COURAGEOUS CONVERSATIONS
The Cost of a Disconnected Society : The Sex Trafficking of Our Children
by Lori S . Rubenstein , JD , PCC
based on an interview with kathleen winn , executive director of azmen and co-chair the arizona anti-trafficking network
The first time I met Kathleen Winn I knew this was a woman I wanted to know . She is intelligent , passionate , well-connected and a force to make the world a better place . She ’ s the epitome of “ one-person can make a difference .”
In 2011 , as the Community Outreach and Education Director for the Arizona Attorney General , Kathleen was introduced to Linda Smith , former Washington State Legislator , former US Congresswoman , and Founder and President of Shared Hope International . Shared Hope is an international nonprofit agency that works to raise awareness , protect and restore wholeness to children who have been sextrafficked , and change legislative and judicial initiatives to bring appropriate criminalization to the perpetrators of child sex-trafficking . Along with Linda Smith she met Sergeant Chris Bray and Lieutenant Jim Gallagher with the Phoenix Police Department . They told her that Arizona had a sex trafficking problem and asked her what the Arizona Attorney General ’ s office was going to do about it .
After being convinced of the enormity of the issue , Winn did what she does best — she took action . The first mountain to overcome was trying to convince others that this was in fact a very real problem in Arizona . Children were being used , tormented , abused , and sexually exploited for the profit of pimps , and this was not acceptable . She worked with attorneys in the criminal division and child protection agencies to make sure that the protection of children , especially those most vulnerable , became a priority in Arizona for the Attorney General ’ s office and law enforcement .
An important goal was to create awareness of who these victims were , that there was no such thing as a child prostitute , and that these children were victims and should be treated as such . Furthermore , education about the extent of these crimes and how these crimes were being perpetrated was at the heart of awareness efforts . In Arizona , these vulnerable and most at risk children number over 20,000 in foster care placements . Many are runaways . And of the children who have been recovered from sex-trafficking , 80 % had involvement in the state welfare system .
Awareness is one of the top priorities of many advocates against domestic minor sex-trafficking . Once people know the signs , they can step up and protect the children . We know that children are recruited when they are most vulnerable and that this multi-billion dollar industry will continue to grow until the demand for sex with children is interrupted . One hundred thousand to three hundred thousand children are expected to be prostituted in the US each year , and here in Arizona , the average age of children abducted into trafficking is 14 years old , our eighth graders . Sadly , sending sexually explicit personal photographs has become commonplace in high schools , as are sexually explicit party games . Protecting the innocence of our children by not talking about this in schools is naïve at best , and we do a great disservice to our children by not confronting these realities head on .
At this point you are probably wondering why so many men are paying for sex with children . With the advent of the internet , men who would not have driven down a boulevard to pick up a prostitute can now shop privately online . There they can watch pornography , view girls and boys doing sexually explicit acts , and pay for it all with a credit card . They can even “ order up ” young boys and girls on certain websites which are easily accessible .
“ There ’ s an addictive progres-
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