Underage Prostitution and the Sexual Exploitation of Young Girls in Seattle: A Presentation at SU Law School

This week, February 21-25, is Diversity Week at Seattle University's Law School.

I attended a lecture this afternoon entitled "Underage Prostitution and the Sexual Exploitation of Young Girls in Seattle." I was lucky enough to experience Leslie Briner from YouthCare as the speaker (I was very impressed with her at the Town Hall meeting on child sex trafficking last month). It was to address the following: The Women’s Law Caucus and SYLAW-SU present a discussion about a largely impoverished and marginalized population and the legal responses or approaches that can be taken.

Leslie Briner shared the same video that was shown at the Town Hall meeting, called "The Making of a Girl." She believes it to be a story representative of many girls who become involved in the sex trade. The video is posted below, as well as the fact sheet provided by YouthCare.

Prostitution and Trafficking Fact Sheet

·         The average age for a youth entering prostitution in the United States in 12-13 years old

·         90% of youth who have been commercially sexually exploited (CSE) have some history of abuse, neglect, or sexual trauma

·         The issue of commercial sexual exploitation is estimated to effect 150,000 to 350,000 youth annually in the United States and up to a million worldwide (however, it should be noted that no empirical measure has been devised that can validate that statistic with accuracy)

·         A 2007 King County needs assessment identified 238 youth being commercially sexually exploited. From that study a prevalence number was determined that 300-500 youth are commercially sexually exploited in Seattle/King County each year

·         Youth are recruited from: transit areas such as bus stops and train stations, any place homeless youth congregate, group homes, shelters, youth drop-in centers, middle and high schools, malls and shopping centers, places that employ teens and, with increasing frequency, youth are recruited through the internet.

·         It is believed that 1/3 of chronic runaway/homeless youth will have some brush with survival sex or prostitution. In urban centers runaway/homeless youth who have just arrived are approached by pimps and exploiters, often within 48 hours

·         In the United States there are less than 75 dedicated beds serving CSE youth (including the new YouthCare programs). Those cities with specialized services are: Los Angeles, New York, Atlanta, San Francisco, Boston, and Seattle.

·         Youth who are clearly under the age of consent (to have sex with an adult) are arrested for prostitution every day. In effect, criminalizing the youth for their own abuse and exploitation. This is referred to as the offender/victim status

·         The programs at YouthCare, in Seattle, will be the first of its kind to also serve boys and trans-gendered youth. All other existing programs are (female) gender specific