There are a few things in life I know in that 'beyond a shadow of a doubt' way. One is that children shouldn't be sold for sex.
When a Village Voice reporter called, challenging a statistic commonly used in child sex trafficking discussions, I told the truth, which is that when you work on social issues, perfect data is often, at best, hard to come by. I've worked on many issues and have yet to come across the kind of current, comprehensive, reliable data I depended on daily when I worked in the private sector.
After all, who is supposed to monitor, collect, analyze and disseminate it? Cash-strapped governments? Nonprofit organizations that work their hearts out every day and spend every last penny helping people? No -- it is simply not an area of work for which great resources exist. As just one example, in 2007 the official estimated number of people living with AIDS decreased by six million due to a methodology change. Does that mean that people should subsequently have put less effort into HIV/AIDS work? I don't think so.
For sex-slavery, the gross underreporting of the crime is obvious and easily explained... and I will get to that in a minute. Government officials, sex-slavery activists such as Ashton Kutcher and media including the New York Times, USA Today and CNN have used the 100,000-300,000 statistic in question because, to date, it's been the best estimate there was to work with.
I explained all of this to the Village Voice reporter who subsequently wrote a critical article about Ashton and my company's work fighting child-sex slavery and, instead of acknowledging this obvious fact, he used quotes out of context to make it sound like there is some intentional deceit or cavalier disregard when one makes decisions based on admittedly imperfect data.
For those of us who work on these issues, we don't do so once a problem gets to a certain size. We do it because it's the right thing to do. I repeatedly asked the reporter at what numeric level he would find the child sex-slavery problem worth addressing. He didn't have an answer. Having met many of the courageous girls who have survived this crime, as well as the nonprofit and law enforcement officers who work on it every day, I would argue the answer is one. Maybe it's because I am the mother of two daughters, but I would argue that you don't wait for perfect data to exist while children are systemically raped for profit each day.
A lot of people think that had they lived during past atrocities -- the Holocaust, legalized U.S. slavery -- they would have done something about it. They would have gotten involved. I know two people who learned that modern-day slavery exists and decided to fight it with everything they have; Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore formed their DNA Foundation and put their time, money, hearts and celebrity on the line. And while anyone is entitled to disagree with their positions and methods, most of them do so from their couches (and, by the way, the Village Voice mocked DNA's Real Men Don't Buy Girls campaign, but it achieved exactly what the campaign set out to do -- it started a conversation about the demand side of sex slavery, breaking through to a mainstream audience and raising awareness of the crime to unprecedented levels).
During the 4th of July weekend, I ended up in many backyard BBQ conversations about the Village Voice article. Everyone agreed that the Village Voice's position was bizarre and the consistent question was, "Why pick this fight? Even if you despise Ashton Kutcher, why criticize him for taking action on such universally agreeable issue?"
Here's why; A year ago, there were two mainstream, heavily-trafficked places you could still post sex ads online, touting the youth of the victims -- Craigslist and the Village Voice's Backpage. Places that most of us think of as where we sell our old futons, but where a booming profit center is actually sex sales. Every one of the hundreds of sex slavery survivors I've met or seen interviews with was sold on one of these two sites. Not a few of them. Every single one.
After many U.S. Attorneys General began discussing their concerns with Craigslist last summer, Craigslist -- laudably -- closed that section of their website. I'm guessing they lost a lot of money as a result, but they did the right thing. Backpage -- owned by the Village Voice -- still has not. So perhaps a preemptive strike against Ashton Kutcher and a position that "it's not really THAT big of a problem" were strategic, profit-protecting moves on their part?
The other question I was repeatedly asked this weekend was, "Now that I know this problem exists, how can I get involved?"
Here are just a few options:
- Encourage the Village Voice's advertisers to divest their support of the website until they change their online practices. Here is one example.
- Support the amazing groups that fight this crime and support survivors -- CAST, Children of the Night, FAIR Fund, GEMS Girls, The DNA Foundation, Polaris, The Rebecca Project, just to name a few. And they don't just need money. Many need phone operators and other volunteer services.
- Educate yourselves. Vanity Fair and the New York Times have recently written great articles. All of the organizations listed above feature videos and articles on their websites.
- Encourage your mayor and law enforcement representatives to get involved as the Seattle Mayor and Chief of Police have.
- Or, if you are like Demi and Ashton, get creative and figure out your own way -- the way that works best for you.
Finally, for those of you really interested in the data methodology, here are some recent pieces from Change.org and The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) which point out some obvious facts which the Village Voice ignored. You can also check out the FBI's 2001-2007 juvenile arrests for prostitution and commercial vice, which show 1,500 per year rather than the 827 the Village Voice reported. I don't defend the Estes study as perfect, but I also don't defend inaction.
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The fact that there is no intention by Village Voice Media to aid and abet child trafficking. What the writer of this piece seeks to do is make the press an adjunct of law enforcement, a dangerous concept.
the federal government during the Bush Administration spent $150 million a year on this issue and found the numbers being bandied about, and back in 2001 that figure was 50,000 and now it is up to 300,000, were bunk by a factor of about 40. The FBI admits to rescuing just 866 children from pimps in the last six years and the Center for Missing and Exploited Children says that the number of child kidnappings is only about 100 a year, the remainder occurring out of custody battles. So where are trafficked kids coming from? 95% of runaways end up going back home. Some become emancipated. So the numbers just aren't adding up.
Also, child trafficking organizations were largely silent during the Catholic Church's scandals. Why not call for the end to the Church since it has injured more kids than the Village Voice ads ever could? gotta protect the children, right?
Indeed, various organizations seeking both federal and private donor dollars are just making numbers up. Nobody denies that child prostitution/trafficking occurs. However, creating the kind of hysteria that resulted in the McMartin case and the Wenatchee Witch Hunt also has to be stanched lest innocent folks be dragged into something they had no part in.
1. She was taken out of context. The VV does not claim anything but that she did not put ANY due diligence into her statistics.
2. "Why pick this fight?" As if, wildly overstating the number of at risk kids in pursuit of her own agenda (and gain) does not, in itself, define a reason.
3. Comparison to Holocaust and Slavery, issues with well defined and researched statistics.
4. Demand that supporters divest from VV for the TEMERITY of questioning her motives and the very valid debunking of her scare-tactic statistics.
Now more than ever, the article makes sense.
I also have to wonder what all the flurry of defense of the Village Voice is about. Are they so holy?
And about those numbers.....if 1/3 of street prostitutes are really under 18, then why aren't 1/3 of all prostitutes arrested also under 18?
If only ONE child were being trafficked...how much do you put into it?
The problem is that profiteers and glory mongers like Ashton and Neilson muddy the water, defocus the debate, add nothing to the understanding of the problem, and outrightedly lie to get their aging mugs in front of adoring cameras and their diminishing bank accounts replenished. The VV is right to ask these questions.
Unfortunately, many people who are serious about their causes do behave this way. This is often what happens when people become so wedded to a particular cause that all critical thinking goes right out the window. But, in the end, all that does is hurt the cause.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/turnstyle/trafficked-the-village-vo_b_892278.html?view=screen
Ever heard of the false dichotomy, it's a type of fallacious reasoning that you have demonstrated quite aptly.
http://nizkor.org/features/fallacies/false-dilemma.html
It is false to suggest that the only options are poorly derived statistics used for propaganda or inaction on child trafficking. Who, other than you, suggests that those are the only two options?
How about using the most appropriate and accurate statistics available rather than simply using the ones that look best on the billboards? The goal is accurate risk assessment in order to determine the most appropriate use of resources and policies to combat the problem. Falsely inflating the risk certainly makes that difficult, if not impossible.
Everyone cares about their issues that they work on, many with direct impacts on children's lives, but that isn't an excuse. If you get to use false or inaccurate statistics to prop up what you think is most important, then I why can't those who use misleading statistics and data to say that climate change isn't real. They also deeply believe in what they are doing. Statistics and scientific analysis becomes meaningless if you are just going to ignore the real evidence in favor of that which sounds the best. Then it is no longer evidence, just propaganda.
7) The only one who has attempted to initiate any sort of strike is Ashton, using corporatist influence to try and force all of us consenting adults out of our rights to free speech and free action.
What this is saying is that I am not competent to make my own decisions, a conclusion which would be funny if it didn't inherently threaten the individual liberties of every citizen in America.
I admit the NY Times employes some excellent writers, but they will never be able to justify child sex slavery--ever.
http://www.mediaowners.com/company/villagevoice.html
In 1834, the New York Moral Reform Society stated emphatically that in America “there were as many as 12,000 brothels, 75,000 to 120,000 ‘harlots,’ 500,000 licentious wicked men, and 50 shops selling ‘evil books, pictures, and the paraphernalia of destruction,'" and that "20,000 women died each year “'as a result of prostitution.'”
Historian Patricia Cohen concludes, “their figures were estimates, and there was no way the reader could evaluate them. But that was less important than the shock value of such large numbers.”
Samuel McClure began a campaign against prostitution and trafficking in 1907 when his magazine declared, “The gross revenues from this business in Chicago were $20,000,000 – and probably more." No evidence for these numbers was offered. None was needed. Americans were shocked and demanded action. The Feds quickly enacted The Mann Act, a law so massively flawed that the crime of trafficking continues to grow unabated over 100 years later.
Victims deserve to finally have this truth exposed. It will be difficult to quantify (as are other current issues like climate change) and the numbers will always cause controversy (again, climate change). However, we must never take our eyes off the victims.
For more on this topic, read an excerpt from my book, "The Berlin Turnpike: A True Story of Human Trafficking in America." http://dl.dropbox.com/u/11310380/Bad%20Numbers%20on%20Bad%20Behavior.pdf
Helping people in danger is not easy. They don't all want the same things, or to be saved the same way. That is why a lot of children run away from home in the first place and run away from helping projects, too.
The original estimate said 100,000 to 300,000 children in the US 'could be at risk'. Everything about the statement is so vague as to be meaningless. If you want to Do Something about the risk, then you have to get better information about exactly which people are at risk and how. And you have to be very careful not to undertake actions that smash up the lives of a lot of people that don't need the help you are offering - collateral damage, if you will.
Referring to critical thinking as 'inaction', as Neilson does, is a cheap shot. Some of us work hard to get closer to the truth and base 'helping' projects on that: it is not inaction, it is not a lack of caring, and I object to its being called that by someone making a good living from the 'actions' of clueless crusades.
Laura Agustin
http://www.lauraagustin.com
These sites are not "online brothels." They are advertising venues. They do not control any sex worker in any way (which is what a real brothel does). Village Voice is speaking up for the sex workers who pay their bills because sex workers are silenced or ignored when we try to speak up. (I would like to point out that while Backpage has has paid ads for years, the ONLY reason Craigslist began paid ads was to gather information on the advertiser in an effort to reduce sex trafficking on its site, which anti-traffickers demanded they do.)
Sex traffickers/pimps will certainly utilize advertising venues, which makes finding them easier. Most sex workers do not care for pimps and they certainly do not condone child abuse (especially since many sex workers are mothers and fathers). As Norma Jean pointed out, decriminalizing sex work makes it easier for others to come forward with information about abuse. It also makes finding abuse easier. Decriminalization would focus law enforcement efforts in the right place, rather than wholesale arrests of consenting adult sex workers.
To sex workers, one sex worker who is beaten, rapped and arrested under criminalization is one too many.
If you are really a prostitute: You could very possibly be killed. My advice to you is: GET OUT WHILE YOU CAN!
Of course you cannot.
Underage sex trafficking is not a problem of prostitution, it is a problem of child abuse. The majority of underage sex trafficking victims are runaways. They overwhelmingly leave abusive homes. Stopping domestic child abuse will stop almost all underage prostitution. One child abused at home is one too many.
In 2009, there were less than 60 beds available for underage sex workers (indeed, some make the choice to enter sex work) at places like Second Chance, Toledo, OH. These places work with real victims and have a difficult time getting funding for their important work. Obviously, underage sex trafficking is not a funding-priority. It just seems to be a priority for grandstanding politicians, academics and celebrities.
Nor is the criminalized status of prostitution any help. Trafficked teens are usually discovered because they're arrested. The fear of arrest helps abusive pimps keep their teens in line. An underage victim, already abused by their parents, their pimp and their customers, gets arrested and subjected to further abuse and trauma by the police. Sure, there are laws against exploiting humans, against pimping, against underage sex. But when it comes to enforcing those laws, overwhelmingly the victims are arrested and no one else.
Isn't a 9 year old girl in PAkistan or Saudi Arabia, sold in marriage a victim of sexual slavery? What about a girl in Nepal who's parents think they are letting her go to work as a maid in India only to have her carted off into being a concubine and never heard from again. For all we know these numbers are far fewer.