Washington DC a sexual playground for pimps and johns: Exposing child prostitution rings in DC

March 17, 11:16 PMDC Youth Issues ExaminerAisha Ali

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During the past four years in the District, law enforcement officials, activists, and organizations have made a concerted effort to dismantle prostitution rings and enhance youth rescue services for MART (missing, abused, runaway, and throwaway) youths. A task force involving both local and federal law enforcement, along with nongovernmental agencies, has overturned child-prostitution operations. However, do not celebrate prematurely, as the District still has much further to go before child prostitution meets its end. According to Bradley Myles, deputy director of the Polaris Project, which combats human trafficking and modern-day slavery, the District still has a huge market for young girls.

In 2008, the D.C. Human Trafficking Task Force, which investigates adult and child prostitution, discovered 32 cases of teenage girls being sexually exploited for money by older men. According to District authorities, less than a dozen of these cases resulted in full-scale criminal investigations.  Even though child prostitution is a major problem for big cities, D.C. has one of the highest rates of child prostitution, according to police, prosecutors, and organizations that deal with troubled youths. In 2001, a national study funded by the U.S. Department of Justice estimated 300,000 runaway and throwaway youths under 18 have been sexually exploited.

It is for this reason Fair Fund, a DC-based nonprofit, has taken its mission against trafficking and child prostitution into District classes with its Tell Your Friends (TYF) four-week, preventative educational program, which examines the pathways of how youths both enter and exit commercial child prostitution.  The TYF program has been in place for two years now.

Typically having a history of working in Serbia, Bosnia, Russia, and Kenya, Fair Fund signed an agreement in 2007 with District school officials to teach its curriculum in six high schools: Bell Multicultural, McKinley Tech, Coolidge, Woodson, Anacostia, and School Without Walls. According to Andrea Powell, Fair Fund’s executive director, these schools were chosen based on police reports of family and domestic violence in these youths' neighborhoods. 

Through a collaborative effort, Powell has reached 820 students, trained dozens of educators on the Fair Fund’s curriculum, and received 56 letters-- many of them anonymous-- from students seeking guidance. In many of these letters, youths divulge graphic information of how either they were raped by their fathers or have known other teenagers involved in prostitution. Some youths even provide testimonies of being homeless, and how they use sex in exchange for drugs, money, and material goods to survive on the streets.

District police officers claim youths trade sex for shelter or food, quite frequently. When a vulnerable child is seeking love and attention and food and shelter, this creates a critical situation of potential sexual exploitation. Such risk factors are addressed in a new report titled, “Pathways Into and Out of Commercial Sexual Exploitation," co-authored by Powell and Fair Fund's partners at University of Massachusetts, Lowell. The report is based on a  two-year research project that became the basis for Fair Fund's TYF program.  The report includes detailed interviews with 60 adolescent male, female, and transgendered youths, 30 residing in D.C. and the other 30 in Boston. The youths interviewed were between 14 and 18 years of age, and all were involved in or vulnerable to sex trafficking.

One runaway teen's comment from the study posed as worrisome, as she reported having sex with men in exchange for shelter, frequently. The runaway even identified one man, who had offered her shelter, as being “nice”. Of course, it is natural for the runaway to be gracious to this man for supplying her with shelter.  However, what is most disturbing is that he offered his shelter after he had slept with the runaway teen, not before. There was a dangerous price tag attached to the man's shelter and the runaway, blinded by her need for love and shelter, was oblivious to the dangers, labeling the man "nice" because he "offered" something she had been lacking.

It is this thinking that calls for more emergency and transitional shelter for runaways and throwaways. Many people argue emergency and transitional shelter should be available to child prostitutes, which is true. Yet, if emergency and transitional housing were more accessible for displaced youths, perhaps this would lessen the huge numbers of child prostitutes on the streets. It is better to be proactive then reactive, especially when concerning the well being of youths.  However, Powell argues street youths not only require emergency and transitional shelter, but also relocation programs, particularly for domestic youths, as well as health care and reintegration services to combat international trafficking. Furthermore, Powell asserts extensive training of law enforcement personnel beyond specialized units dedicated to youths should be implemented.

According to Michelle Zamarin, assistant U.S. attorney of the D.C, Human Trafficking Task Force, teens involved in commercial sex are easily manipulated— even though they physically appear to be adults, mentally their logic is of a child.  “When you talk to these children and listen to their logic, you realize the maturity at 15 is still of a child,” Zamarin told the Post. “They believe this person really loves them.”

With more pimps and johns being arrested for initiating and endorsing child prostitution rings respectively, many sex exploiters are becoming slicker as to how they broadcast services and capture child prostitutes.  According to Morani Hines, a 17-year D.C. police veteran who heads the department's human trafficking unit, technological advances are working against the police. Due to the government’s focus on child trafficking, street traffic of minors has relocated to Web sites such as Craigslist, through which sex exploiters advertise sexual services in hotels and private homes.

Fair Fund argues a strong community effort to combat child exploitation must be executed. However first, more people must become educated of its severity. More teachers, counselors, and social workers must be able to better identify situations involving sexually exploited children. Hence, Fair Fund has now expanded what was initially meant to target only health classes, to English, history, and social studies classes. 

During its TYF classes, Fair Fund addresses what initial behaviors lead to prostitution, as it first begins with the derogatory names males use to address females that have become widely accepted in American culture. For an initial lesson at Coolidge High School, Fair Fund used 50 Cent’s popular hit song, "P-I-M-P," to depict how demoralization of young women is so easily accepted in pop or American culture.  "P-I-M-P," an ode to the art of “pimping,” depicts a pimp who lures females into prostitution with promises of a glamorous life under his protection. However, much like in real life, such promises are only ruses to enrich the pimp, not the prostitute-- and being a prostitute definitely does not offer protection.  However, to young, lost girls who seek protection and love, especially when being abused by their fathers or male guardians, a man offering "protection" is much desired.  Thus, many young girls fall victim to child prostitution.

The reactions from students was alarming, as their responses showed how desensitized youths have become to violence and disrespect of fellow human beings. While many children admitted they hadn’t fully paid attention to or understood the underlying meaning of "P-I-M-P," others, particularly males, expressed a lack of sympathy of and respect for young girls who worked as prostitutes, as they could not and did not want to understand how one can end up a child prostitute.

Case studies revealing child prostitution in the District

According to some activists, the District is considered a trafficking hub; however, federal prosecutors in Northern Virginia and Maryland suburbs have seen just as many prosecutions in the past seven years.

The District has the only Justice Department trafficking task force for the region. Since created in 2004, the task force has prosecuted only four cases as of 2007 in federal court in the District and roughly 25 cases in D.C. Superior Court. All cases involved U.S. citizens forced into prostitution, including children. As of 2007, sixty-three victims have been identified.

One case identified under this task force was that of Jaron Brice. In March 2006, a Federal jury in the District convicted Brice, a former pimp, of one count of sex trafficking a child, two counts of transportation of a minor across state lines for purposes of prostitution, one count of transportation of a person across state lines for purposes of prostitution, three counts of first degree child sexual abuse, and two counts of pandering.

The authorities had been watching Brice for awhile. In March 2004 and continuing through May 17, 2005, Brice recruited girl prostitutes as young as 14 years of age for his own financial gains. He used both psychological and physical violence, including armed threats, to ensure compliance within his rules. Brice set nightly $500 monetary quotas for these young women, from which he kept all of the money. Of course, if these young women and children were unsuccessful at meeting their quota, Brice would physically and sexually abuse them.

Currently, Brice faces sentences totaling 40 years in prison and a $250,000 fine and restitution. Sharon Marcus-Kurn, assistant U.S. Attorney for the District, categorized Brice as being the “typical pimp”. “He was a young guy who quickly learned that instead of dealing drugs, instead of being violent to strangers, it was a lot more effective and profitable to start using young, vulnerable females for his pocketbook,” Marcus-Kurn said.

Like any other pimp, Brice preyed on vulnerable females who were at a crossroads in their lives, whether it involved escaping domestic sexual or physical abuse or finding a way to support themselves after being thrown out of the house or running away. Brice sensed the pain and personal struggle in these females’ eyes. Like any other man, he flooded these vulnerable females with compliments to portray himself as a “caring” individual, who could offer a beneficial alternative, which would end in “ultimate happiness”. In approximately 30 minutes, he could tell his ploys to control and manipulate these girls into doing whatever he wanted would work.

In June 2007, Javier Miguel Ramirez, was charged under federal sex trafficking statues, which involved the prostitution of a 15-year old minor. Ramirez’s case was the only human trafficking case in the Maryland suburbs within the past four years prior to 2007— that is until February 2009, when two Montgomery County defendants, Angela Samantha Bentolila and Lloyd Mack Royal, III (also known as “Blyss”) were arrested for conspiracy to commit sex trafficking involving three minor females.

FBI child prostitution crackdowns

So far, in 2009, the FBI has rescued over 45 suspected teenage prostitutes, some as young as 13, in a nationwide, three-night sweep called Operation Cross Country. During Operation Cross Country, federal agents worked with local law enforcement and arrested over 50 alleged pimps. Operation Cross Country took place in Montgomery and Prince William counties in MD, Baltimore, D.C., as well as other states.

The teenage prostitutes found during the investigation ranged from 13 to 17 years of age. Normally, the FBI does not involve itself in anti-prostitution crackdowns; however, with more and more children being trafficked into prostitution, the FBI has become more involved, as it tries to rescue youths caught up in commercial child prostitution.

Special Agent Melissa Morrow of the FBI’s Washington office said the operation has put them on a trail of a particular 16-year-old prostitute the Bureau has yet to find. Adult prostitutes arrested during the crackdown provided the FBI with key tips regarding the girl’s whereabouts.

Busts of prostitution rings happen almost daily, believe it or not. Local media outlets report them, suggesting that child prostitution is an epidemic crisis of America family life.

Facts:

• The National Runaway Switchboard estimates there are between 1.3 and 2.8 million runaway, throwaway, and homeless youths in America.
• According to Ernie Allen, executive director of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), 100,000 to 293,000 children have become sexual commodities.
• Nationally, 450,000 children run away from home each year. As many as 2.8 million youths live on the streets, a third of whom are lured into prostitution within 48 hours of leaving home, according to the National Runaway Switchboard. Statically, this means roughly 150,000 children are lured into prostitution each year.
• The U.S. Department of Justice Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section reports 12 as the average age of entry into pornography and prostitution in the U.S.
• In 2002, the Department of Justice estimated MART children at 1.7 million. Nearly a third of these youths were categorized as “endangered” from physical and sexual abuse and drugs. At some point or another, 27,300 of the third  MART youths endangered, were classified as “missing” with a sexually-exploitative person while 14,900 had been or either came close to being sexually assaulted while a runaway.

Please view the following videos on child prostitution in America. The first video is a segment from a PBS special, "Fighting Child Prostitution". The second video is a trailer for the documentary, "Very Young Girls," which aired on Showtime.

Sources:

http://www.counterpunch.org/rosen08022008.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/23/AR2008112302241_pf.html
http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/md/Public-Affairs/press_releases/press08/TwoMontgomeryCountyDefendantsChargedinHumanTraffickingConspiracy.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/22/AR2007092201405.html