Sex with Girls Big Business
Written by Mary Welch Thursday, June 10 2010
It’s all a matter of economics. We all know that sex sells. Men want sex and will pay for it. Therefore, women will be sold to men. Simple as that.
And, while that is disturbing, it becomes even more so when men pay for sex with underage girls – even when they know the girls are not of the age of consent. That is the finding of a pilot study that measures the demand for adolescent girls prostituted in Georgia. Online solicitation is the leading source for the sexual exploitation of girls.
Women's Funding Network in partnership with "A Future. Not A Past." The Georgia Demand Study — the first in a series of several being conducted across the nation — reveals Craigslist ads featuring adolescent females yield three times the transactions per ad than its closest competitor, Backpage.
The Georgia Demand Study estimates 7,200 men knowingly or unknowingly pay for sex with adolescent females in Georgia each month. Annually, 28,000 men statewide knowingly or unknowingly pay for sex with adolescent females — nearly 10,000 of them doing so multiple times per year.
“When we got that statistic, I thought it couldn’t be right, says Kaffie McCullough, campaign director for A Future. Not a Past. “It’s staggering. I thought ‘Holy Moly.’ To me, that’s a game changer.”
Alex Trouteaud, lead researcher for The Schapiro Group, an independent research firm conducting the studies, calls the finding “gut-wrenching. I was just nauseated.”
The study came about because A Future. Not a Past. wanted to explore both sides of the business transaction. "We've done studies that track the scope of the problem, the supply side,” says McCullough. “We know the numbers about the victims. We wanted to profile the drivers of this – the buyers. We wanted to get a handle of who these men are. No one wants to look at the men. We turn a blind eye to the buyers with a ‘boys will be boys’ attitude.”
The Georgia Demand Study complements an ongoing tracking study of all sources of prostituted adolescent girls in the state. According to a January fact sheet from the Governor's Office for Children and Families, an estimated 405 girls are prostituted each month in Georgia. The internet is responsible for 76 percent of the transactions; 15 percent occur through escort services; 8 percent through street activity; and 1 percent through major hotels.
To find out who the johns are and what they are willing to pay for, the Shapiro Group essentially set up a sting. Although they fielded hundreds of calls, 218 interviews were useable, which was necessary for a valid conclusion. The going rate, by the way, is $80 for half an hour.
“We created our own escort service on Craigslist because that’s where men go for sex. Then we literally would take the calls from men. We interviewed them on the premise that we wanted to get them the kind of girl they wanted,” Trouteaud says. “We would pose the situation three different ways to see if they minded if the girl was underage. The third time was pretty much was a warning saying she was under 18. Fifty-three percent called off the transaction when he knew the girl was underage – but 47 percent didn’t.”
The largest concentration of men (42 percent) seeking to pay for sex with adolescent females is in the north metro Atlanta area, outside the Perimeter (Interstate 285). Twenty-six percent come from inside the Perimeter and 23 percent from the south metro area outside the Perimeter. The Perimeter is Atlanta’s outer loop. Nine percent come from the immediate vicinity of the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. Thirty-four percent of respondents were younger than 30; 44 percent ages 30-39; and 22 percent age 40 and older.
“These men are the soccer dads, nice men who live in the suburbs,” says McCullough. "Make no mistake, the commercial sexual exploitation of children is a profitable business. This is pure supply and demand," says Deborah Richardson, chief program officer of Women's Funding Network. "This data is vital to our movement's commitment to end the demand for the purchase of sex from young girls."
Both McCullough and Trouteaud think the study can go a long way in helping shut down underage prostitution. They hope to replicate the study in other cities in order to get a nationwide handle on the situation.
“Will talking about how Craigslist is a vital avenue for underage prostitution stop Craiglist?” wonders McCullough. “It’s hard to bring down Craigslist but we would like some laws that will make it take down its adult services section. Then will people go elsewhere? Sure but then we’ll go after them.”
Trouteaud says that education is important. “When we gave their third warning about the girls being underage, I surely thought that 100 percent of the men would drop off and stop the transaction. While it’s vile that 47 percent did not; another 53 percent did. That tells me that if a majority of the men know the girl is underage, it will deter them.”
McCullough is looking for something else – grassroots outrage. “I want it to be like Mothers Against Drunk Driving where the national consciousness was enraged. We should not hold these children legally liable for their bad judgment. I want everyone to be disheartened and horrified about what is happening to these young girls.”
Mary Welch is a freelance writer for the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Dawson Times, Plan Your Meeting magazine, and Atlanta Business magazine. Previously, she held many positions with Leader Publishing, including editor-in-chief of Atlanta Woman, editor of Business to Business magazine, and editor of Catalyst magazine. As editor of Business to Business, she assigned, edited, and conceptualized a series that was awarded Silver in the 2005 GAMMA Awards for Best Series. Welch was a reporter for the Atlanta Business Chronicle for eight years and freelanced for publications including Glamour, Advertising Age, South, Georgia Trend, and Oz. From 2000 to 2003, she served as vice president of media relations for Bank of America, during which time she authored Forever Green: A History and Hope of the American Forest with Rolling Stones keyboardist Chuck Leavell.
