Most Americans, including far too many government officials, have no idea that children under the age of 18 are being shipped from state to state as child prostitutes, according to a report from an anti-sex-trafficking organization.
In fact, an estimated 100,000 American children under 18 years of age are victimized through prostitution every year and children rented for sex acts might be raped 6,000 times over the course of five years.
In addition, the United States should be — but is not — listed on the “Tier 2” watch list in the State Department’s Trafficking in Persons Report.
Those are among the troubling findings by Shared Hope International (SHI), which conducted investigations in 10 United States cities with a grant from the U.S. Department of Justice.
“Few participants in the assessments realized that the victims described in the [federal anti-trafficking law] definition of sex-trafficking victims included specifically U.S. citizen and lawful permanent resident minors under 18 years of age regardless of their perceived consent to the commercial sex activities,” SHI reported.
The report also found:
- The majority of law enforcement personnel and social service providers have little or no awareness of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA), the federal law that provides the means to combat trafficking in persons.
- There is a widespread failure by police, courts and youth shelters to identify under-age victims of sex trafficking.
- Children often are arrested and charged with prostitution, even though the TVPA says victims must not be held responsible for being forced to commit a crime.
- There are few shelters in the country to house and protect minor victims of sex trafficking.
Domestic minor sex trafficking consists of “child sex slavery, child sex trafficking, prostitution of children, commercial sexual exploitation of children … and rape of a child,” the report said. Children are exploited through prostitution, pornography and/or stripping, among other means, according to the report.
It is estimated at least 100,000 American children under 18 years of age are victimized through prostitution every year, according to SHI.
In its 2009 Trafficking in Persons Report, the U.S. State Department cited an estimate by a United Nations agency showing about 12.3 million adults and children are trapped in servitude worldwide. At least 1.39 million are victims of commercial sexual slavery, according to the U.N. report.
The United States should be on the “Tier 2” watch list in the State Department’s Trafficking in Persons Report, according to Linda Smith, SHI’s founder and president, in the book “Renting Lacy,” which she wrote with Cindy Coloma.
The United States, however, is not included in the Trafficking in Persons Report.
“It is time to expose the true scope of trafficking in America,” Smith and Coloma wrote.
Tier 2, one of three in the State Department’s rankings, is for governments that fall short of the minimum standards required by the TVPA but are making significant attempts to achieve them.
Reprinted from Baptist Press (www.baptistpress.com), news service of the Southern Baptist Convention.
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