Somebody's Daugher - The Girl from Jersey

The next part of the book Somebody's Daughter by Julian Sher is called Innocence Lost. The first chapter is The Girl from Jersey.

"Prostituted children are made, not born, forced onto the streets by myriad circumstances beyond their control, usually some kind of trouble at home and often a trigger event that pushes them over the edge." This book tells a heartbreaking story of a girl named Maria. She was raised by a very traditional family who never let her out of the house, finally left one day for a date at the age of 12, was raped and held captive for several days inside a closet, then left for dead on the road. When she finally mustered the courage to tell people, there was no evidence and he got away free of charge. Her parents blamed her for what happened, saying if she hadn't left without permission it would never have happened. Although she knew they loved her, and they took her to psychiatrists, things changed permanently. This set the stage for her. My job here isn't to write the book, but to detail the skeletal facts I've learned through it. I want to take this moment to STRONGLY encourage you to read this book because the stories are heartbreaking and make these facts real, fleshed out, and bring these girls into your hearts.



Dan Garrabrant, an FBI agent, states that, "Nobody reports them, nobody is looking for them, and nobody cares about them. They're the forgotten children." All Maria wanted was for her mother to show love and acknowledge her, and instead she ended up learning that she was property of a pimp and had to keep her eyes down whenever another man was in the room. She told her pimp that she was 14, and that only made her more marketable to him. In fact, he capitalized on it, giving her the street name Baby Girl. (Incidentally, this is the same name my neighbor gave her horse.)

"The police considered adult prostitution a nuisance rather than a crime, while [CSEC] barely registered on their radar." Maria was arrested nearly 40 times, claiming to be an adult every time. "They never asked questions." she states. She was convinced the pimps were bribing the authorities.

From the book: "Too young to recognize they are being manipulated and too old to see themselves as helpless children, they come to endure, if not accept, their own exploitation because, rightly or wrongly, they do not see a better alternative. And all they see in popular culture - from music to movies - is a glorification of the pimping world."

I'm not going to reveal the name of the pimp or book here, because I'm afraid the wrong sort of person might read it and use the book for ideas rather than advocacy, but a bestselling book on pimping advises to, "Prey on the weak. The women all have... a history that can be exploited... Most hos have low self-esteem for a reason... Weakness is the best trait a person can find in someone they want to control."

Isolation is also used to solidify this dependance and control. Pimps often foster an us v. them mentality within the community. Everyone not involved in pimping and prostitution are called "square." This leads to a life where the act of a married man in his 40s having sex with a 14 year old became a reward, rather than revolting. Maria found comfort in the fact that her pimp beat her "less severely than the other girls," but the pimp was smart enough to realize that she was his biggest legal liability.

The sad thing is, when Maria tried escaping back to her home, no one understood. The church talked badly about her. No one at school would hang out with her anymore. Even her best friend says she couldn't hang out with her, otherwise "everybody is going to think that I am a hooker..." Maria says, "I knew this life working the tracks wasn't me, but I didn't feel that I fit in at home either... I was just another little whore."

Somebody's Daughter - Prologue

I've recently come across a book called Somebody's Daughter by Julian Sher and I'm going to post the notes I take here, chapter by chapter. These are the notes from the Prologue.


The book doesn't softball you for the prologue. It starts out with the story of a girl who'd once aspired to be in ministry "selling her body since she was 14 on some of the toughest tracks in the country" who asks her traveling companion, "Do you know how many times I got raped? ...how many guns I got put to my temples? ...times I got beaten - with hangers, brooms, whips, and belts?"

Las Vegas is called out as being a mecca and a haven for sex; especially illegal sex with minors. The 2009 National Report on Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking places the city at the top of the offenders list, estimating 400 girls being trafficked per year. They reiterate the rule, "Wherever women are for sale, the commercial sexual exploitation of young girls is never far away." Sgt. Det. Gil Shannon, who had been LVPD for 20 years at the time of publishing, is quoted as saying, "This is the mecca for child prostitution. They all come here." He points out an opinion that I believe can be extended to all cities, "His squad's statistics point not so much to success as to the depth of the problem." At least 60% of children picked up for prostitution charges in LV are not from Vegas.

One point that seems insane to me is that there's no help for those who need it. The prologue mentions a former madam who realized in jail that, although there was help for women who wanted to break addictions to drug or alcohol, there was no help for a woman who wanted to leave the life of prostitution. I've seen this in my own work as well. One story is that of a woman who worked with a young woman who was turned down from multiple shelters and homes because she didn't fit the criteria. She injected herself with drugs, then returned to the advocate, announcing that now she was a candidate for the home, but they'd better hurry because she didn't know how long the drug would stay in her system. 

The prologue also addresses an attitude problem on the side of those who are supposed to be safe havens or, at the least, impartial practitioners of law. In jail, prostitutes fall even lower than pedophiles on the chain of disrespect. Outside, it is even worse. One Dallas police sergeant, Byron Fassett, admits, "I was no different than most cops... I thought, a whore is a whore is a whore." Later, "I figured if she didn't want to be in this, she would get out of this."

Even when cops are advocates, the pimps have many ways around this. One girl's pimp "traded off" to another pimp, which is, "a frequent tactic pimps use to get rid of troublesome girls." The policeman that had found her and intended to prosecute her pimp lost both the case and the girl. The system continually fails a lot of girls, due to lack of concern, idea that this is a "victimless crime," lack of budget for a proper solution, corruption, and more. Fasset states, "It ate me up. The more we looked, the more we saw."

The Department of Justice states that CSEC is, "a problem of epidemic proportion." yet the epidemic "has largely gone overlooked and untreated." The most common figure places children who are being exploited at 300,000. The figure was taken from a University of Pennsylvania paper. I've linked to the summary HERE. Estes, the lead researcher, states that, "[CSEC] is the most hidden form of child abuse in the U.S. and North America today... It is the nation's least recognized epidemic." The book submits that human trafficking, "has become a cause célèbre among many dedicated...groups... But in most cases they focus on the international trade." More alarming is the statement that, "The U.S. government admirably offers special programs and funding for foreign victims of trafficking but none for domestic victims." The estimated figure is that 15,000 women are trafficked into the USA each year, but that the number of American girls trafficked on American streets is 10 to 20 times greater.

Another staggering statistic comes straight from the mouth of multiple pimps. "20-40% of the victims recruited into prostitution are juveniles." Based on statistics we have, this indicates that the number of sexually trafficked youth could be as high as 800,000.

Schapiro Group: Georgia Demand Study

The article can be found here: The Schapiro Group - Men Who Buy Sex with Adolescent Girls: A Scientific Research Study The article is often referred to as the Georgia Demand Study.

Again, I encourage you to read the entire article because it includes many charts and images that have not been transposed, and fresh eyes with a different perspective might find different key points than my own perspective. I am just including the parts of the article that stood out as significant to me.

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Summary of Key Facts:

• Half of the men are age 30-39. The next largest group is under 30. The average age is 33. The age range was 18-67.
• The CSEC problem is not simply relegated to urban areas.
• 65% of men who buy sex with young females are doing so in and around suburban areas in metro Atlanta.
• 12,400 men per month buy sex with a young female and 7,200 end up exploiting an adolescent.
• Craigslist is the most efficient medium for advertising sex with young women.
• 8,700 paid sex acts with adolescents occur per month. Each female is exploited an average of 3 times per day.
• Over 700,000 men have bought sex with females. This means that 23% of men in Georgia have purchased sex.
• Just under half of the purchasers are willing to pay for sex with a young female even when they know for sure that she is an adolescent.

Over 400 adolescent girls are exploited each month in Georgia. This number is sustained through the economic law of supply and demand. The elimination of supply will do nothing to prevent the demand. 

CSEC can only exist as a commercial enterprise if it is a normal practice in our society. Men who purchase sex come from normal backgrounds and seem no more likely to suffer from pathologies than the rest of the adult male population. Exploitation is a societal problem, not simply an individual one.

Any advertisement that explicitly mentions paid sex with an adolescent is removed by internet sites instantly and automatically... so advertisers use the word "young" to bypass filters. Advertisement creators rely on pictures of the females and young text descriptors to convey her approximate age. 

This study was set up in a way in which participants voluntarily contacted researchers without suspecting that they were participating in a research study. It ensured honest replies and responses. They collected information that was ordinary during the course of a discussion to buy sex; anything else would have tipped off the participants. 

Men who purchase sex from online ads call an operator. The job of the operator is to figure out what the customer wants and which female is available in the area who closely matches his preferences.

An important consideration in evaluating the data is the larger population represented by the study sample. The sample is of men who responded to advertisements for young females, not females of older adult ages.

Half of the men who buy sex from young females prefer to go to the female's location and half of them prefer that she comes to him. There are no patterns that might lead to why one is preferred over another. 42% of these purchases happen north of I-285, so this study debunks the assumption that the problem only occurs inside the city limits. Only 26% of purchases occurred within the city itself. The men came from all parts of the metro area and represent all ages. Over 27,000 men buy sex with "young" females in Georgia multiple times per year. Consistent with the statistic of 400,000 per year, 60% of study participants said it was their first time purchasing. However, 23% of men in Georgia have purchased sex with females.

On average, 300 acts of paid sex with adolescents occur per day in the state of Georgia. On a typical night, 100 adolescent females are commercially sexually exploited per night. This leads to an average of 3 violations per night.

Most men who commercially sexually exploit adolescent females either don't know or are willing to ignore the possibility that they are having sex with an adolescent. These females tend to look 6-8 years older than they actually are when dressed provocatively. Men very rarely ask for adolescent females specifically and directly, but instead they put themselves in a position that makes them highly likely to pay for sex with an adolescent female. Perceived age is more important than real age; the men only care that the female is "young" and are willfully ignorant of the significant likelihood that a female who looks so young is an adolescent. Almost all men are willing to discuss a preference, and nearly half of them express a preference for the young female pictured in the ad. 

To address the extremes, only 6% of men expressed a preference for a female who is "not young" and an alarming 6% stated explicitly and unequivocally that they would prefer an adolescent female. This 6% totals 750 men per month, which is nowhere near enough to sustain the industry's exploitation of 400 adolescent girls in over 8,700 acts per month. Adding in the next statistic set, 29% of men who purchase sex overall specifically and directly seek out sex with a young female. 

Men asking for sex with young females represent 67% of the larger population of men who pay for sex. Of these men, 30% asked for young women with a legal caveat. As one man put it, "I don't want to go to jail or anything." Never mind the fact that, in my mind, there's a problem with a justice system where responding to an ad for sex with a young female is legal, and this strikes me as a case which allows men to exploit adolescent girls with "plausible deniability" if the case ever did make it to court. Combining the 12% of men who asked for "young" girls with no specification that she be legal with the 6% of men who asked specifically for adolescents, 18% of these men are looking for a teenager with the knowledge or implication that she is underage. This is almost 1/5 of purchasing men. What makes me the saddest of all these, is the 46% of men who stated no preference for age within the context of responding to an advertisement for sex with a "young" woman. 

The study asked some leading questions to alert purchasers that the female they are purchasing is underage. 47% of respondents continued pursuing the sex purchase despite all 3 warnings. The older the male, the more likely he was to heed one of the warnings. The younger the male, the more likely he was to ignore all warnings. This means that 28% of all men who purchase sex would knowingly purchase an adolescent. This makes 5,800 men per month who buy teenagers. 

So, 42% of men who purchase sex either specifically seek out teenagers or are willing to ignore all warning signs that the female they are about to have sex with is an adolescent, including a warning as explicit as, "I don't believe this girl is actually 18, and I have no reason to believe she is." 

Men of all age ranges are comfortable asking directly for young females. Just under half are willing to pay for sex with a young female even when they know for sure she is underage. 

Lawmakers need to be made aware of the magnitude of the demand for CSEC. The study debunks the myth that CSEC is perpetrated by only a small number of "sexual predators." (As my own aside, this means that the men who promote and demand CSEC are NOT your typical pedophile; they are average, normal men you wouldn't suspect.) Only 3-4% of men who purchase sex from minors are specifically looking to buy sex from a minor. 

Methods of Control

The following is a list of some of the ways that recruiters are so easily able to control the victims into staying with them despite the violence and danger. It was provided to me by Out of Darkness as part of a training session.

Isolation: Deprives victim of support or ability to resist. Makes victim dependent upon abuser.

Control or Distortion of Perspectives: Fixes attention upon immediate predicament. Eliminates information that is not in agreement with abuser's message. Punishes actions of independence or resistance. Manipulates by being charming, seductive, etc. to get what is wanted from victim and becoming hostile when demands are not met.

Humility or Degradation: Weakens mental and physical ability to resist. Heightens feelings of incompetence. Induces mental and physical exhaustion.

Threats: Creates anxiety and despair. Outlines expectations and consequences for noncompliance.

Demonstrating Omnipotence, Superiority, or Power: Demonstrates to victim that resistance is futile.

Enforcing Trivial Demands: Demands are trivial, contradictory, and non-achievable. Reinforces who has power and control.

Exhaustion: Abuser uses sleep deprivation to keep victim in state of confusion.

Occasional Indulgences: Provides positive motivation for conforming to abuser's demands. Victims work to "earn" these indulgences in effort to increase self-esteem.

Article Review: Stages of Change and Motivational Interviewing

The following article can help understand how women who have been rescued recover, and how to help if you come across victims in your own life.

The articles can be found here: A 'Stages of Change' Approach to Helping Patients Change Behavior
and here: Motivational Interviewing

In this write-up, I am going to highlight a few of the facts that jumped out at me. I encourage you to read the full article, as each of us have different perspectives, backgrounds, and passions. Because of these differing viewpoints, some of the facts that I have not mentioned might, in fact, be the most significant facts to you.

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Stages of Change:

One of our roles is to assist patients in understanding and to help them make the changes necessary for health improvement. (I am going to go ahead and make the assumption that health applies to physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual.)

Consistent, life-long behavior changes are difficult. Follow-up calls are critical. Repeatedly education the patient is not always successful. Promising an improved outcome does not guarantee their motivation for long-term change. A feeling of failure may cause patients to give up and avoid contact or avoid treatment altogether.

This is a process of change. One size doesn't fit all.

Brief counseling sessions (lasting 5 to 15 minutes) have been as effective as longer visits.

A change in behavior occurs gradually. Moving from being uninterested, unaware, or unwilling to deciding and preparing. Over time, attempts to maintain the new behavior occur. Relapses are almost inevitable.

Stages of Change:

1. Pre-contemplation: "In Denial." May have tried unsuccessfully so many times that they have simply given up. May be resigned. Feeling of no control. Not thinking about change.
2. Contemplation: Ambivalent. Feel a sense of loss despite perceived gain. Assess barriers as well as benefits.
3. Preparation: Prepare to make a specific change. Experiment with small changes. 
4. Action: If the prior stages have been glossed over, action is not enough. Any action taken by patients should be praised because it demonstrates their desire for change.
5. Maintenance and Relapse: Discouragement over occasional "slips" may halt the change process.

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Motivational Interviewing (MI):

MI focuses on exploring and resolving ambivalence. It does not impose change (that may be inconsistent with the person's own values) but supports change in a manner congruent with the person's own values and concerns. It is a collaborative, person-centered form of guiding to elicit and strengthen motivation for change.

Approach MI in a respectful stance with a focus on building rapport. Utilize techniques and strategies that are responsive to the client. It is conversation about change that seeks to call forth the person's own motivation. 

It is used to address the common problem of ambivalence. Interviewing is a collaborative, goal-oriented method of communication with particular attention to the language of change. It is designed to strengthen an individual's motivation by exploring the person's own arguments for change. 

Collaboration: It is a partnership between the therapist and the person grounded in the experiences of the person. This contrasts with approaches that place the therapist in the "expert" role, confronting the person and imposing their point of view. Collaboration facilitates trust. This does not mean the therapist automatically agrees with the person. It is focused on mutual understanding.

Evocation: The approach draws out the individual's own thoughts rather than imposing their opinion as motivation. Commitment to change is most powerful when it comes from the individual. No matter what reason the therapist might offer to convince the individual of need to change their behavior, lasting change is more likely to occur when the person discovers their own reasons and determination to change. The therapist's job is to draw out the person's own motivations and skills for change, not to tell them what to do or why they should do it. True power for change rests with the individual. This gives them responsibility for their actions. 

See the world through the person's eyes. Victims need to be heard and understood. They are more likely to share their experiences in depth. 

An individual's belief that change is possible is needed to instill hope about making those difficult changes. They often have doubt about their ability to succeed. Highlight skills and strengths that the individual possesses.

De-escalate and avoid a negative interaction. Statements that demonstrate resistance should remain unchallenged early in the relationship. The session should not resemble an argument. Place value on having the individual define the problem and develop their own solutions because ti leaves little for the person to resist. Invite the individual to examine new points of view. Avoid the "righting reflex" to ensure that the individual understands and agrees with the need to change. 

Examine the discrepancies between their current circumstances/behavior and their values and future goals. Do not use strategies to develop discrepancies at the expense of the other principles but gradually help the individual to become aware of how current behaviors may lead them away from their goals. 

OARS:

establishes a therapeutic alliance and elicits discussion about change

• Open ended questions: not easily answered with yes/no, encourage deeper thinking about an issue, create forward momentum
• Affirmations: recognize strengths, build rapport, help the person see themselves in a more positive light, must be congruent and genuine, help the individual feel change is possible even when previous efforts have been unsuccessful, reframe behavior as evidence of positive qualities
• Reflections: reflective listening, express empathy, understand issues from their perspective, guide individual toward change, resolve ambivalence by a focus on the negative aspects of status quo and positives of making change
• Summaries: recaps what has occurred, communicate interest and understanding, call attention to important elements of the discussion, prepare them to move on, promote the development of discrepancy, strategically select what information should be included and excluded

Guide the client to expressions of change talk as the pathway to change. The more someone talks about change, the more likely they are to change.

Darn Cat:

• Desire: I want to change.
• Ability: I can change.
• Reason: It's important to change.
• Need: I should change.
• Commitment: I will make changes.
• Activation: I am ready, prepared, and willing to change.
• Taking steps: I am taking specific actions to change. 

Strategies for evoking change talk:

1. Ask evocative questions: open questions
2. Explore decisional balance: pros and cons of changing and staying the same
3. Good Things/Not so good things: positives and negatives of target behavior
4. Ask for elaboration/examples: When a change talk theme emerges, ask for more details. "In what ways? Tell me more. What does that look like? When was the last time that happened?"
5. Look back: How were things better before the target behavior emerged.
6. Look forward: What might happen if things continue how they are? "If you were 100% successful in making the changes you want, what would be different?"
7. Query extremes: What are the worst things that might happen if you don't change? Best things if you do change?
8. Use change rulers: Scale of 1-10, how important. Why are you at __ and not __?
9. Explore goals and values: Ask what the person's guiding values are. 
10. Come alongside: side with the negative, "Perhaps ___ is so important that you won't give it up no matter what the cost."

Sexual Exploitation Statistics

These statistics are courtesy of Wellspring Living, an Atlanta based restoration center for healing rescued victims. They've included the source, and I've also included some commentary based on my own research to further the significance of the statistics.

National:

• 1 in 4 girls is sexually abused before the age of 18.
• Source: Center for Disease Control (December 2005). ACE Study - Prevalence - Adverse Childhood Experiences [Electronic Version]. Retrieved on May 3, 2010 at http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/ace/prevalence.htm
• Comment: This statistic is significant because the only common factor found between 99% of rescued victims of CSEC is that they were abused prior to entering the life. This abuse lays the groundwork and teaches girls an abnormal view of love, so that when pimps come to recruit and woo them, it doesn't raise alarms when they are violent.
• 90% of runaways become part of the sex trade industry. Many are lured within 72 hours of leaving home. 
• Source: Goodman, 2005 as cited by Hidden in PLain View: The Commercial Exploitation of Girls in Atlanta, 2005, page 16
• The average life expectancy of a child after becoming a victim of CSEC is 7 years, with homicide and HIV/AIDS as the main causes of death.
• Source: Shared Hope International (July 2007). DEMAND: A comparative examination of sex tourism and trafficking in Jamaica, Japan, The Netherlands, and the United States [Electronic version]. Retrieved on July 22, 2009, at http://www.sharedhope.org/files/DEMAND.pdf
• Comment: To accompany this statistic, I'll offer another I've come across: People in the sex trade industry are 40% more likely to be murdered than anyone else. It's a dangerous industry, and many don't realize that a lot of these women are unwilling victims.

Georgia/Atlanta:

• Atlanta ranks in the top 3 cities in the United States and among the top in the world for child exploitation.
• Source: (FBI Congressional testimony of Chris Swecker, June 7, 2005)
• There are 495 girls exploited in Metro Atlanta per month.
• Source: Alex Trouteaud, Ph.D., Contract Researcher, Governor's Office for Children and Families, Kirsten Widner, Director of Policy and Advocacy, Barton Child LAw and Policy Center, February 28, 2010.
• Comment: Again, I will add another statistic: An average of 100 girls per night are exploited in the city of Atlanta. 
• The Georgia Demand Study estimates 7,200 men knowingly or unknowing pay for sex with adolescent females in Georgia each month. Annually, 28,000 men statewide knowingly or unknowingly pay for sex with adolescent females - nearly 10,000 of them doing so multiple times per year.
• Source: Georgia Demand Study, 2009 by the Schapiro Group, Atlanta, GA.
• Comment: There is a term that applies, called opportunistic. Most of these men don't ask for underage girls. They aren't pedophiles. They want to have a fresh looking, clean woman to sleep with when they purchase sex, not your stereotypical dirty hooker, and so the indirect consequence is that they will look at the young woman that is presented to them when they arrive, realize that she is underage cognitively, but be swept up by the moment, or realize that they can legally claim they didn't know she was so young, and commit an exploitation based on opportunity. For many of them, once they've experienced the thrill of their first time, they rarely ask questions and often return.
• The largest concentration of men (42%) seeking to pay for sex with adolescent females in Georgia is in the north metro Atlanta area, outside the perimeter (Interstate 285). 26% come from inside the perimeter, 23% from the south metro area outside the perimeter, and 9% come from the vicinity of the Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.
• Source: Georgia Demand Study, 2009 by the Schapiro Group, Atlanta, GA.
• Comment: Take another look at this statistic. Almost half of the purchases being made in and around the city are not INSIDE the city, as many believe. They are happening north of the city, in upper middle class neighborhoods. The fact is, you have to have the money in order to receive a "fresh" (ie: underage) girl when you purchase sex. As far as the 9% goes, this points to a significant problem with a thing called "sex tourism," something generally thought only to occur in Asia. This is when men will travel somewhere and buy sex while they're there; opportunistic. Many don't come specifically to buy sex, but for one reason or another they end up doing so.
• With approximately 3 million adult men in Georgia, 23% have purchased sex with females, and 20,700 men do so in any given month. 
• Source: Georgia Demand Study, 2009 by the Schapiro Group, Atlanta, GA.)
• Comment: Do I really need to say anything about the fact that nearly 1 in 4 men living in the state of Georgia are purchasing sex? That statistic is staggering. 

My Calling

I will very rarely tell my story on this blog, except as it pertains to training and ministries I have been a part of and women and children I have met who have permitted me to share, but as this is the beginning, I thought that I could make the statistics more personal by letting you all know how I became aware of this issue.

I went to a Christian leadership conference called Catalyst in the year 2010. The conference brings many diverse speakers to one location to preach and teach. One of the speakers there changed my life completely, although it would take a while for everything to fall into place. Although she was not the main speaker, and they brought her in to highlight a ministry, Christine Caine was the main event of the conference for me. She introduced me to the topic of human trafficking and opened my eyes to an entire world of hurting people.

I still remember vividly one of the stories she told about the conditions. Women are packed into crates with air holes, like livestock. They are placed on cargo ships and must use the restroom in that small, dark cage. Most of them don't survive the trip, but there is such a huge supply that it doesn't concern the ones who are trading them. In fact, if the ship ends up being subject to a surprise inspection, the crew will simply throw the crates of women overboard, without unlocking or releasing the captives. The story was so horrifying that I didn't want to believe it happened anywhere. She is one of my heroes, because she, through her A21 Campaign, has contributed a great deal to fighting the demand, changing legislation, healing women, and raising awareness.

Incidentally, a movie was released locally around the same time. This movie is called Stop the Candy Shop, and it's an allegory about the trafficking industry. I'll write up a separate review of this film, along with Street Grace, and post the PBA Documentary on the issue that accompanied the local release, but seeing that film made me realize that the issue was taking place in my own backyard. This broke my heart even further, however I was still unsure about how to really get involved and find my space.

The next year, when I returned to Catalyst, I learned about the International Justice Mission and their abolitionist movement to free slaves in all industries, from sex trade to waitressing, and I also met a volunteer from Wellspring Living. The people at Wellspring were asking conference attendees to tweet. For every tweet that went out with their hashtag, someone was donating $1 to their organization. Being a broke student who was overcommitted, there was little I felt like I could do... but I could certainly tweet. I sent out hundreds of tweets that weekend and encouraged others to do likewise. Finally, I had found something I could do and I was so very fired up and ready to make a difference.

As the next year went by, I kept hearing signs and words from God. I'd get an idea about a way to raise money here, or a full fledged 501c3 idea that I am still praying about beginning. I would hear a word from a wise friend about the possibility that God seemed to be calling me to make a difference, because out conversations went from social chatter and talk about my career in music to social justice issues. All I would talk about was these women and children, and how they needed help, and what could we all do, and that something had to be fixed.

The final straw was Catalyst this year. The woman I'd met the prior year actually remembered me a full year later, despite the thousands of people she must have met that weekend alone, much less at the other conferences she'd worked. It amazed me that she remembered me, and I couldn't believe I'd made enough of a mark. It couldn't have been simply anything I'd said or done, but rather God positioning me to take a more active role in this fight.

Wellspring has recently published a fantastic book called The White Umbrella. (http://www.thewhiteumbrellacampaign.com/) I'll write another entry about this book as well. I received a copy of this book at Catalyst. The copy is currently underlined, highlighted, and scrawled through the margins with words like "FIX THIS" and "SICK AND WRONG" throughout. It rocked my world. I have been unable to stop and return to the inactive apathy any longer.

I saw a showing of a DVD called Nefarious: Merchant of Souls recently, too. (Yes, another entry.) There were a couple other organizations there. I began talking to a representative from one of them, and realized that their twice-annually training was happening the next weekend. That's all I needed to know to realize that God was pushing me into this issue and saying NOW! No more waiting!

So, here I am. Beginning a blog about the things I have learned and trying to make more people aware of the huge issue and how to become involved in fighting.

Thanks for reading!

Introduction

Hi,

Welcome to my CSEC Awareness blog. In case you're like me when I first stumbled upon this huge injustice, and have no idea what CSEC stands for, CSEC means the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children. This term was adopted as a more accurate description for these victims than "child and teen prostitutes," because it accurately reflects their status as a victim, rather than a willing participant.

This issue has become so close to my heart that it has become one of my central purposes for being alive. I believe so strongly that we need to end the trafficking of unwilling women and children permanently, and the problem is multi-tiered. To end this problem, we will need to find and restore women through long-term counseling and prayer, reduce the market and demand for women through legislation changes, and pray, pray, pray! One of the biggest hurdles available currently is the fact that, because this topic is still taboo, most people are unaware that it is an issue. They see either pimps and their hos or nothing at all. It's what I saw... Adult prostitutes on street corners, willing participants, and while I was aware that there were sick, rich men all over buying them, I was not aware that children within walking distance of my own home are being bought and sold.

With this blog, I hope to raise some awareness. I'll be chronicling my experiences in the advocacy circles, highlighting some great organizations, both locally to Atlanta and internationally, to get involved with if you decide you are called to take a role in ending this social injustice, and posting reviews, summations, and notes from the books I read, DVDs I watch, and the training sessions I attend. If you do get involved, I urge you to do so through an organization, and after training, because so many things that we consider natural might be triggers for victims and we have to know not just the statistics of this cause, but also the individuals we are fighting for.

I also want to caution against major perspective changes. This issue is the type that breaks your heart to the point of never being unable to return to the time of not seeing again, and a lot of people who get involved with advocacy can adopt a really bitter perspective on men because of the alarming number of cops, judges, neighbors, and other higher-ups in society who are participants in the exploitation. Please keep in mind that while this is a huge issue that does encompass a large number of cops, judges, and neighbors, not all men are bad and exploitative. Not all cops are corrupt.  Part of the later stage healing and restoration process involves modeling examples of safe, healthy men and how they regard women to the victims, and if we allow our own hearts to become so bitter that our perspective is skewed, we can't possibly attempt to heal theirs.

Thanks for reading!