I will never, if I live for a thousand years, understand how anyone can treat children this way. Her parents, her grandmother, the pimps, the authorities... This poor child's been raped in more ways than one.

Disturbing, but not surprising. Victims of sex trafficking are often treated as criminals because most likely they're illegal aliens and their in the business of prostitution which is illegal for the most part.

The commercial sexual exploitation of children is thought of as one of as the most hidden forms of child abuse. Lucillia is not alone, estimates conclude there are at least 5,000 sexually exploited youth like her in NYC, and as many as 200,000 - 300,000 like her in the United States.

I had no idea about this, despite the fact that I have been working with women and girls for several years. Now I work at GEMS, and have seen firsthand the girls that have been brutally "recruited" into prostitution and then criminalized for their victimization.

It is an issue with an extremely low public profile, despite the outrage that people feel over international trafficking.

Somehow when it happens here, to US youth, the issue has not had much traffic. But look at the posts at feministing of late-- the man who had sex with a ten year old, and the judge who thinks it is natural for men to lust over women at any age, and you can begin to see just some of what we are up against.

It is so entirely maddening and frustrating. How can a country just turn a blind eye to the legal rape of our children?

God, I just want to fucking kill all the people who ever touched that girl.

Sakura, the whole point is that she would have been treated better if she had been an illegal immigrant, not that they suspected she might be.

And you can't say a thirteen-year-old is "in the business of prostitution." She, and the other children like her, are victims of innumerable sexual abuses. That's not a business.

how tragic. i'm generally proud to live in NY State, since it's usually a relatively progressive state. but this article just makes me so sad.

On the bright side, they at least seem to be working towards fixing it.

Sweden attacked this problem by legalising prostitution (i.e. being a sex worker) but rendered soliciting a prostitute or engaging her services illegal.

Sex trafficking was radically reduced, as was child exploitation and prostitution in general. They also found that 89% of adult prostitutes wanted to get out of the business but lacked the means and were frightened of legal implications, which is how the entire policy started.

kimmy:

I'm well aware of the fact that young girls are sexually exploited and children like the girl in the article. The point I was trying to make is that when young girls are trafficked, it seems they're in a bad place and the system seems to work against them whether they are illegal immigrants or not.

I didn't mean for my post to say otherwise.

I posted about this the other day. I think the article does a good job of pointing out why criminalizing young prostitutes is ridiculous, but doesn't go that extra step to point out that most women are pushed into prostitution in some way, its not just what they love to do, so criminalizing prostitution in general is wrong ...

Plus, that police officers last quote --
“There’s a suggestion that this is a type of prostitution,� he says. “It’s not. It’s really the commercialized rape of our children.� Yet even he backs off from anything that looks like decriminalization. “We don’t want to see child prostitution legalized,� Flores continues. “The fact that this conduct remains illegal serves as a warning for everybody, including the teenagers, that they are doing something that’s wrong." -- is just so telling. Yeah, it's the rape of our children, but why let a little thing like that get in the way of moralizing?

This girl may not be a victim of human trafficking but she is a young girl being forced into prostitution, she is being raped in every aspect of the word. New York should be ashamed of the treatment of this young girl

This is such a disturing post. I wish there was a way to begin legislation that would protect young girls like that from being prosecuted and find a way to help them out of that situation.

That's so sad. I need to go read/watch something else now, to get this gross feeling off of me. Ew!

- Jamie, Resveratrol Consultant

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