- There has been a marked increase in teen prostitutes
in cities across the United States during the last year, a media report
said on Monday quoting local and federal law enforcement officials.
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- "Compared to three years ago, we've seen a 70 per
cent increase in kids from middle-to-upper-middle class backgrounds, many
of whom have not suffered mental, sexual or physical abuse," Frank
Barnaba of the Paul and Lisa Programme, which works with the Justice Department
and the FBI in tracking exploited kids, told Newsweek magazine.
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- The Newsweek report quotes FBI as saying that average
age of a new recruit is just 13; some are as young as 9.
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- While the vast majority of teen prostitutes are runaways,
illegal immigrants and children of poor urban areas, experts say a growing
number now come from middle-class homes.
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- Child advocates are especially concerned that pimps are
increasingly targeting girls at the local mall, a place many parents consider
a haven for their kids to gather after school and on weekends.
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- "Ten years ago you didn't see this happening,"
says Bob Flores, who heads the Justice Department's Office of Juvenile
Justice and Delinquency Prevention. "We've got kids in every major
city and in suburbia all over the place being prostituted."
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- "Potentially, good sex is a small price to pay for
the freedom to spend money on what I want," said a 17-year-old girl
who liked to hang out after school at the Mall of America, Minnesota's
vast shopping megaplex.
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- After being approached last summer by a man who told
her how pretty she was, and asked if he could buy her some clothes, she
agreed and went home that night with a $ 250 outfit, Newsweek reported.
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- The girl, who lives with her parents in an upscale neighborhood,
began stripping for men in hotel rooms - then went on to more intimate
activities.
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- The Mall of America, whose spokesman declined to comment,
has an extensive security operation, and rules requiring juveniles to have
chaperones on weekend evenings.
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- Law-enforcement officials, who praise the mall's efforts
to combat the problem, nonetheless concede pimps are active there.
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- Child advocates are just as worried about and puzzled
by girls who aren't forced into prostitution but instead appear to sell
themselves for thrills, or money, or both.
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- Richard Estes, a University of Pennsylvania researcher,
told the magazine that so-called designer sex is becoming more common in
cities across the country.
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- "Everyone thinks they are runaways with drug problems
from the inner city," says Andy Schmidt, a Minneapolis detective who
helped bust a major Twin Cities prostitution ring. "It's not true.
This could be your kid."
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- FBI identified 13 cities - including Los Angeles and
New York - that have juvenile-prostitution problems.
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- http://www.rediff.com/us/2003/aug/11us1.htm
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