Senator Tom Lieu will meet with the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Chairman and child-welfare advocates tomorrow, to discuss the “War on Child Sex-Trafficking” package of state bills aimed at penalizing sex buyers rather than its victims, something that advocates have been pushing for years. 

California harbors three of the FBI’s 13 highest child sex trafficking areas in the nation: Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego. From 2010 to 2012, California’s anti-trafficking task force has initiated 2,552 investigations, discovered 1,277 victims and arrested 1,798 individuals. The majority of victims are American, and California officials are attempting to expand surveillance and increase the penalties for soliciting minors with new legislation.

 The package includes five bills that address felony prosecution and increased financial penalties for pimps and “johns” soliciting minors, expansion of wiretapping authoring in human trafficking cases, adding human trafficking to a list of gang-related activities, and streamlining a victim’s testimony against his or her exploiter. Earlier this week the LA County Board of Supervisors unanimously voted to support the package.  

“We’re thrilled at any progress made and what we’re really excited about in this package is the willingness to hold members of our community accountable,” said Stefanie Benvenuto, Director of Public Policy and Advocacy at Crittenton, a nonprofit supporting troubled adolescents and their families. 

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Daphne Phung, founder of California Against Slavery will also be present at the press conference tomorrow, along with survivor-leader, Jessica, who works to train LA County staff, and to support girls in the probation program. Additionally, Supervisor Chairman Don Knabe will also announce the launch of a new public awareness campaign that echoes the legislation. The campaign will be featured on Metro buses and trains, and billboards in LA County. 

This is the Board of Supervisors' second campaign against child sex-trafficking since January 2012. The first campaign was focused on increasing awareness, and now the Board hopes to send a stronger message, said Cheryl Burnett, Communication Director of the LA County Board of Supervisors. 

“Teens who are sold for sex are not prostitutes, they are sex victims,” said Burnett. “Now we are focused on penalizing those who are exploiting young girls, many of whom are minors and aren’t even at an age where they can legally consent so the suggestion that they can be arrested is outrageous.” 

 Yet in 2013, 148 minors were arrested for prostitution in LA County. 94 were from Compton, Long Beach or South LA. Furthermore, 89 percent of the minors were already known to the state through the foster care or juvenile justice system. According to Burnett, these numbers have remained relatively consistent since 2011 when the Board started tracking sex-trafficking victims.  

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“People are now more aware about what has been going on the past couple years, its not just something that happens in third world countries, they are being trafficked on our streets all across the country,” Burnett said. 

The FBI estimates that 100,000 children are sold for sex each year in the United States, and from 2011-2013 California’s nine human trafficking task forces identified 1,277 victims, 72 percent of which were from the Untied States, according to a May 2013 report from the California Child Welfare Council. 

As a part of the initiative to end child sex trafficking, one LA County Board of Supervisors program has trained 3,000 people in the county who are likely to have interactions with sex-trafficking victims. This includes social workers and probation officers. 

“We have been working on services for these girls, now we are focused on the demand side of buying and selling and need to work aggressively towards stopping the system,” Burnett said. 

Benvenuto has praised California officials for their work on attacking the demand aspect of child trafficking, however she said there is still much more work to be done in terms of services for victims of child sex-trafficking. 

“The demand bills are awesome but at the heart of it we have a bunch of kids sitting there without any protection so should focus on equality in terms of the demand side and services, if possible,” Benvenuto said. 

 

 

Reach Staff Writer Emily Goldberg here.