The recent murder of Shaniya Davis in North Carolina is raising the issue of child prostitution in the United States. For those who may not know, Shaniya’s own mother, Antoinette Davis, is charged with Human Trafficking, allegedly prostituting her own child. It is enough to make anyone sick. For the last couple of days, I’ve been doing more research into child prostitution, focusing the first part of my research to the United States specifically; then taking a look at the problem on a worldwide level.
The U.S. Department of Justice says, “it is estimated that about 293,000 American youth are currently at risk of becoming victims of commercial sexual exploitation.” The report goes on to say that “children are mainly recruited into prostitution through forced abduction, pressure from parents, or through deceptive agreements between parents and traffickers.”
I cannot understand why anyone, especially a parent, would want to do this to their child… Aren’t parents supposed to protect their children for life?
Through all of this, I would like your input. I am looking for non-profit organizations in the United States that help to protect our children from this trade. I want to highlight their great work, and add them to my resource page. Please feel free to share your thoughts and information below at the comment link.
Thank you in advance for taking time for this important issue.
Tags: child prostitution, children, protect children, united states, usdoj
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An estimated one million children around the world are forced into prostitution every year, and the total number of prostituted children could be as high as 10 million, according to a report published in the April 20th issue of the Lancet (2002;359:1417-1421). “Child prostitution, like other forms of child sexual abuse, is not only a cause of death and high morbidity in millions of children, but also a gross violation of their rights and dignity,” wrote co-authors Brian M. Willis, of the CDC, and Dr. Barry S. Levy of Tufts University.
Boys as well as girls are being prostituted and, according to the report, some of the children are as young as ten years old. “Most of these children are exploited by local men, although some are also exploited by pedophiles and foreign tourists,” the authors wrote. They estimate the number of children exploited by prostitution is highest in India (400,000 to 575,000); Brazil is second (100,000 to 500,000); the United States is third (300,000); and in fourth place are Thailand and China (200,000 each).
Willis and Levy report that, worldwide, millions of children are infected with STDs, have abortions, attempt suicide and are raped each year. They note that in parts of Southeast Asia, 50 percent to 90 percent of children rescued from brothels are infected with HIV.
“A coordinated international campaign is needed to prevent child prostitution, provide services to children who are prostituted until they can be removed from prostitution, and implement effective recovery and reintegration programs,” Willis and Levy note. “For [such a] campaign to be successful, it will require global coordination, implementation at national, regional and community levels, and the leadership of many health professionals. The prostitution of children and the related health consequences have been accepted for far too long. The time has come to make them unacceptable.”
It’s interesting that Jake mentions abortion. The question of how Shaniya’s mother, or any mother, can look at her child as an object to use as a means to an end instead of having an innate, protective “motherly” inclination, can, I believe, in part be explained by the acceptance of abortion in our nation. We are learning that children are not children…or that they’re only children some of the time, at certain periods of development and only if we say so. This is confusing. Abortion by its very nature teaches that it is acceptable to objectify children, deeming them property rather than persons, in order to preserve a parent’s own social interests (in >90% of cases), be they financial or otherwise. Additionally, abortion also aids and abets criminals who use it as a tool to dispose of evidence that would otherwise implicate them, thereby preserving their criminal acts against children for as long as possible. Unfortunately, as evidenced by the repeated, relatively recent instances of Planned Parenthood protecting rapists by foregoing the legal responsibility of reporting instances that constitute child rape, the abortion industry actually assists in the exploitation/victimization of children whether by rape perpetrated by a single offender or by child trafficking. So I have to ask: is this really a mystery? A nation that treats some of it’s children as disposable property shouldn’t be surprised when those ripples naturally extend to other children. It is only going to get worse.
Hi Michelle,
Please check out the International Justice Mission. Thank you for all you do for our children!!!
International Justice Mission is a great organization. I worked closely with them when producing a human trafficking/sex slave story for AMW a few years ago. They provided undercover footage and a lot of information and interviews for the story.