Fliering to raise awareness to the Horrific epidemic of Child Sex Trafficking in the U.S. – Union Sq on Sat

The idea was ambitious, to gather in all 50 states but, it turned out to be around 16 states, to demonstrate in demand of a full investigation into pizzagate, pedogate, child trafficking and crimes against our children- spreading awareness and demanding action from law enforcement to save our children- please check the event map at www.OurChildrenMatter.net

Here are the facts; Trafficking is a serious problem in the United States, yet many of the stereotypes surrounding the issue and the counter-productive approaches to fixing the problem, make it increasingly difficult to address the real dilemmas and oppression of those children in need of help.

1.    Boys make up 50 percent of the sex trafficked victims in the U.S

The modern response to commercial sexual exploitation of minors has been driven by a centralized view of the victim: predominantly a girl, rescued by law enforcement, who doesn’t engage in self-help. This more popular ‘sex trafficking narrative’ has tended to focus on the plight of women and young girls, while young boys have been essentially left out in research, policy and practice.  Yet, studies show that boys are as equally affected by sex trafficking as girls and along with transgendered youth are considered a high-risk, hidden population.

According to a 2008 John Jay College study in New York, Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in New York as high as 50 percent of commercial sexually exploited children in the United States were boys alone.  These findings coincide with a more recently released study, “And Boys Too” by End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and the Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purpose (ECPAT-USA), which discovered that boys make up almost half of the victims. Of the 40 informants contacted in the ECPAT study, 18 said they would serve boys.

3. Many youth show a surprising amount of agency and control over their work

Perhaps most difficult to reconcile in the minds of human rights activists intent on “rescuing” under-age sex workers is the fact that many of these kids don’t believe they need saving and consciously make the decision to work in the sex trade.

Anthony Marcus, Associate Professor of Anthropology at John Jay College, and part of the ground-level research team for the New York and a subsequent Atlanta study found that many youth who engage in commercial sex do not view themselves as sufferers, but rather perceive their ‘work’ as a curious and fascinating lifestyle:

“By definition, a sex trafficking victim is a person suffering extreme distress in a relationship that is exploitive. However, one of the surprising things we found about the street sex market is that young women have a surprising amount of agency.  We encountered so many young women who had expired their pimps who were brutal or bullying them,” he told AlterNet.

(This is Not surprising since if kids are doing this starting at young ages they will adjust and it becomes “normal” which should be extremely disturbing to the reader. I call it human Climate change). -Cat Watters

4.   For most exploited children, their trafficking situation is not the greatest trauma they’ve endured – the majority has a history of sexual abuse and neglect

While most youth entered ‘the life’ of prostitution between the ages of 11-14, their sexual exploitive situation began usually between the ages of 6-10 and documented as a child abuse case, according to Tina Frundt, sex trafficking survivor and founder of anti-trafficking non-profit Courtney’s House.

What’s more, between 70–90 percent of commercially sexually exploited children in the United States have been sexually abused prior to entering ‘the life’ and are runaways with a history of complex trauma that usually begins with a dysfunctional or neglectful family, as Procopio explains:

“These kids enter the system for various types of reasons.  But the underlying reasons are that they come from homes where they are subject to multiple traumas in their childhood, sexual abuse, substance abuse or domestic violence.  In other scenarios, the youth is asked to leave because of gender identification,” he said.

Moreover, 30 percent of children who are trafficked reported sexual abuse by someone in their family and 14 percent disclosed sexual abuse by both someone within and outside of their family, a Williamson & Prior 2009 study revealed.

http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/10-surprising-and-counterintuitive-facts-about-child-sex-trafficking

The revelations into the Anthony Weiner and Podesta emails,, from the www.OurChildrenMatter.net site,