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BoycottBackpageandVVM 01/27/2012 9:10:00 PM
Really, Village Voice? I'm sorry, but this article is just dancing around the issue. Honestly, isn't one case just enough? Do you need to meet a certain quota of child prostitution cases before you actually start becoming concerned about the issue?
This article is so obviously defensive and passionate; I don't see why it should be under "News".
I understand that some adults do willingly engage in offering their services and we should respect that it is their own conscious decision to make, but Backpage makes it way too easy to offer child prostitution.
Real corporations don't allow ads that keep child prostitution alive to make money.
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Notafanofyours 01/24/2012 6:08:00 AM
you people continue to have no idea what you're talking about. i work for an organization on the front lines of this issue and just in my city we see 300-500 youth per year. YOU get your facts straight before you decide you want to be a journalist.
all of these damn articles couldn't have anything to do with the fact that village voice media profits 45 million dollars a year by selling sex ads in the back on their publications could it? (many of which are underage, it has been made known they are underage, and nothing is done about this because village voice media tries to come across as super liberal and beyond this but basically they are huge sell outs!!) ugh, this is so disgusting to me.
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migs 12/02/2011 5:16:00 PM
Not sure if this has been mentioned yet, but the fact that at least 827 children are arrested each year for being paid to be raped in major cities means that there are at least hundreds more who don't show up in the system. Not everyone who is involved in sex trafficking gets arrested, otherwise our jails would be full of all the pedophiles in the US. Using arrest numbers as the overall estimate rather than a very conservative low-end is ridiculous. While many police departments have a good idea of what sex trafficking is and how to recognize it, most would deny having a trafficking problem, especially those in smaller towns because it's not "common sense" for these social issues to abound everywhere. This means that often the children who should be considered victims are put into the system as criminals or simply sent back to whatever home they ran from or were trafficked from in the first place.
Also, the federal government does not prosecute traffickers because it often falls under state jurisdiction, thus the seeming waste of resources toward non-conclusive cases. They do provide millions of dollars to organizations that help with research and advocacy in federal and state cases, as well as provide a variety of victim's services, help train law enforcement on best practices, and facilitate "john's schools" to address the demand side of this issue. But these organizations are not a drain on the government, rather most of their work is done by volunteers and not paid government employees. If the true cost of fighting trafficking worldwide was placed on government we would be spending billions a year to pay for the time it takes to care for victims, research brothels, do a sting, and prosecute those responsible.
As far as the issue of legalizing prostitution goes, we simply have to look at Sweden versus Amsterdam to see that legal prostitution fronts illegal sex trafficking. In Amsterdam the problem of trafficking, drugs, and other related illegal activities increased rapidly after prostitution was legalized. In Sweden the reverse happened when it became illegal to buy sex and mandatory for any woman found selling sex to be treated as a victim of trafficking and receive counseling and other services - trafficking fell by 50% within 3 years and overall safety increased.
There is definite change that needs to take place, regardless of the "official" numbers, we should not squabble about how terrible it is for a child to be raped and tortured, to be degraded and exploited to the point that it takes at least 5 years of therapy to even begin healing from the trauma. If we look at the money spent on buying sex versus the money spent on helping victims of trafficking it is easy to see that pimps find their girls more valuable than society does because we are not willing to invest what it takes. We need more homes, more therapy programs, and more ways to address why men of all ages are buying sex from increasingly younger girls, why society is wiling to ignore this, why websites and news agencies are willing to support this, and why it's a problem for organizations to ask for support in shouldering the financial burden of stopping this horrific crime.
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MB 11/11/2011 6:56:00 AM
And while adult prostitution make strike some as a poor decision, most of us are entitled to make poor decisions in our lives. I don't think it's up to the rest of us to rescue consenting adults from sex work. Unless they ask for help.
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MB 11/11/2011 6:55:00 AM
Perhaps 1 child in tr sex trade is 1 too many, but hundreds of millions of dollars and only a handful of children rescued is a terrible use of money. The US (like every other country) does not have a bottomless pit of money, and hysterical exaggeration of the reality does not assist in appropriate allocation of finite resources. There are a lot of tragic lives out there.
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Strider01 11/08/2011 11:11:00 PM
Poor, poor Village Voice. It gets accused of profiting from abuse, so it resorts to defending itself with conflict-of-interest pieces that undermine the veracity its attackers' data . . . so that we will ostensibly absolve the Voice of it's business practices! You know, no harm, no foul.
I have no doubt that the statistics used by the organizations named in this piece are faulty. I have no doubt that the Hollywood-charity-PR machine described is disingenuous and self-serving in its reliance on poor information. I have no doubt that the politics that produced this criticism of VVM are conservative indeed, and likely to encourage fear-mongering rather than addressing the underlying social causes of this problem, or offer true help for the victims. The Voice loves to present critical journalism of this kind, and some its writers are very good at it indeed.
However, there is such a thing as journalistic integrity. For the Voice to offer ANY pieces on this topic without addressing the obvious editorial bias at stake is likewise irresponsible, despicable, ridiculous, and reflects outlandishly poor judgment. That it thinks its readers will overlook this implies a disrespect for the intelligence of any one who can see how much VVM has to benefit (in term of its bottom line!) from editorial choices aimed at persuading its readership to consider this as a less-than-extreme problem.
Yes, there is such a thing as reactionary, dishonest fear-mongering around social issues. But the Village Voice editorship has shown us that when this happens you can always respond in as self-serving a way as possible, and thereby squander the legitimacy of any voice you have in the discourse.
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11/08/2011 3:41:00 PM
The internet is not responsible for forced Sex Trafficking. People who post ads on the internet are not forced against their will. They do so of their own free will. The internet actually reduces the need for pimps, since ads can be placed by a individual. And Pimps are not needed to find customers.
Here are some good websites about sex trafficking:
http://bebopper76.wordpress.com
http://sextraffickingtruths.blogspot.com/
http://researchonhumantrafficking.blog.com/
http://sextraffickingvictims.blog.com
http://sextraffickingintheusa.wordpress.com/
http://www.villagevoice.com/sex-trafficking/
http://www.melonfarmers.co.uk/thread00272_trafficking_hype.htm
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Shanelariann 11/06/2011 1:28:00 AM
I'm sorry, but I don't recall any woman I've ever met WANTING to be a prostitute, it was the only way they could survive and because pimpa are incredibly abusive and threaten them, they are often in fear for their lives. Others are drug addicted and broken, due to abuse from the past that comes in various forms. So if you're trying to help yourself sleep at night saying women desire to be degraded and pretty much be seen as a sex toy for some perverse lustful man (who more often then not has a wife and kids at home) acting out his pornographic fantasies on a woman who's been mentally and physically desecrated and shattered to be in her position, then i say to you. WAKE THE HELL UP.
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Guest 11/05/2011 9:48:00 PM
This is a silly article, so busy making fun of Hollywood involvement that it's ignoring the horrific reality of trafficking. You should be ashamed of yourself; you're no better than TMZ. real men AND women do something besides deflect. Do you have an info from the legal system addressing why this is allowed to flourish in our world? Shame on you.
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Rn4dan 10/31/2011 4:21:00 AM
Hey anonymous,
Speaking of BS, why don't you just crawl under the rock from which you emerged. Even if the numbers are "skewed" which I seriously doubt, even 1 child forced into domestic child sex trafficking is 1 too many. This is not about legalizing prostitution for those adults that "choose" prostitution as a career. This is about protecting our children and adults for that matter from being manipulated, coerced and forced into having sex against their will for the purpose of survival. I don't deny that there is a small percentage of adults that may actually choose this this lifestlye. But do you really believe that most prostitutes choose that life? Who in their right mind would think that prostitution is a sincere career choice?? Oh, and about the "not too bright" fanatics.....most of the people fighting for the rights of trafficked victims obviously have a higher level of formal education than you might imagine. (myself included) And I might add that real men don't need to pay for sex or feel the need to lobby for prostitution.
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Whambyfaith 10/29/2011 12:45:00 PM
You know what? Actual arrests for prostitution in any city of the world represent only a fraction of the actual numbers of working women plying their trade. While the 100,000-300,00 figure might be total nonsense, to simply rely on police arrest figures smacks of an IQ problem. Unless I missed something in the article, you need to at least get some anecdotal evidence from those working in the streets to help these kids trapped in an untenable situation.
I work for a faith-based homeless agency, and I know how numbers can be skewed in one direction or another depending upon the person using the number's need. But usually the count of homeless in this country is a conservative count, and is not all that accurate. At any rate, children on the streets selling themselves to dirty old men is real. The numbers spouted by Hollywood types might not be accurate, but I seriously doubt the numbers put up by police departments accurately reflect the actual numbers of child sex workers either. They probably only represent the tip of the ice berg!
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10/27/2011 6:02:00 AM
That's because she's a retard right? That's what you're thinking. You just don't say it out loud.
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RUKidding 10/15/2011 7:44:00 PM
WAKE UP!
Not because of some anti-sex agenda, I would rather have sex work prohibited than have girls like Danielle be forced to wake up early every morning, call into an escort service for the day, work all day, then walk the streets at night until she makes her quota, before she's allowed to sleep or eat, and only get to sleep an hour or two a night anyway - the more exhausted they are, the less energy they have to protest. I'd much rather see sex work prohibited than know that children like Danielle are forced into it, knowing that if they don't work they'll be beaten, and even if they do work they'll be beaten, knowing that if they don't submit to dozens of johns a day that they quite possibly will be killed by their pimp - and they're told over and over how worthless they are, how they have no right to want their own autonomy - and the money that they're 'paid' gets taken from them and they're beaten if they try to keep any for themselves..... to have their lives threatened constantly by their pimp, other pimps, johns.... then to be looked at like trash by the common people who don't understand... to be treated like whores by law enforcement... I mean give me a break. If this is what it takes, isn't it worth it? Isn't it worth these girls lives for you to go get a different job? And don't even point to the current job market, because that's just avoiding my point. CHILDREN AS YOUNG AS NINE, EIGHT, SEVEN - YOUNGER! - ARE BEING TORTURED AND ABUSED - WHY ARE YOU COMPLAINING? WHAT ARE THEY WORTH TO YOU? ARRRGGHHH
And OCFS in NY estimates 2,200 commercially sexually exploited children a year in the city and almost 400 upstate. So that's 2,500 easy just in New York. TWO THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED LITTLE GIRLS AND BOYS BEING FORCED INTO SEX WORK. JUST IN NEW YORK. And you're complaining that sex work is undermined? Think about that the next time you see the face of a ten year old you love.
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Guest 10/15/2011 7:19:00 PM
Actually, this is pretty common knowledge for anyone who's done some research on trafficking. Sure, some pimp out only one girl, but this whole issue exists because of the immense profit that comes from it, and I think it's far more unreasonable to assume that someone willing to do this is only going to have one girl doing it. Go listen to stories of survivors, most of them talk about their pimps having many girls.
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Semmab 10/14/2011 9:09:00 PM
In New York City alone there are an estimated 2,200 children victimized by commercial sexual exploitation annually (OCFS 2007 Prevalence Study). -GEMS website
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Guest 10/13/2011 8:10:00 PM
Village Voice Media benefits financially from sex trafficking through Backpage.com. Because of that, they lack credibility when reporting on this issue. If Village Voice really cares about child sex trafficking victims, they should take down Backpage.com's adult services section.
Check out this response from a Village Voice fan and sign the petition asking Village Voice to do the right thing: http://news.change.org/stories/village-voice-joins-war-against-human-trafficking-on-the-wrong-side
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Ferrisaero 09/25/2011 12:26:00 AM
I wouldn't put it past Village Voice Media to pay internet bloggers to write positive reviews for their dirty business...
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08/26/2011 12:46:00 AM
And yet, no mention of the little boys and young men whom also are being enslaved and forced in prostitution. I guess they don't count so much to most of these posters. Shame on you!
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Anonymous 08/10/2011 9:06:00 PM
Thank you for blowing the whistle on this BS. I love the way the scaremongering prohibitionists think that they can refute facts by claiming that somehow the imaginary people who purchase the services of child prostitutes just aren't getting caught. Yes and there are weapons of mass destruction somewhere in Iraq. There are aliens in Area 51. Unicorns are real. Anybody who says otherwise is part of an evil conspiracy.
I love how some moron brought up the statistics regarding the frequency of false rape accusations to try to defend their absurd argument. It is pretty obvious that the majority of rape accusations would be lies when you consider that there are basically no penalties for lying about that. If you assume that men are as likely to rape women as women are to lie about being raped (that is, that the number of false accusations is equal to the number of actual rapes; in fact, I think it is absurd to argue that a woman is less likely to lie about rape than a man is to actually commit rape) and if you factor in the fact that actual rape victims are reluctant to come forward, then it is no surprise that the vast majority of rape accusations are lies (because when there is an accusation of rape, it means either the man being accused is a rapist or the woman is a liar; there is no third possibility). Based on the fact that "anti-rape" fanatics go to great lengths to encourage women to make rape accusations and constantly try to expand the definition of rape to basically define all sex as being rape, a 90% false accusation rate seems about right.
I'm not against "human trafficking," which is basically crossing arbitrary lines on a map to engage in prostitution (thus, this is basically an anti-prostitution and anti-immigration crusade). I believe many of the so-called "sex slaves" are actually adults who are voluntarily choosing to "illegally" immigrate to the United States to work as a prostitute. There is some marginal amount of child prostitution and of genuine slavery which would be eliminated if we just legalized prostitution and adopted a 100% open borders immigration policy (just like the drug violence would stop if drugs were made legal). Since "border security" and "fighting vices" are being used as excuses to take away our rights, we would see a large increase in freedom as an added benefit.
Please keep calling these sanctimonious pieces of crap out on their BS. The American people need to know that the shrill special interest scaremongers are just making up a load of BS. I don't blame the celebrities who support these moronic campaigns as celebrities mostly aren't that bright to begin with. I do blame the fanatics that run these organizations and I hope that they will one day get exactly what is coming to them. I hope that those that they have duped eventually come to their senses and start trying to help undo the damage they have done to our rights that we sadly take for granted (and they can begin by crusading as fanatically for facts as they previously have for made-up BS).
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08/07/2011 10:40:00 PM
Maybe they are right and they are "brainwashed", whatever that means, but that view neglects the fact that adults can choose to allow themselves to be "brainwashed", really another word for making a mistake, and then later learn from that mistake, if it is really a mistake in their case, and grow due to the experience. The entire nanny state disavows this real aspect of humanity, namely our ability, nay necessity, to make a mistake and grow because of and maybe even in spite of it. The best way to deal with this aspect of human nature is not to marginalize it and bury it under naive platitudes claiming morality but to empower people who want to change with the opportunity to do so by reallocating the resources that are currently used to marginalize and victimize those that may have made a mistake into institutions that actually empower and uplift those that choose to take that path, after their personal hard lessons are won.
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08/06/2011 6:50:00 PM
All your stats show is that trafficked girls and their traffickers evade arrest.
This is like those idiot dudes who cite the abysmal conviction rate for sexual assault to claim 90% of rape accusations are false.
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Guesty 08/04/2011 12:54:00 PM
>"There are domestic servants, who are almost always serially raped, sweatshop workers and agriculture workers who are almost always victims of sexual abuse. Many of these are underage as well."
You're an idiot who sees rape and slavery everywhere. No wonder you still cling so desperately to the now demonstratively false claims that 300k kids are being trafficked in America.
You're sick. You need professional help.
Worse - your lies are hurting the cause you CLAIM to care so much about. In truth, it seems your own victimization is more important to you than making real changes in the lives of real children who actually are being trafficked.
Adults have work to do - get out of the way.
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07/30/2011 1:18:00 AM
Every single thing you said is also true for some marriages. And once the man has married the woman, whom he tells that he loves her, he can beat her, rape her, whatever he wants to do to her- and he gets her pregnant time after time so that with so many children, she is not in any position to leave him. If he gets arrested for domestic violence and spousal abuse, and the woman has no recourse but to take him back, he will make all sorts of promises to change. But he never does. And it continues year after year.
Does this scenario hold true for all marriages? Of course not! Not even most!
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07/29/2011 9:08:00 PM
Everything you said is also true of marriage. And once the man has her married to him, he can beat her, rape her, whatever he wants to do to her- and if she has children, she is really not in any position to leave him. Does that mean this is true for all marriages? Of course not! Not even most! And yet, you are willing to apply your generalities onto prostitution when in fact there is NO EVIDENCE that it is any different than when young girls are coerced into marriages for the same reasons.
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07/29/2011 9:07:00 PM
I keep trying to respond to your message but it will not post. Will keep trying.
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07/29/2011 8:48:00 PM
You want to know where the government claims to want to eliminate/ abolish all prostitution: Here are two links: http://blogs.plos.org/speakingofmedicine/2011/07/29/decision-rendered-on-the-prostitution-pledge/
http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/167329.pdf
I have been an international sex worker rights activist for the past 29 years- and believe me, the numbers of those who are (a) underage and (b) coerced into prostitution are just not there. I was a delegate to the UN Women's Conference in China in 1995, and the abolitionists absolutely conflate forced and free choice sex work- and that is how they get those huge numbers. You think this has only been going on for 7 years? Ha! I've been battling with the prohibitionists for 29 years! They always make these huge claims of numbers- which can only be extrapolated from the conflation of consenting adult commercial sex and sex slavery. I'd be very happy to show you documents that prove this. Visit Melissa Farley's website and see where she talks about abolishing all prostitution because it 'harms women' even though I really can't understand how a woman can be harmed by having sex and getting paid...
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07/29/2011 8:44:00 PM
You want to know where the government claims to want to eliminate/ abolish all prostitution: Here are two links: http://blogs.plos.org/speakingofmedicine/2011/07/29/decision-rendered-on-the-prostitution-pledge/
http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/167329.pdf
I have been an international sex worker rights activist for the past 29 years- and believe me, the numbers of those who are (a) underage and (b) coerced into prostitution are just not there. I was a delegate to the UN Women's Conference in China in 1995, and the abolitionists absolutely conflate forced and free choice sex work- and that is how they get those huge numbers. You think this has only been going on for 7 years? Ha! I've been battling with the prohibitionists for 29 years! They always make these huge claims of numbers- which can only be extrapolated from the conflation of consenting adult commercial sex and sex slavery. I'd be very happy to show you documents that prove this. Visit Melissa Farley's website and see where she talks about abolishing all prostitution because it 'harms women' even though I really can't understand how a woman can be harmed by having sex and getting paid...
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07/29/2011 8:11:00 PM
Everything you said is also true of marriage. And once the man has her married to him, he can beat her, rape her, whatever he wants to do to her- and if she has children, she is really not in any position to leave him. Does that mean this is true for all marriages? Of course not! Not even most! And yet, you are willing to apply your generalities onto prostitution when in fact there is NO EVIDENCE that it is any different than when young girls are coerced into marriages for the same reasons.
And, the government statistics do not include underage persons who are tricked into prostitution into the numbers they calculate for the children who know their abuser. That falls in the 10% rather than the 90% and 68% statistics. Let's do something about the children who are abused at the hands of a step parent or uncle or boyfriend of their mother... or at the hands of a priest, preacher, teacher, boy scout leader- because that is where the majority of victims meet their abuser.
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07/29/2011 8:05:00 PM
You want to know where the government claims to want to eliminate/ abolish all prostitution: Here are two links:
http://blogs.plos.org/speakingofmedicine/2011/07/29/decision-rendered-on-the-prostitution-pledge/
http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/167329.pdf
I have been an international sex worker rights activist for the past 29 years- and believe me, the numbers of those who are (a) underage and (b) coerced into prostitution are just not there. I was a delegate to the UN Women's Conference in China in 1995, and the abolitionists absolutely conflate forced and free choice sex work- and that is how they get those huge numbers. You think this has only been going on for 7 years? Ha! I've been battling with the prohibitionists for 29 years! They always make these huge claims of numbers- which can only be extrapolated from the conflation of consenting adult commercial sex and sex slavery. I'd be very happy to show you documents that prove this. Visit Melissa Farley's website and see where she talks about abolishing all prostitution because it 'harms women' even though I really can't understand how a woman can be harmed by having sex and getting paid...
As for the war on drugs, it is one of the most insane 'wars' we have. Cops/ judges/ prosecutors/ prison guards have all been corrupted by the drug war almost beyond repair. Prison guards sell drugs to the inmates. Prison guards USE drugs to keep them going through the 3 and 4 shifts they have to work. Cops steal drugs from drug dealers and sell them to people in show business when the cops work off duty as security for the movie industry. I have never used drugs, I don't drink alcohol, smoke cigarettes - and yet I know that the war on drugs has cost me so much of my freedom, not to mention the billions of dollars that go into this 'war' that cannot be won because people will do to themselves whatever they want regardless of the law or the penalty.
What is the moral difference between drinking alcohol (which was once prohibited), going to the doctor and getting a prescription for tranquilizers/ pain pills/ anti anxiety/ sleeping medications or using a narcotic of which the government does not approve? Same for smoking... if you die from lung cancer or from an overdose of cocaine, does it make a difference to your body? Stupid choices are stupid choices regardless of their legality or lack thereof. We have so harmed this country with these prohibitionist laws- so many innocent people die because of the ever increasing push to 'stop drug use' at whatever cost.
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07/29/2011 7:35:00 PM
First, you are speaking my language regarding the definition of a prostitute. This is a point I have been trying to make in a campaign I have been working on which basically defines what a prostitute is emphasis being on that they get PAID. That's why these HT victims are not actually prostitutes but slaves. The problem is we live in a society where men live in denial and choose to believe they (those that are not free) are doing this freely. As for this anti prostitution crusade, who is stating that they only want to abandon all prostitution? I know there are plenty of religious groups out there that feel that way, but my understanding is that the big HT groups are pretty good at defining the difference and they make a strong argument that when they refer to slavery they are referring to absolute bondage, even more intense than cases of spousal abuse (although a very similar situation). As you said, if the definition of slavery is even a little vague then you could apply the term to a lot of people in horrible circumstances. Rarely is an abused wife under absolute bondage. Terrified, emotionally trapped, and limited in options, yes, but the husband leaves the house, goes to work and she can technically walk out the door and find a shelter. Same with rapists, although they will live with the emotional scars they are physically free once the rapist flees the scene. Human trafficking groups are referring to absolute slavery.
According to the US State Dept the annual percentage of HT cases resolved represents less than 1% of actual Human Trafficking victims. Human Trafficking, like the drug and arms trade is very hidden and difficult to uncover. This is a relatively new issue for law enforcement, having only really been brought to their attention in the last 7 years or so, task forces are still coming together and figuring out a plan of attack. We have been fighting the drug trade for a much longer time and we still only bust a small percentage of the actual number of drug lords, dealers etc. It doesn't mean the problem isn't huge.
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07/29/2011 6:40:00 PM
Really? According to the federal government, it IS about an anti- prostitution crusade. Their goal is to 'eliminate all prostitution' at whatever cost to those who engage in prostitution. Sex workers are against trafficking of all sorts- including those forced into domestic servitude and farming and all the other areas of labor into which children and adults are coerced.
If someone does not get paid for sex, then it is not prostitution.... it is slavery. The fact that someone ELSE other than the person forced to have sex gets paid does not make it prostitution.
What about all those poor women who are victims of domestic violence, spousal abuse, rape etc.? What about the wives who cannot walk away? Don't they count with you? These women are forced to stay with husbands who abuse them because they have no options- no job skills, they have children who must be fed- and therefore the women feel helpless and stay with their abusive spouses... shall we abolish marriage to protect those poor endangered wives?
Why don't you have as much concern for those women who are damaged by being raped (and the 400,000 to 500,000 untested rape kits) and who know that their rapist is most likely going to go free because the police do not have the resources to pursue their perpetrator? Decriminalize all consenting adult commercial sex and there will be far more resources available to assist those who need help.
Regarding the government statistics on truly trafficked women and children, you can refer to the report that was published BY THE GOVERNMENT in April of this year- "Characteristics of Suspected Human Trafficking Incidents, 2008-2010"Â and then tell me why either the organizations which are funded by the taxpayers to the tune of millions of dollars cannot find all these alleged victims, or why the government would lie about the vast numbers of unfound victims?
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07/29/2011 6:02:00 PM
Yes, more often then not the young girls who get sucked into the game know their pimp. She believes he loves her and sees him as her boyfriend. He earns her trust before he forces her into prostitution. She usually says no the first time then he beats her or drugs her or threatens to leave her taking away the only love she may have ever known. One way or another he gets her to have sex with a John. Before she knows it she is a prostitute, unable to leave, working for free.
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07/29/2011 5:57:00 PM
This is not about an anti prostitution crusade. This is an anti slavery crusade. Anti Human Trafficking groups are generally very aware that there are individuals who are choosing this profession and are free to walk away. There concern has always been for the person who is in complete bondage, usually physically and psychologically, and cannot walk away. These are people (underage or not) who are forced to to have sex with a quota of men every night and do not get paid and are not free to leave. The fact is that many girls in the sex industry have a controlling pimp and are not free to leave. Also, more often then not they were pulled into this against there will whether coerced or beaten.
More to the point, there are many types of Human trafficking that these numbers refer to. There are domestic servants, who are almost always serially raped, sweatshop workers and agriculture workers who are almost always victims of sexual abuse. Many of these are underage as well.
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Notchakotay 07/29/2011 6:05:00 AM
You are operating from a flawed assumption -that society should put an end to prostitution. Even if that were possible, it would not be society's job to do so, as it would violate the principles of freedom of association and the liberty to engage in commerce between consenting adults in an activity that does not impact others. In other words, where adults are the players, it's no one else's business, so butt out. The only answer to the overall problem created by its illegality is to legalize it, regulate it in the interest of the public health and that of the practitioners and customers. and subject it to both taxation and legal protection. That would get the underworld and the pimps out of the picture and make the profession ever so much safer.
Certainly some prostitutes need psychological counseling. As do most cops, social workers and psychologists. Shall we ban those professions, too? They all perform similar functions in terms of dealing with others and serving the public good.
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Cal_crtz 07/28/2011 7:52:00 PM
As a man in his early 30s I go to strip bars a couple times a year and about 5 years ago almost every one went from being almost all American to almost all Eastern European- there is something to that.
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07/28/2011 5:34:00 PM
Then why are 51 year old men allowed to marry 16 year olds? (see recent celebrity marriage to a 16 year old country singer) Or for that matter, they can also marry girls as young as 13 in some states? Why is it okay for these grown men to have sex with those 'girls' as long as they obtain a marriage license?
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07/28/2011 5:29:00 PM
Apparently not too many of you anti- prostitution folks are good at doing online research... because if you were capable of conducting research, you would find, on the government's own websites- such as the Department of Justice Bureau of Statistics, reports that give actual numbers of trafficked persons, including children, which come from not only law enforcement agencies where an underage person was 'rescued' (arrested), but also from the reporting agencies which are funded with millions of taxpayer dollars. Google this title "Characteristics of Suspected Human Trafficking Incidents, 2008-2010" and the previous report from 2007-2008, which give some very interesting statistics. And those statistics show that either there just aren't very many underage persons being trafficked or the agencies which receive millions of dollars in funding to find those underage victims are extremely incompetent.
And while it is true that we should be concerned about any child who is forced into a sexual relationship with an adult, the government's own studies show that 90% of the cases of child sexual abuse are perpetrated by someone whom the underage person knows- like teachers, preachers, priests, etc. and that 68% are at the hands of a family member. So you go ahead and chastise Village Voice while allowing the majority of victims to continue to be abused by those who are not looking at the adult ads section for their underage victims. The stats on child abuse and the perpetrator family members can also be found through a google search of government stats.
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07/27/2011 4:05:00 AM
There seems to be a growing demand for more and more interference into other people's lives by a bunch of moral posers and radical feminists. The article to which you refer, highlighting the 'research' of a known anti- prostitution activist, is about as credible as the research conducted by the Family Research Council on abortion and homosexuality. It isn't worth the computer it was written on. A bunch of lies compiled by a man hating radical feminist who wouldn't know a true fact if it bit her on the butt.
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07/27/2011 3:28:00 AM
OK. We are famous and need some publicity so here is what we do. First we need a good scary story to hook up with. The numbers don't have to be right (most of the media won't check them anyway) but they DO have to be good and scary. Oh look, kiddie prostitution, here's a good one. My, over 100.000 of them maybe many more. Great! Now, we need to look righteous, concerned and outraged. May need our acting skills here. We also need a patsy. Men! Of course, everything is men's fault these days we can blame them. Now we need a good agent or two to get us onto the front pages. Once we have them we can throw a few high powered social do's and rake in the cash.
What? The numbers are false. Someone made them up? Hell! We don't care you fool! We just wanna look good. Look, this has all been done before. Remember the Superbowl Sunday hoax that said women were being battered to death by their husbands dusing the Superbowl? Hell, that got feminists a billion dollars from Clinton. Come on! Who wouldn't want to get hold of cash like that? Scaring a few people and creating a fuss over something that is not happening on the scale we claim is worth it.....Right? Besides, we get more attention and that means more fame. Oh stop me! I am about to cum.
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07/27/2011 2:17:00 AM
As for us "girls" I am not sure at what age you consider a female to be an adult woman, but I was 32 when I left a 'moral' job with the very corrupt LAPD and became an honest prostitute. And I have been a sex worker rights activist for the past 29 years since I left the LAPD in 1982, and while some of us do call ourselves "callgirls" most of us are actually well over the age of 21 and really do not need meddling nincompoops to force us to get psychological counseling- which we only might need if we are arrested and traumatized by cops who think it is their right to extort us for sexual favors, and or if we have to spend time behind bars because we refuse to hand out free samples.
Believe me, the financial aspect of a relationship is very prevalent in marriages and has been since time immemorial. So unless you also plan to prevent women from marrying men who can support them financially in exchange for sexual companionship and bearing children, I would kindly ask you to bu.t out of the lives of women who really do not need or want your input into our affairs.
Children are quite another matter, and regardless of the involvement of money, it is already a criminal act to have sex with minors, and those are the laws which need to be enforced. Same goes for anyone forced into prostitution or any other type of coerced labor. We have laws against coercion. Enforce those laws- be the victim a child or adult, be the forced labor domestic service, farming, sweatshops, or whatever. If you leave consenting adults alone, there will be sufficient resources to pursue crimes of coercion and violence.
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07/27/2011 2:06:00 AM
Before we start rounding up the non violent, non abusive clients of consenting adult prostitutes, how about we get to work reducing the 400,000 to 500,000 untested rape kits (nationwide) and allocating the resources toward the pursuit, prosecution and incarceration of some real rapists where a victim actually called the police, underwent an invasive and traumatic procedure to obtain the DNA evidence against the perpetrator and asked the police/ criminal justice system for help? And while we are at it, why don't we mandate the rape victims get tested for sexually transmitted diseases and have the courts mandate psychological programs for them? Sounds reasonable to me... after all, a rape victim who actually asks for help is in far more need of the aforementioned government services than adult women who consent to sell that which they can give away to as many persons as they please.
You are right that the current system of criminalizing consenting adult commercial sex has not worked- ever, and will never work because there are far too many women like me who find that giving pleasure to people for money is a much better job than working for minimum wage cleaning floors, urinals, flipping burgers or any other menial labor in which a woman may experience sexual harassment from a boss or coworker. You expose us to police corruption where we are extorted for sexual favors and are raped by cops, judges, prison guards and others who know that they can get away with it because the only thing people like you care about is stopping grown men and women from engaging in commercial sex.
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07/26/2011 9:10:00 PM
Not hardly! Oh, sure if you ask those who implemented the law if it works, they will tell you it is a smash hit. If you ask the sex workers who are being harassed by the cops and they will tell you a much different story. But of course, why listen to those of us who know the reality of these kinds of laws... after all, we are all illiterate 12 year old girls... right?
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07/26/2011 9:09:00 PM
Wouldn't it be lovely if before going after the non violent, non abusive clients of consenting adult sex workers, the police pursued the over 400,000 to 500,000 untested rape kits belonging to women who, after being violently raped, went to the police for help, underwent the trauma of having an invasive procedure done to obtain DNA evidence and then... nothing. Because there are simply not enough resources available to test those kits, and according to some police agencies, not enough money to pursue the cases even if they tested the kits. But you want the police to arrest and severely punish the men who do not rape their sex workers, the men who pay our rent, buy our food and otherwise provide a good living for most of us because you think these men are WORSE than the men who actually RAPE women and for whom a WOMAN has cried for help? Really? Why don't OUR voices count with you religious and radical feminist zealots? Because we don't buy into your BS?
And then, let's expose the BS behind the Swedish model.. ask the sex workers if the law works, not those who have a vested interest in saying that it does.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UverGWx8N1c&feature=related
http://www.lauraagustin.com/women-resist-rescue-by-anti-trafficking-police-who-admit-it
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_i_zBkoh68&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmgCNWw0klQ&feature=related
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07/26/2011 2:10:00 AM
HERE HERE!! Finally someone thinking right! That is why the Swedish Model and the Nordic Model have worked so well. They are doing it the right way!
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07/25/2011 11:37:00 PM
Adult websites like losangelesadult.com
Do their best to screen listings for under age escorts. Most sites also have links to report child prostitution, and various methods to try to keep kids off sex sites.
The Adult Community is just that For Adults Only!
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07/25/2011 9:32:00 PM
The problem of prostitution has always been attacked from the wrong side. The girls need to be tested and sent to court mandated psychological programs. The men need to be arrested for and jailed with perhaps severe sentences. Without the men/john the financial aspect of the sexual encounter goes away and with that so does the prostitution. Or would women have sex for a broiled chicken or barter system? I don't know. The current way hasn't worked for over 2000 years so I think we should switch it up and the sex buyers take the jail time, public humiliation and criminal records. I think we'd all be surprised at how quickly the problem would disappear.
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K Norris 07/25/2011 1:02:00 AM
Whether the numbers Ashton gave out were right or not, there is still prostitution. And Village Voice, you need to take responsibility for your actions. You may not be responsible for the pimping, but you are advertising men and women alike, whether they are forced or voluntary. STOP blaming prostitution on runaways, because prostitution begins with someone willing to pay for another person. Runaways are often coerced and conditioned into that lifestyle because they feel like they can trust their pimp more than their own family. And your whole "seriously considering" statement about requiring proof of age....WHAT?!?!? You are basically saying, "Sure, we will consider this idea but uh....child pornography is kind of our thing..". WOW!
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07/23/2011 9:21:00 AM
The commentators who say "one is too many" are using hyperbole. It is a ludicrous statement because there is many more than 1. It is also a bad argument because it overlooks the fact that you need information on something in order to solve it such as how widespread is the problem, who, what, where,when,why and how is the problem most efficiently solved. Without that info you are chasing your tail and the resources that are deployed will only help a very very very small fraction of those that would be helped if there is a solid understanding of all the facts mentioned above.
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07/23/2011 8:53:00 AM
Do you think it makes sense to arrest slaves? To me that seems like re-victimization of someone in a very bad situation? Bringing it into the light may actually help to get a handle on the numbers from a problem that is "far too underground". Facing the problem like adults is what needs to be done instead of burying it underground and punishing victims even further, which is a not very logical solution. It makes no sense to keep doing the same things and expect that, magically, new results will occur. Decriminalization of prostitution for those of age, not the johns or pimps though, would help to get a handle on the victimization of children due to the extra resources that could be deployed since they would no longer be used to chase prostitutes. This could possibly help to break a viscous cycle where children of today become the prostitutes of tomorrow.
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07/21/2011 6:54:00 PM
I haven't once made the point that 100,000+ children are actively being trafficked. The only point I have made from the beginning is that this article is flawed based on the fact that they tried to get an indication of how far off those numbers are by looking at arrest records. I am the one trying to have an honest discussion. The business is far too underground and arrests records for such an insidious crime are about as reliable an indicator as it is for trying to evaluate how many children get molested every year. Kids don't exactly go running to the police with this information.
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07/21/2011 6:38:00 PM
Yes, I am capable of googling Maggie Nielson. The issue is that the first time I ever heard of her was when you wrote "The Nielson's lied to us already, no need to trust them again. Â Same with Lucy OBryan, she knows who Maggie is but thought she could slip her bias past us. Never trust her again, either." So I responded by saying, "nope not true, never heard of her." When people make stuff up about me I like to set the record straight. If you think you eclipsed my 12 years of dedication to this field in 5 minutes by googling someone... well... the term hubris comes to mind... be careful with that. If your not an expert then why are you attacking those of us who have worked so hard to understand this issue?
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guest 07/21/2011 5:30:00 PM
Funnily enough, nobody ever takes into account what sex workers and their unions have to say, because those silly little whores don't know anything. When it comes to the Swedish "model" of harassing and publicly shaming johns, most of whom are not predators but simply outcasts, loners and the insecure, the prostitutes absolutely hate it. While it has reduced the level of prostitution(mainly because it made it much harder for women to earn a living through prostitution), it has increased prostitution-related violence and caused an atmosphere of fear throughout the sex worker community. Instead of conducting their transactions in public, close to security guards, police, and camera surveillance, they are forced to go into back alleys, no-tell motels and the like where there's nobody to hear them scream if anything goes wrong. If terrorizing and impoverishing sex workers is "success", well, Sweden should be patting itself on the back.
On the other hand, separating prostitution legally from sex trafficking is the only way to abolish the latter. As long as there are people, there will be prostitution and as long as the law regards all forms of prostitution as equal, whether it be a 20-something independent woman attracted by the profitability of prostitution or a terrified Moldovan woman who came to the US because she thought she was enrolling in dental school, we will be unable to make a dent in sex trafficking.
If we really cared about ending human slavery, we'd legalize prostitution and cooperatively-owned brothels with mandatory background checks and counseling sessions- if the legal brothels were examined with a fine-tooth comb, it's highly unlikely that any woman would be there against her will. On the other hand, it would allow police to focus on the kind of prostitution that is really a problem- unregulated with no age checks and many non-consenting prostitutes- and bring them to extinction(not only would the pimps and traffickers be facing police pressure and not only would that pressure be more intense since the target group would be smaller, they'd also be forced to compete with legal prostitution, which doesn't have to worry about police crackdowns or violence. Since police pressure inherently increases prices, they'd be unable to compete, especially since legal brothels would be open to the public whereas slave dens would be underground and hard to find.)
But of course, that's not what we care about. We like to talk about the plight of sex workers but when it comes down to helping them or throwing them into the shadows, we always choose the latter and let our inner Puritan take over.
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Guesty 07/21/2011 4:48:00 PM
Actually, the poorest indicator yet of how many children are being trafficked seems to be you and Ashton.
Do you have any data - any at all - to make the case that 100k - 300k children are actively being trafficked in America, today?
Give real, complete references, not the self-referential circle jerk you been feeding us for weeks.
Child trafficking is a real crime that needs real honest discussion. What part of honest don't you understand?
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Guesty 07/21/2011 1:24:00 PM
You're a nut job. One unfounded allegation after another. Either you lied about not knowing Maggie Nielson's group gave the bad data to DNA, or you lied to us about you being knowledgeable on this issue.
I'm no expert, don't work for the V V M, and even I was able to do the simple task of googling the author's name. In the course of five minutes I was able to eclipse your knowledge? You're a joke.
I want you to keep talking, you prove the tertiary point of the article: when celebs spread false data, idiots latch onto that information.
I don't know what else to say.
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07/21/2011 4:19:00 AM
Yes, that is the Swedish Model - now the Nordic Model because of how well it worked. It should be used worldwide!
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07/20/2011 7:34:00 PM
Newsweek sets the record straight.
Clearly worried about growing social pressure, the Village VOICE attacked the antitrafficking campaign last month, charging that it has exaggerated the extent of the problem. The most common estimates, oft-repeated by major media, suggest that 100,000 to 300,000 children are trafficked in the United States every year. The Voice reported that this statistic identifies children at risk and claimed that the number of those who are actually trafficked is only a fraction of those figures. But the Voiceâs calculations were promptly dismissed as unreliable; Seattleâs mayor and police chief pointed out that their city alone is estimated to have hundreds of minors exploited for commercial sex, and they accused Backpage.com of acting as an âaccelerantâ of underage sex trafficking.
Also from an article from newsweek called 'The growing Demand For Prostitutution'
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07/20/2011 7:30:00 PM
Sweden decided that prostitution was a form of violence against women and made it a crime to buy sex, although not to sell it. This approach dramatically reduced trafficking, whereas the legalization of prostitution in the Netherlands, Germany, and much of Australia led to an explosive growth in demand that generated an increase in trafficking and other crimes.
This is an excerpt from an article from newsweek called 'The growing Demand For Prostitutution'
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07/20/2011 6:53:00 PM
T.O.M.âs story is a case in point. Her father went to prison when she was 2 years old, and she was 4 the first time her body was exchanged for drugs by her mother, an addict. Growing up in foster-care families, she was abused in every one. When she was 10, a 31-year-old pimp promised he would take care of her. âHe was my savior at firstâI was stealing food to survive. He said, âIâll be your mom, your dad, your boyfriendâbut you have to do this thing for me.â And then he sold me.â
For the next five years, until he went to jail, her pimp trafficked her all over the Western United States. âI looked very much like a child for the first three years, and that made it more profitable for him,â T.O.M. reports, still diminutive and fine-boned at 21. In Farleyâs study, one thing that johns and men who donât buy sex agreed on was the ease of access to such children: nearly 100 percent of men interviewed in the study said that minors were virtually always available for purchase in Boston.
This is an excerpt from an article from newsweek called 'The growing Demand For Prostitutution'
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07/17/2011 7:05:00 PM
Pimps go after young girls because they are more vulnerable. Often times running away from sexual abuse at home. 18 year olds aren't usually considered runaways and can take care of themselves. Based on everything we know about the nature of how pimps suck girls into the game, they are almost always under 18 when they start. Girls in prostitution have been interviewed many times. They confirm that they started around 13. Sometimes older sometimes younger. We can argue about the numbers all day long, but it's just common sense that they are most likely younger than 18 when they start because pimps have a harder time coercing a grown up. More to the point, whatever the age, these girls are slaves. The definition of a prostitute is someone who makes money selling sex. These girls (boys too) don't get to keep their money and they are not free to leave. That is SLAVERY.
As long as we are guessing what the proper number of victims is I think it would make a lot more sense to ask 'how many are in the sex industry' then try to deduce from there how many may be underage, and while we are at it how many are slaves, regardless of age. We have enough data gathered from ex prostitutes to make a much better estimate this way than to make any assumptions based on arrest records. Arrest records are the poorest indicator of how many kids are in the underground sex trade.
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07/17/2011 6:51:00 PM
You are aware that we aren't just talking about underage street prostitution here right? There is child pornography, massage parlors, kids being sold on the internet etc. Also, how old do you think the girls are when the pimps first go after them? Surely you agree that pimps go after the vulnerable and runaways. 18 year olds can take care of themselves. 13-17 are a lot more vulnerable. Pimps talk about this. 18+ year olds are much harder to suck into the game. Point being that most prostitutes start off younger than 18. Sex, btw, is dirty when a grown man is having sex with a child.
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07/17/2011 6:43:00 PM
Your kidding, right? Are you comparing a child being forced into sexual slavery to an accidental peanut butter death?
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07/17/2011 6:33:00 PM
This is obviously written by someone from the inside at VV. 1st, I have never heard of Maggie or Trevor Neilsen. 2nd, could you show some evidence of the millions of dollars VVM spends on trying to stop child trafficking? 3rd, you obviously are just trying to slander me because I speak the truth. You have now lied again saying I know the Nielsen's when I've never even heard of them. Another example of poor journalism? Or a desperate attempt to silence me because I speak the truth?
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Guesty 07/17/2011 5:59:00 PM
Your disagreement with the authors seems to originate with your misunderstanding of them.
At no point do the authors represent 827 as the actual number of child prostitutes active in America; rather, it uses the paucity of arrests as one of several factors demonstrating the ludicrous nature of Kutcher's claims that 100k-300k child are actively being trafficked in America today.
In truth, the author's needn't have examined the arrest records, they simply had to ask the man whose research Ashton claimed as his source.
As the article makes plain: the article Ashton cites was not peer-reviewed, was never published in a scholarly journal and - get this - doesn't even stand for the proposition he claimed. In other words: Ashton got it wrong, or so says the author of the research he cites.
Espy, et al, wrote about "at-risk" children, a definition written so broadly as to include kids living near borders, and Ashton then went and claimed these were children "actively being trafficked in America today."
Do this: go back and read the article, skipping over the review of the arrest records. You will be impressed by the depth the authors achieved interviewing leading advocates and reviewing true statistical material.
At the end, I trust you will reach the only logical conclusion: Ashton got it wrong. Child trafficking is a serious problem in America, but not to the demonstratively false level he claims, and we should all bear that in mind when making decisions on how to fight this evil.
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07/17/2011 9:24:00 AM
If one child is too many, then why do we allow people to eat peanut butter., which kills several kids each year? What about the fallout from alcohol and tobacco, which will kill millions (that is no exaggeration of today's kids in the future)? The fact is that every activity on the planet carries a risk that can not be reduced to zero. We should not ban child-killing peanut butter
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07/16/2011 8:50:00 PM
Wow, you are really something. Jeez, do YOUR homework. This is yet another sensationalized subject area -- it takes the place of the Satanic daycare centers, apparently. That little crusade ruined countless innocents' lives.
The chances that an American child will be grabbed off the street by a stranger and sold into the sex trade is microscopically tiny. The chances that a family member or neighbor will sexually abuse that child, on the other hand, are much greater. Let's focus where the problem really is, shall we?
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Rob 07/15/2011 9:47:00 PM
"...you see much less reason for such an industry to be regulated and taxed. And regulation is the best way to curtail the problem." Should read: to not be regulated. My bad.
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Rob 07/15/2011 9:44:00 PM
While even 1 child in the sex trade is 1 too many, I have to agree with the author. I've been aware of this report since those two narcissists started running their little campaign, and I've been aware that it doesn't say what they say it does and I'm well aware that the numbers given are probably nowhere close to what they actually are. When you base your guess on a bunch of other people's guesses, you get farther and farther away from a solid number.
But to say that using the number of arrests as a starting point is akin to calculating the number of sweat shop workers by checking tax records is stupid. Sweat shop workers don't pay taxes. Underage prostitutes DO get arrested, though. If the number of children exploited in the sex trade were anywhere close to what Kutcher and Moore say they are, there would be far more than 8 a year in the cities polled. The police would have to be completely ignoring the problem, and arrest those underage prostitutes by accident.
This entire campaign is nothing more than 2 celebrities thinking: "How can we make ourselves appear less shallow than we actually are," and a publicist thinking: "How can I bring in more taxpayer dollars into the till?" And backing them all up is a bunch of politicians thinking: "How can we use our position to impose our personal morals on other people?" When you stop thinking of sex as "dirty," you see much less reason for such an industry to be regulated and taxed. And regulation is the best way to curtail the problem.
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Collin237 07/15/2011 9:24:00 PM
@Mgdallas1
Does anyone's daughter have 1000 faces?
Every ONE of these abuse cases is abominable. Those that actually happened, that is. Your credibility stands between them and their rescue. You multiply them by 1000, as if you care so little about them that it takes 1000 to make it abominable. The rescuers ignore you because they know your ridiculously large numbers are lies. So if the numbers are wrong, it's not okay.
You know about real abused children? Then tell the media about one case of real abuse, because that's what we'll believe, not the thousand imaginary children you see following her.
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Jeff Lewis 07/12/2011 7:07:00 PM
Top FBI agent in Dallas (Robert Casey Jr.) sees no evidence of expected spike in child sex trafficking:
âAmong those preparations was an initiative to prevent an expected rise in sex trafficking and child prostitution surrounding the Super Bowl. But Robert Casey Jr., special agent in charge of the FBIâs Dallas office, said he saw no evidence that the increase would happen, nor that it did.
âIn my opinion, the Super Bowl does not create a spike in those crimes,â he said. âThe discussion gets very vague and general. People mixed up child prostitution with the term human trafficking, which are different things, and then there is just plain old prostitution.â
http://www.dallasnews.com/sports/super-bowl/local/20110302-top-fbi-agent-in-dallas-praises-super-bowl-security-effort-sees-no-evidence-of-expected-spike-in-child-sex-trafficking.ece
Dallas TV News show about super bowl sex slave myth:
http://www.wfaa.com/sports/football/super-bowl/Super-Bowl-prostitution-prediction-has-no-proof--114983179.html
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Jeff Lewis 07/12/2011 6:39:00 PM
According to the media hype There was supposed to be hundreds of thousands of under age child sex slaves kidnapped and forced to have sex with super bowl fans. At the Dallas Super Bowl 2011.
WHAT HAPPENED TO ALL OF THEM?????
WHERE ARE THE THOUSANDS OF SUPER BOWL KIDNAPPED FORCED CHILD SEX SLAVES???????
Politicians, women's groups, police and child advocates were predicting that up to 100,000 forced child sex slaves would be shipped into Dallas for the Super Bowl.
It was all a big lie told by Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, government officials, and various anti-prostitution groups: Traffick911, Not for Sale, Change-org, Future Not A Past, Polaris Project, Salvation Army, Women's Funding Network, and the Dallas Womenâs Foundation, which are anti-prostitution groups that tell lies in order to get grant money from the government and charities to pay their high salaries, and get huge amounts of money into their organizations.
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JFinau 07/12/2011 3:41:00 PM
After scouring through arrest reports from 37 of the largest US cities over the last 10 years, you found that there were, on average, 827 arrests made annually for juvenile prostitution. Unfortunately, as one commenter posted, calculating child trafficking numbers by the number of arrests made for juvenile prostitution is like calculating how many people work at a sweat shop by checking tax records. Many of these children are completely outside the system making it impossible to quantify. You cannot prove its validity by comparing 827 arrests of minors for prostitution in 37 cities to the unknown total number of children being trafficked, nationwide, arrested or not.
When we get past the negative and hostile feelings that you have for Kucther and others who use their celebrity to raise awareness for various social issues, this article brings up two very solid and important points. The first is that we need to be more informed about any cause that we choose to champion. The average American is bogged down by the everyday activities of life (work, family, school, etc.) that leave us with very little time to research social issues such as human trafficking, the commercial sexual exploitation of children, or domestic violence (we also do not get paid to do the research either). We rely heavily on experts, news media outlets, and organization spokespeople to provide us with that information. However, if we plan to champion a cause, we have an obligation to educate ourselves about it as best we can before effectively educating others.
The second point has to do with money and how that money is used to address the issue of child trafficking. It seems that the authors would like to see more of the federal and state dollars that are currently being used to fight human trafficking to be used instead for concrete services such as safe shelters and counseling for the victims. There are not enough programs to provide the necessary support services survivors of child trafficking need. One could argue that the $50 million the government used in 2005 and 2006 to primarily fund law enforcement task forces created to fight human trafficking could have been better used to support programs that are already in place. Or that money raised by organizations like the DNA Foundation could be used to do more than raise public awareness of human trafficking. However, when it comes to money, it can prove difficult to determine which area of need should get the most funding.
I do not agree with the authors and I think that the negative tone of the article and the attack on Ashton Kutcher was uncalled for. However, this article is essential because it promotes a dialogue about child trafficking among its readers and hopefully inspires them to learn more AND do more about it.
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Alex 07/12/2011 3:10:00 PM
The Village Voice is starting to look like a group of tired, aging misogynistic men who apparently don't mind making a dime off of sex trafficking victim. All in the disguise of being sex positive!!! There are so many problems in this article I don't know where to begin.
But this article says it well:
http://www.thenewagenda.net/2011/07/11/ashton-kutcher-twitter-wars-and-the-village-voices-lame-response-to-sex-trafficking/
"While the article (rightly) supports more funding to aide the rehabilitation of sex trafficked victims, the Voice fails to mention the irony in this. According to this logic, after a child is sex trafficked through Backpage.com and somehow manages to evade their pimp and survive, the Village Voice would like you to know that they support government funded rehabilitation for such rescued sex slaves. Huh?"
and
"Although there is no precise statistic on the number of sex trafficked children in the United States at this time, the Village Voice article fails to cite other relevant statistics that are based on solid research and data collection. For example, a 2008 study at John Jay College of Criminal Justice calculated 3,769 child prostitutes in New York City as compared to the Village Voiceâs (flawed) study which yielded a much lower number of 88 child prostitutes."
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Jayshukes 07/12/2011 2:09:00 PM
you guys are idiots, you make an idiot argument and you quote other idiots in your article. i don't care for hollywood narcissism any more than you do, but based on this article i'd trust ashton k.over your ideas any day of the week.
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Guesty 07/12/2011 2:01:00 PM
" why don't you run an article on all the groups calling you out for your Junk Science"
Amazingly, they gave you an opportunity to list them and you failed to do so. Wonder why.
Here's what we do know - Ashton seems to agree with the V V M. He's apologized for using crappy data.
And that's all the V V M seems to have wanted. It did not put forward the arrest information as a means of estimating the number of child prostitutes; rather, it did so to demonstrate Kutcher and Moore were hyping a false claim.
Some, such as you, aren't very good at reading comprehension, so you write rambling screeds decrying that which was never written, was never claimed and exists only in your fevered imagination.
When you are able to understand what you read, I will again consider what you write. Until then you're just a loon, moralizing about pretend harm to pretend sex slaves.
Meanwhile, the V V M will continue to spend millions of its money fighting against real trafficking. It will continue to work, every day, with federal and local law enforcement and with American NGOs dedicated to stopping real trafficking. Along the way, it will do what it has already done: help real pimps and traffickers go to real jails.
You and Ashton, you keep producing meaningless commercials if you want ... real kids don't need that money for anything, like, say, a shelter or some counselling, right?
I appreciate you want to be a sycophant, but I have to ask: Was it worth it?
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do more research 07/12/2011 4:45:00 AM
Hey Jeff, if you are so upset about lying, why are you buying that it was them lying and not the Village Voice? Village Voice has been caught with ads selling under age kids and forced adults into prostitution so don't you think they might have an agenda here? You all get sucked in too easily. Arrests are not an accurate reflection by miles and miles of the real number of victims. They know that, but they knew it was a dirty trick to use to undersell the number of victims to shake off their guilt.
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do more research 07/12/2011 3:52:00 AM
Well Village Voice, why don't you run an article on all the groups calling you out for your Junk Science?
You preyed on people who won't look things up and don't know what they are reading about and tried to push the notion that arrests of kids prostituted equals the number of kids prostituted. It's a sick and vicious exclusion of: every kid not arrested for prostitution and this includes a large amount of kids too far under age to be arrested. It also insinuates that kids should be arrested for prostitution not treated as victims. Sadly this has been the problem in the US but for every kid that has been treated as a victim (as they well should be) you have left them out. It's also completely absurd because it's like saying you could count the pot smokers in the US based on who goes to jail for pot use. Give us all a break. You are pedaling Junk Science yourself because you were sued by a teenager who was sold in your back pages ads. You've been caught with adults forced in to prostitution in your back pages ads. You don't age verify and you make a ton of cash off of the sale of human flesh. You have an agenda and hence you push your own junk science and you only get through to people who don't know trafficking victims and that's sadly a lot of people, too lazy to care.
For those of us who have worked with victims, what you are doing is sickening. Heartless, callous, cruel.
To deny every child too young to be arrested. Crap. Shame on you. Do you know what it's like to work with kids who are 2, 4, 5, 7, 9 who are sold for this?
Do you know anything? If you knew anything about anything you'd never have based anything on arrests. It speaks to your total obliterated ignorance. Try doing some investigations with the people who have to treat the babies that are sold. Because yes, people buy and sell babies. You make fun of Kutcher and you have not a leg to stand on. Your junk science left them out. Because you turn a profit. This is all about your profits. You don't have the guts to admit it.
No you don't or you would have had the pathetic sense to deny them in your estimation of victims.
I honestly feel tragically sorry for the so called "journalists" who keep participating in the Village Voice's sad attempts to smear the anti-trafficking movement because you are funded by the sale of human beings. It's obvious and it's going to be a harsh wake up call when you all try to wash off of your soul that you sold out so many kids. .
I feel sorry for you all. You've hurt victims immensely, and you'll have to live with yourselves. You all sold out and for what? Images of women's body parts in the back of your magazine selling themselves so you can get a paycheck?
Is that really worth it?
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Guest 07/12/2011 3:28:00 AM
What are YOU doing aside of lecturing using obvious/meaningless remarks?
No one is arguing with the fact that human trafficking is a terrible thing!
To act properly you need to get to know the problem.
Now, this guys are quoted by the main media because they are well known celebs not because they are experts.
I want to listen to experts, I dont care about opinions of American celebs.
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Cosyb 07/11/2011 11:12:00 PM
If one child is sold for sexual acts it is wrong. Numbers.....at least they are making an attempt at public awareness. What are you doing about it aside from counting???
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Guest 07/11/2011 11:09:00 PM
Shame on you AA!
You have to get your research right before you can address the problem properly!
American celebrities, she said that, he said that, who cares?
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scin 07/11/2011 9:06:00 PM
Everyone want to have their piece of charity!!!
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Mgdallas1 07/11/2011 4:58:00 AM
So basically what your saying here is that the NUMBERS are wrong....not the fact that children are kidnapped, druged, raped, taken across international borders, sold for sexual acts countless times, beaten and usually are never able to leave this cycle of abuse and addiction. So if the number are wrong, its OK??? Hmmmm..now read this again mr..but this time put your daughters face in this scenario!!! Maybe that will put the numbers in the right!!
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07/11/2011 12:16:00 AM
If we have to spend millions of dollars and thousands of hours on Vaporcrime it's for the CHILDREN.
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Chris S 07/11/2011 12:08:00 AM
I fear we are at an impasse. I have read the article and I am disagreeing with it. The problem with debate is people just get further entrenched in their beliefs and you have offered nothing more to the discussion. Nothing new is coming out of this. I'm out
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Researchguy007 07/10/2011 5:19:00 PM
Itâs a relief to see critical thinking being applied to a policy issue in a major article by the Village Voice. I eagerly await the same critical thinking being applied to the Voiceâs coverage of 9/11. Where is the courage to challenge celebrities and authorities on that issue?
The federal government has admitted the fact of more than two seconds of freefall of Building 7, as well as the implication that there must have been no supporting structure under the falling portion. Yet the inescapable conclusion that follows from those admitted facts is scrupulously avoided. Controlled demolition by explosives is the only explanation for these facts. Such a demolition could not have been accomplished without advance planning. Therefore 9/11 was an inside job. It really is that simple.
http://AE911Truth.org
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Guesty 07/10/2011 8:10:00 AM
Yes, they are children.
Tell me, do you have a safe place to sleep at night, a home of some sort to go home to?
Do you eat most every day?
If yes, why aren't you helping children by giving everything you have to the cause?
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07/09/2011 10:55:00 PM
Who cares about facts? Won't somebody think of THE CHILDREN?!
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Guest 07/09/2011 10:08:00 PM
"It is almost impossible to collect accurate data on child abuse, either locally or globally, as most abuse remains a secret."
And the same goes for sex trafficking.
This article has so many things wrong with it. It seems completely devoid of any compassion. We get it, celebrities do things to look good in the limelight. So ignore them, don't even mention it, and write a hard-hitting, journalistic article that may actual do something to help these victims.
But perhaps that takes too much effort. Preaching about something you obviously have no interest in solving is a lot easier. Criticizing others actions is simpler than taking action yourself, eh? This paper has really gone down the tubes.
Remember, they're not just numbers, they're CHILDREN.
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Guest 07/09/2011 9:56:00 PM
Are you kidding? That's like asking why the millions of children who are victims of sexual abuse haven't all come forward to say so. There are so many reasons why these victims often don't speak up.
If you were forced into 12-year-old girl forced into prostitution and your pimp is an adult male who beats you up and threatens to kill you, would you speak up? Really? I would imagine you'd be scared for your life.
After years of abuse and the resulting trauma, some victims grow to believe they have done something to deserve their treatment. Some grow to thing of their pimps as father figures.
After severe trauma, a person's thinking is very skewed. There are many different reasons that they don't speak up, but all of them, psychologically, make sense. It's awful, but true. Some of those who have escaped the cycle of abuse do go on to talk about it, but only once they feel secure. If you do a basic Google search, you can find many interviews with trafficking victims. But certainly not even close to all of the millions of victims come forward.
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Laura Agustin 07/09/2011 12:03:00 PM
I support the Village Voice's attempt to put facts in the foreground but hold you to the same standard you hold Kutcher to. You claim 'The thinly veiled fraud behind the shocking â100,000 to 300,000 child prostitutesâ estimate has never been questioned', which is not true and a bit arrogant. I exposed the slip about trafficked children versus children at risk almost a year ago ( http://www.lauraagustin.com/how-can-advertising-be-trafficking-is-craigslist-like-wal-mart-what-does-that-mean ), and I know that more than one person you interviewed told you about my work. So I have to wonder if you mean no 'Big Player' questioned the figure, or did you, also, not do adequate research? To me it looks questionable if you position yourselves as the heroic first to bring up an issue that many have discussed before you. If the BBC invites me as expert to talk on a televised-to-millions World Debate, does that not constitute enough expertise for you to take notice? Kutcher was there, too; I hope you will read this story and follow links on my site: http://www.lauraagustin.com/only-playing-stupid-about-sex-trafficking-pull-the-other-one-ashton#comments
Laura AgustĂn, the Naked Anthropologist
http://www.lauraagustin.com
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Guest 07/09/2011 9:57:00 AM
Thank you for saying that. That is exactly what I was thinking as I read this.
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Guest 07/09/2011 9:54:00 AM
you are a moron, the amount of arrests that take place is in no way correlated to the actual magnitude of the problem? since when have police ever had a 100% or even remotely close level of efficiency in cracking down on a social problem. For every case they do get and make an arrest, they are so many others that go undetected. I think it is sad you spent an entire article denegrating an attempt at fighting this very serious problem. While I do agree that the Hollywood campaign is quite corny, it is a start. Id rather have TV air time being dedicated to rasing awareness of this problem as opposed to letting viewers how drunk the people on Jersey shore will be tomorrow or how Kim Kardashian's ass is not real. You people love living your simple, uniformed, uneducated lives while profiting from a system that perpetuates this slavery problem all over the world.
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carly 07/09/2011 9:05:00 AM
You can Youtube a documentary called Girls Like Us, it's about young women in the NYC area who are in a shelter and essentially brainwashed and in love with their pimps, that's the only source of real victim interviews I've seen.
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www.marykreutzer.at 07/08/2011 10:14:00 PM
If it does not matter, as you write, and I am of your opinion, I am also an anti-trafficking advocate, that 1 or 100.000 does not matter, it is always a serious issue - so if you write that: if numbers don't matter: why use them? Why do people lie to the public when it comes to trafficking and invent completly fantasy numbers? it makes our struggle incredible. it's not that article that does that harm, it's highly exaggerated numbers. 1 or 100.000, one is too much! right! then please stop that completely unbelievable invention of numbers!
I found this article interesting and important.
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Guesty 07/08/2011 8:50:00 PM
I think you're a liar.
The number Ashton used did not come from any researcher. He borrowed a number from a researcher who wrote about 'at-risk' children and then lied to us by claiming that number represented the number of children actively engaged in prostitution in America.
Even that researcher, Estes, has stated Ashton misused his data. Moreover, Estes' work was NEVER PEER-REVIEWED.
Had you read the story, instead of simply reacted to the headline, you would know this.
No PhD supports Ashton's discredited claim, and Ashton has publicly apologized for misleading everyone.
Only a handful of loons and liars cling to these false claims. Some, like the Neilsons, do so because their livelihood is connected to scaring people into donating money to their foundations. Others, because they are sycophants to any Hollywood celebrity.
And you?
Why can't you accept with that rest of world, including Ashton, now recognize: the claim that there are 100k-300k child prostitutes is a lie.
It's still a serious problem, but one we can talk about in honest terms and one we can try to cure without creating hysteria.
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Guesty 07/08/2011 8:39:00 PM
Maggie Neilsen and Trevor Neilson are principals in the charity organization that fed Ashton the bad data on child trafficking.
Ashton has apologized for using their data, but rather than do the same, Maggie and Trevor have fallen back on the time (dis-)honored process of shooting the messenger.
Bottom line: the V V M spends millions of its own money trying to stop child trafficking while the Neilsons rake in money from hyping it.
The Nielson's lied to us already, no need to trust them again. Same with Lucy OBryan, she knows who Maggie is but thought she could slip her bias past us. Never trust her again, either.
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07/08/2011 5:29:00 PM
The related map shows a very low number of "underage prostitution arrests" here in Hartford, CT. I can't find the definition of "underage", but there is a very simple explanation for a lack of recorded Connecticut prostitution arrests for those under age 18. Connecticut law provides "A person sixteen years of age or older is guilty of prostitution when such person engages or agrees or offers to engage in sexual conduct with another person in return for a fee." [Conn. Gen. Stat. § 53a-82 (a)] Those under 16 by definition cannot be guilty of prostitution. In addition, Connecticut law provides "In any prosecution of a person sixteen or seventeen years of age for an offense under this section, there shall be a presumption that the actor was coerced into committing such offense by another person ..." [Conn. Gen. Stat. § 53a-82 (c)] This makes it all but impossible to convict anyone under 18, and under Connecticut law the arrest record is erased when there is no conviction.
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07/08/2011 2:32:00 AM
As an anti-trafficking advocate, I am absolutely disgusted by this article. While they may over estimate the number of children trafficked into prostitution each year the use of phrases like "hardly enough time to take up prostitution" is not appropriate. Children do not choose to take up prostitution and no matter if it's 1 or 100,000 the sexual enslavement of a child is never something to make light of.
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07/07/2011 6:56:00 PM
Where are all the underage children kidnapped and forced against their will to have sex for profit by a pimp? How come we donât see any of the victims themselves complaining about it? Why donât the âmillions of child victimsâ talk about how they were kidnapped and forced by a evil pimp to have sex for profit? I would like to have a interview with the âmillions of forced against their will raped kidnapped child victimsâ So I could hear their stories. Where are they? Why do we only hear from the anti-prostitution groups that received money and grants from the government, and not the millions of victims themselves?
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07/07/2011 6:26:00 PM
Since when is telling lies a good thing? Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore ARE LIERS! They tell lies about Sex Trafficking. Telling lies is bad. Telling the truth is good. The truth is NO ONE KNOWS, how many underage prostitutes there are for sure. All of your suggestions about how to know, are bad. They won't give you the right answer. The only thing to go on is how many minors (children under the age of 18) are arrested, and evidence and proof that they were kidnapped and forced against their will to have sex for profit by a pimp. Yes â Forced -This has to be proven - not guessed at. You are still guessing. sextraffickingtruths.blogspot.com
Where are all the underage children kidnapped and forced against their will to have sex for profit by a pimp How come we donât see any of the victims themselves complaining about it? If they exist, why donât they talk about how they were kidnapped and forced by a evil pimp to have sex for profit?
