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Lost Innocence: An FBI raid rescues child prostitutes Date published: 11/2/2009
ABOUT 2.8 million kids live on the It's a story we don't like to face; unfortunately, the reality of the sexual exploitation of children in this country haunts law enforcement officials, activists, and every parent who has ever had a teen storm out of the house in anger. Last week, the FBI and its task-force partners conducted a series of raids across the country. Fifty-two children who were being victimized as prostitutes were rescued, and 700 other people, including 60 pimps, were arrested. Part of the Lost Innocence National Initiative, a collaboration between law enforcement officials and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, this was the fourth in a series of national enforcement actions. Since the initiative's beginning in 2003, nearly 900 children have been rescued from the streets, and 510 convictions of their exploiters obtained. Who are these kids? Some are runaways, seeking freedom or relief from tensions (or abuse) at home. Others are throwaways. A New York Times report says that family stress from the recession is driving kids to the streets. About 1.2 million kids leave home every year. Most return without incident. Most. But with legitimate employment hard to find and street survival skills limited, a third of these kids, experts say, will soon be selling their bodies for food, shelter, or drugs. The pimps are smart: They entice the girls into a relationship that eventually leads to prostitution. "With the young girls, you promise them Heaven, they'll follow you to Hell," one convicted pimp said. "It all depends on her being so love-drunk off of me that she will do anything for me." Including having sex with "a friend." And then more friends. And then anyone. Shared Hope International, a nonprofit group fighting domestic and international human trafficking, says that a U.S. pimp can make more than $600,000 a year by keeping four females to service clients. It even happens in Virginia. Last week, 29-year-old Marvin Leigh Madkins of Newport News got 50 years in federal prison for recruiting two minors to engage in prostitution in Virginia and transporting them to Jacksonville, Fla., for the same purpose. He promised them fancy trips to fun places; he gave them a lifetime of misery and regret. "It is repugnant that children in these times could be subjected to the great pain, suffering, and indignity of being forced into sexual slavery for someone else's profit," said Assistant U.S. Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer. Shared Hope International reports that 12 is the average age of a child lured into prostitution or pornography, a form of prostitution in which the millions of Americans who consume smut are de facto "johns." Lost innocence, indeed.
Living on the streey for awhile teaches the smart ones a lesson. The dumb ones stay on the street. It;s called natural selection. It sounds cold but reality is uncompromising.
When we have 50billion people crawling around this planet a human life will not be worth a plugged nickel.
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