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.