Triangle:
There is one thing stays consistent with the materials of our course that is the link of poverty to every area. It does not matter your age, where you live or how you live, all of the people that we have studied all come from the common link of poverty. Generally they are raised in it and at some point reproduce offspring that will continue in the same lifestyle or income level.
The second point is the one that is hard to swallow is that these young people are turning to sex trades in order to help dysfunctional families, and abusive situations. Clearly stated in our Newline Statistics article “child prostitution in the United States is often the product of family dysfunction. “Over 70 per cent [of victims of commercial sexual exploitation] have been in child welfare system at some point. Which indicates that something is going on in the home, whether its abuse or neglect or alcoholism,” (Keim, unicef.org). It is so difficult to think that here we have children that are not only products of abuse, but continuing to be abused by the profession that their life situation has put before them.
The last point to my triangle is what the child’s attitude is towards their life situation and the position they are in with working in the sex trade. Generally many of them do not see themselves as being abused until they are much older; they are acting off of the need of the family, the pressure of being able to make ends meet while making the parental figures happy.
Square:
My squaring confrontation with this problem is that it is at endemic levels, it’s scary to think that ““at least 300,000 children and adolescents are prostituted every year in the United States” (Kiem, 2008). This means that of those 300,000 children 210,000 of them are products of sexual and physical abuse according to the statistics above. And this is only in the United States; if you take into account the number of youthful internet brides and illegal prostitution in other countries it is really enough to make you ill. What does one do in order to make a dent in the problem, or how do you really make people really aware of the problem? It all seems overwhelming.
Circle:
With all the abuse, neglect and exploitation what about the physical and emotional issues that these children will face such as depression, physiological issues, and even disease as adults. It is stated in Sex Trafficking of Women in the United States that “Almost half of the U.S. women (47%) reported head injuries. Thirty-six percent of the international woman and 53 percent of the U.S. women reported mouth and teeth injuries. Fifty-six percent of the U.S. women required emergency room treatment for injuries and illnesses sustained while in the sex industry… Sixty-four percent of U.S. women said they had suicidal thoughts and 63 percent said they had tried to hurt or kill themselves”. This means that of all of these children that are being subjected to sex trades and abuse that over 50% of them will end in some sort of psychological or physical complication if not death. It is truly eye opening to see what a sad cycle of life is being left for so many children internationally.
Works Cited
Kiem, E. (2008). Child sexual exploitation in the USA: Not just a problem for developing nations. Unicef. Retrieved June 18, 2011 from http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/usa_46464.html
Raymond, J., Hughes, D., & Gomez, C. (2001). Sex Trafficking of Women in the United States: Links Between International and Domestic Sex Industries, Funded by the U.S. National Institute of Justice. N. Amherst, MA:
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