Groups of U.S. kids rescued from sexual slavery

During the weekend of Oct. 23, 2009, 50 American children were rescued from sexual slavery thanks to the FBI in partnership with the Innocence Lost National Initiative.  The rescues occurred in 36 U.S. cities and netted the arrest of 60 pimps and 631 other adults.

With these arrests, child sexual exploitation and human trafficking are openly shown to be a big problem in the nation that is supposed to be the world leader in human rights.  According to Ernie Allen of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, “There are now 34 task forces around the country… going after this problem.  What we’re trying to do is wake up the country to what’s happening to our children and save lives.”

In May 2009, Shared Hope International released The National Report on Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking: America’s Prostituted Children.  In this study, it was discovered that there are seven areas of concern when it comes to minors being exploited through child sex slavery, child sex trafficking, child prostitution, commercial sexual exploitation of children, and the rape of children in the U.S.  These seven concerns are as follows:

1. Misidentification: The inability of law enforcement, the courts, government social agencies, and community organizations to identify minors properly hampers the authorities from correctly determining a child’s problem as sexual exploitation as opposed to the problems they have that are obvious like drugs, prostitution, or being runaways.
2. Criminalization of the victim through misidentification: Since the minors cannot be properly identified, they are often assumed to be juvenile delinquents or adult prostitutes by the authorities since their pimps supply them with false IDs and teach them to lie if they are ever questioned or arrested.
3. Criminalization as a response to no options for placement: Minors who are trafficked fail to get the social services and education they need because there is a lack of places to keep them safe, so the authorities see no other choice than charging them with a crime and locking them up to ensure their safety.  This, in turn, hinders them from receiving services for being crime victims in some communities since they have a record.
4. Inappropriate or inaccessible services for domestic minor sex trafficking trauma: Minors who are trafficked are traumatized not only by the adults who have sexually exploited them but also by the law enforcement system that threatens them with being locked up or denied services they need if they refuse to give details of the crime to the authorities.
5. Burden on the victim to build the case against their exploiter: Instead of developing other investigative techniques to build a case against traffickers, law enforcement relies heavily on the child victim to build their case.  This often proves to be too much of an emotional and psychological burden on the victimized child who may find it extremely difficult to open up to someone they don’t know about the terrible things they have experienced.
6. Lack of protective, therapeutic shelters for the trafficked victims:  There are only a handful of shelters throughout the U.S. that house such victims, so the vast majority of sexually exploited children have nowhere to flee to for help.
7. Insufficient priority on combating demand: Not enough is being done to stamp out the demand that drives the sexual exploitation of children.  Most of those who are caught trying to have sex with children are caught in stings that use decoys.  This means a vast majority of these criminals who use other methods of acquiring sex with children are not caught.

Let’s hope and pray these concerns will be addressed sufficiently in the future and that we as a nation will uphold the importance of human rights, especially for our children.  God forgive us for dropping the ball on this important issue.

Sources:

CitizenLink

Shared Hope International

“Abstinence-only is not working,” says “Grey’s Anatomy” actress

Elena Garcia has reported in the Christian Post that Grey’s Anatomy actress Kate Walsh appeared before a congressional panel on Thursday in D.C. and on CBS’ The Early Show on Friday on behalf of Planned Parenthood to spread the message that abstinence-only education has failed teenagers.  She urged congressional leaders to stop funding abstinence-only education so the money can be re-directed towards sex education classes approved by Planned Parenthood. 

Walsh cited the recent study that 1 in 4 teen girls has an STD, which, in her opinion, proves that abstinence-only education is a waste of time and money.  Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council begs to differ.  He claims that abstinence-only education has proven to be a very effective method to encourage teens against taking sexual risks and quotes statistics that show that it has reduced teen pregnancies by 67%.  Perkins went on to say that it has been shown that using contraceptives while participating in risky sexual behavior does not lower the risk of getting an STD.

Teaching about abstinence is not the only thing being discussed in the majority of U.S. schools, according to Kristen Fyfe of the Culture and Media Institute, an organization that monitors the media.  Ms. Fyfe highlighted the fact that abstinence-only programs receive 1/10 of what other sex education programs get from the government and attributes the rise in STDs to kids being exposed to sexual messages at every turn.

I believe Mr. Perkins and Ms. Fyfe make some good points.  Teenage years tend to be the years when people rebel against authority and are willing to try all types of risky behavior.  When you add other factors to the mix such as parents not communicating regularly or openly with their kids, not disciplining their kids, and giving their kids unfettered access to the internet, you have a recipe for disaster.  If undisciplined kids come home to an empty house after school and they’re the type who don’t feel loved, they’re going to look for love in the wrong place.  It’s no wonder that there have been reports of kids having after-school sex parties or drug parties.  Teens need parents who show their love by spending time with them and who are open to discussing any topic, including sex, that a teen wants to discuss.  And of course it always helps if the parents have a strong relationship with God to the point of talking about practical applications from the Bible for their kids’ lives.

“And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.”  Deuteronomy 6:6-7

–posted by Harry A. Gaylord–

Criminal enterprises from Mexico love illegal immigration

Human trafficking continues to be a popular black market industry in Mexico.  According to the Social Development and Assistance Study and Research Center, 21 of Mexico’s 32 states are points of origin and destination in the trafficking of women and children who are usually poor.  Organized criminal enterprises have approximately 100,000 women and children caught up in their network of selling humans for labor and sexual exploitation with an estimated 16,000 of them being children.

Drugs, weapons, and human trafficking are the top three sources of profitability for organized crime in Mexico.  Since the majority of government authorities are corrupt, there is little to no recourse to put a stop to it.  Oddly enough, places frequented by U.S. citizens or where U.S. corporations are located have the highest occurrences of the trafficking.  For instance, after NAFTA was passed in 1993, several U.S. companies moved right across the border to Juarez for cheap Mexican labor.  Once they established their factories, incidences of the murder and kidnapping of women shot up drastically in the cities of Juarez and Chihuahua, which is a few miles away. 

Humans are trafficked to Mexico from Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Eastern Europe, and South America, according to the U.S. State Dept.  Many of them end up in the United States via illegal immigration networks to be sold for cheap labor or to the underground sex industry here by smugglers called “coyotes.”  The coyotes rape and threaten the women to keep them in line.  Since these men know where the women are from and where their families live, the women are afraid to cooperate with authorities to protect their families from harm.

With the prevalence of drugs, illegal weapons, human trafficking and gangs spilling into our country from Mexico, is it any surprise Americans were overwhelmingly against the latest immigration bill? 

But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully; Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners…For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers [kidnappers]…and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine; (1 Timothy 1:8-10)

Sources: Prensa Latina and Prof. Martin Patt, Professor Emeritus, University of Massachusetts

–posted by Harry A. Gaylord–

Child sex offenders on the increase

• An 8-year-old boy sexually assaults a 6-year-old in Buffalo, NY after watching a R-rated movie with a prison rape in it.  Before the 8-year-old attacks the younger boy, he tells him, “Please, I’ll be your best friend” if he would let him have sex with him.
• In Omaha, NE two 13-year-old boys sexually assault two 5-year-old girls and a 3-year-old boy and videotape the rapes.

These are two cases in a report from the Associated Press on the rise in cases of child-on-child sexual assaults across America.  Due to the bombardment of young minds with sexual images through various media and growing numbers of kids being sexually abused, kids are becoming more sexually aggressive and violent, according to the AP.  While sex crimes committed by adults have dropped over 56% from 1993-2004,  the number of sex crimes committed by children under 18 has gone up 40% from 1985 to 2004.  Usually with such statistics the number of incidents is probably higher than the stats reflect because many incidents go unreported.

The number of treatment programs for these offenders has also increased dramatically across the nation to try to keep up with the number of cases.  The news report by Kim Curtis is headlined “Sex offenders younger, more violent”, as reported in the Tennessean.

As it states in Galatians, you reap what you sow.  As America continues its moral decline by calling good things evil and evil things good, is it any wonder that children are becoming more and more affected by the sinfulness of the adult population?  My first question in the first incident mentioned above is why would an 8-yr-old be allowed to watch an R-rated movie?  It seems to me that too many adults are so preoccupied with the pursuit of their own selfish pleasures that they have become indifferent to the needs of their children.  An increasing number of parents let their children run their households, they are afraid to discipline them, they leave them to raise themselves, or they drop them off at their grandparents’ the majority of the time so they can go out and have their fun.  Parents who are raising their kids correctly have to work even harder to make sure their children are protected from the devil’s agents, whether those agents are kids or adults.

He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes [early, speedily].  (Proverbs 13:24)

Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die. (Proverbs 23:13)

Chasten thy son while there is hope, and let not thy soul spare for his crying. (Proverbs 19:18)

Correct thy son, and he shall give thee rest; yea, he shall give delight unto thy soul.  (Proverbs 29:17)