Readers React: There’s no such thing as a ‘child prostitute’
To the editor: I am disappointed that The Times perpetuates the stigma surrounding this issue by calling these victims “child prostitutes.” Children who are not legally of an age to consent cannot be “prostitutes.” They are victims of adults who exploit them for money in the most horrific ways imaginable. (“L.A. County reaching out to save children from prostitution,” Oct. 9)
These kids who are forced to sell themselves night after night on a street corner are not prostitutes. Kids who are brutally beaten by their pimps for not making a quota are not prostitutes. Kids victimized and sexually exploited by grown men are not prostitutes.
No child grows up dreaming of becoming a prostitute. They are manipulated emotionally and physically into a hellish life.
I hope The Times will support the county’s efforts to help these children, the true victims, move to the better life they deserve by not continuing to victimize them with misleading labels like “prostitute.”
Don Knabe, Los Angeles
The writer is an L.A. County supervisor.
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