"It is estimated that 82% of child sexual abuse cases in Georgia involved family and extended family members of which 75% were perpetrated by someone in the child’s immediate family (including the boyfriends of mothers who are single heads of households); of 37% by a birth parent; of 22% by a sibling. Because trusted people have not been trustworthy to begin with, girls run away from home to escape abuse just to find them in a worse situation. One out of every three teens will be lured toward prostitution within 48 hours of running away from home (National Incidence Studies of Missing, Abducted, Runaway and Throwaway Children).
Girls that fall victims to heartless pimps will be abused, tortured, drugged, and terrorized to make sure that they don’t try to escape and do what they are told. In one case, a girl was sold as a sex slave for a car. In another case, a pimp beat a girl around the ankles to remind her that if she ever tried to run away there would be consequences. These forms of torture are carefully planned out. The reason the pimp beat her around the ankles was because it is a very sensitive body part due to lack of muscle, and because it would not leave marks, and he could still exploit her for profit afterwards.
Commercial sexual exploitation of kids: it’s all about the money, and there are tremendous amounts of money. In order for this business to flourish, it requires demand (Adults buying children for sex), which forces the supplier (trafficker or pimp) to find the “product” (children). As cruel as it sounds, pimps refer to the children they explode as “product”. Traffickers are very clever to find kids that are running away from home and looking for affection. They are willing to give the kids that affection that they so desperately need, and way before kids can react and run to safety, they are in the dark world of sex trafficking and they cannot escape.
One of the reasons why Atlanta is a safe haven for this type of crime is because it is a transportation city. People can come into the city and leave very quickly once they have perpetrated their crime. It is also cheap and accessible to get to Atlanta, which makes our children cheap and accessible as well .It is time to take a stand and protect the innocence of our children. This can be happening right next door. Realize that the average customers are 35 to 40 years old, white, and well-educated men. Child sex trafficking requires a movement in order to stop it. Now that you are aware of the problem you have two options: One, do nothing about it, or two, get involved in the cause. It is not okay that our own children are being raped for profit! Get the word out there and make others aware. The time to act is NOW."