Rape for Profit

The facts about sex trafficking are beyond startling. They are eye-opening, gut-wrenching and heart-breaking.

Let’s start with the big picture and context of modern-day slavery.

A slave in Atlanta in 1850 cost around the equivalent of $40,000 today; now, the average price for a slave is $901.

Millions of people all over the world are bought and sold as slaves every day.

There are an estimated 27 million slaves in the world today2. The worldwide sex trade is currently exploiting one million children. The total yearly profit of this black-market trade in human beings is $32 billion. Sex trafficking is the fastest growing criminal enterprise in the 21st century5. Our country has a war on drugs.

What about these innocent little girls?

The U.S. State Department estimates that 244,000 American children and youth are at risk of sexual exploitation. The average age of children exploited is 14; however, children as young as 10 and 11 have been reported as victims.

For me, this is personal.

I am an abolitionist of the modern slave trade of little children in our city. In Atlanta, approximately 400 young children are bought and sold for sex each month. An estimated 7,200 men pay for sex with adolescent girls each month in our state, according to one study.

A separate study by the Atlanta Mayor’s Office found “there is a strong spatial correlation between areas of adult prostitution activities and juvenile prostitution-related activities.”

The report said sex trafficking is a major issue in several areas in metro Atlanta including Moreland Avenue, Metropolitan Parkway, Vine Street, Peachtree Street and North Avenue, and Pharr Road.

In short, child sex slavery is actively happening in our backyard!

“These girls, these victims need to know there is hope. They are valued and can have a safe, bright future,” East Atlanta resident and Wellspring Living public relations director Kelley Swann told me.

Wellspring Living, based in Tyrone, Ga., helps victims of sexual abuse and exploitation through advocacy, education, therapy and other services.

Where is the problem and who actually purchases sex from minors?

The Schapiro Group is a data‐driven strategic consulting firm based in Atlanta. Its study showed:

• the largest group of men — 42 percent — who purchase sex with young females are found in the north metro Atlanta area, outside I-285
•  followed by 26 percent in the core city
• some 23 percent of buyers from the south metro area and
• about 9 percent come from the airport area.

So, child sex trafficking is just as big of a problem in the affluent northern suburbs as it is in the inner city.

Any young girl is at risk for being enslaved for sex. Factors such as childhood sexual abuse, domestic violence at home, poverty and running away lead to a much greater threat.

An estimated 1.6 million children run away from home each year in the US. The average time it takes before a trafficker or a solicitor approaches a runaway is only 48 hours.

Roughly 90 percent of runaway girls in Atlanta become part of the city’s sex trade and 70 to 90 percent of commercially sexually exploited children have a history of childhood sexual abuse.

Girls are lured in by recruiters and pimps; other children are also used as recruiters. At times, a girl’s own family may be the sellers.

A glimpse of hope

Based on seven years of experience with adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse, Wellspring Living was approached by several leaders in 2007 to address the issue of Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (CSEC) in Georgia. In 2008 they formed a partnership to provide a place for education, therapy and a safe refuge to the young victims.

Through their phased approach in therapy and education, the girls progress at their own rate and they become prepared to reintegrate into society as successful citizens. The curriculum is very individualized. To date, 45 girls have been through the program. Nine now have their high school diplomas, one is in college, three are in tech school and the others are on grade level back in school. Only two of the girls are back in a dangerous lifestyle. People across the nation look at Wellspring as a model to create similar programs in their communities.

Wellspring founder and director Mary Frances Bowley says “we look at the whole person and what’s best for her. That approach has proven a huge successful impact.”

With only 14 beds for victims of CSEC, Wellspring is one of the largest treatment facilities and the only comprehensive care center in the country. Their greatest struggle is the desire to do more and to help more of the at least 200 girls currently in need in Georgia; however, Wellspring is privately funded and doesn’t have the financial capacity to grow right now.

“I think we’re all responsible for our community and if there’s someone hurting and oppressed that’s a part of what we’re created to do – to be a part of restoration. These girls are just little girls who have not had the chance to be a little girl," Bowley said. "We just want to be able to provide the opportunity for young girls and women who want their life to be different. We’re excited about it.

"We see something that’s really working. We believe this model is from God."

Erin Levin, an Atlanta native and documentary film maker, is the community and social media manager for Better World Books.