3-month-old and 5-year-old Girls Rescued in Sex Trafficking Crackdown. This is the headline in an October CNN online report of a nationwide crackdown that netted some 120 perpetrators and rescued close to 100 juveniles. The infants were offered to an undercover FBI agent for $600.
Few things make me sick to my stomach. This does. Despicable is a mild word for pimping or selling little girls in the sex-trafficking trade. Although my guts churn, the real sickness is in the traders and the johns that patronize the victims. Suggesting a long-term treatment that works to overcome this perversion is beyond my expertise. But while professionals tackle that aspect of the problem, direct action is needed to curb, catch, and convict (with severe penalties) those who do these horrid things.
This issue is a major theme in the novel Bazo. It will continue with the in-the-works sequel, Gunnar. Parts of the writings are, to say the least, unsavory in my effort to paint a picture of the gravity of the situation. The bad guys are really bad, and I spare no quarter in portraying them that way. While my characters are fictional, corresponding evildoers in real life abound.
The CNN article notes that in the latest crackdown operation, the average age for the victims was 15-years-old. And while dollars in any underground illegal activity are hard to track, the dollars that trade hands in this business is in the many billions.
Are victims of the sex trade, underage and older, in your community? You can bet the back forty that there are. One of the things any citizen can do is alert authorities to any activity that raises your suspicions. There are organizations and hotlines that will receive and act on your report. You might be wrong . . . but you might also save someone’s life.
