Guest AuthorSometimes when Florida scores a high ranking, it’s not really good news. Such is the case with Florida’s current No. 3 national ranking in human sex trafficking.
Recently the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice hosted a one-day Summit on Human Sex Trafficking to highlight a growing problem.
The public needs to become vigilant.
Pimps are regularly picking up young girls, most of whom are runaways. Through drugs, alcohol or abuse – or all three – they coerce them to perform sex acts, sometimes up to 40 times a day, according to one young woman who escaped to tell her story.
Across the nation 100,000 children — mostly girls, but boys are used and abused as well — are part of the scourge that is now as profitable as drug running and gun running. They are often transported across state lines. Law enforcement is working with truck-stop operators and convenience store owners to alert them to the potential signs that kids are being used to satisfy the sick desires of countless johns.
Gov. Rick Scott, Attorney General Pam Bondi, interim Department of Children and Families Secretary Esther Jacobo, and Commissioner Gerald Bailey of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, among others, spoke about how Florida needs to intensify its efforts to combat this epidemic.
Pimps will search out these young girls in strip clubs, parks, street corners — wherever they congregate. Many of them are already embracing the lifestyle of substance abuse and the lure of “money and travel” is sometime too hard for them to turn down.
The young woman who told her story readily admitted that, after being transported from Florida to Cleveland, Ohio, she was told to perform sex acts with a man. When she completed her task and she returned to the van, the pimp told her, “I’m proud of you because you did everything that I told you to do.” She said that it was the first time in her young life that anyone had ever told her that they were “proud” of what she had done. It temporarily made her feel good about herself.
Of course, eventually threats of violence with guns and knives shoved in her face, beatings from her pimp, and the daily grind of sexual acts took a toll on her and she ran away. Shortly thereafter she voluntarily returned, only to run away again later, this time for good.
Law enforcement, investigators and prosecutors are ratcheting up their efforts, but more must be done to stop the proliferation of this heinous crime. Infiltrating these criminal enterprises is time-consuming and dangerous.
These young girls are going to need long-term treatment because of the emotional, mental and physical trauma that they have undergone. Additionally, they need to be treated not as prostitutes but as victims who need intensive therapy so they can hopefully return to a productive life.
Currently most facilities can only keep these girls for a few months — not nearly long enough for them to begin to recover. To receive truly effective treatment and counseling to overcome the tragedy they have endured, these girls will need to stay at long-term facilities for a year or more.
As this young girl was telling her story, there wasn’t a dry eye in the audience of more than 250 professionals gathered at the University of South Florida. The good news is that she did not let herself become a victim. Instead, she became a survivor!
Gov. Scott has appointed Deborah Polston, the wife of Supreme Court Chief Justice Ricky Polston, as the state’s human trafficking advocate. She works out of the Executive Office of the Governor and can be reached at [email protected]. She is working hard to ensure that this issue is not hidden from public view. Her task is to encourage Floridians to be vigilant and alert to this insidious and horrible crime.
If you see a young girl or boy who is with an adult that may not appear to be their parent, or if it appears they are seeking help with their desperate eyes, please note the license tag number of their vehicle and report your suspicions to law enforcement.
