The National Strategy for Child Exploitation Prevention and Interdiction

escued from prostitution, rarely reports the identity of her trafficker or testifies against anarrested trafficker, because she often has become dependent on the trafficker or is fearful ofretaliation. Although convicting a defendant without the victim’s cooperation is possible, casesare much stronger if the victim testifies. Traffickers know this and count on victims to refuse totestify, to recant, or to minimize the degree of criminal conduct.4. Child victims of prostitution suffer extreme forms of exploitation and oftenare unable, even if rescued, to permanently escape the influence oftraffickers.According to leading treatment and recovery providers, between 60 and 90 percent of childvictims of prostitution in their programs were victims of child sexual abuse prior to beingvictimized through prostitution. 67 In fact, the Standing Against Global Exploitation organization(SAGE) reported that most of the children it supports were raped prior to adolescence. Thetrauma of early sexual abuse creates confusion in the minds of children and renders themvulnerable to exploitation by child sex traffickers. The prostitution of children takes place in avariety of different venues such as street prostitution, adult night clubs, sex parties, or motelrooms where traffickers will direct individual client offenders.Children victimized by prostitution require specialized recovery programs 68 including shelter,nutrition, and appropriate medical treatment, as well as psychological evaluation; counseling,alcohol and drug treatment programs, education programs, and life skills training. Also, becausetraffickers often try to reclaim girls who have been rescued, the trafficker’s presence couldexpose other children to being recruited for prostitution. In fact, traffickers often recruit childrenoutside of recovery centers or send children into centers to recruit; in some cases, traffickerssimply enter the facilities and remove the children. Traffickers often are successful in reclaimingchild victims of prostitution, particularly those in short-term programs (less than 18 months),juvenile detention facilities, or jail. The stigma victims feel when placed in such facilities withother children who have no history of prostitution often causes them to return to the familiarityof the trafficker and prostitution.There is a dearth of these specialized recovery programs, and the ones that do exist are often onlyfor children who are under the age of 18. If they were prostituted as children but are now adults,they cannot be admitted into those programs. Often, the services provided to these victims areprovided through the state, such as Child Protective Services, Temporary Assistance for NeedyFamilies (TANF), or Medicaid.67 The providers include nongovernmental agencies such as Girls Education & Mentoring Services, Polaris Project,and SAGE.68 There are only approximately 50 beds available in the United States in facilities designed specifically for victimsof child prostitution. These facilities operate largely on private donations. The TVPA of 2000 allocated funding toestablish residential treatment facilities in the United States for juvenile sex trafficking victims; however, thisfunding was reserved for foreign-born victims. The 2005 TVPA reauthorization included funding for U.S. citizens,but the funding has not yet been appropriated. 68 Prior to 2009, grants administered by the Department ’s Office forVictims of Crime (OVC) related to trafficking in persons were reserved for alien victims trafficked into or within theUnited States, not domestic victims. However, DOJ has funded three demonstration projects dedicated to servingdomestic victims. 6835