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I wrote about why U.S. Marshals rescuing 39 children from a sex trafficking ring in Georgia wasn't a bigger news story.
(Spoiler: There was no sex ring.) https://www.huffpost.com/entry/government-did-not-break-up-child-sex-trafficking-ring-georgia_n_5f52b7a1c5b6946f3eb1c5d9?v2&guccounter=1
(Spoiler: There was no sex ring.) https://www.huffpost.com/entry/government-did-not-break-up-child-sex-trafficking-ring-georgia_n_5f52b7a1c5b6946f3eb1c5d9?v2&guccounter=1
The reporting on this operation was absolutely atrocious.
Let's start with the basics. "Operation Not Forgotten" was not a sex trafficking raid. IT WASN'T EVEN A RAID. It took place across two weeks, 15 Georgia counties and six additional states.
The U.S. Marshals Service doesn't even investigate trafficking. This was an effort to locate 78 missing children, the vast majority of whom were endangered runaways. 54 were in foster care at the time they went missing.
The law enforcement press release said nine people were arrested "on charges including sex trafficking," but when I asked the Georgia AG's office for specifics, they told me that only one person was arrested for sex trafficking.
The rest were picked up on existing warrants and some low-level stuff like illegally possessing a firearm. It doesn't appear that *any* of the kids were kidnapped by strangers.
Of the 65 children located by law enforcement, six were classified as victims of trafficking and transferred to a rehabilitation facility. The facility wouldn't give me specifics about their cases.
They did say, however, that the vast majority of the victims they work with are runaways from foster care or otherwise fleeing abuse and trauma. Online recruitment and grooming of children without pre-existing vulnerabilities is vanishingly rare.
I should also mention here that the legal definition of "child sex trafficking" doesn't require a pimp. A person under 18 trading anything of value for sex is considered trafficked. Most kids who end up in the sex trade are living on the streets and trying to survive.
Ignore what you see on airport posters. "Child sex trafficking" is indeed a problem, but it's one entirely created by decades of cuts to the social safety net and homeless services. We know how to really "rescue" these kids and we refuse to.
I was never able to find a source for the "trailer" part of the rumor. I think people on social media just made it up! https://twitter.com/caraper/status/1302973780646670336
I think about this all the time! The fact that a huge number of "anti-trafficking" NGOs are running straight-up scams seems like a pretty big story? And yet a lot of news outlets are leaving this up to me and Melissa and Elizabeth. https://twitter.com/MabeSuzanne/status/1302977593562587138
I haven't looked into O.U.R. specifically but we should be extremely sceptical of human trafficking organizations that claim to "rescue" victims. What happens after that? https://twitter.com/carriebethpip/status/1302993327659405313
Yep. Reporters should be asking basic questions about the prevalence of this issue. We're constantly hearing that hundreds of thousands of children go missing each year. If convictions are so low, what the hell are the police doing? https://twitter.com/ASFleischman/status/1302996830586888192
In cases of child sex trafficking, the "trafficker" is the person who pays them (or offers drugs or a place to stay) in exchange for sex.
It doesn't require force, coercion or kidnapping. Pimps and recruiters don't have to be involved. https://twitter.com/NickofEarl/status/1303017518487928832
It doesn't require force, coercion or kidnapping. Pimps and recruiters don't have to be involved. https://twitter.com/NickofEarl/status/1303017518487928832
