Last week, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Richmond announced that Robert Kropp of Colonial Heights was sentenced for coercion and enticement of a minor under the age of 15 and for receipt of child pornography. According to the news release, in March of 2013, "Kropp used his cell phone to send text messages and make telephone calls to engage in sexually explicit conversations with an individual he believed to be a 13-year-old female." (It was actually an FBI agent.) He was arrested at a hotel where he believed he was going to meet the child and pay her for sex.
Last month, the FBI announced it had completed its seventh Operation Cross-Country - a three-day, nationwide enforcement action focusing on underage victims of prostitution. The massive sweep involved FBI offices and police departments in 76 cities across the nation.
This year, 105 children, mostly between 13 and 17 years old, were rescued (the youngest victim was 9). Since the FBI first launched the initiative in 2003, more than 2,700 victims of child sex trafficking have been rescued. Incredibly, that number represents only a tiny sliver of the victims of this sordid crime.
Most Americans regard child prostitution as something that happens in other countries. But it is very much a growing problem here. The U.S. Attorney's Office calls the crime a "growing epidemic."
Child prostitution is the most depraved side of the rapidly burgeoning nightmare of human trafficking. According to UNICEF, the 1.2 million children who become victims of human sex-trafficking each year account for about 27 percent of this modern-day form of slavery.
In the U.S., the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children estimates that of the nearly 800,000 kids reported as runaways each year, about 100,000 are likely to become victims of sex-trafficking and child ..continued.. by Robin Beres
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