Saving, Not Victimizing, Children

Published: May 9, 2007

Sexually exploited children can be helped by the law or victimized by it. An Eastern European child smuggled as a sex slave is offered protection under the federal law. An American child who flees abusive parents and ends up selling her body on the streets is labeled a crimina.

That would change under a new law that would reform the juvenile justice system so it protects rather than punishes exploited children.

Under the proposed Safe Harbor law, young children who have been battered and exploited by pimps and johns on the street would no longer be charged with prostitution. They would instead be put under state supervision under existing child welfare laws and placed in safe housess. The children would be given medical care and counseling that they would almost never get in detention, and be assigned adult advocates who would follow their cases. The bill provides for long-term housing.

Children placed in shelters, however, would remain under the control of the courts, and could be sent to detention for noncompliance. If necessary, the Legislature could also make that provision explicit.