Summary: The articles below examines police reports on child sex trade from various cities across the United States. At the time they were written, none of the cities examined (and very few cities nationally) had any laws or policies regarding the treatment of underage prostitutes as victims, not criminals. As I have mentioned elsewhere, there is an age of consent law in every state (somewhere from 16-18 years old). According to those laws, underage prostitutes are being raped by their customers. They cannot consent to having sex with their customers, so how can they be guilty of selling sex? Yet, according to the first article below, 40% of the youth in question (out of a sample pool of 126) were treated as criminals rather than victims. The youth in the second article were treated more harshly: only 31% were treated as victims, and 16% were treated as victims and criminals. The youth in the third article were treated as criminals and victim at about a 50%/50% split. In the cases where those in question are treated as criminals, laws against prostitution trumped age of consent laws. There were several factors that seemed to influence how the individual was categorized. When their exploiter (pimp) was present or easily tracked, the individual was often treated as a victim. When the individual was "not local" (personally, I read into this that "not local" is code for immigrant or person of color), they were often treated as a criminal. The author provides ideas for best practice, which include training police officers to spot sexual exploitation of minors and treat them as such.
Factors That Influence Police Conceptualizations of Girls Involved in Prostitution in Six U.S. Cities: Child Sexual Exploitation Victims or Delinquents?Stephanie Halter
- Plymouth State University, New Hampshire, sjhalter02@plymouth.edu
Abstract
This study examined how the police conceptualize juveniles involved in prostitution as victims of child sexual exploitation (CSE) or delinquents. Case files from six police agencies in major U.S. cities of 126 youth allegedly involved in prostitution, who were almost entirely girls, provided the data for this inquiry. This study found that 60% of youth in this sample were conceptualized as victims by the police and 40% as offenders. Logistic regression predicted the youths’ culpability status as victims. The full model predicted 91% of youth’s culpability status correctly and explained 67% of the variance in the youths’ culpability status. The police considered youth with greater levels of cooperation, greater presence of identified exploiters, no prior record, and that came to their attention through a report more often as victims. In addition, the police may consider local youth more often as victims. It appears that the police use criminal charges as a paternalistic protective response to detain some of the youth treated as offenders, even though they considered these youth victims. Legislatively mandating this form of CSE as child abuse or adopting a ‘‘secure care’’ approach is needed to ensure these youth receive the necessary treatment and services.
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http://cmx.sagepub.com/content/15/2/152.abstract
Conceptualizing Juvenile Prostitution as Child Maltreatment: Findings from the National Juvenile Prostitution Study (Child Maltreatment)
Kimberly J. Mitchell
- David Finkelhor
- Janis Wolak
- Abstract
Two studies were conducted to identify the incidence (Study 1) and characteristics (Study 2) of juvenile prostitution cases known to law enforcement agencies in the United States. Study 1 revealed a national estimate of 1,450 arrests or detentions (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1,287—1,614) in cases involving juvenile prostitution during a 1-year period. In Study 2, exploratory data were collected from a subsample of 138 cases from police records in 2005. The cases are broadly categorized into three main types: (a) third-party exploiters, (b) solo prostitution, and (c) conventional child sexual abuse (CSA) with payment. Cases were classified into three initial categories based on police orientation toward the juvenile: (a) juveniles as victims (53%), (b) juveniles as delinquents (31%), and (c) juvenile as both victims and delinquents (16%). When examining the status of the juveniles by case type, the authors found that all the juveniles in CSA with payment cases were treated as victims, 66% in third-party exploiters cases, and 11% in solo cases. Findings indicate law enforcement responses to juvenile prostitution are influential in determining whether such youth are viewed as victims of commercial sexual exploitation or as delinquents.
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http://cmx.sagepub.com/content/15/1/18.short
Conceptualizing Juvenile Prostitution as Child Maltreatment: Findings from the National Juvenile Prostitution Study
Jeremy M. Wilson
Abstract
This analysis explores the extent and characteristics of human trafficking in Columbus and Toledo, Ohio, including the response to the problem by law enforcement agencies. Through a content analysis of newspaper accounts and interviews with criminal justice officials and social service providers in each city, the authors identified 10 cases of juvenile sex trafficking and forced prostitution in Toledo and 5 cases of trafficking for the forced labor of noncitizens in Columbus. The offenders and victims involved in the sex trafficking cases were largely from the local area, whereas those involved in the labor trafficking cases primarily involved foreign nationals, thereby illustrating at least one role the heartland plays in transnational crime. The authors compare the different responses to human trafficking in the two cities and suggest how to raise awareness about human trafficking and improve the responses of law enforcement agencies to the problem.
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