Child prostitutes not getting promised help, probe finds

CHICAGO TRIBUNE

WASHINGTON — When the FBI announced a nationwide crackdown on child prostitution last month as part of a long-term initiative to combat domestic sex trafficking, it noted that 52 children had been rescued from “sexual slavery.”

“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 Attorney General Lanny Breuer at the time.

But a month later, none of those children is receiving the kind of help that experts say they require to overcome the trauma of their experiences, and some are still languishing in local juvenile detention centers, according to a Tribune Newspapers check of the children’s situation.

Experts say the only way to ensure a good chance of recovery for these children is placement in a residential treatment program for such victims, of which there are only three in the United States: in New York, California and Georgia.

“When America’s child prostitutes are identified by the FBI or police, they are incarcerated for whatever reason possible, whether it be an unrelated crime or ‘material witness hold,’” said Lois Lee, founder of one of the three centers, Children of the Night in Los Angeles.

“Then they are dumped back in the dysfunctional home, ill-equipped group home, or foster care, and (often) disappear back into the underground of prostitution with no voice.”

Child-sex trafficking experts say that victims struggle to find the care they need once they escape an illicit industry that some estimate could involve as many as 300,000 U.S. children.

Asked about Lee’s comments, Ian McCaleb, a spokesman for the Justice Department, said the department “uses a victim-centered approach that provides victims with the services they need in order to recover and to fully participate in the criminal justice process.”

Still, with victims numbering in the thousands, advocates say there just aren’t enough treatment options to go around.