Slavery in America should have died in 1865 with the end of the Civil War. Unfortunately, we still hear about human trafficking and sexual exploitation, and these forms of slavery are almost impossible to stop. Whether the victim comes from some American suburb that should be considered safe or a war-torn, lawless land, taking a person by force and making them work without compensation is slavery no matter what their previous circumstances were. Sadly, though, when the victims are from some far off place where life is generally sorrowful, it is harder for us to identify with them, and we might care less about them. However, when the victims are minors, even cold-hearted people find it hard to avoid outrage.
We’ve all seen the TV shows and movies of prison life, depicting what convicts do to child abusers. If child abusers really do get stabbed and assaulted by convicts, then the rate of assault is about to shoot up. The Federal Bureau of Investigation, along with local agencies, conducted a sting operation and captured more than 150 perpetrators of human trafficking crimes to minors, the FBI announced Tuesday. Those arrested include both pimps and traffickers. All told, authorities managed to rescue 149 minors who had become victims of sexual slavery.
The mission, dubbed Operation Cross Country, was the largest such operation carried out to date and was a part of the FBI’s Innocence Lost National Initiative, which has lead to the recovery of around 4,800 children and the conviction of 2,000 criminals since 2003. The initiative included 500 officers from local police forces in 135 cities, as well as 73 of the FBI’s separate Child Exploitation Task Forces. Most victims were released in Denver, with the average age of victims being 15 to 16. The youngest victim was 12 years old.
Child abuse is pretty much the closest thing to the worst sin that exists in secular America. It should suffice to say that those lowest dregs of society who inhabit maximum-security prisons have a special contempt for child molesters. Even people who advocate for more lenient punishments for crimes rarely mention child molesters. These people are required to warn their neighbors about their past crimes, and will seemingly never be allowed by society to reintegrate. We find that those who are arrested for pimping minors are the only other criminals that can possibly compete for our complete contempt with the molesters themselves.
There is something that differentiates child molestation from any other crime that society cannot come to terms with. I have a few theories about the cause for this, one being that children represent the future. Additionally, it is very easy for parents to put themselves in the victims’ parents’ shoes. I also believe that child abuse is a crime that most people never feel a desire to commit. Many of us have thought about killing someone in a moment of rage or maybe stealing a fancy gadget that we can’t afford, but having sex with a minor doesn’t cross the average person’s mind.
There is another aspect of fear that plays into these new busts. The majority of the children captured and forced to prostitute themselves, in this case, were runaways. When you imagined running away as a rebellious teenager, it probably had a lot in common with the Donovan song about falling in love and riding train carts like some folksy Americana rascal, but this was not the case for those teenagers. If I had a 16-year-old daughter, I would have installed a GPS tracker in her skull after reading about this massive bust and where the victims came from. To think that a runaway child can be turned into an underage prostitute is extremely scary.
The reality is that we do need operations like Operation Cross Country. Child molestation is something that our society as a whole abhors, and we should show no weakness when dealing with the perpetrators of such vicious crimes. People who have a desire to use minors for sexual pleasure should be afraid of the horrible consequences that those actions might entail. While we polish the stick, we must also be sure to offer the carrot. We must allow for people who have such desires to find psychological treatment that will help them change their behavior before they commit any crimes after they are released from serving time.
In terms of Operation Cross Country, the FBI and local authorities that cooperated deserve a hearty clap. For a few days we can forget that the FBI has basically the same rights to spy on us as the National Security Agency and remember that they are here to protect our laws and the idea of justice. I would also commend the bureau on their foresight in bringing in specialists from their Office of Victim Assistance to help the victims deal with their trauma.
