To learn more about the Child Sex Trade please visit Multnomah County's Website where the information below has been taken from:
Every night thousands of children walk the street of U.S. cities prostituting themselves, caught up in a vicious cycle of abuse. They come from cities, small towns, and rural areas of every corner of our country. They have run away from sexually or physically abusive family situations or from the pressures and problems that are so common to all teens and adolescents. They have been lured away from their homes by false promises of new and exciting lives. Some have even been kidnapped. What these children have found is a life that in no way reflects the glamour that Hollywood would want us to believe is the life of prostitution in such films such as "Pretty Woman" and "Showgirls". Instead, they are victims of abuse and degradation that would horrify most people.
Some Facts:
- Child exploitation is a five billion dollar ($5,000,000,000) per year international industry. Majority of victims are between the ages of 13 - 17.
- Children as young as 10 are actively recruited for sexual exploitation or pornography.
- Exploited children come from a wide variety of socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds and represent a cross-section of urban, suburban, and rural youth. The picket-fenced home and faith filled family is no exception.
- There are more than two and a half million runaway and throwaway youth on the streets of our nation at any given time and over one third of those left home due to sexual abuse.
- The sex industry is about power, and the predators stalking these victims avoid anyone who may be uncontrollable or dangerous.
