Rethink Resources

I can’t tell you how often I hear from youth workers across the country who explain that pimps and other sexual exploiters impress youth from group homes, treatment centers, homeless shelters and similar places where lots of youth are low or no income by getting the youth nice outfits, their hair done, their nails done and favorite foods.

I believe we need serious social change to really make an impact in youth lives. For example, it’s not just about helping a few youth get housing; it’s about making it possible for thousands of youth who have no place to go to secure safe, affordable housing that feels like home.

However in the meantime, it’s also good to really do the best we can in the programs we have. I thought about this dilemma today and I would like to encourage us to think about ways we can offer something so simple for low and no income youth.

It isn’t just about paying for youth to get their hair or nails done regularly. But you can also pay for the supplies and training for youth to learn the skill or practice a skill they already have like braiding hair.

Sadly I think a lot of programs come from the perspective that no or low income youth should just get used to being broke and doing without all the time. I think this leads to making it super easy for someone who has a mind to take advantage of someone to offer what are really inexpensive items to make a youth feel special and loved.

And yes, I’m also aware that many programs are broke themselves and don’t think they can afford it but can we afford youth running away all the time? Can we afford youth feeling like they don’t have the most basic of needs taken care of? It’s possible to make it a part of the budget.

I think some programs are conscientious of body image and want to encourage youth to accept themselves without having to wear popular clothes or hair styled or wearing makeup. I think this is a completely valuable idea. It’s also true that youth will make up their own minds about what being cared for looks like.

Why not take away one of the most common tactics that pimps use? So that a youth can say “I don’t need you to get my nails done. I’m taken care of.”

Click on the button to hear a interview with me on XBN SWOP East Broadcast Network. We covered a lot of ground including why I started Rethink Resources, why adults struggle with supporting youth in the sex trade and how the rescue philosophy stops a lot of adults from welcoming youth as smart, capable young people.

Fewer than 3,000 websites produce bulk of child porn (international) Fewer than 3,000 English-language websites produce the bulk of child pornography images, according to the first authoritative analysis of the scale of the problem, published today. The Internet Watch Foundation, which carried out the study, says an international effort to disrupt even a few of these “persistent top level domains” would block access to hundreds of thousands of images of child sex abuse.

New busts in pimping of girl, 13 (New York) Two more suspects, including the father of a woman already in custody, have been busted in the prostitution case that netted a veteran NYPD detective, prosecutors said Wednesday. Garnell Brown, 50, and Anthony (Pretty Tony) Burnett, 45, both of Brooklyn, were arrested March 31 and charged with rape and endangering the welfare of a child, among other counts, authorities said….The couple allegedly took in a 13-year-old Brooklyn runaway and pimped her out at house parties and hotels across Queens.

Related to that story, no one should be surprised at this: Teen in pimp-cop case missing (New York) The case against an NYPD detective accused of pimping out a Brooklyn runaway could crumble in light of the teen’s latest disappearance, defense lawyers said Monday. The 14-year-old girl has been missing since Thursday night, when she slipped out of a Brooklyn church service, police said.

All this attention, I’d run too.

Mom forced prostitution: Investigators say Rachel Sue White used daughter, 17, to support her drug habit.(Ohio) vice officers working in Harrison Twp. got tips that a woman had started using her minor daughter in prostitution at local hotels. Undercover officers went to a hotel on North Dixie Drive at East Siebenthaler Avenue at around 8 p.m. Monday, April 21, and contacted a man later identified as Melvin. “The male there acted as an organizer,” Plummer said. “He told them which room the girl was in, what services she was good at and how much she charged. He accepted money, and pointed them to the room.” The officers arrested Melvin and White.

Mother, Son Accused Of Pimping 15-Year Old Girl (California) A mother and son have been arrested on charges of sex trafficking. They have been accused of controlling and abusing a young girl and selling her for sex acts. 37-year old Lavern Vaughn and her 20-year old son Lavor Carter were arrested by FBI agents in their Vallejo apartment.

Inside Bay Area recently did a whole series of articles on teen prostitution in the East Bay Area of California.

Nonprofit caters to needs of sexually exploited youth
When Oakland police find young girls on the street involved in prostitution, one of the first things they do is call for a counselor from MISSSEY Inc. The counselor provides a sisterly shoulder to lean on during a time of crisis and acts as an advocate for the young victim.

Ex-prostitute reaches out to girls still on streets
In the early morning hours, Dee Dee Perry gets in her car and does “spiritual drive-bys” along International Boulevard in East Oakland.

Prostitute series raises dispute behind the scenes
There are certain things that are so evil we put on blinders, hoping that shielding our eyes will make them disappear. Things such as men old enough to be grandfathers flocking to Oakland from far and wide for the specific purpose of having sex with little girls.

Sexual exploitation of minors boils down to basic economics
The supply and demand rule of economics drives the market for everything from toothpaste to sports cars. It also drives the sexual exploitation of minors.

Dealers turning to sex business
When selling crack cocaine became a tougher way to make money at the beginning of the decade because of increased police pressure, many drug dealers turned to pimping instead. By selling young girls for sex, street hustlers were less likely to get caught.

Lawmakers support bill to decriminalize minors

Prosecutor targets pimps, not girls
Deputy District Attorney Sharmin Eshraghi Bock is leading a state-wide charge to spare teenage prostitutes and jail their pimps. Her mission may sound obvious, but it represents a sea change in the way the criminal justice system has historically treated minors ensnared in the sex trade.

Cops shift focus, treat child prostitutes as victims

Oakland girl rebuilds life after month as a prostitute
The day after Christmas, 14-year-old Desiree went shopping at the mall with her friends, missed her curfew and never went home. Then an uncle was shocked to come across a nude picture of Desiree in the shower posted on the Craigslist Web site.

Lost girls seek shelter from abuse

Podcast: Desiree and her mom talk about Desiree’s experience as prostitute. Listen here now.

City comes to grips with teen prostitution
In the past 10 months, at least 170 kids between 11 and 17 have been referred to a local counseling agency because they’d been peddled on the streets for sex. These exploited children have worked for pimps who quit drug dealing for the more lucrative trade of selling young girls for sex

During the same week in April, a community forum was held and you can listen to the town hall meeting on KPFA.org here.

I’ll be on XBN Sex Workers Outreach Project East radio show this Sunday May 11th at 6pm (EST) talking about my work and how the whole idea of “rescuing” youth in the sex trade is insulting and doesn’t work.

Click on the picture at the top of this post for the site where you can listen to the show. Also you can call in, email or instant message during the show with a question or comment. The show will be broadcast live on Sunday, May 11 at 6pm (Eastern Standard Time) for an hour.

Thirty people attended my training last Saturday May 3rd on Youth and the Sex Trade 101 and everyone was excited to learn as much as they could.

We covered a lot of ground in a short three hours starting with the words that youth (especially youth in the sex trade) use to describe the sex trade and how different the words that adults use to talk about the sex trade are. The push and pull factors behind why and how youth get involved in the sex trade was next. In small group discussions, participants reviewed some examples of how youth started in the sex trade and shared the themes they could see.

Next up I talked about recent research and best practices from experienced youth workers and youth voices. After that small groups took on an exercise I developed to explore how to open up conversations between adults and youth on the sex trade and how to shut them down. And just what makes it so hard for youth and adults to talk openly about the sex trade. I’ll post later in the week with the results.

This gave us a good grounding to review what makes a welcoming environment for youth to talk about their experiences in the sex trade and how all youth workers can help youth who are, have been or might be involved in the sex trade.

A lot of workshop participants wanted more time, more exercises, and more information. I think next time I offer the workshop, I’ll make it a whole day.

I really don’t support the idea of trying to scare youth away from the sex trade. It’s ineffective because it doesn’t get at the root of the reasons youth are in the sex trade to begin with and assumes that youth don’t already know or have personal knowledge of dangerous realities in their lives.

It can be tough because sometimes youth suggest scare tactics as a method to reach other youth. For example, a long while back I presented at a high school in Chicago at an amazing youth run anti-violence conference for students. Workshop presenters gathered with the students in the library before breaking into the classrooms.

I realized as I walked into the library there was a full size coffin inside the library, lent for the day from a local funeral home to the conference organizers to shock students about the realities of gun-related violence, gang members killing each other and killing other community members. I was a little surprised and asked whose idea it was to bring in the coffin. And the reply was the youth.

Of course thinking back, I remember freaking out my family by taking a whole course in high school on death and dying (a religion elective as I went to a Catholic high school and had religion all four years - at least they got creative about it). I mean you don’t have to be emo as a teen to be curious or wanting to know more about death (especially if you’ve lost people close to you whether they lived a long life or were taken away far too soon).

What I find puzzling though is that what youth might be dealing with or thinking about is not necessarily what people hope will result from trying to scare youth. Many youth in that room had already been to funerals of people they knew who died from gun violence, from gangs, from the police, from people who fell ill from environmental racism/poisoning. It was a room full of people who knew with a deep personal knowledge about violence.

I think, if anything, the coffin was more of a reminder, an altar, a way of acknowledging that loss.

In some communities it’s common to bring in women in the thirties and forties to speak to teens about prostitution and warn them away by sharing serious stories of violence, addiction, loss, and poverty. I’ve heard people say that they want to teens to hear these stories so they can stop before they get involved. But again what I’ve witnessed so many times, is not youth connecting the grown women’s experiences with their own but with that of their older relatives.

A teen sees a woman talking about leaving her kids behind to get high or choosing an intimate partner over her child and the teen isn’t necessarily thinking - “that could me”, she’s often thinking “that’s like my mother” or my auntie or my older sister. Not necessarily a bad thing to think about and express your feelings about - but not the purpose behind the talk.

Another example would be jail tours which can be as simple as a youth group taking a quick tour and hearing a prepared presentation from detained people inside the jail and correctional officers or as elaborate a drama as short boot camp experiences with youth being screamed at, terrorized, humiliated, and re-traumatized. Let me be clear about that last word - re- traumatized. I never understood why anyone would think it’s a good idea to scream at someone who’s had a history of being abused, which the youth who go through these experiences most often share.

In this case maybe it does have the effect adults are seeking. It shuts youth down from feeling like they can be bold and strong about their opinion. Youth break down and cry. Instead of giving youth the tools to fight a system that incarcerates more people per capita than any other country in the world, adults tell them it’ll happen to you too if you don’t do what we say.

I think what youth want is change. I think they hope for understanding of why the world is the way it is. I think they want to make sense of their experiences. I don’t think they want to be shut down, broken down, and crushed; but that’s what happens with scare tactics.

Last Friday I had the opportunity to witness an amazing speakout by street youth organized by the Young Women’s Empowerment Project in Chicago. This youth organized speakout on Reproductive Justice featured skits, poetry, statements, personal testimony and information sharing. YWEP youth have been involved for years in building the Reproductive Justice movement - speaking out as youth in the sex trade and participating as leaders and decision-makers in planning strategy.

The speakout was a collaborative effort of many organizations in Chicago by and for street based youth, with youth leading planning sessions across the city in the weeks leading up to the speakout. Some of the organizations participating included the Empowered FeFes of Access Living, Broadway Youth Center, Center on Halsted, and Young Women’s Action Team.

If you’d like to learn more about Reproductive Justice watch this video or visit these amazing websites.

I have a letter in the Sunday letters to the editor section.

Resources, enforcement needed for sex assaults

I work with teens involved in prostitution in Milwaukee, and I’m relieved to see more attention being given to this reality (”Craigs-list child sex ads lead to arrests,” April 9). Indeed, some youth become involved by running away and being forced to perform sex acts by a pimp. Some children are pimped out by their own family members. Some teens start through the fast cash of strip clubs. I know most people would be shocked by the experiences that teens have shared with me.

Basically, this is another example of adults sexually abusing kids. We all know that the people who are paying for sex with kids are adults. And that makes it sexual assault.

However, law enforcement is just one approach to tackle this problem. In addition to enforcing sexual assault laws, we need resources like specialized counseling and health care for youth who have been sexually exploited. They have experienced serious trauma, such as sexual assault and being threatened with a gun, like the 16-year-old girl in the article. And we need more jobs for youth and more community activities to keep youth connected to positive adults.

Claudine O’Leary
Milwaukee

The article I referenced is here.

A 15-year-old girl who ran away from home in western Wisconsin sold sex acts in Milwaukee to men who found her ad and photo on Craigslist, according to court documents. The girl, who said she took a Greyhound bus from her home in Onalaska to Milwaukee in the fall, told detectives she had sex with 10 men in 14 days, earning $1,500, according to a search warrant unsealed this week.

Later in the article another recent case is cited:

In another Milwaukee case, a man was sentenced last month to four years in prison for prostituting a 16-year-old girl, also on Craigslist. Rufus Jackson, 28, also was charged with having sex with the girl. In that case, Jackson took in the girl, also a runaway whose hometown was not listed. He began having sex with her and later forced her into prostitution, according to the criminal complaint. Jackson took nude photos of the girl and posted them on Craigslist, it says. Jackson beat the girl and threatened her by putting a gun to her head, demanding she make more money in prostitution…

Actually the editorial section of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel today was an important read with a substantial piece on sexual abuse and teen pregnancy.

Check out a preliminary report from Toledo, Ohio on youth involved in prostitution. The unfunded research is a passion of Celia Williamson of Second Chance. Some of the findings so far include 91% of the youth reporting abuse at home, 77% had been been involved with the area child protective services with over half being in foster care and some detailed qualitative data on how the pimp networks are operating in the Toledo, Ohio area.

I especially liked the list of suggestions so far from youth interviewed. Here’s a short excerpt:

We need someone to talk to, to turn to, someone we can trust. Not nobody’s who’s gonna snake us and turn their back and look down on us or judge us for what we’ve been through. We need support and people that care.

Have meetings and get to true feelings

It’s very hard to get out. Need support groups and job and gain self respect. They don’t care about themselves. People should let them know they’re with somebody that cares about them. Girls just want to be loved. To take care of themselves or their families and that’s the fastest way to do it

Court should do something when kids are raped as children

Read more in the report.