Operation Cross Country: A Case Study

The Bureau’s Innocence Lost National Initiative’s, Operation Cross Country, is a federal initiative carried out, in conjunction with, the National Center for Missing and Exploited children, to end the illegal trafficking of sexually exploited children. In its most recent undercover operation, 73 of the FBI’s local, state and federal child exploitation task forces including more than 500 law enforcement officers participated in a covert stings at hotels, casinos, truck stops and other locations known to be frequented by pimps and prostitutes in Atlanta, Denver, Knoxville, Alexandria, Jackson, Los Angels, Portland, Sacramento and Seattle. As a result of their efforts, 149 underage victims of prostitution were rescued and more that 150 pimps and other offenders were arrested. In an effort to assist the victims, the majority of whom were 15-17 year olds, there were 100 FBI victim specialists on-hand to provide them with crisis intervention, food, clothing, shelter and medical attention, if needed …show more content…
She is accurate about the horrific consequences that these children face including the transmission of infectious diseases (e.g. HIV, TB) and noninfectious diseases (e.g. skin diseases, malnutrition), reproductive problems (e.g. forced abortion, high-risk pregnancies), substance abuse (i.e. drug, alcohol), mental health problems (e.g. depression, posttraumatic stress disorder) and violence (e.g. physical and sexual assaults). These offenders take these innocent children who may be impoverished, runaways who desire a better life but are ignorant of the dangers that exist with working outside of the home and turn them into child prostitutes regardless of the illegality of their