Shelters needed for troubled girls

Media coverage of the recession has focused on banks, foreclosures and rising unemployment. The focus has been on adults and families, but little light has been shed on how this recession is affecting youth. For children and teens, poverty leads to much more than lack of food or shelter. A parent's unemployment can drastically change family dynamics-a change that can prompt children to run away, leaving them vulnerable to sexual coercion and other risky behaviors. November is National Runaway Prevention month, making this a fitting time to give more attention to the sexual exploitation of runaway children, an issue rarely discussed. People don't realize an estimated 1.6 million U.S. children run away or are kicked out of their parents' homes each year. Even fewer realize that one-third of these children will turn to the commercial sex industry to get by, often within just 48 hours of leaving home. Our society sees prostitution as a choice-and a highly immoral one at that. Instead of addressing the issue for what it really is, people view these girls as criminals who made a bad decision. Child victims of foreign sex trafficking, on the other hand, are viewed with sympathy. Not only are American girls labeled as criminals, but they are denied the sympathy given to others in the same position. Ian Urbina points out in his recent New York Times series, "Running in the Shadows," children at this age are too young to get a hotel room, sign a lease, or qualify for a job. This lack of opportunities puts them at high risk of being coerced into prostitution. There has been a 21 percent increase in calls '05-'08 to the National Runaway Switchboard, which was founded in 1974 and serves as a crisis hotline for runaway youth. Of the children who do call, 2 percent admit to turning to the sex industry as a means of survival-a 30 percent increase over those years. Even in Green Bay, a significant number of children are running away. Last year, the Wisconsin Family Services' Runaway Project for Brown County took 1,014 runaway calls and counseled 202 runaways. As for the state, the Wisconsin Clearinghouse for Missing and Exploited Children cited 679 missing children. Of those missing, 531 were reported as runaways. The Family Services Center of Green Bay has both a Runaway Project and Street Outreach program that assist runaway youth. They have noticed an increase in the number of homeless youths in our community, and said the Green Bay school district has reported 347 unaccompanied homeless students for the '09-'10 school year. Amber Vogel and Christina Courtney, both workers for the project, said many of the children run from family conflicts or abuse, with many coming from split families. Some also run from parents who abuse drugs and alcohol. Vogel has noticed a definite increase in homeless youth. They're not always easy to find, but they are there. "A lot of them aren't open about it right away, but you hear it by word of mouth," said Vogel, who goes out with Street Outreach handing out brochures and needed amenities to these children. In some cases, children can be put in shelter care, which is for children placed there on court order rather than be put in juvenile detention. The problem of putting runaways in these shelters, said Courtney, is that most of the runaways are not yet in the system (have not been arrested or placed on the books) and so they try to avoid mixing the two populations. If the Family Services Center could build a shelter specifically for these kids, they would have a much-needed, safe place to go. Several factors put these young people at risk for sexual coercion. A 1994 study by the National Institute of Justice found that sexually abused children are 28 times more likely to be arrested for prostitution at some point in life than those who had not been abused. Between '05-'08, The National Runaway Switchboard reported a 33 percent increase in callers identifying abuse or neglect as the reason for calling. Homeless girls run the most risk on the streets, because they find themselves in situations where young men lure them through seduction and promises of wealth and glamour. Over time, these men will pass the girl around to friends, eventually abusing and belittling her to gain control and push her into prostitution. Once these girls engage in street sex trafficking, they are criminals in the eyes of the law-criminals, even though their circumstances and story prove that they are merely victims. The system should not be punishing these girls with criminal records. All victims of sex trafficking should be given a way out, and their pimps should be investigated and arrested in every instance. In an estimate given by ECPAT, 75 percent of runaway and sexually exploited girls are under the control of a pimp. If we don't fix the system and get help for these children, they will forever be lost.