Final Report of the Subcommittee on Domestic Trafficking

e) Use <strong>the</strong>ir collective resources, including grants, for services for sexually exploited minors and for data collection. 3) Provides a sunset date <strong>of</strong> January 1, 2009.EXISTING LAW provides that no ward <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> juvenile court shall be committed to <strong>the</strong> California Department <strong>of</strong> Corrections and Rehabilitation's Division <strong>of</strong> Juvenile Justice unless <strong>the</strong> judge <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> court is fully satisfied that <strong>the</strong> mental and physical condition and qualifications <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> ward are such as to render it probable that he will be benefited by <strong>the</strong> reformatory educational discipline or o<strong>the</strong>r treatment provided by <strong>the</strong> Division <strong>of</strong> Juvenile Justice. (Welfare and Institutions Code Section 734.) 1)Author's Statement : According to <strong>the</strong> author, "This bill is a good first step in acknowledging a catastrophic and growing problem for young children, mostly girls, who are targeted by men who have but one goal and that is to emotionally enslave a child into a life <strong>of</strong> crime and degradation. We need cross county information, coordination and a set <strong>of</strong> best practices for <strong>the</strong> children who are victimized by <strong>the</strong>se predators." San Francisco Safe House for Commercially Exploited Girls-• In San Francisco, through a system-wide exploration <strong>of</strong> this problem it becameapparent that sexually exploited children and youth are doubly victimized by criminaljustice systems that treat <strong>the</strong> victims as criminals and take no action to deal with <strong>the</strong>adult male perpetrators <strong>of</strong> trafficking, violence, pimping and prostitution. From July2001 to June 2002, San Francisco police booked 174 juveniles for prostitution whileonly nine pimps were arrested during <strong>the</strong> same period. Sexually exploited youthwho are apprehended are treated as <strong>of</strong>fenders/perpetrators and entered into justice andsocial service systems where <strong>the</strong> comprehensive treatment necessary to address <strong>the</strong>trauma and healing surrounding sexual exploitation typically does not exist. TheSAFE House opened September 2005 and is a comprehensive school, mental healthand group home. A special waver from <strong>the</strong> City was acquired to keep <strong>the</strong> locationsafe. This is an important aspect to houses for <strong>the</strong>se types <strong>of</strong> homes.Girls Arrested as Adults.• Historically, procurers (pimps) and traffickers targeted runaways, girls that hangwith <strong>the</strong> crowd breaking or bending <strong>the</strong> simplest <strong>of</strong> rules, kids that smoke, cutclass, are adopting acting out behavior associated with trauma, and girls that comefrom abusive backgrounds who have low self-esteem and confidence.• The procurers begin by befriending <strong>the</strong> girls and young women and <strong>the</strong>n calculatea romantic connection.74