FBI raids free child prostitutes in 36 cities(some as young as 10),CNN reports on Afghani sex slaves, page 1

When I first moved to Hollywood California at the age of 17 Santa Monica and Sunset Boulevards were teeming with underage prostitutes.

Both teenage girls and boys some as young as 13 and the average being 16 routinely sold them selves and sexual favors on street corners 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Some of them were runaways, some of them were throw-aways and some of them even had decent suburban homes but expensive drug habits and other tastes.

Many of them refused out reach efforts by organizations like the Gay and Lesbian Community Service Center to help them get off the streets.

Many of them would turn down offers of decent paying jobs because they paid less than what they could earn prostituting themselves.

Few of the underage girls had pimps and none of the under age boys had pimps. They were all strictly free lance operators doing what they were doing either out of necessity or their own volition.

Some were in fact addicted to the lifestyle. Many of their older clients were once under aged prostitutes themselves.

To understand the problem of teen age and minor prostitution it helps to move beyond the outrage and the notion that there is always some sinister predator involved forcing them to do so.

It helps to understand the social, economic, familiar, and political situation that causes developing adults to see prostitution and it's associated risks and rewards as a solution to another problem or set of problems or a way to advance themselves or survive through life.

That really though can't be done when people don't focus on what makes victims choose to be victims and the reality is here in America many are victims by choice.

Yes the international sex trade does take underage girls from places like the Dominican Republic and lure them away with false promises into a life of brothels in places like Amsterdam but most often here in America it's just misunderstood kids and not always from bad homes, but kids just rebelling against the authority of their parents and the state who want to be more adult than their age, circumstances and the law allow and turn to one of the few things that a young and inexperienced person with no skills and no legal way to hold a job can do to make big money.

It could be because they have no place to go, it could be because they don't want to go where they do have to go even though by most people's standards their homes are safe and secure places.

This is part of a larger social disease plaguing our society and it is easy to condemn the people who exploit and pay them and sometimes profit off of them.

It is however very hard to understand the complex and often very varied circumstances that lure an under aged minor into prostitution.

Anybody who wants to understand and help correct this problem would do well to leave their outrage at home and start asking and listening instead preaching of telling.

[edit on 26/10/09 by ProtoplasmicTraveler]