Sex Trafficking Law Heads to California Ballot For Your Vote in Novemeber

The number 174 is the number of arrests last year for child prostitution The average age i would guess is 17, since the statistic omits the average age of those arrested, but does indicate they are minors. When the numbers do not support the contention that this is a problem, which they don't, these folks go with the personal anecdote. If some activist claims they have seen a 12 year old prostitute, then how does that make it into the same article as the real figures?Did they report what they saw? Was there an arrest? A newspaper article follow-up maybe? No. The L.A Times has some probationer who claims the average age she sees in her caseload is 15. But, again, this is a anecdote. That's just the cases she has seen and who is to say she wasn't mined and when they found the probationer with the lowest average age, they found a winner. I'm sure there are many more who do not see such a low average age. There are no newspaper articles on these phony 12 year old prostitutes because in California, they don't exist. It is 2012 and we are talking about California. Any stats quoted should be from the same era and location, California,. not the entire country, not other countries.

Clear Channel bullboards are launching a campaign in Spanish its mentioned in an L.A Times article. I wonder if they will include the statistic that 92% of the 174 arrests were not from their community.

TheFacts

Me, It's hard to make heads or tails out of that article. I did gather this...those numbers are from LA County only as the article you mentioned reads. Furthermore, the data is from 2010. The numbers from 2011 must be less and things are improving, or else why not use numbers from 2011? 174 in a county of millions of people for an entire year is nothing compared to the amount of adult women selling sex. It would amount to way less than 1% of prostitution.

Anyone who is not blind can see its mid-20's to late-30's aged women selling sex. Is it necessary to lie and claim all these women are really underage? I guess it is.

Katparsons1

Hi "Me", Where are you getting your figures? Can you please provide your source? I've personally been involved in outreach for prostitutes and was handing condoms to primarily 13 year old girls. Also, when I do a preliminary search on average age of entry into prostitution it is 13-14 years old. Thanks.

HI Kat, the figures are out there. Does handing out condoms to someone make them a prostitute, btw? I was reading some other articles and it was mentioned that its easier to police the backpage,com for the underage because the police can go meet with the escorts posing as johns. If this was going on as much as you say, the police arrests would be far higher and the numbers would bare this out. Theres just not that much of this going on, as the numbers show us.Now if you want to claim that there is a lot of adults buying sex from adults, I think i wouldn't disagree. But that's how you are getting over on the general public to create a false majority to vote something like this in, based on lies. Nice job!

TheFacts

: Adults having sex doesn't whip up the same frenzy

Katparsons1

Hi Me- are you Dennis Romero, the writer of this article? Yes, good point- handing out condoms to someone does not make them a prostitute. I went with women who have a shelter for prostitutes and know some of the girls and women, so I had informed company, though I suppose I cannot be sure. I wish it were true that police arrests corresponded with the numbers. I think policing backpage.com is great! I am in full support of that. I am interested to know to what numbers you are referring. When I do a simple google search of "average age of entry into prostitution", I get tons of sources siting 12-14. Here's a government report:

Trauma and Drug Recovery for Abuse and Prostitute Survivors in the ...www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/22... +1'd this publicly. UndoFile Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - Quick Viewby N Hotaling - 2000Because the average age of entry into prostitution is 13-14, the issue is not only one of violence against women but also the sexual abuse of children and ...Also, here are more facts about trafficking in CA specifically:http://sagesf.org/?page_id=121...

There are two websites you should check out "me", if you are unconvinced that child prostitution is a problem. One, is from an agency called Children of the Night, which if you have not heard of it deals directly with rescuing children from prostitution http://www.childrenofthenight....The next, is direct from the FBI, which is regarding the Innocence Lost Initiative, through which the Innocence Lost Task Force was created, which also deals directly with rescuing child victims of prostitution http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/in...

Lucile

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Katparsons1

Hi, I think you may be misinformed about no arrests for human trafficking in CA. Check that fact. Additionally, the laws in place now are not designed for modern day slavery- and are not in proportion with the contemporary way of doing business. A conservative estimate is that 15,000 victims are trafficked into the US (not including cross state trafficking). I have seen young girls selling sex (the fact that they are under 18 qualifies them as sex trafficking victims) in Van Nuys. Again, please check your facts. Thanks.

Katie Zabinski

For the author to say this law is "needless" is absurd. Policy change is needed to ensure the safety of these youth (boys and girls are being exploited) and reform current problems in the system. And to your comment Katparsons1, you are correct that is a conservative number to what is considered the 2nd largest illicit organized crime in America today. But, unfortunately, California does not have any Safe Harbor Legislation (only a few states currently hold this: Connecticut, NY, Washington, Illinois, NJ) which means girls in the sex trade that are under 18 are not automatically qualified as human-trafficking victims according to CA law, therefore they are still being treated as criminals (receiving juvenile prostitution charges), not victims. Thus, highlighting the NEED for policy change in current state legislation.

Katparsons1

Right on Katie. I am really surprised this article is in the LA Weekly, with such seemingly incorrect research.