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Most Americans believe that underage prostitution rings are problems associated with countries such as Thailand, where the sex trades industry brings in millions of tourist dollars. However, the number of documented cases of underage prostitutes is rising in the United States each year. In Southern California, a 14-year-old girl was found safe on Friday, having been the victim of a prostitution ring.
The story started two months ago when the girl ran away from home. She claimed that she was abducted by Leroy Bragg, a man know to be involved in the business of child prostitution. According to the girl, whose name is being withheld, Bragg found her and forced her to work as a prostitute in the Hawthorne area of Southern California. The girl was found by police after she tried to board a bus to go home. The bus driver recognized her from a missing persons photograph and alerted the authorities. During a police interview, the girl described her inhuman ordeal at the hands of Bragg. Bragg was eventually arrested on child trafficking changes and bail was set at $1.3 Million. However, in between the time of the girl’s discovery and Bragg’s arrest, the story takes another turn.
This should have been the end of the story. However, the girl received threats issued from Bragg, saying that the girl’s mother and sister would be harmed if she didn’t return to him. The terrified girl ran back to Bragg, afraid for her family’s safety. Within a few days of returning to Bragg the girl ran away, being apprehended on a bus out of town.
The girl’s father, Peter Doesburg, stated that his daughter had been branded or tattooed with Bragg’s personal stamp, an indication that she belonged to the sadistic pimp. The girl was subjected to nonstop sexual activities with men who came to Bragg because he employed children. The girl was able to describe Bragg’s operation, stating the girls in his stable were moved from apartment to apartment to service the men Bragg had as customers. Bragg had developed a large scale operation in the Los Angeles area.
The underage sex trade, while often thought of as a problem related to third world countries where a poor economy leads to desperate measures, is alive and well in the United States. In Oakland CA, Police Lt. Kevin Wiley, Commander of the Oakland Police Department’s Child Exploitation Unit, said it’s a business that is only getting bigger. Wiley claims that the child sex market is replacing the drug market in popularity. Oakland now has a reputation for being one of the major hubs for underage sex trafficking. In 2009 the unit made 640 arrests, up from 318 arrests made in 2008. As the problem grows larger authorities are having a harder time dealing with the problem as state and federal cutbacks reduce their active force of officers. Many of the children involved in this nefarious business are runaways, which makes the job that much more difficult.
Tens of thousands of children run from their homes only to fend themselves frightened and alone in large cities. Predatory sex traffickers have made a science of finding and literally enslaving runaways, either promising them a better life or forcing them into service. For many runaways, prostitution is still better than what they left behind. Many runaways leave physically and sexually abusive parents, desperately seeking a way out of their own private version of hell. However, Doesburg’s daughter doesn’t appear to fit the profile of an abused child. As the numbers go up, it’s up to the legal system to find a cure for this plague of sexual depravity. The toughest part of investigations into the child sex trades is finding victims willing to come forward and testify against their captors. Many, from poorer countries, know that harm will befall their families if they speak out. Others are simply deported back to their home countries never to be heard from again. A few are murdered to send a message out to anyone else thinking about talking to the authorities. The child sex trafficking business is a multimillion dollar business similar to the drug trade and, in a world where people are murdered for pennies on the dollar, most involved in the business don’t want to talk. The question of the day: Is the judicial system in this country doing enough?
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Turkmen Helsinki Foundation (THF), said from the Bulgarian city of Varna.
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