This guest Slog post is by Seattle City Council member Tim Burgess.
This Thursday, the Women’s Funding Alliance is hosting a forum at Town Hall on the sex trafficking of local girls at 7:00 p.m. The keynote speaker, Deborah Richardson, helped organize women in Atlanta to stop the sexual exploitation of children in that city. She has a powerful story to share with Seattle.
And our city has its own story to share. In 2008, my first year on the City Council, I sat at my desk and read a city-commissioned study about the 300 to 500 prostituted children in King County. The numbers and stories in the report shocked me.
Nearly all of these children—some as young as 13—are coerced into this practice by predatory pimps and gangs. Once lured in, it is hard for them to escape this violent, abusive environment. It is equivalent to slavery.
The children lured into street and Internet prostitution are victims, not criminals. State Representative Mary Lou Dickerson (D-36) sponsored a bill to allow diversion of juveniles involved in prostitution away from the criminal justice system. The measure passed unanimously in 2009. Penalties for the johns who prey on these girls and boys have also increased.
Seattle police officers who work in this area have fundamentally changed the way they view individuals caught up in street and Internet prostitution. The “Vice Unit” is now called the “Vice and High Risk Victims Unit”—and this name change isn’t just packaging. These officers and detectives have organized seminars and special training sessions on this topic and have helped raise money for services for the victims.
A unique partnership of the City, King County, foundations and hundreds of private citizens has funded The Bridge, a new pilot residential recovery program that offers support to these individuals. It is only the fourth such program of its kind in the United States. I’m proud to say that, rather than juvenile detention or returning to their pimps, there is a now a third option for these kids. But we can’t offer a place for all the children who are rescued by the police, let alone those kids we haven’t found yet. There is much more work to do.
Thursday’s event will detail the road ahead of us. Responding to Ms. Richardson will be a panel of locals familiar with the problem, including the author of the 2008 report, the program director of The Bridge and representatives from the Seattle Police Department and the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office. C.R. Douglas of the Seattle Channel will moderate.
I invite you to come and listen—and then add your own response to Seattle’s story.
This is one of the things that Tim and I totally agree on.
Check it out on Thursday!
Arrest the parents!
Wonderful. While you are at it, please legalize adult prostitution in Seattle.
When adult prostitution is legalized, the child trafficking issue goes away.
@4, hah hah hah! Oh, man, you’re killin’ me. Where do you come up with this stuff?
In other words, no it most certainly does not. Men do not use child prostitutes because no adult prostitutes are available. They use them because they are PREDATORS, and because there are no consequences.
Invite Chris Hansen of Dateline NBC to come to Seattle and shame johns and pimps through his hilarious undercover stings. It makes for entertaining television.
@5
Uh, I think the idea is that when adult prostitution is legalized, the police force can then turn their resources to the real criminals. I wouldn’t say that child prostitution would magically disappear, but it would be easier to prosecute when a) vice cops aren’t trolling strip joints for lap dances & b) it becomes harder to hide among all the legal prostitutes.
So if I’m reading this post correctly, prior to 2009, when the Seattle police would find children forced into prostitution by pimps and gangs, those children would be arrested and charged as prostitutes, then released back to their pimps? Further, since Dickerson’s bill only applies to Washington, I have to assume this practice is still commonplace throughout the rest of the country? I’m not sure which is worse, the child sex trade or the criminal justice system.
I sorta agree with @4. Part of the problem is that ALL prostitution is illegal. Like the false drug wars, that sets up an entire underground criminal economy, filled with violence and abuse. If you legalized and regulated adult prostitution, you get rid of most of that illegal network, much like drug legalization would.
No, it wouldn’t eliminate child prostitution entirely, but it would make it much more marginalized and easier to deal with.
@fnarf Let’s be clear that these ‘child prostitutes’ are teenagers. They aren’t 5 and 6 year olds walking up and down Aurora forced to turn tricks. While there are many who would rather not in this field of work there are also many where it is the best option they have.
@Brandon Yes and that’s the general case country wide. Not to mention that as soon as they turn 18 they change from innocent trafficking victims to criminals who somehow deserve to be trapped in the repeated cycle of arrest and jail. Because everyone knows how easy it is to find a job after a few dozen arrests for prostitution.
Did Slog forget so quickly Operation Cross Country? 884 arrested, the vast majority consensual adult prostitutes trying to make a living. And lets remember that all those teenager were arrested too not saved as the hysteria would try and lead you to believe.
I’ll be at the Town Hall meeting but am not hopeful that it will do anything at all.
There’s a terrific book everyone should share with their friends and age-appropriate children: “Sold”, a harrowing first-person account of trafficking, rape, and being freed. It’s by Patricia McCormick and it’s the only book of its kind I’ve seen. Highly recommended for those who want to learn more about these issues. Proceeds from the book supports Anuradha Koirala’s anti-trafficking organization, Maiti Nepal.