On July 9, 2015, the New York Times published Timothy Williams’ article, History of Abuse Seen in Many Girls in Juvenile System. The article discusses findings from a report recently released, The Sexual Abuse to Prison Pipeline: The Girls’ Story, conducted by Human Rights Project for Girls (“rights4girls”), Georgetown Law Center on Poverty and Inequality and the Ms. Foundation for Women.
The article highlights critical points in the study including the need for states to pass safe harbor legislation—specifically, that victims of sex trafficking need to be immune from prosecution and treated like the victims that they are. The article discusses the horrific statistics reported in the study relating to the number of girls in the juvenile justice system nationwide that have been victims of sexual and physical abuse prior to the abuse that has occurred during their trafficking. The article pointed out that the criminal justice system punishes these victims—“it is an abhorrent abuse of power”. Criminalizing victims by placing them in handcuffs and sending them to juvenile detention facilities, naturally leads to the victims’ believing they are “bad” and feeling alone, helpless, and no more than an object—furthering their traumatization. The article concludes by acknowledging that we can end the further traumatization of these victims, by granting them immunity from prosecution and treating them as the victims they are—just like we treat victims of any other form of sexual abuse.
The CSE Institute congratulates Rights4Girls, Georgetown Law and the Ms. Foundation for their tireless effort and fight on behalf of marginalized girls!