CA: 3 Indicted on Child Prostitution Charges

SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA -- Three people are accused of taking two underage girls from Phoenix to San Diego for prostitution.

One of the accused men was in federal court Tuesday defendants in downtown San Diego.

Uawndre Larue Fields (at left), dressed in a white jumpsuit, went before a magistrate judge during the afternoon.

According to the federal indictment, which was unsealed Thursday, Fields is facing two counts of child sex trafficking and two counts of interstate transportation of a minor for prostitution.

The FBI said that agents, acting on a warrant, arrested Fields on Wednesday night.The indictment states that Fields and two other defendants, Depaul Brooks and Julia Margarite Fonteneaux, recruited a pair of underage girls and took them across state lines to engage in prostitution in April of 2006...

READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT NBCSanDiego.com

Scotland: Educating Boys on Prostitution

GLASGOW, SCOTLAND -- Young men in Scotland must be targeted in the fight against prostitution, according to a leading American feminist.

Janice Raymond (left), an executive director of the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women, wants schoolboys to be educated about prostitution in an attempt to shape male attitudes towards pornography and sexual exploitation from an early age.

She said: "Young men are more aware of the issues, including prostitution and exploitation, and we need them to engage with our work.

"Men are part of the problem, not prostitution on its own."

Ms Raymond was speaking in Glasgow on Saturday night at the awards ceremony for Zero Tolerance, the anti-domestic violence charity, where she collected the International Woman Award...

READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT TheHerald.co.uk

California: Man Pleads Guilty to Forcing Teens Into Prostitution

OCEANSIDE, CA - An Oceanside man pleaded guilty to two federal charges of sex trafficking children by force, admitting that he forced two teen-age girls to work as prostitutes.

Luther Gene Ray Jr., 23, pleaded guilty to the two felony counts [in late March] before United States District Judge Edward Rafeedie in Los Angeles. Pursuant to a plea agreement, Ray is expected to receive a sentence of 100 months in federal prison.

In a plea agreement and in court today, Ray admitted that he was a pimp to two minor girls in May 2004, and that he had them work for him as prostitutes in Los Angeles and Orange counties, as well as in Las Vegas, Nevada. Ray required the girls to engage in commercial sex acts and to give him all of the money they earned. Ray used coercive methods to ensure that the girls would perform sex acts in exchange for money. Ray kept a close watch over the girls while they worked as prostitutes and made them believe that if they disobeyed him or broke one of his rules, he would physically harm them.

Ray is scheduled to be sentenced on June 18, 2007.

This is the second prosecution of child sex trafficking brought by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the past 6 months.

READ THE PRESS RELEASE AT LosAngeles.FBI.gov

Editorial: Child Prostitution: Stolen Youth, Stolen Dreams

SEATTLE TIMES EDITORIAL -- It's time to stop blaming the victim.

Currently, children younger than 18 are guilty of solicitation if successfully prosecuted for engaging in prostitution.

But let's call it what it really is — commercial sexual abuse of a minor — to put the onus on the perpetrator instead of the victim.

By conservative estimates, between 200,000 and 300,000 children are exploited through prostitution each year in this country. And the industry is exploding: An estimated 10 million children around the globe are involved in prostitution, with 1 million more each year joining the ranks of trafficking victims.

The health implications are staggering for minors engaging in prostitution: increased risks of physical and sexual assault; sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV and AIDS; pregnancy; cervical cancer; abortion; suicide; and death.

Childhood prostitution takes other tolls, too, including homelessness and dropping out of school. A sobering 75 percent or more of the girls ages 13 to 18 in our criminal-justice system have been physically abused. Many have been prostituted, used to produce pornography, or suffered or witnessed physical and sexual violence. These children pay steep prices for being paid to engage in sex.

Physical health detriments aside, these youths suffer significant mental-health issues. The majority have been sexually abused — some as young as toddlers, and from multiple adults — and can't form trusting relationships. This devastation becomes more apparent when many teens, offered counseling and social services to leave behind life on the streets, cannot grasp the concepts of choice and independence...

READ THE FULL EDITORIAL AT SeattleTimes.com

APA Report on Increased Sexualization of Girls

The American Psychological Association heeded the evidence that girls were increasingly becoming more sexualized--that is, seen as sexual objects--and so formed a task force to further explore and research this phenomenon. Below is the introduction to the report, and the full report may be downloaded as a PDF here:

Report of the APA Task Force on the Increased Sexualization of Girls

The proliferation of sexualized images of girls and young women in advertising, merchandising, and media is harming girls' self-image and healthy development. This report explores the cognitive and emotional consequences, consequences for mental and physical health, and impact on development of a healthy sexual self-image.

There are several components to sexualization, and these set it apart from healthy sexuality. Sexualization occurs when

• a person's value comes only from his or her sexual appeal or behavior, to the exclusion of other characteristics;


• a person is held to a standard that equates physical attractiveness (narrowly defined) with being sexy;


• a person is sexually objectified--that is, made into a thing for others' sexual use, rather than seen as a person with the capacity for independent action and decision making; and/or


• sexuality is inappropriately imposed upon a person. All four conditions need not be present; any one is an indication of sexualization.The fourth condition (the inappropriate imposition of sexuality) is especially relevant to children. Anyone (girls, boys, men, women) can be sexualized.

Canada: Hundreds of Kids in Sex Trade

WAYNE GLOWACKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS ARCHIVES
Activist Jane Runner says the youngest Winnipeg
child prostitute she's heard of was 8, but the average age is 13.

WINNIPEG, MANITOBA -- Hundreds of vulnerable Winnipeg children, some as young as eight years old, are selling their bodies to adult men for money, drugs and even food and shelter, a provincial inquest was told Monday.

But Winnipeg police say there's very little they can do about it.

Det.-Sgt. Jeff Coates candidly admitted the most heinous sex offenders -- adults who prey on young children -- are largely going unpunished because police lack the resources and ability to go after them. Instead, they focus on the easier arrests, such as men targeting adult prostitutes.

"It's very frustrating. The worst of these offenders fly under the radar. The worst form of prostitution is allowed to prevail," Coates said.

"With adults, we can put officers out there in an undercover role to catch some of these johns. But we can't use an undercover 14-year-old, and there are no police officers that age. So the worst offenders aren't being prosecuted."

He called for the province and city to examine their priorities and look at a dedicated unit to deal with sexually exploited street kids, just as police have partnered with Manitoba Public Insurance to tackle auto theft.

"There needs to be a political will to dedicate resources to this," Coates said.

Coates was called to testify at the inquest of Tracia Owen, a 14-year-old girl who started working the streets in the months before her August 2005 suicide. The teen hung herself with a rope tied to the overhead door of a garage used by prostitutes behind a Victor Street house.

Manitoba's chief medical examiner called for a public inquest last year in an effort to shine a light on the growing problem of youth sexual exploitation and drug use.

"We need to tell the public about what's happening out there," said Dr. Thambirajah Balachandra. "No one wants to talk about it, but it's a rampant problem and we have to talk about it."

Jane Runner has spent the past 21 years talking to sexually exploited teens and women about their experiences on the street. She offered some sobering statistics to the court on Monday.

Runner, who heads programming at New Directions in Winnipeg, said there are "hundreds" of teen and pre-teen girls working the streets, with an even greater number abused by adults behind closed doors. The youngest she has heard of was eight, and the average age is about 13.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT WinnipegFreePress.com

Hungary: Teen Porn May be Legalized

BUDAPEST, HUNGARY -- A bill modifying Hungary's penal code could allow pornographic material involving 14- to 17-year-olds to be made and kept for personal use.

The Justice Ministry said the draft proposal, presented last month by Hungarian Justice Minister Jozsef Petretei, was in line with European Union norms which give members states the right to regulate the issue at national level.

But Opposition lawmakers attacked the proposal as "legalized pedophilia" and a family welfare group described it as "the waiting room of prostitution."

Petretei said Monday that the proposal had taken into account the age in Hungary — 14 — at which consensual sexual relations are allowed.

"If we consider people 14 years of age to be mature enough to consent to sexual acts, then the chance to make picture recordings of this ... can also be allowed," Petretei told lawmakers in parliament.

The minister added that if deputies felt the issue offended their "moral sensitivity," they could propose changes to the bill.

Petretei also said that to bring Hungarian laws in line with EU norms, the ministry was also advocating changes in the same bill which would increase penalties for some other porn-related issues.

The center-right opposition parties strongly criticized the plan.

"This is a scandal," Miklos Soltesz, from the opposition Christian Democratic Peoples Party, told state television. "We initially thought the intention to legalize child pornography was government insanity ... but it seems they're serious."

Idiko Gall Pelcz from Fidesz, the largest center-right opposition party, described the proposal as "legalized pedophilia," calling it "revolting and distressing."

"I can only hope that there will be many of us here in parliament who agree ... that to make pornographic recordings of minors is not part of and not a necessary condition of natural sexual development," Gall Pelcz said in parliament.

A civic group described the plan as "the waiting room of prostitution."

READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT USAToday.com