Child Prostitution ( videos ) 5/3

I watched this video from local ABC news. Chicago police busted a child prostitution ring and found three young ladies. They would set up their meetings over the Internet and be forced into having sex with these men by their "Pimps". I found this very shocking because they showed a map and showed three places around Chicagoland area where these activities were taking place. The arrests took place in motels in Lansing, Hazel Crest, and Downers Grove, these towns are very close to Deerfield and it is so shocking that this problem is so close to home.
http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local&id=7772244

I also watched another video about the child prostitution epidemic is Atlanta. This video interviewed former prostitutes and asked them why the system was so addicting and harmful. The girls explained that most of the children that get caught up in this industry have been sexually abused as young children or have been abused by parents. They all have tragic stories that explain their extreme loneliness. These Pimps present themselves as father figures and trick the girls into a life of abuse sexually and emotionally as well as psychically. The Governor set up public service announcements about the realities of child prostitution in the city. She wanted to go after the Pimps and the people in charge of these kids instead of arresting the children that have been forced into this job. It is comparable to slavery, but these kids were being held responsible. A lot of people don't look that them as victims, but they have been tricked into this industry and it hurts me that some people don't see that.
http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/422/index.html

I found another article from USA today about a program called "Innocence Lost" "The case here is part of "Innocence Lost," a project launched in 2003 by the Justice Department. The FBI set up 14 task forces in cities with the most reports of child prostitution; now the task forces are in 27 cities, says Drew Oosterbaan, chief of the Justice Department's child exploitation section" I think I'm going to look into this program and see if I can do something with that for my action item.





http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-07-26-prostitution-crackdown_x.htm

Child Prostition 5/2

I just came across an article from chicago breaking news source that stated there is a child prostition ring in Chicago. When reading this article I was completely shocked. I always thought that this problem was only in third world countries, far from America and our community. "In addition to rescuing the 69 juveniles, 884 people including 99 "pimps" were arrested over a three-day effort dubbed Operation Cross Country V, a joint investigation between FBI, local and state law enforcement agencies and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, according to U.S. Department of Justice officials." This was a huge breakthrough! I can't believe that this was going on in Chicago. This make me want to get involved because it is so close to me and to where I live. I am happy that they are getting involved and starting to arrest and stop these child prostition rings around the country.



http://archive.chicagobreakingnews.com/2010/11/feds-hundreds-arrested-in-national-effort-targeting-child-prostitution.html

Child Prostitution

I got a lot of interesting information on child prostitution in the United States that I was not aware of. According to the U.S department of Justice Approximately 55% of street girls engage in formal prostitution. Estes Report, Executive Summary at 7. Of the girls engaged in formal prostitution, about 75% worked for a pimp.What I thought was so unbelievable was that if the girls are exchanging sex for money even if it is given to the pimp (which in most cases it is) they are still criminals. Often times these children are forced into the sex industry and have no way out. What gets me so angry are the personal stories of individual girls that i have read. "Maria is . . . prostituted by her aunt. Maria is obliged to sell her body exclusively to foreign tourists in Costa Rica, she only works mornings as she has to attend school in the afternoon. Maria is in fifth grade." When I read this I was shocked, what kind of person would force their own family memeber into a life of prostitution and she is only in fifth grade! She is setting her up for a life of mistreatment and possibly abuse.I am outraged with society, this should be stopped because it is not only an issue of prostitution but it is a human rights problem and a problem with society if it is tolerated. I learned that In 1998, the International Labour Organization reported its calculations that 2-14% of the gross domestic product of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Phillipines, and Thailand derives from sex tourism.This is a big business in these areas and seems to be more prevalent outside of the United States. Child sex tourists are defined as individuals that travel to foreign countries to engage in sexual activity with children. The non-profit organization End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography, and the Trafficking of Children (ECPAT) estimates that more than one million children worldwide are drawn into the sex trade each year. When I heard one million children a year I was completely shocked, not only at the number but why no one was talking about it. I had never heard of child sex tourism before I started researching on this project.

If no money is involved, the youngster is considered a victim. But if the man pays for the sex — even if the money is going to the pimp, which is so often the case — the child is considered a prostitute and thus subject in many venues to arrest and incarceration.“We often see the girls arrested and the pimps and the johns go free,” said Carol Smolenski, the head of Ecpat-USA, a group that fights the sexual exploitation of children. “One of the big problems is that there is this whole set of child sex exploiters who are not targeted as exceptionally bad guys.”(campgirlnotes.com) I think it is crazy to think that these children who are forced into the sex industry are the ones getting in trouble instead of the pimps that force them to do this. This is the problem and maybe why nothing is getting done, we need to catch the right people and until we do that, child prostitution will continue all over the world.

Childhood Prostitution

I chose to research childhood prostitution for my end of the year project. I first heard about this growing problem at my church. There was an activist there that wanted to get the the world to recognize this horrible industry and world problem. In the The Evil Behind the Smiles by Nicholas D. Kristof, you really get an insight of what happens to these children. the article goes to explain what happens to girls,"Sina is Vietnamese but was kidnapped at the age of 13 and taken to Cambodia, where she was drugged. She said she woke up naked and bloody on a bed with a white man — she doesn’t know his nationality — who had purchased her virginity." She was drugged and kidnapped against her will and woke up in fear and in pain. I has no idea how violent these sex houses were, the article explains that the brothels have torture chambers, " As in many brothels, the torture of choice was electric shocks. Sina would be tied down, doused in water and then prodded with wires running from the 220-volt wall outlet. The jolt causes intense pain, sometimes evacuation of the bladder and bowel — and even unconsciousness." The amount of violence that goes on is beyond comprehendable.


http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/01/opinion/01kristof.html?ref=sexualslavery

Race

After exploring both the website and reading a new articles from each, I have learned a lot about what it means to different people to be black. One article that really stuck out in my memory was called Study: Black man and white felon-same chances for hire. This explored the business market today. This just shows how racial discrimination is still a concern in American today. If a black man with a clean record is as likely to be hired as a white criminal than there is a problem. I'm always hearing from my teachers and parents how important it is to stay out of trouble because no one will give you a job if you have a criminal record. I can't image the hopelessness black men feel when looking for a job, when they have no done anything to harm their chances, besides having darker skin. While exploring the websites, I saw an article about John Mayer. I was interested in what it was about, hoping it would be something positive the singer/song writer did. It was not, it was about how he made racist comments during an interview about black women. This really disappoints me because he is a public figure and a lot of people in America look up to him. He is setting a bad example by running his mouth about race.

Sexual Harassment

In class we have been talking about sexual harassment. We did two mock trials, one criminal rape case, and one civil sexual harassment case. After participating and watching these two trials, I have come to the conclusion that sexual harassment is very subjective. There are something’s that people will call sexual harassment when others might think it is harmless jokes. This line between appropriate and inappropriate can be very thin. For example we talked about the incident at Oak Park River Forest high school, where a group of boys made a list of the most F-able girls and description of their body parts. To these boys it was a harmless joke, but to the girls affected it was hurtful and disrespectful. The girls pressed charges on the boys. I personally think that ruining these boys lives for a list is a little over dramatic. Although this is a clear case of sexual harassment, every teenage boy has made this list (maybe not a physical list but in their heads) and girls have to realize that. I do think they should be punished for their rude and exposing list. My views have certainly changed on this subject, the more cases I heard, the more I could understand the victim in these cases feel uncomfortable. In the case that I was assigned to a girlfriend accused her boyfriend of rape. When I first read the case I thought she was just insane and a jealous girlfriend, because if its your boyfriend its not rape. After really reading the case and understanding her side, I realized that if she didn't want to have sex with him and he forced her to have sex, then its rape. It very hard to determine if something is harassment when its one word against another.