Unveiling the Dark Reality of Minor Sex Trafficking in America

Many people are aware of the issue of minor sex trafficking in the United States, but people may not be aware of the extent of the problem or what it is that attracts these “pimps” to children in the sex trafficking business. Sex trafficking is a major issue both in the United States and in foreign countries, although many Americans do not realize that there are more U.S. citizens that make up the victim count of traffickers than foreign nationals, and of these victims, children are the most vulnerable (cite DMST). According to the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000,

“ (a) sex trafficking in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such an act has not attained 18 years of age; or (b) the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery (cite).”

It is also important to note that this definition includes both the “pimping” and “prostituting” of minors. Domestic minor sex trafficking, also DMST, includes forms of pornography, prostitution, escort services, stripping, and other sexual services and the most vulnerable victims are american children. It is suggested that there are at least 100,000 DMST victims in the United States (cite).

Based on previous studies, the average age that children are lured into sex exploitation is between ages 11 and 14 (cite). “ At least 70 percent of women involved in prostitution were introduced into the commercial sex industry before reaching 18 years of age (cite).” Minors who are the most at risk of becoming a vict...

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...mes, music, clothing, and television and someone can make a stand to stop the selling of these products that have normalized the behaviors of pimping and prostitution (cite). One way that increased the efforts of minimizing the demand of prostitution was the outlaw the sale of sex and criminalizing the “john,” and this was first done in Sweden and Norway (cite). “a societal message is communicated that it is inappropriate to buy and sell women and children for sexual purposes (cite).” The final possibility that is discussed by (cite) in the efforts to provide for the victims is to increase the services for children and youth coming out of commercial sexual situations. Fundraising efforts can be made to help support local shelters in knowing that a safe place to live is a major impact on the risk of being considered a repeat runaway or revictimized into the sex trade.