Thirteen is the average age of children who have been forced into prostitution.  Prostitution is a crime in all US states, except for a few counties in Nevada.  Therefore, in many cases, when a minor is picked up for prostituting, she is treated as a criminal and incarcerated in juvenile detention.

The problem with this scenario is that generally children are not deciding on their own to sell their bodies for sex.  Typically, the 100,000-200,000 kids who are annually set up in prostitution in the United States are forced into it.  They have perhaps run away from an abusive situation at home and have been picked up by a pimp, who represents himself as a boyfriend and caring person.  Later, he intimidates the girl and says she owes him a debt for his actions, and she must prostitute herself to pay him back.  The cycle begins with threats, physical assaults, drugging, and/or psychological control, and the youngster is coerced into obeying.  She is given a quota of money to bring back before the night is over or more beatings await her.

After allowing herself to be raped and molested by up to 10 or 20 men a night, the girl may return "home", hand over all her money, and then be denied food or human comforts.  The next night and the night after that, the trauma is repeated, with the pimp making hundreds of thousands of dollars off her over the course of the year.  The girl may be literally branded with crude implements to show she is the "property" of her "benefactor".  Trapped in shame, hopelessness, and intense fear, this girl who is somebody's daughter doesn't know that she has any options, and continues to use sex and demeaning of herself in order to survive.

When she gets picked up by the police, she isn't likely to squeal on her pimp for fear of repecussions.  She may even be combative with the officers out of her anxiety and duress, and consequently may be treated as the offender.  If there is no other place in the city for her to go, which will keep her safe from the vengeful pimp, jail may be her option.

Fortunately, the tide is turning in the United States and around the world. Human rights and child abuse prevention agencies, along with many others, are speaking out against this travesty of sex trafficking toward our children.  Safe houses are being established in numerous cities as places these rescued children can be taken, where they will recieve medical care, counseling, education, and a path for healing and redemption from the evils that have been inflicted upon them.

In Phoenix, Arizona, Stop Child Rape for Profit, dba Streetlight Phoenix, has been established as such a safe house.  The project has been in the works for over three years, developing funding sources, creating networks among churches and other social service and government agencies, and preparing a facility to house girls. 

With plans to open by the end of 2010, Streetlight Phoenix will eventually be able to house up to 48 girls, all under the age of 18. All of the needed services will be provided to the girls, who will be able to stay up to age 18, and even up to age 23 if they have been in the safe house program for a minimum of six months.

This will be the first such comprehensive center in Arizona, and Streetlight CEO Pat McCalla has visions of opening a Streetlight center in Tucson, which in in the works, and in several other cities around the country.  With greater awareness of the issue of child sex trafficking, there is incredible interest and response to this problem, and new agencies are being developed on a regular basis to provide needed services.

It is both a huge privilege for agencies such as Streetlight to be involved in this work of rescuing and redeeming girls from sex trafficking, but it is also a huge responsibility, and one that takes a lot of funding to combat the billions of dollars the underworld has at its disposal.  Streelight Phoenix is a non-profit organization that is funded by indiviual and corporate donations who are committed to abolishing sex slavery.  You, too, can be a modern day Abolitionist!