Girls, many as young as 11-13 years old are victims in US commercial sex markets — pornography, stripping, escort services and prostitution. They are forced into the sex trade against their will and subjected to physical, sexual and emotional abuse. The most common image of human trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation is one of individuals being smuggled across foreign borders or children being abducted from Third World countries and being forced into slave labor. These egregious crimes are indeed happening and warrant immediate action. But another less known or misunderstood form of this heinous crime is the domestic commercial sexual exploitation of girls and young women throughout the United States. The NCCD Center for Girls and Young Women (The Center) is deeply concerned about the failures of our system to identify and protect these girls and to let them fall through the cracks, open to the false promises of a “better life.”
