Sexual Exploitation:

It could happen to anyone

By Keosha Morgan, Marjon Wolfe and Yasmin Miller | VOX Staff and Girls Group Interns

We at VOX were shocked to learn that, according to several estimates, between 300,000 to 400,000 children and teenagers are sexually exploited each year in the United States. We were even more appalled by the fact that Atlanta is ranked by the FBI as one of the worst cities in the U.S. for child prostitution.

Having the country’s busiest international airport and being one of the most popular business conference destinations makes Atlanta easily accessible to grown men looking to have sex with young girls and boys.

“It has become a big business in Atlanta,” said Fulton County Juvenile Court Chief Justice Sanford Jones. “The sex trade brings in a lot of money, and there are a lot of pimps and prostitution rings that have cropped up to serve the growing demand for child prostitutes.”

Sexual exploitation is an enormous problem that most Atlantans aren’t even remotely aware of. Most people think since it’s not their child or they don’t know anybody who is sexually exploited, then they shouldn’t care. But we have seen first hand that it could happen to anyone no matter what economic situation you’re in, no matter your race, no matter your gender, no matter your age. Every month, Fulton County alone sees an average of 12 girls go through the juvenile court system as victims of sexual exploitation. Their average age is 13 to 15, and the girls keep getting younger, said Chief Justice Jones. “I’ve helped girls — and boys — who were as young as 10,” he said.

We also learned from Judge Jones that, luckily, a law enacted in 2002 shifted the treatment of the children caught in the system from being charged as criminals to being cared for as victims. At about the same time, the punishment for being convicted as a pimp escalated from a misdemeanor to a felony, he said.

But the shocking reality about child prostitution is that there is not a “typical” girl. Learning more about the girls’ personal lives and struggles helped us look past the stereotypes that we have been manipulated to believe. The truth is these girls are not doing it for money, and they’re not out on the streets selling their bodies.

They are often brought into prostitution by friends or at least people claiming to be friends. They are given support and gifts, and then asked to have sex with others as “compensation” for what they’ve been given.

Three of us are fortunate enough to be able to work with several girls at Angela’s House, a safe house for sexually exploited girls. We worked with them to give them the courage, friendship, and skills to share their stories, and in doing so, we knew that we had to bring the abuse they face to light.

Almost this entire issue of VOX is geared to inform you about the realities of how young girls fall victim to these crimes every day, right in our own communities. We hope that reading these girls’ personal stories, as well as reading our staff’s opinions on how we teens contribute to the problem, can stop the misconceptions and end the cycle of exploitation.