Child Prostitution in Arizona

$1000 per night, between 10-25 customers, $40-100 per date; this is one night for a prostitute, many of whom are children.

The average age minors start prostitution is 13 years old, according to the Phoenix Police Department and the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office. In 2000, the average age was 15.

“Usually these children come from abusive homes with the ugliest conditions you’ve ever seen,” said Sergeant Chris Bray of the Phoenix Police Department.

“You can’t tell the child to go home. There’s a reason why they ran away from home in the first place,” said Sergeant Bray, who is a member of the Ad Hoc Task Force on Child Prostitution.

The Ad Hoc Task Force on Child Prostitution held a meeting on March 19 to discuss proposed amendments to Senate Bill 1268 – Child Prostitution. The first amendment removes the defense for pimps claiming not to know the age of the minor, making it a strict liability offense. The second amendment removes the defense for Johns (customers) if the child is under 16 years of age. Both amendments passed and the bill will be presented to the Natural Resources and Public Safety Committee on Wednesday March 21.

Although the Task Force is focusing its efforts on the supply, mainly prostitutes and pimps, there’s a practical problem of how to help these children. There are few places with programs designed to meet the special needs of children leaving a life of sexual exploitation.

“Many of these children have it as bad on the streets as they have it at home, so either they become callous or they turn to drugs,” said Sergeant Bray.

According to Sergeant Bray, it’s very difficult for these children to see anything beyond their life circumstances.

“When your pimp controls who you interact with, you’re only going to meet other pimps, prostitutes, and Johns,” he said. “These children need a place which will provide some sort of normalcy in their lives.”

18 months ago the vice police started their new focus of proactively seeking out pimps.

“I want to send them to prison penniless, and naked if possible,” said Sergeant Bray. “And that’s what the other 18 vice officers are there to do as well.”

May 2007 will bring the groundbreaking for Natalie’s House - an eight-bed privately funded facility by Arizonians for the Protection of Exploited Children and Adults (APECA) for children leaving life of sexual exploitation. Children will be referred to the house by appropriate agencies, like the police department or the court.

There is yet to be a proven successful program that not only keeps these children off the streets but also helps them enter into a normal lifestyle.

“Even though there is no such program in Arizona, APECA is trying to learn from what did not work for other facilities trying to curb the problem,” said Sergeant Bray.

Many of these children are technically victims of sex trafficking. Unlike international victims of sex trafficking who get the T-visa and the protections that come along with it in the United States, these children are often times treated as criminals and arrested for prostitution. The police find themselves with no other choice.

“We cannot hold these children unless we arrest them, and we need to hold them to try and help them,” said Sergeant Bray. After the arrest, the children are given some time to de-stress which often times makes them cooperative.

“They tell you their [street] life is better than their life at home,” and times like those Sergeant Bray feels helpless having seen some of the home lives of these children.