The Truth Behind Sex Trafficking Minors in Atlanta
In 2005 a study performed by the Atlanta Women 's Agenda was presented to Atlanta’s mayor (at the time) Shirley Franklin. The study was to show the true sheer amount of girls that were being sexually exploited in our city. Sex trafficking is holding slave like conditions overcome one for the use of selling and buying services(4). The findings of the study are eye opening to a tragedy that has remained behind closed doors. In Georgia, 300 adolescent are exploited every month, on average 67 girls participated in prostitution in places that are known for trafficking, 129 girls are prostituted nightly on average and, on average 137 girls appeared on the website craigslist a month (3). These findings …show more content…
The large airport makes us a hub for trade and travel, making it very easy to move people in and out. The city also often holds big business conferences and sporting events causing a large intake of people coming into our city for short periods of time. Because of this intake of large intakes of people exploiters take advantage of the situation so that they may make as much as they possibly can. Pimps have been known to lock their victims in hotel rooms and rent they out by the hour (1); it has even been speculated that taxi drivers know where to take a john for sex and back during layovers on flights (4). It has become easier and easier for johns to find sexually exploited women especially with the growth of the internet and how easy it makes it to connect and communicate with …show more content…
At this time many law enforcement and judges saw these girls as the perpetrator and the problem as compared to a victim, as most of these young girls are. In 1999 Nina Hickson, then chief judge of the Fulton County Juvenile Court, Deborah Richardson, the director of programs for the Juvenile Court and Nancy Boxill, a member of the Fulton County Board of Commissioners got together to discuss this matter. Hixon discussed how she had as many as 30 cases of child trafficking a month, but she had no solution for the girls going through this (4). Hixon felt like there was no solution that she could sentence to truly benefit these girls and get them off the streets, there were no facilities made to help these girls nor laws to protect them after they had been released. In 2002 there were no laws around to punish the people who pimped and raped these girls, just a misdemeanor of pandering which is only a fifty dollar ticket (4). The three women went to the Atlanta Women’s Foundation to tell people about what was going on in our community and developed a three part plan, spreading the word of this crime, changing the laws so that the misdemeanor would become a felony, and to set up a treatment center for these girls to be able to go
In 2005 a study performed by the Atlanta Women 's Agenda was presented to Atlanta’s mayor (at the time) Shirley Franklin. The study was to show the true sheer amount of girls that were being sexually exploited in our city. Sex trafficking is holding slave like conditions overcome one for the use of selling and buying services(4). The findings of the study are eye opening to a tragedy that has remained behind closed doors. In Georgia, 300 adolescent are exploited every month, on average 67 girls participated in prostitution in places that are known for trafficking, 129 girls are prostituted nightly on average and, on average 137 girls appeared on the website craigslist a month (3). These findings …show more content…
The large airport makes us a hub for trade and travel, making it very easy to move people in and out. The city also often holds big business conferences and sporting events causing a large intake of people coming into our city for short periods of time. Because of this intake of large intakes of people exploiters take advantage of the situation so that they may make as much as they possibly can. Pimps have been known to lock their victims in hotel rooms and rent they out by the hour (1); it has even been speculated that taxi drivers know where to take a john for sex and back during layovers on flights (4). It has become easier and easier for johns to find sexually exploited women especially with the growth of the internet and how easy it makes it to connect and communicate with …show more content…
At this time many law enforcement and judges saw these girls as the perpetrator and the problem as compared to a victim, as most of these young girls are. In 1999 Nina Hickson, then chief judge of the Fulton County Juvenile Court, Deborah Richardson, the director of programs for the Juvenile Court and Nancy Boxill, a member of the Fulton County Board of Commissioners got together to discuss this matter. Hixon discussed how she had as many as 30 cases of child trafficking a month, but she had no solution for the girls going through this (4). Hixon felt like there was no solution that she could sentence to truly benefit these girls and get them off the streets, there were no facilities made to help these girls nor laws to protect them after they had been released. In 2002 there were no laws around to punish the people who pimped and raped these girls, just a misdemeanor of pandering which is only a fifty dollar ticket (4). The three women went to the Atlanta Women’s Foundation to tell people about what was going on in our community and developed a three part plan, spreading the word of this crime, changing the laws so that the misdemeanor would become a felony, and to set up a treatment center for these girls to be able to go