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 The Irish Examiner
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
A
former Dublin prostitute speaks about her seven years working in the
Irish sex trade and argues against the idea that legalisation can make
the work any safer
FOLLOWING the latest revelations about
Ireland’s booming prostitution rackets, a former Dublin prostitute has
written a stark account of her seven year ordeal in the industry which
began when she was just 15.
At that young age, circumstances no
child should ever experience forced her to sell her body to elderly men,
who would openly be aroused by abusing a child. Before she managed to
extricate herself from a life in which she says she was "raped for a
living", she admits she even contemplated suicide...
"The nation
is finally beginning to take a look at the intrinsic harm of
prostitution. I welcome this because it is a harm I have understood
since I was a 15-year-old prostitute, being used by up to 10 men a day.
The one thing that linked those men together, besides their urges to pay
to abuse my young body, was that they all knew just how young I was.
They all knew because I told them, and I told them because it had the
near-universal effect of causing them to become very aroused.
"When
a man is very aroused in street prostitution that is a good thing,
because it means he’ll climax quickly and the whole ordeal will be over
fairly fast. I learned that on my very first day while sitting in the
car of an elderly man who repeated over and over the thing that was
causing him such sexual joy: ‘Oh, you’re very young — aren’t you? Aren’t
you?’
"That is the true, sleazy and debased face of prostitution
— the face that pro-prostitution lobby groups hysterically deny and
attempt to conceal. Well, they cannot conceal it from me. I spent too
long looking at it, too long being abused by it, and too long trying to
recover from the soul-level injury it left behind.
"Many of the
girls I worked alongside were not much older than I was, and one was
only 13-years-old — and there was no shortage of grown men paying to
abuse her. Most of the older women had been working since they were our
age or younger, and many of them had histories of sexual abuse that
predated their prostitution lives. When a person looks at a 30- or
40-something prostitute what they forget is that they are looking, in
most cases, at a woman who has been inured to bodily invasion since she
was a prepubescent child.
"I didn’t just work outdoors. When the
Sexual Offences Act of 1993 came into force it drove me and many others
indoors, where we had even less autonomy over the conditions of our own
lives. In the brothels and the ‘escort’ agencies, we had to endure the
same things we did on the streets, but we had to endure them for longer,
and with no screening process as to who would pay to abuse us.
"You
might wonder, ‘if you were a prostitute, what did it matter who it
was?’ That is an innocent question, and it is deserving of an answer. It
mattered because, far from being unaware of the abusive nature of
prostitution, a lot of men were not only aware of it but actively got
off on it. The misogyny from a lot of men was so potent and so
deliberate it could cause nothing but trauma. And we, as the prostituted
class that we were, could do nothing to protect ourselves other than
try to avoid its most potent manifestations. This had been at least
somewhat possible on the streets, where we could do our best to discern
whether or not a man had hatred and the desire to hurt us seeping out of
every pore. It was not at all possible once we’d gotten run indoors,
and the immediate effect was a rapid escalation in violence and murder.
"Irish
prostitution has been mainly conducted indoors since then, and nothing
about this ugliness has abated because it’s been concealed from the
public view. In fact the opposite has been true. We were abused more
thoroughly, not less, with the only difference being that now there was
the secrecy of closed doors to conceal it.
"There is no doubt
that many of these men had daughters older than I was, yet the abuse
they unleashed on me was devastating, violent, humiliating and
degrading. It was paid sexual abuse. It was ritualistic, and I
experienced it in every area of prostitution.
"Do not for a
moment think that the men paying to abuse here are not ‘ordinary men’. I
could not count the number of wedding rings and babies car seats I
encountered. The men who pay to debase and degrade women and girls in
prostitution are the same men who play out the pretence of being happily
married family men. I wonder sometimes at the amount of women who would
be shocked, not only to know their husbands are visiting prostitutes,
but also to know the depth of their own husbands’ contempt and
misogynistic hatred of women.
"Under Irish law, the abusive
nature of prostitution has been allowed to flourish unhindered and it is
a living hell for the women struggling to survive within it. It is
primarily for the sake of these women, but also for all of us who want
to live in a gender-equal society, that I am gladdened to see the Irish
Government finally pledge to tackle this issue.
"I only hope that
they go the right way about it, which is to criminalise the purchase of
sex, because nothing will change for prostituted women and girls until
the commercialisation of female bodies is dealt the hammer-blow it so
richly deserves.
"To those who would say legalisation would make
prostitution safer: I think the same thing any former prostitute I’ve
ever spoken to thinks, which is that you may as well legalise rape and
battery to try to make them safer. You cannot legislate away the
dehumanising, degrading trauma of prostitution, and if you try to, you
are accepting a separate class of women should exist who have no access
to the human rights everyone else takes for granted."
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Posted by SMBerg on Friday, March 02 @ 11:07:27 EST (4518 reads)
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| News: Iranian child victim of prostitution |
By Julia Rooke
Reporter, Crossing Continents
BBC News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/crossing_continents/7107184.stm
Sold into prostitution aged nine, condemned by an Iranian judge to hang
at 18, Leila was saved by a group of human rights activists.
"I was nine years old when my mother started selling me. I did not understand what was happening."
Today Leila is a young woman of 22. For the past two years she has
been cared for by a private home for destitute young women in Tehran,
Omid E Mehr, which means Hope.
"My mother would say: 'Let's go out to buy things, like
chocolates'. She would actually trick me. I was a tiny girl. She just
took me to places."
Leila still finds it difficult to talk about the past. But we know
that the "places" she speaks of are where she was sold for sex and
raped.
Leila became the main source of income for a family of five.
The lawyer who eventually saved Leila's life, Shadi Sadr, is a
controversial figure in Iran. Although she was imprisoned earlier this
year for taking part in human rights demonstrations, she is widely
respected and frequently quoted in the press.
A girl is considered one of the first commodities or properties
that can be traded or sold in the eyes of a parent who is poor in Iran
Ms Sadr says Leila's story is not unique.
"A girl is considered one of the first commodities or properties
that can be traded or sold in the eyes of a parent who is poor in
Iran," she says.
Ms Sadr says that, in practice in Iran, under the Islamic penal code a father has enormous power over his own children.
"If a father decides to kill his own child he will not be sentenced
to death, he will only be sent to prison for a couple of years."
Temporary wife
Leila lived in Arak, a small town four hours drive south of Tehran
- notorious for criminal behaviour and illegal drugs. Most of Leila's
earnings went on illegal narcotics for her family.
According to the United Nations three quarters of the world's opium
seizures take place in Iran and the authorities acknowledge addiction
is a serious problem.
But there are no such statistics on prostitution. The Director of the Omid E Mehr centre in Tehran says it is a growing problem.
"I have entered many homes in the south of Tehran where young girls
had to go out and sell their bodies to provide for their father's drug
habits," says Eshrat Gholipour.
I have also seen several cases of families chaining their own daughter to the homes to stop them from running away."
Leila's husband began selling her for sex to as many as 15 men each
night. Two months into the marriage, police raided the house and
arrested everyone.
The husband was sentenced to five years in jail for providing a house for illegal sex.
During the course of the criminal investigation, Leila's brothers
had confessed to raping her. They were flogged. For this Leila was
accused of incest. A crime punishable by death.
Leila was in a women's prison when she heard about her own sentence
from the warder: "I am going to tell you something but please do not be
upset. You are going to be hanged."
Ms Sadr says the judicial system is deeply conservative and unfair.
"These male judges have not had any training about sexual charges.
They all have a chauvinistic point of view and they see the woman as
guilty," she says.
Leila's brothers later retracted their confessions. Ms Sadr took Leila's case to appeal and won.
Death sentence
Earlier this year Ms Sadr defended and won the case of 19-year-old
Nazanine, sentenced to death for killing a man who tried to rape her.
Today she too is a free woman.
There will be so many protests... from the human rights activists
that the judges are under pressure not to issue a death sentence"
According to Amnesty International, 177 people were executed in
Iran last year, of these four were women - this year the number is up
to five. The real figures could be higher as executions are not always
reported.
But Ms Sadr and other Iranian lawyers say that constant
human-rights campaigning and publicity is making Iran's judges more
sensitive to public opinion. "There will be so many protests or so much
complaints from the human rights activists that the judges are under
pressure not to issue a death sentence," she says.
Tender hope
Today Leila lives in a small flat with a full-time carer paid for by Ms Sadr and the Omid E Mehr day centre.
When Leila arrived she was illiterate and needed to be taught the basics of life.
"She did not know anything," says Marjaneh Halati, the founder of
Omid E Mehr, "to the point that she did not know that you wear a pad
when you get a period."
Today Leila is learning to read and earning money as a seamstress.
But Ms Halati also knows that by helping girls like Leila - by
boosting their self-esteem and encouraging independence - the centre is
treading a fine line.
"We live in Iran and there are certain rules we have to abide by,
but it does not mean we cannot tell the girls that they are no
different to men. They are individuals," she says.
Today Leila is free and attitudes may slowly be changing. Iran passed its first child protection laws five years ago.
This spring a new bill drafted by human rights lawyers, is expected
to go before Parliament to make prosecutions in child abuse cases
easier.
Crossing Continents on BBC Radio 4
tells Leila's story on Thursday, November 29 at 1100 GMT, her story
will also be told on the World Service programme Assignment on
Wednesday, December 5 at 0900 GMT.
Leila's interview was recorded by the Iranian filmmaker, Hamid Rahmanian for a forthcoming film about the Omid e Mehr.
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Posted by smberg on Thursday, November 29 @ 10:32:20 EST (4139 reads)
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| News: Fine clients to get hookers off the street |
By IRENE CHAPPLE - Sunday Star Times | Sunday, 6 May 2007
A review of prostitution laws will propose fining clients
who buy sex off street workers in an effort to limit the industry to
brothels.
The prostitution industry has been under review by a United
Future-led group and the Ministry of Justice since it was legalised in
2003. Both reports have considered numbers of prostitutes now working,
health and safety issues, and anecdotal stories around women being
brought into New Zealand specifically to work in the industry. Inland
Revenue figures on the number of prostitutes are not available because
there is no industry tax code, but there are believed to be around 6000
in New Zealand. The Prostitution Working Group, made up of
United Future MP Gordon Copeland, former United Future MP Larry
Baldock, and Labour MP Marian Hobbs, was part of United Future's
confidence and supply agreement with Labour. The report will be
released next month and will contain at least three major
recommendations. Copeland said the review group - which had met
with around 243 people representing city councils, residents, and
prostitution and welfare groups - had pinpointed several legal issues
for improvement. Copeland said legalised brothels meant there
was no need for street prostitution, which carried more dangers than
working in a brothel. "We would look to bring in sanctions for buyers on the street... there are people as young as 12 out there ." Copeland,
who voted against the act when it passed by just one vote, said the
group's aim was to get rid of street prostitution. He said Christchurch people, in particular, had raised concerns about the number of prostitutes working there. "People living in Manchester Street came to us in big numbers." Penalties
for buyers would be "an absolute key recommendation" of the report,
which had "huge support" from women's groups. It would also
re-introduce policing of the industry to crack down on underage
prostitution and violent behaviour by clients. Copeland said
the report would also recommend halving the number of prostitutes who
can work in suburban brothels from four to two, and cracking down on
underage prostitutes by getting at least two forms of identification
for brothel workers. However, the Prostitution Law Review
Committee chair Paul Fitzharris - a former police assistant
commissioner - said punishing clients was not necessarily a deterrent
and some prostitutes wanted to work on the streets. Fitzharris
also rejected Copeland's claim that prostitute numbers had increased
four-fold. He said research conducted by his committee - which will
make its final report next year - showed numbers had stayed steady or
decreased. Copeland said he believed young people dressed in
"hoodies" - rather than mini- skirts - were operating as prostitutes
and had not been counted. However, Fitzharris said his
committee's figures, collated by police and the Prostitutes'
Collective, was the most accurate count ever done. Both had heard anecdotal evidence of more Asian sex workers, some brought into the country specifically for the job. Fitzharris
warned against reading too much into anecdotal evidence, but one strip
club owner, Tony Garraway of Firecats in Hamilton, said the phenomena
had ruined conditions for New Zealand prostitutes. Garraway
said women from countries such as Thailand and China were charging as
little as $50 a job and undercutting the locals. He said there were
also health issues because the industry was no longer being closely
monitored. "I blame it on the fact they legalised it and nobody did any research on what was going to happen, they left it wide open."
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Posted by smberg on Monday, May 14 @ 13:49:25 EDT (4764 reads)
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| News: |
EDITORIAL
Battle Creek Enquirer
B-SAFE offers alternative to life of drugs and prostitution
Women caught in a world of drugs and prostitution seldom hold much
hope for a better life. They often are enslaved by their addictions,
selling their bodies for survival.If they are arrested, it
usually means a quick trip through the legal system and then back out
on the street. It is a vicious cycle that wastes lives and erodes
communities.In an attempt to address some of the underlying causes of prostitution,
Calhoun County has launche pilot program called B-SAFE (Beat Sexual
solicitation And Forbid Exploitation) as an alternative to
traditionally sentencing. B-SAFE is run through the county's Drug
Court, which was created to help those convicted of nonviolent drug
crimes.If a woman is arrested for a prostitution-related crime and
deemed a good candidate for B-SAFE, she can plead guilty and have her
sentencing put on hold for six months. She then must enter the B-SAFE
program, which will help her get assistance for drug and sexual
addictions, as well as provide art therapy and classes in health,
healthy relationships, self-esteem and forgiveness. Participants also
must enroll in a 12-step prostitution recovery program.If, at
the end of six months, the woman completes the program, the charges she
faces may either be reduced or dismissed. The goal, of course, is that
the charges are dismissed and the woman is ready to build a new,
healthy life for herself.The main advantage of the B-SAFE
program is that is offers women an opportunity to turn their lives
around and shun drugs and prostitution for a more productive lifestyle.
If it proves successful, it also will help ease the burden on our
courts and help those neighborhoods that are battling prostitution and
the related problems it often brings.B-SAFE, however, cannot force
anyone to change. A woman who participates in the program only to avoid
serving jail time is unlikely to benefit long-term from the services
she will be offered through B-SAFE. Like all recovery efforts, an
individual must first want to stop the addictive behaviors that have sent his or her life into a downward spiral before they can be helped.We
hope that through the B-SAFE program, women who have turned to
prostitution for survival will see the opportunity that is being
provide to them and will take full advantage of it. Not only will their
lives be far better because of it, but their families, friends and the
entire community will benefit as well.
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Posted by smberg on Wednesday, July 19 @ 20:19:10 EDT (4362 reads)
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| Introducing My Warrior |
Reposted from the blog Den of the Biting Beaver, February 9, 2006
http://bitingbeaver.blogspot.com/
I got an email this morning from someone. It was an email talking about
her repeated rape at the hands of a young man. This is not the first
such letter I have received in my email and the feelings it evoked in
me were neither uncommon, nor unique insofar as I have had them before.
The pain from these women bleeds through in their words, the
screams I hear when I read their stories resonates so deeply inside of
me that I tremble with barely contained rage, fear and sadness.
I have received several such letters since starting this blog. And
more confessions and stories and voices than I can separate in the
clutter that is my mind. Each and every woman on this site has a story,
chances are good that it is that story that brought them here in the
first place. Now, those stories may not be alike in the details, not
every woman has been raped, not every woman has been abused, but every
one of them has found a thread of commonality in a radical voice. For
whatever reason they have seen the cancer infecting this society, seen
its ugly face and the barren wasteland and dead women it has left
behind.
I cried this morning. I locked myself in my bedroom for a few
moments and I cried. I cried the tears of sadness and rage that explode
from my soul each and every time I read another story. I sobbed quietly
beneath my covers, not wanting to upset my children who were busy
reading their books for school. I cried the tears of the victim and
survivor and I cried for yet another life destroyed, shattered by the
force that is male pride and entitlement.
As I read that email this morning, as I have done on other mornings
when a commenter has been moved to write to me, I felt rage burning
fresh in my blood. I felt sadness and a loss so deadly that it brings
everything home to me. It reminds me, in violent waves, about the
society in which we women are forced to live. A society in which half
of the population hates us for no reason I can discern.
This has been a trying week for me. I'm working on Friday fun with
Site meter and the searches that are there are terrifying in their
honesty. "Beautiful girls being raped", "Sluts being beaten and raped",
the searches march across my screen, a grim reality and testament to
the world in which I live. It is a testament to the violence of men,
the undiluted disgust and hatred with which they view us.
And on this morning, there was another letter, another story,
another scream from another woman who has joined the rank and file of
the millions of survivors. Always, there is confusion in me when I see
the proof of male violence and hatred towards women. Ever there is
confusion, a sort of disjointed question that hangs thickly in the air,
tainting my skin and forcing itself to be articulated.
"Why?"
That is the scream that rips through me. It is the question that lies unanswered and unspoken. Why?
Why? Why? Why? WHY???? Why do they do this to us? Why do they hate
with such ferocity? Why do they spoil and silence these beautiful
voices that are just waiting to be heard? Why do they contaminate and
rip and tear and steal from women?
This is the word, the question that I asked myself as I cried this
morning. This is the one thought that tore through me, demanding an
answer, but I know that no answer will ever come. No answer can quiet
that scream. When they say, "It's because I wanted to", it doesn't make
it stop. I want to say "WHY did you want to?", "What did we do to
you?", "Why didn't you care?", "Why does our pain bring you such
intense pleasure?" Why? Why? Why?
They cannot provide a suitable answer, they cannot quiet the "Why?"
flitting in and out of the corners of my mind. They cannot provide the
answer anymore than they can give that girl back her life, anymore than
they can undo the damage they wreak. There is no easy answer; there is
only the reality of the millions of screaming voices, the millions of
voices that have been silenced.
People come to me and say that radical feminism cannot be taken seriously because
the women in it are largely composed of survivors (although, they say
'victims'). I say that it is because of this that radical feminism
needs to be taken seriously. We are the proof of male violence, right
here is the most honest and sincere proof you can find. It is because
we are so largely comprised of so many survivors, and not just
survivors of rape and molestation, but survivors of male pride and
violence in all of it's forms it takes, that we need to be taken
seriously.
Everyone reading this has a story. Kaka Mak, Delphyne, Ginmar,
Laura, Mink Stole, Kelly Bell, and all the others (I know your names
but I can't list them all, they ring through my head even as I type and
I know that the numbers are too large to list) all of you have a story,
a need, a desire. Each and every one of you has experienced the proof
of male entitlement and violence. No, chances are good that not every
one of you has experienced rape or sexual assault, but ALL of you have
seen the truth and ALL of you have been affected by the hatred that men
show us.
Occasionally, one of you reaches out to me, trying to make sense of
it all and I, sadly, have no sense to give. I have no greater wisdom,
no sage advice, no greater understanding of the unending question of
"Why?" but there can be no doubt that your stories are just as real.
From the rage, to the sadness, to the helplessness and back to the
rage, the stories are there. The violence, the entitlement, the ego,
the aggression, all of us have felt it to some degree or another. From
the woman who spends her entire day scrubbing toilets for minimum wage,
to the women who have been harassed in the park or on the street all
the way to the women who vowed to love a man only to find herself the
recipient of his fists, down to the woman who went on that date with
the 'nice guy' and ended her night being raped. All of you have stories
and it is these stories and this deep seated, undying desire to make it
stop that brings radicals together.
The letter I got this morning affected me down to that primal part
of my soul and I felt the desperation that so many of us have felt. The
overwhelming sadness and helplessness of it all. It woke that sleeping
warrior within me who first cried for the loss of yet another woman,
who screamed and mourned and sobbed for the loss of yet another one of
us. But now she is angry again. And her anger feeds my desire, it is
her indignation at the masses of women left behind, sold out, forgotten
and silenced that compels me to push forward, even when I stop for a
moment to sob and regain my footing. She fills me with anger and rage
and focused energy to try and accomplish the impossible. And only when
the rapes, beatings, and cycle of male violence has stopped will she be
sated.
I stand in the face of these men who search for, "slut rape", and
"sexy girls being beaten and raped". I stand in the face of all the men
that have stolen my sense of safety and security. I stand in your face
Richard, and Scott and Kevin. I stand in the faces of Steven and Shawn
and Brian. I stand in the faces of all the men who would take what I
never offered and I stand in the face of the fucker who stole the
innocence and youth from the girl who wrote me just today.
I am your worst fucking nightmare.
Here is my promise to you Mr. "Story-Snuff". I will be your conscience if you refuse to have one. I will be the screams that you tried to silence. I
am your worst nightmare, the walking skeleton of the dead bodies of the
souls that you destroyed with your violence, with your entitlement and
with your ego. I will not shut up until you have felt, tenfold, the
pain that you have wreaked upon the women you have encountered. I, and others like me, will force your eyes open to the pain that you have caused and if I have one desire that burns through me with the fiercest passion I have ever known it is this: I
want for you to never have another moment of peace in your lives. I
want you to never sleep soundly again, I want the souls of these women
to haunt you for all eternity, even into your next life and the lives
beyond that.
I am no longer a victim, I am a survivor and I will continue to tell
every person I meet of you and your kind. I will force-feed the pain of
millions down your putrid mouth until you vomit it up, then, I will
force it down again.
You, all of you, every one of you that come to this blog looking for, "Sexy women being raped and beaten", YOU
are my mark and my crosshairs are firmly on you. You are the reason
that we all have stories, you are the reason that every day more women,
thousands more women, millions in the world, join the rank and file of
the survivors and my voice is aimed at you.
I will not let you forget the screams until they have stopped. I am
the ever present reminder of your fucked up entitlement and I will not
be silenced until my ashes are thrown across the ground. My voice is
small on its own, but it is a part of a sea of voices, a vast army of
voices that is growing larger and stronger by the day. Each and every
time you beat another woman, or rape another woman, or push your fucked
up entitlement onto another woman, in whatever form it takes, you
create another one of me. Do you hear that? You create another me.
The numbers keep rising and when they rise up and the sobs turn to
cries and the cries to screams and the warrior in us that YOU created
and YOU awoke comes seeking her vengeance then you will know that it
was YOU who created us.
To my readers, I hear your voices, I believe your truths and you
are not alone. Those of you who have felt male violence and who are
scattered and afraid and unsure about yourselves take heart for there
are millions of us in this world and those who have found our anger and
our rage will speak until you feel able to do so. There are millions of
hands extended to you, keep talking, keep speaking, your voice is
powerful and your stories are truth. Don’t stop writing to me, and
don’t stop talking, your voice is perhaps your most valuable weapon and
your truth is an inspiration.
~BB
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Posted by smberg on Thursday, February 09 @ 13:56:37 EST (3994 reads)
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| Mother Facing Charges for Soliciting Daughter Online |
Denise Royal - All Headline News Staff Writer
Martinez, California (AHN) - A 22-year-old woman is under arrest after
police found e-mail correspondence allegedly indicating that she would
sell her 4-year-old daughter for sex. Police say they received a tip
from the National Center for Exploited and Missing Children that
Shannon Nicole Woods was soliciting her child. According to police,
Woods solicited men for prostitution through posting on the popular
website Craigslist.
Police served a search warrant on Woods' home Tuesday and seized
laptops and videos. Police say she has no criminal history. In separate
online conversations through e-mail and chat groups, Woods agreed to
meet for sex. When the man offered $500 to have sex with her daughter,
she didn't object to it, an investigator said.
Woods was arrested on suspicion of offering a minor under 16 for lewd
and lascivious acts. She is being held at the West County Detention
Facility in Richmond on $50,000 bail. Police will present evidence to
the district attorney's office Monday.
More than 2,900 cases of online child prostitution have been reported
to the congressionally mandated tip line, which was started in 1998 to
help fight Internet crimes against children.
In 2004, 559 cases of online child prostitution were reported, compared
with 142 cases in 1998, according to the national center's Web
site.
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Posted by smberg on Monday, November 14 @ 07:54:34 EST (4398 reads)
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| News: Prostitution claim is a known fact |
http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=29943
Fiji Times Online
Sunday, October 9, 2005
Families sending their daughters into prostitution is a known fact, social workers said yesterday.
They were commenting on findings in the book, Women and Men of Fiji Islands: Gender Statistics and Trends by University of the South Pacific Population Studies lecturer Dharma Chandra and government statistician Vasemaca Lewai.
Fiji Council of Social Services executive director Hassan Khan said it was disappointing to read yesterday's front-page report, saying it showed the level of poverty in the community.
"It's disappointing that to date the Bureau of Statistics has not finalised the extent of poverty in Fiji after three years of waiting.
"There's no official figures on poverty," he said.
Mr Khan said it was a signal to all civil society organisations to be active in community development and to work together so they could help people out of their misery.
He said it was a sad reflection on Fiji. "We can only pray and work hard to help those people overcome their misery."
Fiji Women's Crisis Centre coordinator Shamima Ali said the findings were what they had been saying for 10 years.
"We totally agree with that report particularly on prostitution and domestic violence.
"We've always maintained that a lot of women run away because of sexual assault and abuse in their home.
"The findings maintain what our statistics have and that's after 20 years of being out there in the community," she said.
Police spokeswoman Sylvia Low said poverty was a wide issue and girls taking to the streets to support their families was just one of the many faces of poverty. "It's sad that people are desperate enough to do this."
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Posted by smberg on Monday, October 10 @ 18:30:11 EDT (4025 reads)
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| News: Rape Suspect Runs When Spotted During Prostitution Sting |
News 10 KXTV Sacramento
April 7, 2005
Stockton police officers were on the street Wednesday cracking down on prostitution when a rape suspect they'd been looking for went right to them.
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Posted by p2r9s on Thursday, April 14 @ 11:48:42 EDT (4309 reads)
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| News: Suspected serial killer trial in January |
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VANCOUVER, Canada (AFP) - The murder trial of Robert William Pickton, suspected in the killings of as many as 32 prostitutes, is set for January, a court heard.
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Posted by p2r9s on Tuesday, April 12 @ 11:54:47 EDT (3294 reads)
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| News: Mom's sleuthing helped find missing daughter |
Tuesday, September 14, 2004
By MARGARET ELLIS, Columbian staff writer
The Columbian (Clark County, Washington)
Fourteen-year-old Kylie Taylor is home and the man who is alleged to have held her captive and tortured her for the past two weeks is in jail, thanks largely to her mother's sleuthing.
Stanley Scott Sadler, 47, of Fircrest, was charged Monday with three counts of third-degree rape of a child, two counts of sexual exploitation of a minor and one count of first-degree kidnapping. He is being held in the Pierce County Jail in Tacoma on $250,000 bail.
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Posted by smberg on Thursday, February 24 @ 03:37:24 EST (4947 reads)
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| myth-heard by men | |
| The female is, as it were, an important male, for it is through a certain incapacity that the female is female, beign incapable of concocting the nutriment [menstrual fluid] into seman because of the coldness of her nature... -Aristotle, On the Generation of Animals (4th Century B.C.) |
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| ms-heard by women | |
| My silences had not protected me. Your silence will not protect you. -Audre Lorde |
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