Shelters needed for troubled girls
Erika Bonnell
Issue date: 11/12/09 Section: Opinion
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.
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.
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