There is an epidemic of American youth being lured and forced into sex trafficking and who are in dangerous situations. Shared Hope International reports that 30% of shelter youth and 70% of street youth are victims of commercial sexual exploitation. These youth run to the streets desperate to escape their situation and looking for someone who will care. Most of them, predominately girls, will be approached by a trafficker who will attempt to lure them into a life of forced prostitution. A vulnerable youth will follow the trafficker once they have been successfully deceived to believe that this trafficker will care and provide for them and make them feel special. Many young boys have few, if any positive male role models and often witness violence in their homes or the parents are emotionally absent. They turn to gangs and the streets for a sense of belonging and acceptance and are ripe for recruitment as a victim or a perpetrator. They strive to become like the gang leaders and/or their fathers, brothers, or uncles who are doing time in prison and they learn that selling people is a very profitable business. Even if a student is doing well in school, when one is ensnared in the web of sex trafficking, typically they will show signs of the abuse and/or involvement. Their grades will drop. School seems to offer little relevance to their lives and is a place where they often meet repeated failure. They can be labeled by peers and adults as delinquents, runaways, rostitutes, and sluts.
