UNITED STATES
Religion News Service – Rhymes with Religion
The sexual abuse of boys is a topic that is all too often overlooked inside and outside of the Church. I am so grateful for my dear friend, Mike Reagan, who is working to bring about a greater public dialogue on this issue. As a survivor of child sexual abuse, Mike understands the unique dynamics and devastating stigmas associated with the sexual abuse of boys. With the assistance of writer and sexual abuse survivor, Jerome Elam, Mike contributes a guest post this week that will prayerfully help begin to empower the public and the Church to understand the issues related to the epidemic of male trafficking. It is only then that we are able to take effective steps to bring this nightmare to an end. – Boz
_____________________________________________________________________________
The heavy door closed with a loud thump as the young boy left the hotel room. As he walked, a look of pain swept across his face as he struggled to forget the physical and emotional trauma he had just endured. At the bottom of the stairs a man waited and as the boy approached he grabbed him by the arm and shook him. The boy reaches into his pocket and hands the man a collection of crumpled bills. The man slaps the boy across his face adding to the rapidly growing collection of bruises on his young body. He turns the boy’s pockets inside out as a candy bar and a small toy fall to the ground. The man drags the boy towards a nearby van and opens the back door. Inside a collection of boys and girls sit dirty and hungry in the grip of the dark world known as human trafficking. When they are not being sold for sex, the children are forced to shoplift and steal wallets. Many are from abusive homes and no one has ever reported them missing. The only constant in their lives is the feeling of worthlessness and the fear of death threats from the human traffickers that have stolen their lives and broken their spirits.
America is being eroded at its very base and one of the most rapidly expanding parasites on our society is the crime of human trafficking. The Department of Justice estimates that between 100,000 and 300,000 children are at risk of being trafficked in this country right now. Human trafficking is a $9.5 billion a year business in the U.S. according to the United Nations. Within the first forty-eight hours of leaving home, a runaway child will be approached by a human trafficker and is at risk of being forced into sexual servitude. Human trafficking is second only to the drug trade as the largest criminal enterprise according to the Justice Department. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) reports that pimps can make from $150,000 to $200,000 per year for each child. The NCMEC also reports a pimp has an average of four children and the Polaris Project, an anti-trafficking non profit, reports the average victim of sex trafficking is forced to have sex 20-48 times a day. These numbers are shocking and part of a tragedy that is actively swallowing America’s children. The life of a child being trafficked is brutal. Drugs, alcohol, beatings and death threats are used as tools to keep innocent children as slaves to the depths of depravity. The Federal Bureau of Investigation reports the average life span of a child being trafficked is seven years. The drugs, alcohol and abusive lifestyle wither the fragile spirit of a child leaving them to die in the shadow of hope.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.