The underground economy that coerces children and sells them for sex exists here in North Central Florida, said panelists speaking on Thursday (Nov. 21).
Law enforcement officials, journalists, representatives of social service agencies and a survivor of sex trafficking discussed this taboo subject that the public generally ignores.
They spoke at “A Conversation on Modern-Day Slavery,” presented by the University of Florida’s College of Journalism and Communications in partnership with the Sarasota Herald-Tribune and the Bob Graham Center for Public Service. The event was held at UF’s Pugh Hall.
Panelists included Herald-Tribune reporter David McSwane and assistant city editor Scott Carroll, who were members of the team that produced “The Stolen Ones,” a 44-page report on sex trafficking that the newspaper published.
Though the report focused on exploitation of children in the Sarasota area, the same problem exists in the North Central Florida, panelists said.
In some cases, fathers who have sexually abused their daughters also prostitute their daughters, panelists said. Other times, daughters whose fathers have sexually abused them run away and are befriended by men who provide them with drugs and shelter.
The problem is invisible to the community for the most part because most prostitution today is set up on the Internet, said Frank Williams, assistant U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Florida. “It’s gotten off the streets and onto the Net,” he said. “It’s happening right here in Gainesville right now.”
Law enforcement officials and social service agencies are working to change the perception that prostitutes are willingly engaged in criminal activity, Williams said. “When the girls become 18, they no longer are considered victims; they become defendants, but the vast majority came into this activity when they were children.”
Girls involved with pimps initially form an allegiance with them, said Jeanne Singer, chief assistant state attorney for the Eighth Judicial Circuit, based in Gainesville. Persuading them to testify against the pimps is difficult.
“Testifying requires them to go back in time,” she said. “It’s hard to convince them that they are helping people in the future by going back into the past.”
Mothers in homes in which fathers are sexually abusing their daughters – and in some cases, selling their daughters for sex – often look the other way, Singer said. “They’re afraid of losing their breadwinner, and they’re embarrassed and ashamed.”
“It’s hard for the girls to come forward. The family says, ‘You’re the one who told everybody.’”
The community needs to be alert for signs that something is amiss with a girl, panelists said. Community resources are available to help, including the Child Advocacy Center in Gainesville. To contact the agency, call 352-376-9161.
The problem of selling children for sex won’t disappear, Williams lamented. “The market is what’s driving the crime,” he said. “Human trafficking has been around since mankind has been around.”