Human Trafficking of Young People (12-16) – Today's Slavery

Slavery exists in the United States. In fact, it is thriving. Human trafficking and prostitution is a multi-billion dollar industry, second in revenue to illegal drugs, fueled by men who buy and sell the bodies of women and children. I invited Ms. Vednita Carter onto my blogtalk radio show to educate us about this issue. Ms. Carter is the founder and executive director of Breaking Free, an organization based in Minnesota that helps 400-500 women every year escape the horrific lifestyle of prostitution.

Our discussion shocked me. I had no idea how uninformed I was about an issue that is happening in my own community. Ms. Carter spoke about the misrepresentation of the industry that the media perpetuates with films such as Pretty Woman. Prostitution is not a prosperous lifestyle. It does not involve making good money or making love to kind, wealthy men.

Practically 100% of the women that Ms. Carter works with are chemically dependent. Ms. Carter sticks with the numbers that represent the women that she interacts personally, because there is a dearth of research on a national level, but here are some numbers that she can confirm: the average age of young girls being trafficked into the US is 12-14 years old. The youngest child that Ms. Carter is currently working with is 12 years old. According to Ms. Carter, the FBI has confirmed that young women who run away from home have an extremely high risk of being kidnapped or lured into prostitution within 24-48 hours of their disappearance. The cultural stereotype paints a “pimp” as a criminal in a slum, but according to Ms. Carter, this is completely inaccurate. Traffickers and pimps will prowl places that vulnerable young women are likely to appear alone.

One story Ms. Carter shared with us was about 2 sixteen year old girls who befriended a pair of young men—as young as 19 or 20—at the mall. They had lunch with them in the food court, were drugged, and woke up in a motel room, where they were forced to have sex with all the men that entered the room. One of them begged each man who came in to contact her family. She was trapped there for 6 months before someone finally called the authorities, who found fourteen young girls trapped at this motel.

100% of the women that Ms. Carter works with suffer from PTSD. Over half of them are homeless, and have nowhere to live except with their trafficker, pimp, or trick, who charge them for food and a place to sleep. It is difficult to prosecute pimps, because their prostitutes are too terrified to provide evidence. When she has experienced the violence of which her captor is capable—why would a woman risk her own life, as well as those of her loved ones, to come forth with evidence when there is no guarantee that he will be charged and no protection from his allies?

Another real shock to me was how commonly prostitution occurs at events like the Super Bowl. Any massive gathering of men—a doctor’s convention was one example Ms. Carter cited—attracts pimps, and this gets to the heart of the problem: we consider the pimp the criminal, but what about the “John?” As long as there is demand for prostitutes, the industry will thrive. Who are these men who purchase young girls for sex? Should they not be considered criminal? Prostitution is still considered “the oldest profession” in the world In reality, it is the oldest form of oppression. In the United States, prostitutes are expected to serve, on average, 15-20 men a day. Internationally, it is closer to 40. That is not a career. That is torture.

Immense progress has been made since Ms. Carter founded her organization in the ’80′s, when she could not even get churches to open their doors to these women. Now, she works with legislators. But there is a long way to go, specifically in the field of public awareness. Organizations like Breaking Free are trying to speak in schools so they can educate young girls about the dangers they face, but most school systems decline because often parents think that sex trafficking is not something their own daughters need worry about. They are very wrong. Let’s teach our daughters never to trust strange men, no matter how smooth they are. Just as importantly, let’s teach our sons to respect women. Purchasing a woman’s body is not acceptable. It is a heinous, violent crime.