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

India: 35% of Prostitutes Enter Trade Before Age 18

NEW DEHLI, INDIA -- Of 2.8 million prostitutes in the country, 35.47% entered the trade before the age of 18 years, Minister of state for Women and Child Development Renuka Chowdhury informed the Rajya Sabha today.

“The study on girls/women in prostitution in India, conducted between 2002-04, reports that there is a growing trend in the number of prostitution in the country. The study estimates that there are 2.8 million prostitutes in the country of which 35.47% entered the trade before the age of 18 years”, she said in a written reply.

The Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act 1956 (ITPA) supplemented by the Indian Penal Code prohibits trafficking in human beings including children for purpose of prostitution and lays down severe penalties for traffickers, she said.

The ITPA is being further amended providing for more stringent punishment for trafficking in persons including children, Chowdhury said adding her ministry conducts advocacy, awareness generation, sensitization programme for prevention of child trafficking...

READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT LiveMint.com (A Wall Street Journal Publication)

India: Nearly 3 Million Prostitutes

NEW DELHI, INDIA -- India's minister for women and child development said Tuesday the country has an estimated 2.8 million prostitutes and the number is rising.

Renuka Chowdhury presented a study on "Girls-Women in prostitution in India" to the lower house of Parliament. She said more than one-third of Indian prostitutes entered the profession before age 18, the Press Trust of India reported.

She told lawmakers her ministry runs homes to provide shelter, food, clothing, counseling, rehabilitation and other facilities to victims of commercial sexual exploitation. She said another project is being implemented to combat trafficking in women and children for sexual exploitation.

READ THE ORIGINAL ARTICLE AT United Press International

Ecuador: Two Men Prosecuted for Trafficking

Ecuador - Two young Ecuadorian men have received stiff jail sentences for human trafficking in the capital, Quito, with the case representing only the second successful prosecution of traffickers in the country.

The judge handed down a 12-year sentence to a 19 year-old male and a six-year term for his 18-year-old accomplice.

The judicial authorities have confirmed that they are currently trying to get convictions on 160 cases of human trafficking.

Working with the Public Prosecutor's Office, the Child Welfare Police and the International Labour Organization (ILO), IOM provided protection and assistance to the victims and their families through its Global Emergency Fund. The assistance included transportation, lodging, medical, legal and psychological support for the victims and their relatives during the trial in Quito.

The victims, both girls, were 13 and 15 years old when they left their homes in a small town in Pichincha Province with their boyfriends who put them to work in the sex industry.

They said they were in love and left home hoping to marry and have children. During their ordeal, the girls were sexually, physically and verbally abused. They were given food and shelter, but this was deducted from their earnings.

The victims testified against the accused but are still struggling to accept that they were abused and exploited by the men they loved and trusted...

READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT International Organization for Migration

Legalizing Prostitution: A Solution? N. Kristof Opines

NICHOLAS KRISTOF for The New York Times - A number of you have commented on my blog that the way to address prostitution is to legalize it and encourage unions of sex workers, thus empowering prostitutes and enabling sensible regulation and health outreach programs.

In the context of countries like India and Cambodia where I've written about sex trafficking, that would be a bad mistake. Let me explain why.

There may be a sound argument for legalization and sex worker unions in Brazil and South Africa, perhaps even China. My sense is that in those countries many women genuinely choose to be prostitutes because of economic pressures or opportunities. But in India, I have yet to find a single woman who made that choice - every single one of them first entered after being forced by a trafficker, her parents, or her husband. Later, after they had been prostituted, some continued to sell their bodies voluntarily. But the initial entry into prostitution was invariably coercive.

That means that if you validate the red light districts, then the new entrants will continue to be trafficked into it. And in India we have had something of an experiment, in which the legalization model has failed.

In the effort to combat AIDS, a union was established of prostitutes in Shonagachi, a red light district in Calcutta (one of the places in my video reporting of a year ago). The union, DMSC, purports to represent prostitutes and to dignify sex work, and it argues that it's important to empower the women by offering them respect and acknowledging their choice of occupations.

A DMSC brochure, for example, states: "Like other entertainment workers of the world we use our brain, ideas, emotion and sex organs, in short, our entire body and our mind to make people happy. As entertainment workers, we seek governmental recognition and fulfillment of our just professional demands."

Among liberals in the U.S. and India alike, that model has been treated respectfully. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and CARE have both shown support for that approach as a way to fight AIDS. I have lots of respect for both the Gates Foundation and for Care, and they do fantastic work around the globe--but in this case I think they've made a mistake.

The argument in favor is "harm reduction" - a sex worker union makes it easier to hand out condoms and educate women about AIDS. That's true to some extent, but the latest data we have actually show a rising degree of HIV among young prostitutes in Shonagachi. The data aren't good, but they don't demonstrate to me that the model works. In contrast, there is a health outreach model in Cambodia that really does reduce HIV and STD, through regular check-ups, without legitimizing the brothels and protecting them from raids. That's the direction to go in.

More broadly, many of the prostitutes from Shonagachi have told me that DMSC is just a front for the brothel-owners, a way of protecting them from raids and harassment. Likewise, the trafficking of young girls and forced prostitution seems as flagrant as ever in Shonagachi. That's also the judgment of two people whose anti-traffickng work I admire: Ruchira Gupta and Urmi Basu. Both live in Calcutta and see Shonagachi up close, and both oppose the legalization model. So even if DMSC achieved a mild reduction in HIV infection levels -
which it apparently hasn't - it comes at the expense of legitimating trafficking and modern slavery.

I'm particularly swayed by an argument of Ruchira's, based on the contrast with Bombay. Traditionally, the red light districts of Bombay and Calcutta have both been enormous, and Calcutta has DMSC while Bombay has in recent years seen more raids and harassment of brothels. The upshot is that Shonagachi is as big as ever and seems to have as much trafficking and more HIV than ever, while Bombay's red light district has shrunk dramatically. There still are some brothels in Bombay's red light district, but only a fraction of the number
there used to be.

Some skeptics say that the raids have only pushed prostitution out of Bombay's red light district and hidden it among neighborhoods throughout the city, making it more difficult to control trafficking and AIDS. There may be some of that. But if NGO's have trouble finding the brothels than customers do as well. And most estimates are that total prostitution in Bombay has come down a great deal because of the harassment.

In contrast, DMSC seems to legitimate a red-light district that is completely enmeshed with criminal gangs, trafficking and forced prostitution. The validation from DMSC probably makes it easier for police to take bribes from brothels to look the other way, and harder to order up raids and aggressive police coverage. So, quite apart from morality, it seems to me that Bombay's record comes out better than Calcutta's. Maybe legalization and sex worker unions can reduce HIV in Africa and Brazil where forced prostitution is less of a problem, but it doesn't work in India.

The model in the West that seems to have worked best is Sweden's, which involves decriminalization for prostitutes themselves, but seeks to crack down on pimping and on the demand side. By arresting customers, the Swedish model undermines the economics of prostitution, and it seems to have reduced the trafficking that one sees in the Netherlands and Germany.

Fundamentally, I think these kinds of disputes about legalization are a distraction in countries like India. Both left and right in the States do good work on trafficking, but the two sides can't even agree on what to call the issue. The left tends to refer to sex work and sex workers, to avoid stigmatizing people they want to work with. The right tends to use terms like
prostitution and prostitutes, to avoid euphemisms that validate such work.

One reason more hasn't been accomplished in the campaign against human trafficking is that the issue has become so polarized in the U.S. There's immense distrust and much less cooperation than one might expect. But the one thing everybody should be able to agree on is that whether or not prostitution should be legal for 18-year-olds who are on their own, it is appalling for 13-year-olds to be imprisoned in brothels and forced to sleep with customers.
And that is what is going on in countries like India.

SEE THE WHOLE ARTICLE AT NY Times Select

UN: Resolution Approved To Criminalize Child Exploitation

UNITED NATIONS, WASHINGTON - Resolution recognizes international response needed to a global problem.

A resolution introduced by the United States and Ecuador that urges U.N. member states criminalize all aspects of child sexual exploitation was approved at the 2007 meeting of the U.N. Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice.

The resolution was approved at the conclusion of the 16th session of the U.N. Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, which met in Vienna, Austria, April 23-27.

The Resolution on Effective Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Responses to Combat Sexual Exploitation of Children recognizes that child sexual exploitation is a growing international problem demanding an international response.

The resolution defines child exploitation to include sexually explicit images of children (child pornography), the victimization of children through prostitution and child-sex tourism. The resolution maintains that sexually explicit images of children severely harm children and are linked to other sexual exploitation offenses against children.

International cooperation is absolutely essential to combat these crimes, say U.S. authorities. Sexually explicit images of children are easily distributed across international boundaries through the Internet. Similarly, child-sex trafficking -- including the victimization of children through prostitution and sex tourism -- often involves international travel, with offenders having different nationalities from those of the victims, so international teamwork is considered crucial.

According to a 2006 study by the International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children, 95 countries have no legislation specifically addressing child pornography.

The U.S. government hopes the resolution will encourage countries lacking such legislation to consider it....

READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT USinfo.state.gov

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

Moldova & Pridnestrovie: NGO's Urge Countries to Unity Against Sex Slavery

Pridnestrovie (green) is a de facto independent republic
within the borders of Modolva (dark gray)

CHISINAU, MOLDOVA - NGOs are working in both Chisinau and Tiraspol, respectively the capitals of Moldova and Pridnestrovie, to cut down on human trafficking and the sale of underage girls as sex slaves.

They receive limited help from the two governments, and since Tiraspol and Chisinau don't see eye to eye due to their long-running territorial dispute, there is a near-total lack of cooperation and partnerships at the official level.

Despite a lack of help from Moldova, in Pridnestrovie, or Transdniestria as it is also known, there are separate hotline and prevention activities as part of a program of collaboration with the United Nations, Danida, EU and NGOs to stop human trafficking. The new initiative involves a forum, educational activities and a hotline designed to prevent human trafficking.

The work is sponsored by the European Union (EU), the Italian anti-immigration exploitation program, IOM (International Organization for Migration, a United Nations agency) and Danida, of the Danish foreign ministry.

The group also collaborates with a YMCA-led anti trafficking group originally from Belarus, La Strada. They have set up a hotline which victims and everyone else can call from both within Transdniestria and from without. The number is 0800 88888 and is a free call, locally. If calling from abroad, it is + 373 533 8 60 30.

A spokesperson consulted by Tiraspol Times says that the problem exists, but it is nowhere near the levels of neighboring Ukraine or Moldova, the #1 trafficking hub in Europe. Even so, the group wants to alert locals in Tiraspol and other parts of Pridnestrovie to the risks, and prevent traffickers - some of whom come from Chisinau - from recruiting new sex slave victims locally...

READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT TiraspolTimes.com

India: High School Girls Getting into High End Prostitution

Yet to pass out of teenage years, young girls are being pushed
by lifestyle demands into high-end prostitution

CALCUTTA, INDIA -- Riya (name changed) claims to be 18 years old but looks younger. She is wearing a body-hugging low-waist jeans and a white skintight cropped top that may look a little too screaming, but she could be a teen party-goer. Though Riya works at night.

She claims she is from New Delhi. The aspiring model says she is a first-year science student who has come to the city to follow up a modelling assignment. She services clients on the side. She can’t do so in New Delhi because her family stays there, but has clients in Mumbai too. Her rate for an evening — Rs 3,500 [approx. $82 US], out of which Rs 1,000 [approx. $29US] will go to the “contact” (read her agent).

But her agent Meera (name changed) has a different story. “She is very much from the city and goes to one of the high-end schools here. Otherwise her rate would be much higher. Girls from outside the city cost a lot more,” she says. “Most of the girls make up such stories,” she adds.

Mobile syndrome

Riya is not alone. Like her, more young girls, many of them “English-speaking” and allegedly from reputed schools, are joining the high end of prostitution to earn that extra buck. Much of it has to do with the demands of lifestyle.

“Student prostitution has increased in the last five to six years. Especially since the price of mobiles has gone down. It makes students more accessible,” says an NGO worker in the city who works with the floating population of women in prostitution...

READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT TelegraphIndia.com

UK: Britian's Hidden Children

Many victims of child trafficking are sexually exploited

MANCHESTER, ENGLAND -- When Marie, a young girl from Cameroon, turned up in Manchester at the end of 2004 she was just one of hundreds of asylum seeking children alone in the city looking for help.

Her story was harrowing. Having been trafficked to France and forced into prostitution by her aunt, she fled to Britain with the help of a man who said he would help her escape.

Suffering from a range of physical and mental health problems, probably as a result of the abuse she endured, Marie was admitted to hospital.

Within two months she was dead. A post-mortem examination revealed natural causes. She was 16.

Sadly, Marie's case is thought to be just the tip of the iceberg and part of a growing industry which contributes to the 5,000 child sex slaves recently estimated to be working in the UK by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.

This comes as the UK marks the 200th anniversary of the Parliamentary Act to abolish the slave trade.

According to Ecpat UK, an organisation which represents charities working against child exploitation, Marie's was one of 28 known cases of trafficked children in Manchester in 2005...

READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT News.BBC.co.uk

New Zealand: Inside an Internet Porn Addict's Mind

WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND -- He was an ordinary man with an ordinary interest in soft porn. But when Alex began to search online for child pornography, he began a 15-year descent into degradation that ended with a knock on his door from police. He talks to Ruth Laugesen.

Standing in a fish and chip shop a year ago, Alex realised something had changed. When a little girl walked into the shop, Alex glanced at her and felt nothing.

"There was no sexualisation going on, and there was no guilt going on. That was the most amazing feeling I can remember having," Alex says.

Alex is recovering from a 15-year compulsion that began with a hunt for soft core adult porn, but saw him become a paying customer of the global internet child pornography industry. Children, toddlers and even babies are obscenely degraded and exploited on film to feed the cravings of men like Alex, men safe on the other side of the world, gaping at their computers.

In his search for sensation, he built up what he believes could be one of the largest New Zealand collections of sexual images of children, perhaps tens of thousands of images. The pictures ranged from fully clothed teens through to little girls and babies and crossed every sick boundary, including rape, violence and bestiality.

When Alex walks into the meeting room at Wellington sexual offenders treatment centre Wellstop, he could be anyone, in any workplace. He is relaxed, pleasant-looking and talks easily. He is neatly dressed in a business shirt and slacks, with a zip-up knit top.

This is how Alex appeared to the world every day at the office. But he was a man divided. By night he trawled through filth, rolling in the virtual gutter of the internet.

Alex is not his real name. He wants to remain anonymous, but he also wants to tell other men trapped in a cycle of compulsive pornography consumption, including child pornography, that help is available. And while child sex offenders and consumers of child porn are notorious for minimising their actions and refusing to accept responsibility, Alex says he has tried to be as honest as he can.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT Stuff.co.nz

US: FBI Investigates Underage Prostitution on Craigslist

Craigslist depends upon its users to
"flag" inappropriate ads for removal

SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA -- An eight-month investigation of underage prostitution advertised on Craigslist, a popular Internet classified site, led FBI agents to raid the home and photo studio of a south Sacramento man, court documents say.

In an affidavit unsealed this week, an FBI agent alleges that Paul Yoshi Moore, 46, took racy photographs of three Sacramento-based girls, one 14 and two 17, and posted them in the Web site's "erotic services" section.

No charges have been filed in the case. FBI officials declined comment, saying the case is under investigation.

The Sacramento case is the latest to focus legal scrutiny on Craigslist and prostitution ads on the highly popular Internet site. Craigslist has been linked in news accounts to prostitution stings from New York City suburbs to Chicago to Seattle. The company did not respond to a request for comment for this story.

In the Sacramento case, one girl, 17, told investigators that a pimp who recruited her from a local high school introduced her to Moore for a nearly-nude photo shoot.

Another girl, 14, said she began working as a prostitute at 12 or 13 and paid Moore a monthly fee to maintain her Craigslist advertisement with nude photos, the search warrant affidavit states.

Moore, polite yet flustered when reached at his south Sacramento house, said he was aware officials were investigating him. He said he did not want to talk, but went on to say he fears his reputation will be ruined.

"I'm going to be crucified," he said...

READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT ContraCostaTimes.com

Moldova: Low Prices Increase Demand for Trafficking Victims

62% of Moldova's population lives below the poverty level

CHISINAU, MOLDOVA -- Two American TV crews have investigated Moldova's growing sex slave trade. In Chisinau, human traffickers now charge as little as $500 for delivering a child prostitute into a life of white slavery abroad. These record low prices are driving up demand, and exports are booming.

Last year, Moldova's best known legitimate export - cheap wine - was blocked from its main market and exports nearly cut in half. Exports of fruit and meat also suffered. But one category increased: The export of human flesh, in the form of Moldovan girls sold into sex slavery abroad. Many never return.

Two American TV crews have investigated this modern slave trade. The first, a team from PBS Frontline, went undercover and pretended to be Western buyers of prostitutes. They were quoted prices between $500 and $600 per girl.

A second report aired on ABC News this weekend, putting the spotlight on a problem which is improving in Pridnestrovie but becoming worse all the time in Moldova. CIA, in unclassified material, describes Moldova as a country with widespread crime and underground economic activity. Moldova is the center of the slave trade of the 21st century. As Europe's leader in human trafficking, people - many of them underage - are today the country's main illegal export.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT TiraspolTimes.com

US: Queens Man Forced Girl Into Sex Slavery

NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT -- Federal authorities said a man arrested as part of a human trafficking investigation forced a 12-year-old girl to be a sex slave, confining her to a house in Queens and transporting her to Connecticut to work up to 12 hours a day as a prostitute.

The case shows that domestic trafficking of U.S. citizens is a concern along with international human trafficking, U.S. Attorney Kevin O'Connor said.

``We are not going to tolerate any type of trafficking here in Connecticut, particularly when children are being exploited in such an egregious manner as we allege here,'' O'Connor said.

More arrests are expected and authorities said they suspect there are more victims.

Corey "Magnificent'' Davis, 35, face charges of sex trafficking, forced labor, document servitude, kidnapping and conspiracy to transport minors for immoral purposes and transportation of a minor for immoral purposes. Shamere ``Barbie'' McKenzie, 23, of New York, was charged with conspiracy to transport minors for immoral purposes...

READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT 1010Wins.com

UK: Home Sect. Reid to Combat Trafficking

The UK's Home Secretary John Reid

UNITED KINGDOM -- The Home Secretary will this week announce plans for a crackdown on trafficking gangs who force thousands of women and children into prostitution and forced labour.

John Reid will also sign the European Convention on Human Trafficking, which commits signatories to tackling the traffickers and helping victims to recover from their ordeals and give evidence against their captors. The UK Action Plan on Human Trafficking, to be announced on Friday, will set up a network of refuges and support services for trafficking victims in towns and cities across the UK.

There is currently only one Government-funded refuge for women who escape from the gangs. Ministers say many more are urgently needed because of the "alarming" scale of the trade described as "21st century slavery". There is mounting concern over the growing number of child slaves being brought to the UK...

READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT Telegraph.co.uk

England: Sex Slavery Widespread

ENGLAND -- Young women tricked into coming to England, often by boyfriends, are being sold off in auctions at airport coffee shops as soon as they arrive.

They are among the thousands of women brought into the UK to be sex slaves, usually with no idea of their fate.

The trade was one of the findings of a BBC News website investigation into slavery in 21st Century England.

As the UK marks 200 years since the Parliamentary Act to abolish the slave trade, slavery goes on in another form.

The slave trade, outlawed by legislation introduced in March 1807, saw people from Africa transported en masse to the Americas by the UK and other European countries.

Modern day victims of slavery are often young women from eastern Europe, thinking they are coming to England to work as cleaners or au pairs, only to be forced into prostitution.

The Home Office estimated in 2003 that 4,000 women were trafficked into the UK for sexual exploitation. It is thought the figure may have grown since.

Police forces from Cornwall to Northumbria have found themselves having to rescue women and prosecute the traffickers who brought them to England to work as sex slaves.

And as well as foreign citizens coming to the UK, charity workers in Manchester told the BBC they believed British women working in massage parlours had been sold abroad, because they owed the owners money.

Child protection organisations and human rights groups also believe there are thousands of child sex slaves in the UK.

The UK Human Trafficking Centre was opened last year to co-ordinate the law-enforcement approach to the problem.

A spokesman told the BBC women were sometimes sold off in auctions in airport coffee shops and restaurants as they arrived in the country.

And he said there were also many cases of English women, from backgrounds of poverty, being sold from town to town to work as prostitutes.

But it is now believed that as many as 85% of women working in brothels in the UK have come from overseas - in the mid-1990s, an estimated 85% were UK citizens.

Operation Pentameter, a Home Office initiative aimed at rescuing sex workers held against their will carried out between January and July 2006, saw 84 trafficked women rescued, including 12 aged 14 to 17.

Some 230 arrests were made and more than £250,000 in cash was seized - but officers were only able to visit about 10% of the estimated number of sex establishments in the country.

The Poppy Project, a London-based scheme which provides accommodation and support for the women, has had 581 victims referred to it since its launch in 2003.

Its own research in 2004 found evidence of "off street" prostitution in every one of London's 33 boroughs, again with the overwhelming majority of workers in brothels, saunas and massage parlours being non-British nationals.

The Helen Bamber Foundation, set up to help victims of torture and other human rights violations, said women being forced into sex slavery in England were experiencing "horrific brutality", with physical violence and the psychological trauma of being forced into sex...

READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT BBC.co.uk

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

Mumbai: Prostituted Minors a Billion Dollar Industry

A commercial sex worker in Mumbai

MUMBAI, INDIA -- For most, Mumbai remains a city of dreams. But, for some, it has become a place full of nightmares.

In recent years, the financial capital of the country has emerged as one of the leading markets for trafficked minors who engage in prostitution or, in other words, the commercial sexual abuse of a minor.

According to estimates released by international agencies, trafficking of minor girls is a $1-billion-a-year industry, and it is thriving due to increased sex tourism in Mumbai, Goa and adjoining coastal areas.

Edging past North-Eastern states, poverty-stricken rural areas of Maharashtra — Beed, Latur, Solapur, Jalgaon, Ahmednagar, Nandurbar, Chandrapur, Washim, Akola, Buldhana, Dhule and the Konkan region — have emerged as one of the biggest suppliers of minors.

States such as Assam, West Bengal, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh and Orissa have also opened up as the new supply markets, says a Mumbai police source.

As instances of HIV and AIDS reach alarming proportions, demand for younger, pre-puberty girls has hit an all-time high. Girls as little as seven and eight-years-old are being forced into prostitution, both in the red-light areas and as “professional” call girls (always accompanied by an adult), according to a DNA investigation.

Affluent businessmen, some members of the film and advertising industries, diamond merchants and politicians form the “select” clientele who source minors.

“Trafficking in minor girls has seen an estimated 30 per cent increase from previous years,” says a social activist working at Kamatipura — the city’s most notorious red-light district...
READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT DNAIndia.com

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

California: Stockton Man Gets 40 Years for Child Prostitution

STOCKTON, CALIFORNIA -- A Stockton man convicted of trafficking children for sex was sentenced Thursday to 40 years in prison.

Will Moss Jr., 31, will have to serve at least 85 percent of the sentence, will spend 10 years on supervised release after his prison term and must register for life as a sex offender, according to the Eastern District U.S. Attorney's Office in Sacramento.

During trial, witnesses testified that up to seven women, two of them under the age of 18, worked for Moss as prostitutes. They testified that they traveled between Stockton and Las Vegas and that Moss beat them and brandished firearms to keep them quiet, according to a press release isued by U.S. Attorney McGregor Scott's office.

A jury convicted Moss on June 21 of 12 criminal counts including sex trafficking of children and firearms violations. District Judge Edward J. Garcia said he handed down the stiff sentence because of Moss' brutality, according to prosecutors Carolyn Delaney, Michael Beckwith and Laura Ferris.

The case was initially investigated by the Stockton Police Department and also involved the FBI.

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