Child sex workers: Victims or criminals?

I thought reading through New York magazine's feature on child prostitutes was just going to be my socially conscious act of self-flagellation for the day. The piece may be dripping with grim details about the life of a 13-year-old prostitute, but it also smartly points out and criticizes a legal contradiction over child sex workers: Foreign girls who are brought to the United States to work in brothels masquerading as massage parlors are considered sex slaves, but American-born girls working in the sex trade are considered prostitutes.

Put simply: Depending on their place of birth, child sex workers are either victims deserving protection or criminals deserving prosecution, according to New York state law. Jessica Lustig's article profiles Lucilia, who at age 13 fled her home -- where she was beaten and repeatedly raped by family members -- and began working as a prostitute. She was arrested and shuttled in and out of juvenile detention facilities. "If Lucilia had been picked up ... not by the precinct cops but by the FBI, her life could have been entirely different," Lustig writes. "She would have been brought to a women's crisis shelter. She would not have been prosecuted. She would have been given therapy and other services. If she were here from another country, she would have been given a temporary visa and refugee status. In this separate-but-unequal legal system, Lucilia's only real crime was being born an American citizen."

Technically, the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 does protect U.S.-born child sex workers like Lucilia. But according to the article, New York law is typically followed in these cases. Girls like Lucilia are considered victims of statutory rape, but are also prosecuted as criminals. "The contradiction between the state and federal legislation has created a crisis in policy and law enforcement," writes Lustig.

There is one bit of good news here: The Safe Harbor Act -- meant to align state and federal law with regard to child sex workers -- is being introduced in the state Legislature. When three former child sex workers testified at a recent State Assembly hearing on the act, politicians promised their support and one was even brought to tears. Still, Lustig isn't holding her breath: "The reality is that when it comes to taking a vote on anything that could be seen as being soft on crime, most politicians still jam on the brakes."

-- Tracy Clark-Flory