Sunday, January 25, 2009
News, In this Issue...

Atlanta’s tragic tricks

City, state and nonprofit group offer strategy to fight child prostitution

Sean Gallup/Getty Images


Natalie Dillon


“More adolescent girls in Georgia are harmed by prostitution each month than are killed in car accidents each year.”—Kaffie McCullough, director of “A Future. Not A Past”

Help rescue teens from prostitution

The “A Future, Not a Past” program will host a $100-per-ticket benefit gala, “Lighting up the Future,” on Wednesday, Jan. 28 at 6 p.m. at the Westin Peachtree Plaza. The fundraiser includes a silent auction, spoken-word and musical performances and a short film. Tickets can be purchased at www.afuturenotapast.org or by calling 678-683-1697.

 

By Diane Loupe

A young San Diego woman grabbed headlines earlier this month when she announced she would auction off her virginity.

Natalie Dylan, 22, claimed that about 10,000 men had bid up to $3.7 million for a chance to deflower her, money she plans to use to finance her master's degree in Family and Marriage Therapy, according to various media reports. The Times of India reported that an anonymous zookeeper offered her a live tiger as payment.

While Dylan has generated a lot of publicity—and a book deal, according to the New York Daily News—for many other young women around the world, trading sex for money isn’t nearly so glamorous. Every month, an estimated 200 to 300 adolescent girls are being sold in Georgia, most in the Atlanta area. Their average age is 14 and a half. Some are sold on the streets, through escort services, in major hotels and, increasingly, over the Internet. Many live in virtual slavery, locked up during the day and forced to turn over all their earnings to pimps. And the abysmal economy is likely putting more girls into exploitation, some experts say.

“More adolescent girls in Georgia are harmed by prostitution each month than are killed in car accidents each year,” says Kaffie McCullough, director of “A Future. Not A Past,” a statewide campaign to end the commercial sexual exploitation of children.

Atlanta boasts a robust trade in adult entertainment and strip clubs, and that spills over into prostitution. Federal law enforcement officials say Atlanta is among 14 U.S. cities with the highest rates of child prostitution, according to a study issued last year by the Emory Law School Barton Child Law and Policy Clinic.

But this is one of those areas where Atlanta has been on the forefront in taking action. Launched a year ago by the nonprofit Juvenile Justice Fund, “A Future. Not A Past” has implemented a strategy to prevent child exploitation: fostering research on the issue, intervening to help victims and educating the public about the problem. A treatment facility for victims has been full ever since it opened last June.

The group will host a $100-per-ticket benefit gala, “Lighting up the Future,” on Jan. 28, 2009, at 6 p.m. at the Westin Peachtree Plaza in Atlanta.

The group’s chief goal seems Sisyphean: reducing the demand for the world’s oldest profession.

“If all a community or state ever does is take care of the victims, there will always be victims to be taken care of,” says McCullough. “If all we ever do is show compassion for victims, the victim’s faces will just change.”

Fashion’s dirty hands

When Vanity Fair published an Annie Leibovitz photo showing 15-year-old Miley Cyrus clutching a sheet, baring her back, it touched off a firestorm of controversy about the sexualization of children. Such images, combined with provocative clothing marketed to pre-teens, helps pump demand for prostituted children, says McCullough.

“If we show pictures of 15-year-olds posed in a sexually provocative manner, why are we surprised when there is a demand for 13-year-olds?” says McCullough.

One of McCullough’s friends went shopping with her 6-year-old. As they went through the clothing for sale, the mom kept vetoing clothing with the mantra “this is not appropriate, this is not appropriate.” Finally, the 6-year-old asked: “Mama, if these are not appropriate, why do they make it in my size?”

To help reduce demand for adult prostitution, the city of Atlanta is preparing to start a Johns School, in which men arrested for soliciting adult women for prostitution pay to attend an all-day program that exposes the seedier truth about prostitution and the women who are often forced to ply their trades. In exchange, the men can get criminal charges dropped or reduced. The Atlanta City Council has approved an ordinance setting up the program, and the city hopes to begin the classes in February or March, says Stephanie Davis, policy advisor on women's issues to Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin.

Atlanta’s program is modeled after a San Francisco program in which men paid up to $1,000 to attend the school in lieu of criminal misdemeanor charges. A Justice Department study found that men who attended the school were far less likely to patronize prostitutes. The program’s tuition paid for the entire cost of the program and generated nearly $1 million to subsidize recovery programs for providers of commercial sex, as well as police vice operations and the screening and processing of arrestees. Details on Atlanta’s program haven’t been worked out, but a state law caps fees for such programs at $300, Davis says.

In a bad economy, crime spikes, says Davis. While she has no hard numbers, she suspects that the demand for young female prostitutes is brisk.

“The thing about prostitution and children [is that] children are lured into it and used as commodities,” says Davis. “You can use that body over and over, as opposed to drugs. Once a drug is consumed, it’s gone.”

Girls are often moved around, into and out of Atlanta. “They become disposable things, rather than human beings with dignity,” she says.

To help exploited girls, Atlanta Fire Chief Kelvin Cochran is meeting with city officials to investigate making the city’s fire stations refuges for girls who have been prostituted, as well as abused children, battered women and abandoned infants. The aim is to train firefighters to be able to help those fleeing violent or abusive situations and to help direct victims to appropriate service providers, says Davis.

On the legal front, Republican State Sen. Renee Unterman of Buford, co-chair of the Joint Commission on Sexual Exploitation of Minors, is pushing legislation designed to help reduce the demand for prostitution of children and to increase punishment for pimps.

Among the proposals are:

Implementing a surcharge on the entrance into an adult entertainment business. 
Changing the minimum age for exotic dancers from 18 to 21, and requiring that clubs provide proof of age as a condition of getting business and liquor licenses.
Changing the law on the mandatory reporting of child abuse to require reporting any child suspected of being prostituted by anyone. The law now requires reporting if the child is being prostituted by a parent or caretaker.

One reason preventing child prostitution is so crucial is that rehabilitating girls is so difficult.

“They’re a difficult population to work with,” says McCullough. But for girls who come into treatment, the success rate is high for at least a year. Beyond that, McCullough doesn’t know.

Those who help young women who have been pimped often struggle with a public perception that glamorizes prostitution as the world’s oldest profession and a victimless crime.

“It’s certainly not victimless, no matter how you question it,” says McCullough. “In fact, the victimization stays with them long past the time they’re off the streets. They still have a lot of the long-term effects.”

She adds, “The money we raise through this event will go a long way toward supporting the ongoing efforts of this critical campaign. The prostitution of children is a complex problem that requires outside-the-box solutions. Every donation we receive—no matter how small—is of great value to protecting our most vulnerable kids.” SP

For more information about efforts to stop the prostitution of children in Georgia, visit www.afuturenotapast.org.

The “Lighting up the Future” award recipients are:

•  Legacy Award: Deborah Richardson, former CEO of The Atlanta Women’s Foundation. Richardson was among a small group of women who brought the issue of prostitution of children to the forefront in 2000, was instrumental in getting legislation passed that makes the prostituting of children a felony, and was one of the founders of Angela’s House, a facility exclusively for sexually exploited girls.
• Legislator Award: Sen. Renee Unterman (R-Buford), co-chairs the Joint Commission on Sexual Exploitation of Minors and has pushed legislative action to deter, punish or prevent the prostitution of children.
• Unsung Hero Award: Tom Rawlings, Director, State Office of the Child Advocate, for helping arrange meetings with law enforcement officials about the issue and for keeping the issue at the forefront in the governor’s office.
• Law Enforcement Award: Gary Yandura, former Chief of Police, College Park, Ga., whose department was active in trying to find and rescue exploited girls
• Ambassador Award: Liz Hanfeld, Volunteer, who developed and disseminated a training program that raises awareness of the issue in schools. SP