Female sexual slavery in the United States: An alarming and sad report

Jaycee Dugard's abductor was just sentenced to 431 years for his crimes against her and the two children he fathered after constant rape. Elizabeth Smart is another recent case. Then there was the case of a Mormon man who had many children, some of them from daughters he had raped. These are stories from this country, a country that is reputed to be so advanced and moral. Most people go on with their lives and bury their head in the sand that this vile treatment of women and young girls goes on daily. It was revealed in a talk show that many men who pay for sex from young girls have car seats in the back of their car. They know how young the girls are. They would not want their own daughters to be taken like that, but they will sexually exploit another female. I am appalled that this situation seems to be getting worse not better.

How many girls today are missing just from the United States? The problem in getting accurate figures on missing females is that some are run-aways, some are taken by a parent during divorce, and some are abducted by strangers like Miss Dugard. How many have been killed but not found after the abduction? How many are living with their abductors in terror or caught in forced prostitution that have lost their will to escape? I don't think anyone really knows.

There is a report, The National Incidence Studies of Missing, Abducted, Runaway and Throwaway Children, that was compiled to try and give accurate numbers on missing children. It is estimated by some sources that 800,000 children under 18 go missing each year. That is about 2,000 per day. Of that 800,000 figure, some 200,000 children are taken by family members, 58,000 by non-family members, and 200 to 300 are kidnapped like Miss Dugard. There is another 3,000 to 4,000 who are taken, sexually assaulted but released after a few days. There are thousands of runaways and children thrown out of the home.One in every four girls will be sexually abused or exploited before she is an adult. Over 90 percent of the 800,000 children are found through police effort or parents. That still leaves 8,000 to 10,000 kids where there are no answers. I feel that is a tragic statistic for this country.

The average age for abduction is 11 years old. This is the most dangerous age for girls. Professionals who profile these cases, say that the abductor will first contact his victim within a half mile of her home. The bus stop, the mall or just walking to school are common abduction sites.

Sexual abuse by a parent, step-parent, family member, or neighbor is going on in every corner of the United States, as well as all over the world. It is a form of hidden slavery when girls are forced to have sex with their father or step-father for weeks or years. In some cases the mother is not aware of the abuse and in other cases she allows it to go on. Often girls never tell, because they are made to think it is their fault or from fear. Guilt takes over, or the feeling that somehow they should have stopped it. For all the scientific and electronic advances in the world, women are still in grave danger. If women are not abducted, they suffer the abuse and often death from their husband or boyfriend. When you are physically abused and scared for your life, you are a slave to that male. So slavery does exist in the United States today in many forms.

I remember being friends with a woman who was a great nurse. She had an overeating problem, which stemmed from her father forcing her to take part in sex videos. She ate excessively to avoid the pain of those early childhood years. It is an ugly blight that is not talked about enough in the news. In a country as advanced as ours, there should not be one case of child abduction or slavery, but that is not the case.

Another woman I knew had her 14-year-old taken by someone they had brief contact with. They finally tracked her down when she was 18 and had delivered a child he had fathered. He was 20 years older. Her parents tried to have him put in jail. They sold their house to pay for the court costs. It was thrown out by the court, who said that during those four years, she could have escaped. She was a child when he took her. This is how it was in the court system for years. This was in 2000 that she relayed her story to me.

Another area of exploitation involves Native American females. You won't hear about it on mainstream news. It is not talked about much. I found this while researching information for this article. On some Indian reservations, young girls are being exploited by their mothers into prostitution. The mother has a drug addiction and sells the daughter to men for money to supply her drug addiction. These young girls get into drugs as well, trying to cope with the horror of their life. When they become addicted, they recruit other girls into this sex nightmare. This goes on in other areas as well where they are no jobs and not money. Prostitution is the oldest profession in the world. When women feel they have no choices, they may turn to selling themselves for sex. Often they are sold into it by boyfriends who promise them the world but take them into pain, violence, and sexual slavery.

Amnesty International states that one in three Native American women will be raped during her lifetime. She has a 2.5 higher risk to be raped than a non-native woman. The man who rapes her is generally not Native-American in 80 percent of the cases. What makes it more complicated is that only federal prosecutors can prosecute crimes that occur on tribal lands.

Canada has the highest rate of missing and murdered Native Indian women. Just since 2000, 300 women are either murdered or missing. More than half of the deaths are open cases. They go unsolved because the government seems to be unwilling to put the time and money needed to solve these cases. This is not the case for white women who are missing. There are organizations in Canada trying to change this. Until then, there are families who have no idea on their daughter's fate. This tragedy affects not only the victim but their family and loved ones.

This same sexual exploitation aimed toward women is going on in every community, no matter what color or ethnic background. Where ever there are parents addicted to drugs, there may be exploitation by parents to pay for that addiction. When girls are raised in poor families, with abuse and little money, there is more risk for exploitation. They are more runaways as well. It doesn't help that sex is displayed without responsibility is on every channel. Sex is not free in reality. This attitude of easy sex has dangerous pit falls from disease to sexual slavery. We need to prosecute predators in a way so they are taken off the street for good, not let go again after a few months. They need to be treated more harshly.

This is tragic that in these modern times, women are still being sold into sexual slavery. We are not talking about Third World countries. This is the United States and Canada. This is going on every day. We need to support organizations that are trying to stop this. We need to write our representatives and put pressure on them to do more. The violence and pain being done to our daughters and to women must be stopped. I hope this article shows you how severe this problem his here in America. I hope it spurs you to do something to change those these tragic numbers.

References:

http://www.missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/PageServlet?LanguageCountry=en_US&PageId=2816#11

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbkEahO161U&feature=related

http://cjaye57.wordpress.com/2010/01/20/sex-trafficking-of-american-indian-girls-and-women/

http://www.findthekids.org/articles.html

http://www.angelfire.com/nj4/savethechildren/Statistics.html

http://keralovell.wordpress.com/2010/08/15/missing-and-murdered-native-women/

http://sparkaction.org/node/223