| Q: | How are children impacted from prostitution? |
| A: | Children who become involved in prostitution were usually sexually abused as children. Entry into prostitution can be a passive acceptance of a social reality - thus the child believes prostitution is what is expected of him/her. |
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| Q: | What kind of help or care do these children need? |
| A: | These children need a lot of unconditional love, support and acceptance. Most need medical and psychological services. Almost all of them need a place to live, clothing, food, and an education. These children need to be socialized, and it takes time. |
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| Q: | Is there a difference in the impact of boys versus girls? |
| A: | Children are victimized by child prostitution. It is not easy on either the male or female child. Boys, however, are forced to deal with their sexual identity as well as their sexual exploitation and victimization. |
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| Q: | How many children prostitutes are there in the United States? |
| A: | No one knows for sure. Rarely are child prostitutes arrested as children. In 1981, the General Accounting Office estimated that there were 600,000 children under the age of 16 working as prostitutes in the United States. Today, International Relief Organizations suggest there are 300,000 children working as prostitutes in the U.S. It is estimated that somewhere between one and one half million children runaway from home each year. It is safe to estimate that about one-third of those children have some type of involvement or brush with prostitution and/or pornography. |
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| Q: | How did child prostitution start in America? |
| A: | Child prostitution was not a real problem in the United States until the late 70's. In 1974, Congress passed the Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention Act that prohibited the secure detention of runaways. That meant that the police were prevented from arresting children for running away from home. Consequently, children were left on the streets to fend for themselves. Since 1974 children have been allowed to live on the streets and they need to support themselves. |
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| Q: | Are the ages of children becoming younger? |
| A: | Child prostitutes typically range in ages 11 to 17. Generally speaking, if a child is 10 years of age or younger and involved in prostitution, the parents are usually involved in the sexual exploitation of the child. |
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| Q: | Are children trafficked into the United States for prostitution? |
| A: | It is hard to tell. Immigration officers tell us that when they find immigrants working as prostitutes in the United States, they rely on the paperwork used to bring the prostitute into the United States to determine age. Since many of these documents are often falsified, there is no real way to tell the age of immigrant prostitutes. |
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| Q: | Are American children being trafficked out of the United States for prostitution? |
| A: | Yes. We have met many teenage girls who have been trafficked from Hawaii to Japan. |
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| Q: | What role do drugs play in child prostitution? |
| A: | A drug addict is going to do whatever he/she can in order to get his/her drug. Most pimps who control child prostitution will not want the child using drugs because then the drug becomes the pimp. A pimp does not want his prostitutes spending "his" money on drugs. While most child prostitutes are not addicted to drugs, many use a variety of drugs and alcohol to numb their feelings. |
