McGinty: Prostitution bill would help young victims

2-7-2010 Georgia:

Imagine the worst.

Imagine your 12-year-old daughter has been kidnapped and, when she's finally found, she's been forced into a child prostitution ring. Imagine that she's kept in a drug-induced haze and raped repeatedly. Imagine the horror, grief and shock that would overwhelm you and your family as you dealt with that situation, and the work you'd be eager to do to heal your daughter.

And now, in the middle of that trying and sensitive situation, imagine that the state of Georgia is labeling her a criminal.

Imagine what you would do.

State Sen. Renee Unterman, R-Buford, knows what she would do. She has proposed legislation that would establish a path of diversionary treatment for children under the age of 16 who are picked up for prostitution. Her bill would set up a system of care that would focus on education, prevention and increased opportunity for the victims.

And victims are exactly what they are.

According the the governor's Office of Family and Children Services, there are more than 400 underage prostitutes on the streets in Atlanta. The city has been ranked as one of the worst in the country in terms of child prostitution. A 2002 FBI sting broke up 14 men who had grotesquely pimped dozens of girls, some as young as 10.

It seems like a no-brainer piece of legislation, right? Well, apparently not.

Various conservative Christian organizations in Georgia have joined forces to oppose the bill. At a rally outside the Capitol earlier this week, speakers slammed the legislation, with former state Sen. Nancy Shafer arguing "the very profitable and growing pedophile industry" would benefit from its passage.

Likewise, Sue Ella Deadwyler, a conservative Christian activist, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that, if passed, the bill would result in "an absolute cultural upheaval" in Georgia that would legalize prostitution. Deadwyler went on to question how many of the victims actually were forced into such behavior, and said most of them willingly volunteered to be prostitutes. Rally participants included the Georgia Christian Coalition and Ralph Reed's Faith and Freedom Coalition.

The current system, and the logic employed by those who so strenuously defend it, is seriously flawed. Rather than pursue justice against those who actually exploit young boys and girls, detractors of the proposed legislation would rather throw the victims in jail. In doing so, they confuse revamping the work needed to help the children victimized by prostitution with the decriminalization of the act.

For starters, the bill simply normalizes inconsistencies in Georgia law that label the commercial sexual exploitation of a child as abuse, yet prosecute children forced into prostitution as criminals.

Establishing a diversionary program doesn't signal an abandonment of law and order. The same actions still will be considered illegal and require the necessary enforcement. The only difference, however, would be on the sentencing end, where those younger than 16 picked up for prostitution would - after the appropriate legal process is completed - enter into a diversionary program. Doing so would cut down dramatically the likelihood that those exploited young people would continue the destructive behavior forced upon them.

In addition, Unterman's proposal makes no mention of weakening efforts of law enforcement officials in tracking down and arresting the despicable work done by the pimps. If anything, Unterman's legislation directs more focus on those perpetrators by properly labeling the children as victims.

In a column I wrote earlier this year, I cited the biblical story of Jesus and his disciples coming upon a blind man begging by the side of the road. The initial reaction of those with Jesus was to ask what it was this man, or his parents, had done wrong, as they assumed his affliction must be some form of punishment for his sins.

Jesus gently, but firmly, corrected the disciples and said the blindness was not a form of punishment. Instead, he said the experience with the blind man offered the opportunity for service and compassion, and he healed him.

Perhaps Deadwyler and others so eager to turn victimized children into criminals should heed that lesson. ..Source.. Johnathan McGinty Athens Banner-Herald