Voyage of Discovery

I met up with officers from the LAPD Sexually Exploited Child Unit today to discuss children and young people exploited through prostitution within the Los Angeles area. I have also including wider research findings from the University of Pennsylvania on Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in the U.S, Canada and Mexico( Richard J. Estes and Neil Alan Weiner, 2001)

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In Los Angeles young people are drawn to the City in the belief that they are going to find their fortune in acting, singing or dancing. and Many runaway from home to seek a better life. They are quickly picked up at bus and rail stations in Los Angeles by 'pimps' who abuse them. These children and young people come from inner cities, suburbs, and small towns, some are recruited by pimps from middle-class areas, from schools and shopping malls in the suburbs and then taken to Los Angeles and other larger Cities under the belief that they will become a movie star.
The vast majority of young people involved in abuse through prostitution are girls, although police have seen an increase in the number of boys. Larger cities are more likely to have a higher proportion of boys involved in prostitution as is noted in Los Angeles which has a clear identified area where boys frequent; however, service providers in smaller cities also report seeing a general increase in prostitution activities for both sexes.

Pimp-controlled commercial sexual exploitation of children is linked to escort and massage services, private dancing venues, drinking and photographic clubs, major sporting, cultural and recreational events, conventions, and tourist destinations.

In the larger Cities of the United States, it is estimated that there can be as many as 500 prostitutes on the streets, especially in the summer months and in warmer climates. At least 25-30 percent of those involved in exploitation through prostitution are children younger than 18.
Many children are only 11 or 12 years old. The average age at which they enter abuse through prostitution is reported as 14 years. It is estimated that about 293,000 American young people are at risk of becoming victims of commercial sexual exploitation. Among children and young people living on the streets in the United States, involvement in commercial sex activity is a problem of epidemic proportion. Approximately 55% of young girls on the street engage in formal prostitution. Of the girls engaged in formal prostitution, about 75% worked for a pimp
As has been documented in the UK these children generally come from homes where they have been abused, or from families that have abandoned them, they often become involved in prostitution as a way of survival and to support themselves. They are also forced to support their pimp financially.

The LAPD work closely with a number of organisations to combat this abuse, increasingly however, Outreach services which traditionally worked with young people on the streets are stopping their services as the steets become more threatening and dangerous for their workers.