After their classes ended at about p. They would be escorted to and from most scheduled activities, and later they would be relegated to cinderblock cells containing only their clothes, a sink, and two platform beds.
Lights would go out at 9 p. Ten of the girls at the Juvenile Justice Center that day were being held on prostitution charges, exemplifying a legal paradox that is at the heart of efforts to rehabilitate the youths. According to California law, the hundreds of girls arrested nationwide each year on suspicion of prostitution are both criminals and victims.
They are allegedly guilty of prostitution, but since juveniles can't consent to have sex, they certainly can't consent to sell it, law enforcement and service providers agree. The girls are therefore classified as commercially sexually exploited childrenβa form of human traffickingβand are acknowledged to have suffered both violent crime and civil rights abuses.
But while some advocates question why the girls are arrested for the crimes of their traffickers, completely decriminalizing underage prostitution could have complicated effects that would run counter to the goals of advocates and law enforcement alike, some experts say. Commercially sexually exploited children experience such intense trauma bonding with their pimps that it can be almost impossible to break those ties unless the girls are forcibly, physically removed from contact with their abusers, according to police and county officials.
They argue that until better solutions are found, the to day "cooling off" period afforded by Juvenile Hall can be essential to protecting commercially sexually exploited youthβdespite the potentially traumatic effects of incarceration and the mixed messages the courts are sending these girls. As a result, the victim-perpetrator dichotomy has created a sort of judicial purgatory for the young girls involved, most of whom are abused long before they reach the nation's streets and motels.
