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Protests Planned This Week To Raise Awareness Of Child Prostitution
Aired 9/20/10
A nationwide series of protests against child prostitution will kick off this week in Sacramento and in San Diego. Sex trafficking is one of the fastest growing crimes in the world and San Diego is considered a top destination for sexual predators.
SAN DIEGO — A nationwide series of protests against child prostitution will kick off this week in Sacramento and in San Diego. Sex trafficking is one of the fastest growing crimes in the world and San Diego is considered a top destination for sexual predators.
Sex trafficking is a $19-billion industry. Nationally, San Diego is the eighth largest high-intensity child prostitution area according to the inspector general. Nikki Junker, who is with the organization With More Than Purpose, says the public knows little about child prostitution. With More Than Purpose advocates for victims of child prostitution.
"It's modern-day slavery, I think is the best way to put it," Junker said. "There's 100,000 children this year which will be commercially, sexually exploited."
Junker says the average age of entry into prostitution in the United States is 12. The girls' youth makes them easy prey for pimps.
"They stalk these younger girls, and they want them younger and younger and younger, to not only satisfy these clients to make sure that the girls are vulnerable enough or naïve enough to trick them or coerce them into doing whatever they need to do," Junker said.
The protests this week launch a nationwide campaign slated to end November 20 in Washington.
Comments
hboooo | September 20, 2010 at 12:37 p.m. ― 1 year, 8 months ago
Where are these protests going to be held? Sounds like a damn good cause to me. We need to let these kids know that we care about them.
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generalzod | September 20, 2010 at 7:16 p.m. ― 1 year, 8 months ago
Child prostitution is an abomination. However, I think this needs a fact-check. Average age of 12 means half older and half younger. Doesn't make sense even in a perverse world that there would be so many 1-digit age prostitutes.
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hboooo | September 21, 2010 at 9:54 a.m. ― 1 year, 8 months ago
Ive been looking online for the protests but cant find any info??????
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krno | September 21, 2010 at 10:23 a.m. ― 1 year, 8 months ago
This is one of the events found on facebook. http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=138600992849314&ref=ts
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Amita Sharma, KPBS Staff | September 21, 2010 at 11:27 a.m. ― 1 year, 8 months ago
The protests will be held in San Diego September 25th at 500 C St. at 12:30 pm.
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Tammy Carpowich, KPBS Staff | September 21, 2010 at 3:59 p.m. ― 1 year, 8 months ago
Hi generalzod~
I'm a bit of a math geek, so I understood what you were saying. At the same time, I interpreted the reporter's use of the word "average" differently than you did, so I checked in with her. Amita said she did not intend to imply half above an half below the age of 12.
So I did a little research, and here's what I found.
The most common use of the word "average" is as a synonym for the math term "mean." That happens when you add up all the numbers and then divide by the number of numbers. This is Amita's intended use of the word, and also the most common.
A less commonly used synonym for "average" is the word "median," which is exactly what you described -- an equal number of numbers above and below. It's still a valid interpretation, and I understand how you came to see things the way you did.
I checked around to find a place that describes it well, and this is the one I found that doesn't go so deep into math theory that you get completely confused: http://www.purplemath.com/modules/meanmode.htm.
Hope this helps!
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