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The Women's Freedom Network
Newsletter January/February & March/April2002, Volume 9, Nos. 1 & 2 WOMEN'S FREEDOM NETWORK NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON The United States Campaign Against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children by Laura Barnitz |
O ne may ask, "What can we really do to become effective advocates in this fight against the commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC)?" It is my belief that we need to start at home, here in the United States. The United States is a world leader, which can have an impact on the international dimensions of the problem. If the U.S. takes the lead on this issue, while learning from other countries, the lines of communication will be increased and we can share our successes and routes to success with each other.
It is based on this perspective that Youth Advocate Program International (YAPI) works on a lot of international children's issues such as child labor and the use of child soldiers. Last year YAPI helped organize a national gathering of U.S. based advocacy and educational organizations that provided direct services to children and youth involved in the sex trade.
As a result of that meeting, we decided to create the United States Campaign Against the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children. The purpose of the campaign is to end the use and abuse of children and youth in prostitution, pornography, and sex trafficking. The campaign welcomes members from public and private child-serving organizations, as well as human rights groups, faith-based groups, education, corporate, and other organizations that can support the purpose of this campaign.
| "If the U.S. takes the lead on this issue, while learning from other countries, the lines of communication will be increased and we can share our successes and routes to success with each other." |
But some ask, "Why do we need a U.S. campaign? We have laws in every state and at the national level that outlaw prostitution of children, child pornography, and trafficking." That is true. There is a widespread system within our country of private and public child-serving and youth-serving agencies at the state and local levels to assist children who are involved in these crimes. There are federal prosecutors who specialize in handling CSEC cases. In several states there are directives for state-level prosecutors to make CSEC cases a priority. There are federal programs for training local and state level law enforcement to handle CSEC cases and assist in investigations. There are registries for counting vulnerable and victimized children, as well as sex offenders. Many states have legislation that mandates multidisciplinary child protection teams comprised of representatives from a variety of agencies to coordinate work on these cases. Some state support systems of victim witnesses are court-appointed special advocates to help child victims through the processes of the legal system.
Yes, we do have these things, and they are vital. But, we still have to deal with the fact that we still have hundreds of thousands of children involved in the sex trade each year. The U.S. cannot in good conscience stand back and shake our fingers at other countries and say, isn't this a calamity?
Despite the fact that we can point to several commendable actions taken nationally and at the state level, we must recognize where we have failed children. Many child victims of CSEC in the United States are never counted. There appear to be multiple reasons for this, including the fact that CSEC cases are sometimes overlooked as victimless crimes, or are considered nuisance crimes, and not as important to the local community as other pressing issues, such as gang activity and the drug trade. Adolescents carry false IDs and are often perceived to be adults. CSEC is hidden behind legitimate business fronts and is often less visible than street prostitution. Some of those fronts could be massage parlors, escort services, bars, restaurants, or car washes.
Investigations of CSEC cases are difficult because the children often do not want to cooperate or don't feel that they are secure enough to cooperate with law enforcement and other people involved. Victim service providers and law enforcement agencies sometimes have strained relationships in communities that result in child-serving agencies failing to report cases of suspected CSEC in order to shield children from what they perceive as further victimization in legal and judicial systems.
Also, it should be noted that the very people who are closest to these victimized children, their family members, the people who should be protecting them or informing law enforcement of sex trade activities sometimes are not looking out for them and are not committed to their well-being.
Throughout the country, children can still be arrested and detained on charges of prostitution. Those child victims often are classified as offenders and treated as offenders, even if their arrests don't become part of their permanent records. Arrest and detention is still too often used in the absence of appropriate services as a strategy for protection. For example, in January last year, on the front of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, there was a picture of the shackled legs of a 10-year-old-girl who had been brought into the courtroom on charges of prostitution. In one of a series of articles on child prostitution in this city, a juvenile court judge interviewed had explained that the sympathetic judges were those that kept the children in detention because they had no place to send them for services. The juvenile court judge handling this particular case said, "The last thing I want to do is detain her, because it comes across as punitive, but I've got to make sure she is safe."
| "...on the front of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, there was a picture of the shackled legs of a 10-year-old-girl who had been brought into the courtroom on charges of prostitution..." |
Thankfully, public outrage over these articles on child prostitution led to significant changes in legislation in Georgia. Although the child advocates and the U.S. Campaign Against CSEC are very concerned about detention being used as a strategy for protection, there is truth in the judge's comment. In too many communities there is a disconnection between law enforcement, criminal and juvenile justice systems, and child and youth serving agencies in the local community. Many publicly and privately funded child-serving organizations lack an awareness of CSEC and adequate responses to the victims. Rarely are children referred to child service organizations specifically because of their involvement in the sex trade. As a result, care and treatment plans for CSEC victims neglect to encompass the extent and severity of their experiences.
When these cases are brought to an agency's attention, many, if not most, agencies patch together services they think will help the individual child. But, few service providers have integrated treatment plans for CSEC in their formal policies and procedures, and few organizations have the capacity for the security considerations and the long-term and multi-faceted services these child victims need.
There are a handful of organizations in the U.S. that work specifically with children who are victims of prostitution and pornography. The staff of these organizations will be the first to tell you how difficult it is to establish rapport with these victims. How the children distrus dangerous situations; and how few organizations are able to invest in the immense effort to help them, given the fact that prostituted girls often are emotionally bonded to their pimps and they return to the street over and over again. Boys in prostitution are rarely identified at all. On top of all this, the service agencies have to weigh the risks to the victims, their staff, and the other clients posed by the very dangerous people affiliated with these children.
Additionally, I think there are some cultural reasons we need to examine that cause us to ignore the victims of CSEC or blame them for the situation they find themselves in. There's ambivalence towards providing protection for adolescents. They act like they know what they are doing, they look like adults, and they don't stir sympathy like young children do. But I question how much sympathy we have even for young children when I read the comments of the judge in Atlanta describing their perceptions of the prostituted 10-year-old and her 11-year-old sister. These girls aren't seen as victims. They're seen as consenting participants.
There is mythology around the ideas of prostitution and male sexual behavior. For example, the tradition of initiating young men to sexual activity through prostitution; belief in the male prerogative and control of sexual relationships; and in the cases dealing with boys or trans-gendered youth, there is the widespread social fear and hatred of homosexuality to deal with.
There's over-valuing independence at the expense of adolescent development where families encourage youth to live independently and support themselves before age 18. There is also over-valuing commercial entrepreneurship. Your worth is measured by how much money you make and this message is heard and absorbed by many children and youth.
| "We need to bring back into focus the obligations that all Americans have to protect children from abuse, not exploit them." |
What we can do to help make it right. What will end the commercial sexual exploitation of children in the United States? An effective response to CSEC has to be built upon a clear awareness of the parties involved: the youth, the exploiters, and the facilitators. Some characterize an effective response to CSEC in economic terms and feel that makes the issue and solutions clearer. Where you talk about supply, those are our children, and we want to protect that supply. The demand is the exploiters, and we want to decrease the demand. And the facilitators -- the pimps, traffickers, madams, recruiters, auxiliary agency organizations, and businesses involved -- are the middlemen, and we need to squeeze them out.
The first goal of the U.S. Campaign Against CSEC is to increase public awareness. We must bring people's attention to the fact that children are being abused and there are people who prosper both personally and monetarily, by that abuse. A second goal is an increased number of educational programs and training for law enforcement and child-serving professionals.
Our third goal is to increase services for sexually exploited youth. Youth need time to heal. They can lead productive adult lives and be contributing members of society, but we must help them rehabilitate.
Fourth, we will support and promote youth participation and advocacy against CSEC. These children are human beings who can be the best advocates in the effort to stop CSEC.
Fifth, we aim to prevent sexual exploitation and address penalties for sex exploiters of children. We have to look at the legal loopholes and traditions that cause us to focus on the children alone, as if they created the sex trade and benefited from it. We need to bring back into focus the obligations that all Americans have to protect children from abuse, not exploit them.
Finally, our goal is to promote the development of a national plan against CSEC. Law does not exist in a vacuum. Social services do not exist in a vacuum. Real success and commitment to stopping CSEC depends on a coordinated effort with everyone at the table invested in finding a solution. A national plan will go a long way towards establishing a framework for action that all the stakeholders in all of our communities can be a part of.
There are many different actions that the campaign can take to bring about the achievement of these goals. Right now we are refining our action plan for 2002. We welcome your organizations' involvement in designing and supporting these activities. CSEC is a tough issue. People don't want to think about the violence and abuse that children suffer because of their involvement in the sex trade. But we cannot turn away. We cannot be a part of not stopping this suffering. We can work together with our individual organizations and through the campaign to stop this. Let us make stopping CSEC, case by case, community by community, state by state, a national example of what we can do when we value children as human beings and not as commercial objects.