Posted on 02/10/2006 7:41:45 AM PST by Sopater
International Sex Trafficking Is a Well-Known Problem, But It Happens Here as Well Feb. 9, 2006 — - Fifteen-year-old "Debbie" is the middle child in a close-knit Air Force family from suburban Phoenix, and a straight-A student -- the last person most of us would expect to be forced into the seamy world of sex trafficking.
But Debbie, which is not her real name, is one of thousands of young American girls who authorities say have been abducted or lured from their normal lives and made into sex slaves. While many Americans have heard of human trafficking in other parts of the world -- Thailand, Cambodia, Latin America and eastern Europe, for example -- few people know it happens here in the United States.
The FBI estimates that well over 100,000 children and young women are trafficked in America today. They range in age from 9 to 19, with the average age being 11.
And many victims are no longer just runaways, or kids who've been abandoned. Many of them are from what would be considered "good" families, who are lured or coerced by clever predators, say experts. "These predators are particularly adept at reading children, at reading kids, and knowing what their vulnerabilities are," said FBI Deputy Assistant Director, Chip Burrus, who started the Lost Innocence project, which specializes in child- and teen-sex trafficking.
And, he said, these predators are going where the kids are.
"What you can see, time and time again, is that the predators will adapt their means to whatever the young people are doing -- whether it's malls, whether it's ski slopes, whether it's beaches," Burrus said. "Predators ... are going to do everything in their power to try to convince young girls, young boys, to come with them and enter this particular lifestyle."
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
I'm appalled at the number of kids whose parents will dump them off unattended at malls.
ABC reports?
It is suspect from the get go. - It reads like other fake news with fake statistics about fake people from so called "reporters."
Bush's fault! He is somehow 'connected' to the sex trade in America. Impeach him now!
So you don't think this happens?
No, its all Clinton's fault.
Sweeps Week already?
My mom used to drop us off at the movies and no one thought anything about it. I guess it depends on the age of the kids.
Here is an additional link to the story with video...
http://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/story?id=1596778&page=1
I couldn't agree more. I never did that and of course, my dau cried foul. Even today when she is in college, though living at home, I have her call to let us know she gets places. She accuses me of tracking her, but I don't. I've told her I want her to build habits that will then carry over with her husband someday (I hope) and with her own children who will be growing up in yet a more dangerous world.
Frontline carried a program earlier in the week on trafficking young women in Eastern Europe. It was horrifying.
Does anyone else think it's wierd that both of the examples are from the same town (Phoenix)?
I dont' know how old you are, but I think it's a different world today. My parents were strict, but they let me do things I wouldn't want my dau or someday grandchildren do. Just because it's a much more dangerous world.
I second that emotion. In fact, I'd like to hang the millstone personally.
It is a much more dangerous world and that is sad. Kids don't have much time to just be kids anymore.
15-year-old kids kidnapped at gunpoint from their front yard? Their families don't realize they're missing? The child is raped? Sold? Coerced into prostitution? Kept in a dog crate?
Yeah, that happens. It happens to about 1 out of every 300 million kids in America.
Let's do a show on it and pretend the problem is widespread.
Thankfully , we won't have to ... But our job now should be to bring the individuals to justice that this world affords us.
Nah, just ABC trying to stop a lot of people from watching the opening ceremonies of the Olympics tonight on NBC.
Can't account for the domestic figures but I know that it does exist in this country. I had an employee who discussed a visit and a Chinese girl was asking him to take her away.
Basically she was probably an illegal alien and was trying to escape the sex trade by "belonging" to one man.
I did tell the guy what was probably really going on but he didn't seem too interested. Even repeating it for affect produced no reaction.
And that's why the President deserves respect yet again. He's at least brought this into the human rights framework internationally.
Another reason why I respect him.
That doesn't even pass the laugh test.
Do you think somebody at the FBI really said this? If so, they should be fired.
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