Panel sheds light on trafficking in area
Joe Beasley and Alex Donnelly
Issue date: 2/3/10 Section: News
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The Women Helping Women club and other members of the community dispelled the glamor of prostitution. In a recent event on campus they surfaced the real-life issue of human trafficking in the Atlanta area.
Children and teenage girls are often targeted by hustlers and pimps. Immigrants with nowhere to go are also common targets for exploitation. But anyone can find themselves in a prostitution relationship.
"This can happen to anyone," Kathleen Woodward, adviser to Women Helping Women, said. "It may not be a conscious choice but once it happens it's hard to get out."
Child exploiters and pimps often frequent shopping malls looking for middle class girls who look lonely. A few common predispositions toward child prostitution include absent parents, abuse in the home, alcohol and drug abuse in the home and truancy from school.
"A feeling of alienation can cause young girls to (gravitate towards a male figure for direction)," Woodward said.
Young teens are lured into this field often by someone who is nice to them and offers a sense of security. The exploiters may try to form a boyfriend/girlfriend relationship that they later use for sex and ultimately "pimp and sell them out to other people," Woodward said.
Physically being kidnapped and forced into these acts is less common. But once teens find themselves in this situation, they feel "trapped and feel like they can't get out," said Woodward.
Once money is introduced to the prostitute, they become the criminal. Minors are not sent straight to prison but receive treatment in the form of a rehabilitation center and therapy for the often immense psychological damage.
Most prostitution meetings are arranged via internet. This is an underground business with the use of cell phones, internet and hotel meetings. Although this happens on street corners, it is actually far less common.
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