to the private sector to fund his safe house. To learn more about the safe house, click here.
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Add a Comment See all 28 Comments
- I'm surprised they don't charge the teen prostitutes with sex crimes, seeing as how they charge teens for consensual sex. It's ironic that Couric will call teens who engage in sexting or charged for consensual acts with their peers criminals, yet in spite of the vast majority of these girls consenting to sex for money, they're "victims." Go figure. Truth about RSO laws -- www.oncefallen.com
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- Its sure is funny how moralist think we can lie our way to a moral nation.
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- Oh God, here we go on the estimates again. 300,000??? No way.
In 2000, the federal govt estimated that 50,000 poeple were trafficked into the US annually. They wanted to sensationalize that Human Trafficking law through.
In Nov 2008, the Washington Post was the only news outlet to report that the State Dept admitted to having trouble finding "victims". They had found 1100 in 8 years. By the 400,000 they should have found, they were less than 1% accurate.
Just like Iraq's WMDs, it was all built on willfully propogated and willfully accepted lies. We cannot build any more policy on lies. - Reply to this comment
- They sure pulled that Las Vegas underage prostitution article off the main CBS page really quick. But they left a link to the video which does not allow for blog comments. It appears CBS did not like the poeple's opinions.
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- What are they running from I wonder. I guess broken homes mostly, abusive dads and mom's boyfriends too I think. Katie doesn't mention what's causing the girls to run away in the first place. Maybe if we focused on that part, we could help them more. But then that gets back to good parenting and so many are lousy at it. Seems to me this story is missing the point entirely: maybe if we spent effort and energy talking about raising them, they wouldn't end up on the streets doin' tricks. I think mostly so they wouldn't.
Lost girls? Yeah right Katie, more like "failed parents" to me. I just find it hard to believe that in general, if a girl is raised in a loving and giving family, she's not going to (easily) turn to prostitution, at least not in her young years. That's the point I suppose: their often not but rather born into an overly promiscuous sex-absorbed society rife with unwanted pregnancies and unfit parents.
Wanna' help them? Foster a culture where good parenthood is celebrated, valued, honored, and emphasized! - Reply to this comment
- The solution is to offer the deprogramming coupled with a witness protection program and reward that allows these underage girls to turn in the pimps. Then you charge the pimps under laws designed for child predators. The problem now is that the pimps are shielded from prosecution. Legalizing prostitution may have some effect, however there are still dark underbellies to all trades. Do people still deal in guns, cigarettes, liquor? Yes, and they are all legal (if bought from legitimate dealers).
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- Well, at least they applied some numbers to this. Typically they just sensationalize one or two of the worst examples. Statistics such as 400 kids under 18 in 2 years are hard to dispute.
Underage girls should not be involved in this. However, this all exists because prostitution is a black market thing. Las Vegas does not have to look far to find an example of a successful operation that protects the women and prevents underage girls from getting in. If you go to the legal brothels of Nevada (outside Las Vegas), you will find a tightly-controlled legal operation that does no allow underage girls to get in. The women are consenting adults and they have protection and health care. This is the 800-pound gorilla that the unholy alliance between evangelicals and man-hating feminists don?t want to accept about prostitution. By not accepting, they clearly demonstrate that they DONT care about the girls or women. They care only for their intolerant agenda.
Laws AGAINST prostitution have been on the books and enforced for many years. The truth is that it has not helped or we would be discussing it here. Applying the law methods, with intensified efforts, is really just doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. This is the most difficult thing to convince people of because they don?t want to accept it. By not accepting it, you are providing a fertile ground for more damage. - Reply to this comment
- Gee...Couric actually did a story on something worthwhile. First time in how long?? Stupid self aggrandizing woman.
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- I would be surprised if anything is done to help these children. We are a nation of hypocrites. We tend to let things fester in a black market rather than face the facts. These children have fallen between the cracks of social support networks. Sounds like they are extorted by the pimps. Maybe some of the gambling money could go to helping these children? I would rather have vices legalized to take them out of a dangerous black market and into pulic attention. But that will never happen as we would rather have a festering black-market rather than face the facts that people want these vices. These street walking children should raise some alarms in our society. Are we any better than other parts of the world that enslave women and children in black-market prostitution? Sounds like we aren't any better off. We turn a blind eye on children being enslaved in the sex trade in Vegas. I assume this also goes on in every major city in the US. I wonder if national service would help keep children from the streets and prostitution and drugs. I wouldn't mind if every teenage spent 2 years in a national service effort so they could get a firm grasp of reality. But I have my doubts that anything will every be done to help kids get a good start. We are more interested in gambling or allowing a black market to become out of control, or a prison system or new laws. We certainly don't want to beef up the social safety net because that would be socialism. No we just want to let things go to hell.
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- LEGALIZE AND REGULATE PROSTITUTION.
Problem solved! - Reply to this comment
- These young girls should be turned over to the church so their souls may be saved. If not they will continue victimizing young men and fleecing them out of their money.
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- What do you expect in a society where bible-thumping Congressmen, who belong to a Washington sex club that is called a church, sneer at the people about their amorality and hypocrisy and remain in POWER. We are a morally bankrupt society. We are economic slaves to the corporations. What do you see when you look through the glass darkly?
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- It is about time for Americans to wake up and realize that foreign terrorists pose less of a threat than what is going on inside our own country. Our youth are under attack and we should be combatting the drug cartels, pimps and gangs that exist here. They should be treated as terrorists , and the military should be used to bring them to justice. Police are handcuffed by the lack of firepower to deal with these dregs of humanity. Gang members drug dealers and pimps should be brought to swift merciless justice.
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- Hardly the case. We have armies of police at local, state, and federal levels.....we have a higher level of police state than ever before.....and vices still exists. We have had a war on drugs for decades and it has been a miserable failure. Can you see that applying the same methods over and over have not worked? I guess, if you are insane, you cannot see that.
I am not condoning children being involved. I am saying that if prostitution were available in a legal setting, men would go there and not attempt illegal means. Too much risk. But when nothing legal is available, they will find whatever they can find. The legal brothels of Nevada are not in Las Vegas....they are an 1-2 hours away.
- Yes, we really DO have to invest in our kids for the future of the nation. I'm convinced that if we start solving our problems right at home, right next door, then we will be better equipped to combat foreign terrorism. We must solve our own problems first in order to be a stronger country. These kids deserve much better.
- Hardly the case. We have armies of police at local, state, and federal levels.....we have a higher level of police state than ever before.....and vices still exists. We have had a war on drugs for decades and it has been a miserable failure. Can you see that applying the same methods over and over have not worked? I guess, if you are insane, you cannot see that.
- Nice job on this part two of the Couric report. Finally someone with national attention is understanding the issues involved in children being sold for sex and treated as the criminals, rather than the victims. Judge Voy and his Las Vegas team should be fully supported and emulated around the country. This is a nationwide problem as documented in Shared Hope International's National Assessment Report. See www.sharedhope.org for details.
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- My greatest concern for this country , and this problem of prostitution is: where are these young girls parents?! It is not the judge or the governments problem to build a home to convince these minors to get off the streets , but it is their job to find these girls families and reunite them , or a famliy that will love and take care of them. Isn't it obvious that they all are looking to be loved and cared for, and happen to be finding it with their pimp!
WHY on earth wasn't the absense of their family or parents ever mentioned in this report tonight!!! 12 years old!!!!!! and we need our goverment to take care of them ! - Reply to this comment
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- The real problem with these poor kids is a lot of them were born for the wrong reason, born to women who should have used birth control. These kids are victims of Free-Range Parenting or absolutely no parenting at all. A lot of these kids are escaping horrible conditions to begin with. Until we solve the problem of Breeding Without A Brain, there will always be Throw-Away Kids. This problem begins when birth control is not used.
- Have the judge who wants to fund this project contact Kids Defense Team. www.kidsdefenseteam.org We help homeless children and children that come from low income families that are in need. This type of thing could very well happen to the kids we help if Kids Defense Team does not step in and help. We would like to help find funding for your project. There must be something out there somewhere. We are very resourceful. We started a organization from scratch, we would like to help with this project because then we would be helping these girls as well.
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- Although I disagree with Katie Couric about almost everything, I extend extreme gratitude to her for bringing teen/child prostitution to the nation's attention. I use to find these stories on the independent channels, it is an issue I have been very concerned about. Hopefully, now we will wake up and save our children, it is heartbreaking and overlooked for too long.
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- This news story highlights the incredible need to decriminalize prostitution in Las Vegas and elsewhere in the U.S.
When will we learn from history, i.e. "the prohibition"? Black-market prostitution, including prostitution of teenage girls exists BECAUSE the market-demand for consensual adult sex in not being met due to the criminalization of prostitution.
If prostitution were legalized, it could be regulated and better controlled like other health professions. The trade could establish its own professional standards and police itself to maintain safety. Imagine how dangerous a profession like dentistry or even hair-styling would be if it were criminalized and had to be performed in an underground and unregulated environment.
The criminalization of prostitution only further victimizes the women involved. Criminalization results in criminal records for prostitutes leaving them with little choice but to continue to prostitute. It forces prostitutes to turn to pimps for protection because prostitutes are afraid to go to the police due to fear that they themselves will be arrested.
The criminalization of prostitution inhibits prostitutes from using their safety devices, i.e. condoms, because prostitutes know that condoms are often used against them as evidence of criminal activity. Thus, the criminalization of prostitution results in a more dangerous environment for the prostitute and customer alike.
The desire for sex is biological and hard-wired into our brains and therefore prostitution can NEVER be eliminated with criminal laws. A much better and more sane approach would be to control prostitution and make it safer for all through legalization and regulation.
Furthermore, consensual sex between adults, whether or not there is money exchanged (and let's face it, there is almost always some kind of financial support or remuneration in personal relationships between men and women) is NOT the government's or anyone else's business.
The criminalization of prostitution is both poor public health policy and an affront to our civil liberties (i.e. the privacy rights of adults to engage in consensual sex without big-brother looking over their shoulder).
Let's FINALLY stop trying to legislative morality, and do what is best for the public's health and well-being as well as our liberty rights - DECRIMINALIZE PROSTITUTION. - Reply to this comment
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- I truely hate agreeing with Larry, but I do. Prostitution has flourished over the years even though the dangers have increased. I can't see it getting worse through legalization. Can we continue to pound our head against a wall with the same results? Nothing will take the ugly out but not changing strategy is just plain dumb. Meanwhile, I think dropping a massive legal hammer on pimps running underage girls is a must. Judges, that means you.
- Sorry, you must have read the wrong story. This story isn't about consensual adult sex, it's about illegal underage prostitution. You are entirely wrong in your premise, as well, because what this story doesn't mention is that in half of Nevada's counties, prostitution IS legal; it just isn't legal in Clark County, where Las Vegas is located. People don't have to break the law, they choose to. Prohibition has nothing to do with it, and neither does morality -- if you read your history, you'll learn that prostitution was seldom criminalized for moral reasons; it was primarily doctors who pushed for the law criminalizing prostitution, for health reasons.
- Your comment is spot-on in regards to your "garden-variety" prostitution, but I'm not sure it would apply to under-age prostitutes. While it would probably at least put a dent in it, the problem here is that under-age prostitution would still be an underground, criminal business. It's likely that not all johns are looking for under-age girls, but there are certainly some who do.
On the other hand, decriminalizing adult prostitutes would free up police resources to concentrate exclusively on the under-age market. Laws must also ensure it's the pimps and customers seeking under-age girls that are punished. The girls need help, not "detention centers."
- Larry, I mostly agree. If you care about the women, legalize it. A vast majority of men wont go to illegal outlets if legal ones are available.
The people who refuse to consider legalization, when its a hour drive from Vegas and clearly demonstatates a safe environment for the women, just dont care about the women.
- Check out Happy Endings? a documentary film on Asian massage parlors in Rhode Island where prostitution is legal.
http://www.happyendingsdoc.com
The documentary follows the lives of women in Asian massage parlors in RI, as Politicians, Johns, a Woman Studies Professor, Police, the ACLU, community groups, and residents engage in a debate over changing the ?loophole? in the law that allows for prostitution ?behind closed doors?. - Reply to this comment
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- Well, there is no constitutional basis for laws banning what consenting adults do in privacy. However, I do believe that there should be city ordiances for "hooking" on the streets. That is unsightly. But applying thier trade on Craigslist and doing it private is really no ones business, but that is exactly what the govt went after.
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