Rethink Resources

An inquest in Winnipeg, Canada that started with the suicide of a 14 year old in the sex trade is generating a number of articles.

In Ontario, an arrest of a 21 year old man for pimping a 16 year old also stirred a lot of attention. I find it telling to look at just the headlines of three articles about the story.

“Teen helps smash hooker ring” The Mississauga News
“Man Arrested For Allegedly Recruiting Teen To Work As Prostitute” City News CP24
“Recruited into prostitution, a girl 16, is saved from streets” Toronto Sun

Each article’s headline outlines a different way of looking one event - law enforcement officers intercepting a young woman on the street selling sex and, on finding out she is 16, the police then develop a case against the man who turned her out and was receiving all the money. None of the articles offer enough information about the teen girl’s perspective. So instead we’re left with headlines that say more about the viewpoints of people outside the situation.

“Teen helps smash hooker ring” suggests it’s ok for journalists (or anyone) to refer to minors as hookers. “(A)llegedly Recruiting Teen To Work As Prostitute” also puts more of a spin that it’s potentially work for minors. Of course, some sex for money transactions are legal in Canada for adults but it’s not ever been for minors. And to say I’m skeptical about anyone claiming to have “saved (someone) from (the) streets” is an understatement. Simply arresting someone does not address all kinds of issues for youth and it remains a question about what her future will be.

This week’s links:

Hundreds of young girls work Winnipeg’s sex trade (Winnipeg) Wednesday, February 21, 2007 Experts say some as young as eight turn to prostitution. Police, government and community agencies say that hundreds of children in Winnipeg are being sexually exploited, either forced to work as prostitutes or in “survival sex” to get access to food, housing and drugs

Hundreds of kids in sex trade: Testimony jolts inquest; police say hands tied (Winnipeg) Tuesday, February 20, 2007 Another article on the inquest of Tracia Owen, a 14-year-old girl who started working the streets in the months before her August 2005 suicide.

County leaders create an award for residents who give back to their community (Clearwater) Sunday, February 18, 2007 Kids Who Care is a group of children, many of whom have been homeless, who meet weekly at the youth center of the Homeless Emergency Project in Clearwater.

Teen helps smash hooker ring (Toronto) Friday, February 16, 2007 Police say a 16-year-old girl…provided key information to investigators as they broke up a prostitution ring.