The Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children In the U. S., Canada and Mexico Full Report (of the U.S. National Study) Richard J. Estes and Neil Alan Weiner University of Pennsylvania School of Social Work Center for the Study of Youth Policy 4200 Pine Street, 3rd floor Philadelphia, PA 19104-4090 Telephone: 215-898-5531 Fax: 215-573-2099 E-Mail: [email protected] SepteMber 18, 2001 (Revised 2/20/02) Page ii of 260 Funds in support of the U.S. portion of this three-nation project were received froM the following sources: • The National Institute of Justice of the U. S. Department of Justice, grant #1999- IJ-CX-0030 • The William T. Grant Foundation, grant #99-1988-99 • The Fund for Nonviolence • The Research Foundation of the University of Pennsylvania • Dean’s Discretionary Fund of the School of Social Work of the University of Pennsylvania The points of view in this document are those of the authors and do not necessarily repre- sent the official position of the U.S. Department of Justice or other organizations that have contributed to the financial support of this project. Page iii of 260 Foreword [this page left blank intentionally] Page iv of 260 Acknowledgements Many persons contributed to the research reported in this volume. Special acknowledgement, how- ever, is given to the remarkable support given to the investigators by Members of the project’s Interna- tional Advisory Group (IAG). In addition to giving their time and talent to the project, Many of these persons also provided access to agencies, organizations and data that otherwise would not have been available. Each of the following persons is thanked for their exemplary service on behalf of the pro- ject: Eric Alpert, Supervisory Special Agent U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation Elena Azaola, Professor Center for Advanced Studies in Social Anthropology, Mexico City Hillary Batjer, Policy Planning Officer U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, Office of Policy Planning and Coordination Susan Breault, Executive Director The Paul and Lisa Program William Carter, Special Agent U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Crimes Against Children Unit Leticia Diaz, International Programs Officer National Association of Social Workers Pierre Dionne, Director-General EMeritus International Bureau for Children’s Rights Marcia Eugenio, Acting Director U.S. Department of Labor, International Child Labor Program Sara Friedman, Consultant Kathy Free, Child Exploitation Unit National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) Steve Galster, Assistant Director Global Survival Network (now Wild Aid) Richard Gelles, Welsh Professor of Child Welfare and Family Violence, University of Pennsylvania School of Social Work James M. Gibbons, Senior Special Agent U.S. Department of the Treasury, Cyber-SMuggling Center, U.S. Customs Service Bruce Harris, Executive Director Casa Alianza/Covenant House, Latin American PrograMs Ingrid Horton, Vanish Children's Alliance Donna Hughes, Associate Professor, Eleanor and Oscar Carlson Endowed Chair University of Rhode Island and Coalition Against the Trafficking of Women Linda Krieg, Supervisory Special Agent U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation and Liaison Officer Na- tional Center for Missing and Exploited Children Marie Ledan, Program Analyst (International) U.S. Department of Labor, International Child Labor Program, Bureau of Interna- tional Labor Affairs Ingrid Leth, Assistant to the Chief of Child Protection United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Page v of 260 Laura Lederer, Director The Protection Project, The Paul H. Nitze School for Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University Joan Lieberman, Associate General Counsel U.S. Department of State, Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), Legal Divi- sion Marsha Liss, Trial Attorney U.S. Department of Justice, Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Criminal Divi- sion Jean Francois Noel, Director General International Bureau for Children’s Rights, Montreal, Canada Nancy Nye, Director Youth Advocate Program International Amy O'Neill Richard, Staff Analyst, U.S. Department of State, Center for Strategic Intelligence Jennifer Penta, Program Manager International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children David Leiderman (deceased), Executive Director EMeritus Child Welfare League of AMerica Tanya Rasa, Labor Rights Officer U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of International Labor Affairs Ruben Rodriquez, Director Child Exploitation Unit of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) Andree Ruffo, Judge Quebec Juvenile Court, Canada; President, International Bureau for the Rights of Children Rick Scharlat, Executive Director Global Survival Network (now Wild Aid) Ira Schwartz, Professor and Dean University of Pennsylvania School of Social Work; Director, Center for the Study of Youth Policy Raymond Smith, Program Manager U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Fraud, Child Exploitation and Asset Forfeiture Group, Office of CriMinal Investigations Carol Smolenski, Executive Director ECPAT-USA Norman A. Strickman, Assistant Director for Aviation Consumer Protection U.S. Department of Transportation, Aviation Consumer Protection Division Debra Whitcomb, Director, Grant Programs and Development American Prosecutors Research Institute Lynn White, Strategic Intelligence Analysis Unit (SIAU) U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation Kevin Willcutts, Program Analyst (International) U.S. Department of Labor, International Child Labor Program, Bureau of Interna- tional Labor Affairs James York, Special Assistant to the Chief and senior FBI representative INTERPOL, U.S. National Central Bureau, U.S. DepartMent of Justice Page vi of 260 The investigators also acknowledge with appreciation the cooperation they received from the project’s Many participants, particularly those associated with law enforceMent and human service organizations located in the project’s 17 “target” cities. A coMplete listing of the organizations with which these participants are affiliated is contained in Appendix D of this report. Jayne Bopp and the Rev. PaM Vessels of the Life Foundation (Honolulu HI) and the staff of The Paul and Lisa PrograM (Essex CT) prepared the case studies suMMarized in this report. Nicole Ives, Mary Johnstone, and Paul Vaca located and summarized the media reports of child sexual exploitation cited in this volume. Hwa Ok Bae, Nicole Ives, Jeff Jarrett, and Eileen Zorc assisted with the distribution and processing of data collected through the project’s statistical survey of national, state and local organizations serving sexually exploited children and their families. Mary D’Aiuto located the lyrics of popular American songs that encourage young people to participate in sexually exploitative activities. Other persons served as consultants to the project on a broad range of topics. Heather Hammer and Louise Hanson of Temple University and Andrea Sedlak of Westat, Inc. provided important clari- fications concerning methodological issues associated with two national studies of Missing, Abducted, Runaway, and Thrownaway Children in America (NISMART-1 [1988] and NISMART-2 [2000]). Gretchen Kenagy of the Jane Addams School of Social Work of the University of Illinois, Jessica Xa- vier of the WhitMan-Walker Clinic (Washington DC), and Dorena Kearney of The COLOURS Or- ganization (Philadelphia PA) provided us with insights into the numbers and special service needs of transgender youth. Arlene Calabro provided us with data froM the Runaway and Homeless Youth Management Information System (RHYMIS) operated by the U.S. DepartMent of Health and HuMan Services. Patricia West and Stacey Hirsch of the Philadelphia Health Management Corporation pro- vided us access to Children and Youth Fatality Review Team meetings (Philadelphia PA). Jane Weissman of Urban Arts and Ecology (New York NY) introduced us to organizations serving the growing numbers of runaway and homeless youth in New York’s new iMMigrant communities. Leticia Diaz of the National Association of Social Workers provided us with access to meeting place resources both in Washington and other parts of the country. Stephen Frank and Frank Marsh of the National Drug Intelligence Center (NDIC) gave us many useful suggestions regarding the creation of a national intelligence center for dealing with sexually exploited children. The project’s core staff in the U.S. included Batkhishig Adilbish, Nicole Ives, Patricia Loff Surak, Howard Nemon, Kim Nieves, Joseph Surak, Lisa Villarreal-Rios (Washington University), and Eileen Zorc. Each of these persons devoted many More hours in the project than they ever expected. The investigators thank each of them for their dedication and willingness to invest so heavily in such a difficult effort. Special acknowledgement also is made of the contributions by Michael Guilfoyle, Kimberly Rothman and Rosalinda Rendon to the project. Michael’s statistical and Kim’s adMinistrative skills helped to Make everyone else’s work a bit easier. Rosalinda provided critical technical assistance on various aspects of instrument preparation. Our financial partners Made the entire research effort possible. They included the National In- stitute of Justice of the U.S. Department of Justice, the W.T. Grant Foundation, the Fund for Nonvio- lence, the Research Foundation of the University of Pennsylvania, and the Dean’s Discretionary Fund of the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Work. Jordan