Haunting and horrifying

I was listening to a talk show on OPB this morning and they were discussing sex trafficking in Portland. I remembered reading an article in the newspaper a few weeks ago about a sting that took place in Portland where eleven girls were picked up off the streets as prostitutes - and that was the second-highest number in the nation. Evidently, this was some sort of nationwide push to crack down on sex traffickers. The main focus of the program today was on what could be done for these girls who are abused in this way. It's interesting to consider that when a girl is picked up off the street suspected of soliciting herself, she is treated as a criminal rather than a crime victim. Furthermore, there is no safe place for these girls to go after they are intercepted - they end up going back to the men who were profiting from them in the first place. Many times their lives are in grave danger, especially if they choose to leave the men who are abusing them. A young women was interviewed at the beginning of the show and told her story of seduction by her abuser, a man who alternately beat and raped her and demanded that she earn at least three hundred and fifty dollars a night. She told of being taken to Seattle to solicit herself while the Green River killer was still on the loose and how she was afraid to be out alone, and of traveling to different cities in different states to earn more money. She seemed surprisingly candid and not at all emotional while telling this story, although she now counsels girls in the same situation and is probably quite comfortable talking about it. 
I don't know about others, but I've lived in Portland and wasn't aware of this situation or its magnitude. The idea that men seduce girls into selling themselves on the streets and convince them to stay (with the men) even though they are being abused and beaten surprised me. Then again, perhaps they brainwash the girls to believe that they are unworthy and so they don't feel as though they can do anything else, or they are too afraid to try even if they do believe. 
The part that bothered me the most about this was the idea that there are no safe places for these girls to go or to be taken. There are shelters for abused women who leave their homes as victims of domestic violence, and crisis lines for women who don't know where to turn for help. There should be a shelter or safe house for girls and women who are victims of sex trafficking. One of the guests later on the show was a Portland police officer who talked about his colleagues passing girls by on the street rather than picking them up and trying to help them. He said this was because officers who picked up these girls became responsible for their well-being and had to take care of them for the next several hours because there was no one else and there was nowhere else. Given the choice, the officers wanted to be on duty performing their job for the rest of the time rather than having to sit with these girls and be responsible for them. Police officers shouldn't have to do that - they aren't trained to manage a crisis like that. Psychologists are much better trained to manage a situation where emotions are running high and someone's life is at stake. Ultimately, if the girl doesn't have a safe place to go, she will go back to her abuser because she feels that she has no choice (according to the survivor interviewed) or because he will find her and hurt her. A shelter would be beneficial for a variety of reasons, a place where girls could go and stay and be safe while they got their feet on the ground, but even a short-term shelter would be better than nothing. It might seem drastic, but apparently this is a serious problem in Portland. I'm confident that the city leaders will deal with it as effectively and progressively as they have other problems that they've faced in the past.

Hello!

Welcome to my blog! I'm so glad you stopped by.  I created this to share musings about flowers, buildings, people, and life in general. I love to write and I'm very excited to have somewhere to do it. Hope you'll come again soon!