CDC: Risk of Genital Mutilation Has Tripled Among Women and Girls in the U.S.
Posted 2 days ago.
Source: andresr / Getty
When you think of female genital mutilation (FGM), most of us believe that this human rights violation only happens in African counties and in the Middle East. But a new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that this horrid practice is happening in the U.S., with the risk of FGM tripling in the past 25 years and quadrupling among girls 18 and younger.
In 1990, the risk of FGM, the act the partially or totally removing the clitoris, was thought to potentially affect 168,000 women and girls. But since 2012, that number has jumped to a whopping 513,000.
But what’s going on?
This alarming spike can be blamed on a combination of factors, including an increasing wave of immigrants settling in the U.S. over the years who have come from nations and parents where this tradition is deemed a tradition.
And while half a million women and girls is definitely lot, the CDC emphasized that the exact number of women and girls being cut on American soil is unknown given “their lack of reliable data,” Think America pointed out.
“This shows it’s not just something that happens ‘over there’ but it’s something that happens in this country,” Shelby Quast, Americas director for Equality Now, a global group that works to end violence, told Think America.
And while this study is a step in the right direction, Quast believes that as a nation we need to be doing more, especially given that this new data came 25 years after the last study about FGM in the U.S. was conducted.
She told The Guardian, “The US needs to continue to step up and take charge. This means implementing the law on FGM more effectively, but that also includes training professionals who come in contact with girls at risk or survivors, including health care workers, teachers and social workers.”
FGM, which is normally done without any type of anesthesia, is very serious and can have long-lasting health effects. According the World Health Organization (WHO):
- Procedures can cause severe bleeding and problems urinating, and later cysts, infections, infertility as well as complications in childbirth and increased risk of newborn deaths.
- More than 125 million girls and women alive today have been cut in the 29 countries in Africa and Middle East where most FGM is concentrated.
- FGM is mostly carried out on young girls sometime between infancy and age 15.
FGM has been illegal in the U.S. for the past 20 years.
http://hellobeautiful.com/2016/01/17/cdc-usa-female-genital-mutilation/
The scourge of human trafficking: It’s not just other countries’ problem
An expert who's fought to stop the sexual exploitation of children on what we -- and the travel industry -- can do
January has been designated Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month bypresidential proclamation.
Millions of women, men and children around the world are subjected to forced labor, domestic servitude or the sex trade. What many don’t know is that this modern-day slavery happens right here in the United States.
Human trafficking involves the use of force, fraud or coercion to obtain some type of labor or commercial sex act. It does not require that a victim be moved over state or international borders and should not be confused with smuggling. Smuggling is transportation; trafficking is exploitation. Being trafficked is not a choice a person makes.
Forty percent of human trafficking cases in the U.S. involve the sexual exploitation of a child according to the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics. Children as young as 12 years old are trafficked for sexual exploitation. In many states, these children can be arrested for prostitution, even though they are below the age of consent.
Carol Smolenski, executive director of ECPAT-USA, knows these grim statistics all too well. For 25 years, she has fought relentlessly to stop the commercial sexual exploitation of children.
At a coffee shop near the United Nations in New York, Smolenski talked to Salon about the persistent misconceptions surrounding human trafficking, the problem with charging exploited children with prostitution instead of treating them as victims, the role of the travel industry and the types of children who are most vulnerable to fall prey to traffickers. The interview has been condensed and lightly edited for clarity.
Many people believe that human trafficking happens only overseas. Is that true?
The Trafficking of Victims Protection Law of 2000 defined trafficking for the first time. Before that there was no law in the U.S. about it.
It also defined what a human trafficking victim is. If force, fraud or coercion is used to make you do something, you might be one. Also, anyone under 18 who is being “induced to perform” a commercial sex act is a victim of trafficking. You don’t even have to show force, fraud or coercion for a child to be identified as a sex trafficking victim.
When the law was passed, the belief was that it was needed to protect internationally trafficked people in the U.S. The rationale was—and I remember hearing this from legislators—that we didn’t have to write into the law any protections for American kids because, as Americans, they already had protection.
A lot of people still see trafficking victims as poor unfortunate people from other countries. The biggest misconception about human trafficking is that only foreigners can be trafficked.
Are there other misconceptions?
The other big misconception is that when teens are involved—whether boys or girls—it is their choice. That they like it and like the money. It’s hard for people to overcome that belief.
There is universal outrage when pre-pubescent kids are raped, depicted in pornography, or sold in any other way. But as soon as that child reaches the age of puberty—as soon as girls develop breasts and boys get facial hair—all bets are off. These children are now seen as complacent in their own abuse.
You mean that they are being treated as criminals not victims?
I was just reading an article, yesterday morning, from 2003 in the New York Times about a 12-year-old girl who was arrested for prostitution here in New York. She had a long history of physical and sexual abuse by her family, as well as abandonment. A pimp found her and gave her a new dress and a cellphone and told her: “You work for me now.” He told her that he loved her and would take care of her. This is a girl who had never had anyone tell her “I love you” or give her anything. So she did what she was told to do and an undercover cop solicited her and she was arrested.
At ECPAT-USA, we have been fighting to see these kids as victims and treat them as victims, not as bad kids—both by the criminal justice system and Child Protective Services. And that’s the philosophy behind the Safe Harbor Laws – to require that those kids be given protection instead of being prosecuted.
Tell me more about the Safe Harbor Laws. How many states have them in place?
The first Safe Harbor Law was passed in New York in 2008. There are now 21 states and the District of Columbia with such laws, but they have a wide array of provisions. A very good law would make a child immune from prosecution for being sexually exploited. But most states don’t have that. Most still leave some room for prosecution of victims. Also, a good law would have a provision for services for these kids. You don’t want to simply put them back on the street. You want some way of helping and assisting them. You also want the laws to have provisions for training of law enforcement to see these children as victims not as criminals who should be locked up.
Who are the children most at risk for being trafficked?
Abused kids are most vulnerable to falling victim to commercial sexual exploitation. It is so easy to recruit sexually abused children. Also, foster care kids who might have moved from family to family and don’t really have anyone to take care of them. Runaways and kids living on the street are also very easy to recruit.
These are the biggest categories but, really, any child who feels lonely and disconnected is vulnerable. A risk taker who might be mad with her parents that night can easily decide to get into a guy’s expensive car. And one of the things we’ve learned from so many survivors is that once you’re in, it is really hard to get out. Especially if you don’t have a family, if you don’t have a mom you can call. I have spoken to numerous survivors over the years and so many of them say, “Luckily, I could call my mom and get a bus ticket.” But what if you don’t have a mom to call?
And you wouldn’t call the cops if you were worried that you would be thrown in jail for prostitution.
Well, of course, you’re certainly not going to go to the cops. Because they’re not going to look on you kindly if you’ve been prostituting and have a pimp.
Do you work on these issues with the police?
Over the years, we have done a lot of law enforcement training. Actually, for three years we had a big anti-trafficking project in New York. We created the first trafficking task force in New York City, which included local and federal law enforcement, nonprofit organizations and service providers.
I’ll never forget the very first training we did with the Brooklyn DA’s office and NYPD. At the coffee break, a detective with the Special Victims Unit told me: “We did a wiretap on a brothel in Queens last year and now I realize those must have been trafficking victims.”
You also work with New York schools, right?
We teach kids in high schools about their rights and about the issue of sex trafficking. The idea is to help them learn how to keep themselves safe and how to talk to their peers about it. We know from research that by the time kids are in high school and they feel they’re in a dangerous or tricky situation, they won’t go to their parents or teachers anymore but to their friends.
At a charity fair a couple of years ago, a woman who works for the federal government came up to me and told me that, when she was in middle school, she and her friends were waiting at the bus stop when a really expensive car pulled up with a guy and two girls in it. They asked them if they wanted to party and if they wanted to make some money. She said yes, but her friend, who was much more savvy than her, told them, “Go away. We don’t wanna be no hoes.”
Comments
Post a Comment