How About A War on Child Prostitution and Child Molesters

If you're going to commit to educating every child, that is a society-wide effort. There are way too many kids being left behind, as this article points out all too clearly. Also, I could argue quite well that the reliance on improvements to start from the family up has failed greatly. Telling people to improve their character doesn't cut it... you have to give them tools. Now, we can argue about what kind of tools and we can try a bunch of different things because there's not going to be a cookie-cutter solution, but everyone has to realize that platitudes spouted by politicians during elections years does not equal any kind of solution. I'm sorry, but it does take a villiage to raise a kid.

You make a good point when you mention the education industry... Why is there an education industry? I think changing our emphasis from a consumer driven economy to one emphasizing savings would also help a great deal. Every person and family in this country has to feel beseiged by the tremendous forces that try to bilk you out of your money... whether it's the credit card companies with exhorbitant fees, schools asking for contributions because they are not adequately funded, or even the guy who interrupts my dinner because he has some "left-over" premium steaks he can sell me below costs. I can't imagine the pressure low-income folks must feel in this economy... just going to the laundromat one time when were in the middle of a move, I was amazed at how much it costs you to do laundry if you don't have the means to purchase and support your own machine. It's damn expensive to be poor in this country.

 

Personally, I believe we should legalize prostitution and regulate the industry like they do in some European countries. I was in Holland and they regularly test prostitutes for Aids as well as other sexual diseases. You also have to be a certain age in order to be a legal prostitute. The crazy thing over there is that they have booths where woman in lingerie pose for men--and they get to choose who they will have sex with in the crowd. Also, the prostitutes are protected by bodyguards that stay hidden in the booth if trouble arises. I believe that illegal prostitution (not government regulated) is almost non-existent in Holland. I think this would be a much better approach than waging a war on prostitution.

 

I think the people involved in exploiting children should go to prison for life. It is only one step below murder.

 

If you legalize prostitution, do you think that this may cause child prostitution to be significantly reduced in number? If you regulate the industry like they do in Europe, the number of child prostitutes would be drastically reduced in numbers. I think I mentioned something about this to a Dutchman and he remarked that they check for age and vigorously go after all forms of child prostitution. Was he wrong or just delusional in thinking?

 

I don't disagree with your premise, I just believe thinking the GOVERNMENT can be the vehicle for solution will fail.

I think you and I can do more in our community than the government can. And if there are not enough Americans that care enough to do something then it is too late.

I live in a 1974 mobile home, live from paycheck to paycheck, and I'm raising a family of my own. I feel some of the pressure.

I believe there are people with problems that are looking for an answer that works. Just in my church I have several ex-crack heads, prostitutes and the like. They have been in government education, government programs and government detention centers for years and their lives just got worse. It takes more than a community to help these days, I think it will take God.

It is a dilemma that didn't appear overnight and isn't going away overnight.

And BTW child p*rnography and child molestation and abuse must be stopped. It is a terrible thing.

 

I don't think can rely on a society who's foundation is materialism and greed to solve the problems of desire. The problem is a reflection of ourselves. All it takes is deep understanding, recognition of desire, and peaceful practice in all aspects of our lives. But that's a lot and I don't see it happening.

 

works pretty well in Europe, but I think Americans are too uptight to do this in all states.

 

I hadn't heard about the system in Holland. Max, have you heard about this?

 

A half step at most.

 

yes. and i've read articles that say it hasn't done anything to diminish the role of child prostitution or child p*rnography in those countries.

here's a very depressing article if you're interested:

http://www.ctlibrary.com/10731

 

Who is?

 

i think the person quoted suggests that a culture that reduces people to objects is among the causes of this problem

 

[off topic]

Max

Didn't want to start a new thread but thought you might be interested in this...

http://www9.nationalgeographic.com/lostgospel/

 

thanks...yeah, i saw a preview for that the other day.

 

And what are the causes of that? "The New Abolitionists" claim

It is similarly impossible to fill the abyss that is sex trafficking. The drives that fuel it—both greed and sexual desire—are insatiable. Still, local champions have arisen. In concert, from various fronts and on differing levels here and abroad, they are working around the abyss. Four mentioned here represent only a few frontline activists among countless others.

Too bad they don't address the actual desire. That's the real message that needs to get out.

 

It is a sad story, to be sure, but one written with bias that is apparent when they don't even acknowledge that many, many men and women become prostitutes on their own and choose to stay prostitutes for their own reasons.

If we took every dollar now spent on the drug war and used it to fight sex trafficking in humans, a practice that 99% of Americans would say is wrong, we could do a lot more good than is now being done with that money. We start up advertising campaigns that tell young kids where to go if they choose to run away and more advertising targeted at teens that tell them what to do if they find themselves in a situation they don't feel they can control.

We set up shelters like those that exist for battered women so we can move victims far away from the pimps that have threatened them and immunize them from prosecution to help them decide to turn over the traffickers. We set up drug rehab clinics in these shelters along with job training or high school/college funding to get them into a situation where they can get out of that life.

Unfortunately, the biggest thing that will reduce demand for illicit prostitution is regulating prostitution that we can define as allowable. Christianity Today might not see anything as "allowable" prostitution, but if there were a legal market, tracking down the black marketeers would be FAR easier.

I guarantee that if we devoted the same resources toward fighting this problem that we now throw down the drug war hole, we would have a dramatic impact. I feel so sure of it that I would set up a measurement system with the program to help us track the impact and make adjustments to the strategy based on what is working and what is not.

 

i'm not sure i understand what you mean.

 

i disagree with the notion that if you regulate adult consensual prostitution that it will necessarily make it easier to track down those involved in child prostitution. i don't see how they're necessarily related. the bias you speak of is real in that article, to be sure. but it's irrelevant when the prostitute is a child who is under the legal age to consent in the first place.

having said that...i think it's awesome that there is much more awareness about this issue than there has been in the past. and that people are proposing all sorts of solutions. that crap has to stop.