Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in New York City, Volume One: The CSEC Population in New York City: Size, Characteristics, and Needs

The author(s) shown below used Federal funds provided by the U.S. Department of Justice and prepared the following final report: Document Title: Author: Document No.: Date Received: Award Number: Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in New York City, Volume One: The CSEC Population in New York City: Size, Characteristics, and Needs Ric Curtis, Karen Terry, Meredith Dank, Kirk Dombrowski, and Bilal Khan 225083 December 2008 2005-LX-FX-0001 This report has not been published by the U.S. Department of Justice. To provide better customer service, NCJRS has made this Federally-funded grant final report available electronically in addition to traditional paper copies. Opinions or points of view expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. This document is a research report submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice. This report has not been published by the Department. Opinions or points of view expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. R E S E A R C H A Project of the Fund for the City of New York The Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in New York City Volume One The CSEC Population in New York City: Size, Characteristics, and Needs Ric Curtis, Karen Terry, Meredith Dank, Kirk Dombrowski, and Bilal Khan Report Submitted to the National Institute of Justice, United States Department of Justice 520 Eighth Avenue, 18th Floor New York, New York 10018 212.397.3050 fax 212.397.0985 www.courtinnovation.org September 2008 This document is a research report submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice. This report has not been published by the Department. Opinions or points of view expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. Acknowledgements This study was supported by a grant from the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) of the U.S. Department of Justice (contract # 2005-LX-FX-0001). We are deeply grateful to our grant manager, Karen Bachar, for her tremendous guidance and assistance throughout the project. The opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Department of Justice. As required by the original NIJ solicitation, this study involved two components: a population estimate and a formative evaluation of a citywide project intended to address the commercial sexual exploitation of children in New York City. The John Jay College of Criminal Justice implemented the population estimate and description of the exploited youth (Volume One); and the Center for Court Innovation implemented the formative evaluation (Volume Two). The two research teams also reviewed each other’s work and jointly authored an Executive Summary. The current authors would like to thank their CCI colleagues, Amy Muslim, Melissa Labriola, and Michael Rempel for their invaluable insights and collaboration. We would also like to thank the following individuals for their insight, hard work, and dedication to this project: The John Jay research team: Mady Bribiesca, Lisa Robbins-Stathas, Cornelia Preda, Karla Sevilla, Amy Cornell, Deborah Thomas, Stephanie Alfaro, Sandra Bucerius, Ryan Shanahan, Kyer Arias, Peter Swimm, and Kelly McGuigan. The professionals who helped train the research team and refer subjects: John Welch (Street Work), Brigid Flaherty (SAVI), Linda Lopez (Legal Aid), Rachel Lloyd (GEMS), Marya Gwadz (NDRI), Travis Wendel (NDRI), Cynthia Mercado (John Jay), and Jim Bolus and Margo Hirsch (Empire State Coalition), Michele Sviridoff (Office of the NYC Criminal Justice Coordinator), Kara Kaplan (Office of the NYC Criminal Justice Coordinator) and everybody else who took the time out of their hectic schedules to meet with us about this issue. Acknowledgements Page i This document is a research report submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice. This report has not been published by the Department. Opinions or points of view expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. Table of Contents I Introduction……………………………………………………………………..…Page 1 II Methodology…………………………………………………………………….…Page 3 The CSEC population in New York City: size, characteristics, and needs……........Page 3 The Rationale: Why this method?..............................................................................Page 3 The Preparations: Formative Research……………………………………….…….Page 7 The Data Collection Process: adjustments to the plan……………………….….....Page 20 III Research Findings and Data Analysis…………………………………...….…..Page 32 Population estimates and special seeds…………………………………………....Page 32 Data Analysis………………………………………………………………...……Page 36 RDS Recruitment Data……………………………………………………...…….Page 37 Demographics of Eligible Youth in the Sample……………………………...…...Page 42 Entry into the CSEC Market…………………………………………………...….Page 46 Engaging the CSEC Market………………………………………………….…....Page 55 Money Earned & Spent………………………………………………………........Page 66 Pimps and Other Market Facilitators…………………………………………..….Page 72 Customers…………………………………………………………………..……..Page 78 Violence and Protection……………………………………………………..…….Page 83 Arrest History………………………………………………………………..…….Page 89 Health and Substance Abuse…………………………………………………..…..Page 94 Youth Service Agencies………………………………………………………..….Page 98 Reflections on “The Life” and Future Expectations……………………………...Page 102 IV Conclusion……………………………………………………………………….Page 111 Table of Contents Page ii This document is a research report submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice. This report has not been published by the Department. Opinions or points of view expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. Chapter One Introduction The number of commercially sexually exploited children (CSEC) in the United States is unknown, but the U.S. Department of Justice estimates that there are between 100,000 and three million, including children forced into prostitution, pornography, and those trafficked into the country for sexual slavery. For the purposes of this study, commercially sexually exploited children are defined as juveniles (18 and under) who perform sexual acts in exchange for money, drugs, food or shelter. According to researchers and child advocates, the CSEC issue mostly affects: runaway and homeless youth who trade sex as a means of survival; children who have been sexually, physically and emotionally abused; juveniles with minimum education who are unable to find legitimate employment; and children who are vulnerable and easily controlled and manipulated by an adult looking to make a profit. This study of commercially sexually exploited children in New York City, and the City’s response to the problem, conducted by the Center for Court Innovation and John Jay College of Criminal Justice (see Volume Two for the background to the project), hopes to provide an empirical foundation that will better inform policy makers, professionals, researchers and advocates about the extent and nature of the problem. Though there is a dearth of empirical data about the commercial sexual exploitation of children to offer guidance to policy makers, clearly, the larger context of the sex business in New York City – in which CSEC markets are embedded – has dramatically changed over the last two decades. For example, under the Giuliani administration all “adult establishments,” including stores specializing in sexually explicit magazines, books and videos as well as strip clubs and peeps shows, had to be located at least five hundred feet apart from each other and at least five hundred feet away from churches, schools and residential districts. These establishments were also restricted from operating in certain commercial and manufacturing districts. The regulations severely limited the number of adult establishments located around Times Square, and significantly reduced street prostitution in the Midtown area (Sviridoff et al, 2000)1, displacing much of the sex business to the outer boroughs (Spangenberg, 2001)2. More recently, in January 2002, Mayor Bloomberg announced “Operation Clean Sweep” with the purpose of abolishing quality of life problems by targeting repeat offenders with high numbers of arrests, including those involved with prostitution, with the use of undercover police to arrest offenders or issue them summonses, and the more aggressive pursuit of warrant cases. But as law enforcement has devoted more attention to pursuing the street-level sex market and their participants, the sex business has adapted and diversified, becoming reliant on technological innovations such as the Internet and cell phones, to conduct business. The paradox is that while the City can rightfully claim to have made progress in addressing the most blatant sex markets, there is scant evidence that the overall sex market has been reduced in size during this same period of time. Indeed, all evidence points to the opposite conclusion: that the sex market is bigger and more multi-faceted than ever. The hidden nature of the CSEC population and the stigma that is attached to sexual 1 Sviridoff, M., Rottman, D., Ostrom, B. & Curtis, R. (2000). Dispensing Justice Locally: The Implementation and Effects of the Midtown Community Court. Amsterdam: Harwood Academic. 2 Spangenberg, M. (2001). “Prostituted Youth in New York City: An Overview.” ECPAT-USA. Chapter One. Introduction Page 1 ... - tailieumienphi.vn