Commercial Sexual Exploitation Still a Problem in the US

YWCA USA and Women’s Policy, Inc. sponsored a discussion on commercial sexual exploitation in the United States, with specific concern to young girls.

Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) spoke about how the United States has brought awareness to the issue internationally. “Our government considers this a terrible crime,” said Maloney, “the President of the United States has gone to the United Nations and spoken out against this crime. And it makes a difference.”

Maloney also spoke about how she believed that the US wasn’t doing enough to bring awareness to the issue domestically. People don’t understand that prostitutes don’t choose their career, they are tricked, beaten, kidnapped and drugged into service, said Maloney. “Sex trafficking is a $10 billion business, preceded only by trafficking in drugs and trafficking in illegal weapons…if we don’t watch out, it may get larger than those two areas,” said Maloney.

In trying to combat sex trafficking, Maloney worked on trying to pass the William Wilberforce Anti-Trafficking Bill, which would have cracked down on pimps and predators and made pimping illegal. Despite being passed overwhelmingly in the House, the act did not pass in the Senate. Maloney pointed out that it is hard to convict a pimp, and she advocated attacking them by charging them with tax evasion.

Jeffrey L. Sedgwick, Assistant Attorney General, Office of Justice Programs, Department of Justice, spoke of the widespread amount of children that are forced into commercial sexual exploitation. “We don’t have reliable figures on the extent of child sexual exploitation,” said Sedgwick, “but estimates suggest that 100,000 to 300,000 children are at risk of it every year in the United States and other wealthy countries.”