Nationwide Child Prostitution Exposed

WASHINGTON, Oct 26: US authorities rescued 52 children from prostitution rings and arrested nearly 700 people during a nationwide sting operation over the weekend, the FBI announced on Monday.

The three-day push in 36 US cities “led to the recovery of 52 children who were being victimised through prostitution” and the arrest of close to 700 others, “including 60 pimps, on state and local charges,” the Federal Bureau of Investigation said.

“Child prostitution continues to be a significant problem in our country, as evidenced by the number of children rescued through the continued efforts of our crimes-against-children task forces,” said Kevin Perkins, assistant director of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division.

The roundup, which officials said took place over the previous 72 hours, was part of a larger FBI programme called “Innocence Lost”, whose task forces have removed nearly 900 children from the streets since 2003, convicted 510 people and seized $3.1 million in assets, the FBI said.

Agents targeted truck stops, casinos, street corners and websites as part of their hunt for offenders. The FBI said initial arrests for solicitation typically uncovered larger, more organised efforts to prostitute women and children across the United States.

“It is repugnant that children in these times could be subjected to the great pain, suffering, and indignity of being forced into sexual slavery for someone else’s profit,” said assistant attorney General Lanny Breuer of the Criminal Division. The roundup however “has shown us that the scourge of child prostitution still exists on the streets of our cities”.

From here.