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!