642 arrested in U.S. child prostitution crackdown, FBI says

[MuffyBee]

642 arrested in U.S. child prostitution crackdown, FBI says
By NATASHA T. METZLER Associated Press
Oct. 27, 2008, 1:34PM
WASHINGTON  — More than 600 adults have been arrested and 47 children were rescued in a three-day roundup targeting people who force children into prostitution.

The FBI said today the roundup by federal, state and local law enforcement took place in 29 cities, adding that the raids dismantled 12 large-scale prostitution operations run through call services, truck stops casinos and Web sites.

At a news conference announcing the results of Operation Cross Country II, FBI Deputy Director John Pistole said the arrests were made possible by intelligence gathered during a similar series of raids in June.

"Sex trafficking of children remains one of our most violent and unconscionable crimes in this country," Pistole said.

The 47 rescued children ranged in age from 13 to 17. Of these, Pistole said, 10 had been reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

A total of 642 people were arrested. The FBI says they include 73 pimps and 518 adult prostitutes.

The operation was part of a larger, five-year initiative that has led to the recovery of 575 children and the dismantling of 36 criminal operations since June 2003.

Child prostitution has taken on a new urgency in recent years with the growth of online networks where pimps advertise the youngsters to clients. The FBI generally gets involved in child prostitution cases that cross state lines.

A University of Pennsylvania study estimated that nearly 300,000 children in the United States are at risk of being sexually exploited for commercial purposes.

"Make no mistake, the minors who were interdicted as a part of this operation are victims of the most extreme form of sex trafficking," said acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew Friedrich.

"It sadly remains the case even now in 2008 that there remain instances of children in the United States manipulated into prostitution by pimps willing to make a fast buck based on the most vulnerable among us," he said.

 http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/6080231.html

[Sam]

This makes me ill.

47 children aged 13 to 17 of these 10 of these had been reported missing to
National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.. So 37 families did not report their children missing. They may have thought they were runaways.

I hope all these children will be welcomed home with love and open arms and hope the children can recover from this tragedy.
Sam

[Nut44x4]

Child Prostitutes Rescued, Pimps Arrested In Atlanta, Other Cities
Monday, February 23, 2009 – updated: 11:33 am EST February 23, 2009

ATLANTA -- The FBI has rescued more than 45 suspected teenage prostitutes, some as young as 13, in Atlanta and other cities in a nationwide sweep to remove kids from the illegal sex trade and punish their accused pimps.

Over a three-night initiative called Operation Cross Country, federal agents working with local law enforcement also arrested more than 50 alleged pimps, according to preliminary bureau data.

The teenage prostitutes found in the investigation ranged in age from 13 to 17.

Historically, federal authorities rarely play a role in anti-prostitution crackdowns, but the FBI is becoming more involved as it tries to rescue children caught up in the business.

"The goal is to recover kids. We consider them the child victims of prostitution," said FBI Deputy Assistant Director Daniel Roberts.

"Unfortunately, the vast majority of these kids are what they term 'throwaway kids,' with no family support, no friends. They're kids that nobody wants, they're loners. Many are runaways," Roberts said.

Most of the children are put into the custody of local child protection agencies.

Agents in cities from Miami to Atlanta to Anchorage, Alaska took part in the operation.

The federal effort is also designed to hit pimps with much tougher prison sentences than they would likely get in state criminal courts.

Government prosecutors look to bring racketeering charges or conspiracy charges that can result in decades of jail time.

"Some of these networks of pimps and their organizations are very sophisticated, they're interstate," said Roberts, requiring wiretaps and undercover sting operations to bring charges.

The weekend's roundup marked the third such Operation Cross Country, and is part of a broader federal program launched in 2003 to crack down on the sexual exploitation of children.
http://www.wsbtv.com/news/18773600/detail.html

[cookie]

Maybe some of these kids will get put into proper homes now and will get to have a normal life for a kid their age. go back to school, hang out with other teens..
if anything could be normal after what they have been through..

[Nut44x4]

Human trafficking remains largely in the shadows across the US
http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0904022.htm
By Dennis Sadowski
Catholic News Service

TRAFFICKING Sep-8-2009
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Darko Mihaylovich likes to tell his fellow Kentuckians that if they think human trafficking doesn't exist in the state they'd better think again.

As the director of migration and refugee services for Catholic Charities in the Archdiocese of Louisville, Mihaylovich knows that on any given day he or a member of the statewide human trafficking task force could run across a trafficking victim.

Since March 2008, "we have identified ... 31 victims," he told Catholic News Service. "It is happening here."

Mihaylovich knows the number of discovered victims in Kentucky is far below those in such entry points as New York, Washington, southern California, Texas and Florida. But, as he tells anyone who will listen, human trafficking exists everywhere.

Trafficking victims -- called "survivors" by advocates -- are considered modern-day slaves by law enforcement officials and outreach workers alike. For the traffickers, the motivating factor is money. For the trafficked, the dream is a better life, but it never becomes so.

Worldwide trafficking networks involve systems where individuals are recruited for an honest wage for an honest day's work as they pursue financial independence and freedom. Once in place, usually outside their home country, victims end up under the control of one individual, with their freedom restricted and their safety usually threatened.

Mihaylovich's agency is one of 98 nonprofits across the U.S. and its territories that have been subcontracted by Migration and Refugee Services of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to provide vital services to foreign-born trafficking victims once they are identified. Funding comes through a five-year contract with the Department of Health and Human Services worth up to $33.9 million. The contract runs through March 2011.

Despite the contract, identifying people who are being trafficked is a difficult task, said Kristyn Peck Williams, screening and field coordinator for the MRS Office of Refugee Programs.

"It's not easy to find people," Williams said. "It's a hidden crime. People don't self-identify as being abused."

Since the contract began in April 2006 the 98 subcontractors have assisted 1,043 victims and 278 family members, including dependent children, parents of dependent children and spouses.

The subcontracted agencies provide case-management services for the victims. Social workers arrange counseling sessions, find housing, transport victims for court appearances and accompany victims through the process of becoming a U.S. citizen, Williams explained.

The agencies assist minors and adults, males and females. Statistics from Williams' office show that 97 percent of the victims are adults.

Other statistics from their work under the contract show:

-- Women and girls make up more than two-thirds of victims.

-- Slightly more than one-quarter of victims were involved in sex trafficking while two-thirds were brought to the U.S. and placed in abusive labor settings, including domestic housekeeping and child care, factory work and janitorial services. About 7 percent were involved in both sex and labor abuses.

-- Victims have been identified from 83 countries, most commonly from Southeast Asia, West Africa, Eastern Europe, Mexico and Central America.

The services offered under the contract reach only a small portion of the 14,500 to 17,500 people that the State Department estimates are trafficked into the U.S. annually. Worldwide, the United Nations and government agencies estimate that the number tops out in the hundreds of thousands.

Within the U.S., thousands more American-born girls and young women are trafficked primarily for the sex trade, showing up on the street as prostitutes or in brothels. While far lower in number, American-born boys and young men are not immune to being trafficked.

To help address trafficking concerns, many of the agencies subcontracted by MRS have joined statewide or regional task forces. While funding under the federal contract is limited to helping foreign-born victims, agencies like those run by Mihaylovich have other financial resources to help American victims.

Local law enforcement officials, the FBI and federal prosecutors also participate in most of the task forces. Such efforts allow all parties to work more closely and better understand the needs of victims, especially those involved in the sex trade, explained Roy L. Austin Jr., coordinator of the District of Columbia Human Trafficking Task Force.

"These cases are more complex than many others because you have such an enormous need for victim services," Austin told CNS. "You deal often with very reluctant victims. Those become issues you have to overcome."

Education has been a key component of the work of the task forces, said Renee Huffman, anti-trafficking project manager at Ayuda Inc. in Washington, which subcontracts with MRS for services to trafficking victims.

"There's such a huge need for education," Huffman told CNS. Ayuda offers regular training programs for the general public as well as for law enforcement officials.

Even with such efforts, the huge sums of money that traffickers make ensure that human trafficking is not about to go away any time soon.

Austin said the extent of the problem depends on the city or region of the country. In the nation's capital, with its lack of a major manufacturing base, the sex trade is the most likely place to find trafficked people. He said American teenage girls are often found to be victims working in prostitution rings. He also cited Asian-style massage parlors and brothels filled with young Central Americans as places where trafficking victims can be found.

On Maryland's Eastern Shore, people are trafficked into the region for their labor, according to Solette Magnelli, an assistant U.S. attorney in Baltimore and a member of the Maryland Human Trafficking Task Force. She also said some women end up in domestic servitude after being brought into the country by diplomats residing in the Maryland suburbs of Washington.

Williams of MRS said such treatment is difficult to fathom for most Americans.

"We're still in the baby steps of understanding (trafficking)," she said. "We're still developing our knowledge and responses as a country. It takes collaboration between agencies, law enforcement and good Samaritans to identify (victims)."

Editor's Note: Several resources on both domestic and international human trafficking are available. Shared Hope International's "The National Report on Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking: America's Prostituted Children" is available online at www.sharedhope.org. The U.S. State Department's annual "Trafficking in Persons Report 2009" is available online at www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/tiprpt/2009/index.htm.

END

[Edward]

BOSTON —  Two men have pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges in connection with a ring that forced teenage girls to work as prostitutes in several states, including Massachusetts, Maine, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Shaun Leoney and Aaron Brooks were among six men who were indicted in 2007 for participating in a Boston-based prostitution ring that operated from 2001 to 2005.

Leoney, of Boston, and Brooks, of Quincy, were originally charged with conspiracy and transportation for prostitution. Leoney was also charged with sex trafficking of children.
Both men pleaded guilty Tuesday to a single count of conspiracy. Brooks reached a plea deal with prosecutors, who will recommend a sentence of four years. Leoney faces a maximum of five years in prison.

Sentencing for both men was scheduled for Dec. 15.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,550741,00.html?test=latestnews

This story is not about the 642 people arrested.. It is about a tragidy with our court system and prosicuters.
 IF People that inslave and prostitute children are not harshly punished, they will continue to do it because of the huge amount of money they make..
jmho 

[Nut44x4]

Girls rescued from sex trade have few options to get help
US has just three programs offering residential therapy
By Joe Markman, Los Angeles Times  |  December 9, 2009

WASHINGTON - More than a month after the FBI announced it had rescued 52 children from “sexual slavery’’ in a nationwide crackdown on child prostitution, none of the victims is receiving the help specialists say is necessary to overcome such trauma and rejoin society.

At least one, a 15-year-old Sacramento girl held on an unrelated charge, remains in a juvenile detention center, according to a Los Angeles Times check of the children’s situations.

Others have been sent home or into foster care.

The victims need intensive residential treatment, specialists say, and only three such programs exist.

Richard Estes, a social policy professor at the University of Pennsylvania and a specialist on child sexual exploitation, said the “best fighting chance’’ for victims is “24/7 residential care for a long period of time.’’

“This is not a quick-fix situation,’’ he said. “It really is a rebuilding and remolding of personality and character.’’

Many victims are abused long before they are lured into the sex trade, Estes said. Their symptoms often include guilt, anxiety, and inappropriate sexual behavior.

“Most of the girls that have run away and are on the streets have run away because of sexual abuse,’’ he said.

Lois Lee, founder of a 24-bed Los Angeles shelter called Children of the Night, sees the problems firsthand.

“When America’s child prostitutes are identified by the FBI or police, they are incarcerated for whatever reason possible, whether it be an unrelated crime or ‘material witness hold,’ ’’ she said.

“Then they are dumped back in the dysfunctional home, ill-equipped group home, or foster care, and [often] disappear back into the underground of prostitution with no voice.’’

Ian McCaleb, a spokesman for the Justice Department, said the government “uses a victim-centered approach that provides victims with the services they need in order to recover and to fully participate in the criminal justice process.’’

But some of the local law enforcement officials who worked with the FBI on the October bust echoed Lee’s comments. Child victims are often sent home or to foster families after moving through juvenile court, the officials said.

For instance, six children ages 10 to 17 rescued in Toledo, Ohio, were processed through the local child services bureau before ending up in a nonresidential counseling program, Toledo Police Detective Peter Schwartz said.

Specialists underscore that sex-trafficking victims struggle to find the care they need once they escape from an industry that may involve at least 100,000 US children.

Donna M. Hughes, a women’s studies professor at the University of Rhode Island who has researched US sex trafficking, argues that domestic victims are shortchanged by the attention authorities and advocacy groups give to the illegal importation of foreign prostitutes.

“We need more treatment programs,’’ Hughes said. “There are a number of different programs that have existed for years, but they need more support.’’

Lisa Goldblatt Grace, who consulted on a 2007 study for the Health and Human Services Department, said child victims “lack a safe, stable place to live, and that’s part of what made them vulnerable to begin with.’’

Grace is program director of the My Life My Choice Project, a nonprofit focused on reaching out to adolescent girls most vulnerable to commercial sexual exploitation.

The Health and Human Services Department study found only four residential treatment centers in the United States for child prostitutes, with a total of 45 beds.

Interviews with officials at the centers show that beds remain scarce, and that one of the four, Standing Against Global Exploitation Safe House, in San Francisco, no longer offers overnight accommodations.

It does, however, provide nonresidential care for victims and helps place them with foster families.

Mollie Ring, the house’s trafficking project manager, said the beds were eliminated because of a money crunch.

The remaining residential programs are:

■Children of the Night, which offers psychological treatment, academic assistance, and personal bedrooms and bathrooms, with 24 beds.

■New York-based Girls Educational and Mentoring Services, founded in 1999 by a former child prostitute, with 12 beds.

■Angela’s House, a nonprofit in Georgia run by the Center to End Adolescent Sexual Exploitation, which is expanding from six beds to eight.

The house no longer has a waiting list, program manager Melba Robinson said, but funding remains a “huge issue.’’

That adds up to 44 beds and is not nearly enough, said Ernie Allen, president of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

He estimated that US child victims numbered between 100,000 and 300,000.

“You can’t just take them home,’’ Allen said. “The challenge is there are not enough resources’’ to help them.

Keith Haight, a former Los Angeles police detective who retired in 2008, spent 22 years on the vice squad. He said that despite the push in the past few years to help victims, rather than to prosecute them as prostitutes, how to do it remains elusive.

“A lot of places don’t want to take responsibility for girls that are known to be sexually active,’’ he said.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2009/12/09/girls_rescued_from_sex_trade_have_few_options_to_get_help?mode=PF