Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Criminal Profiling Topic of the Day: Why the Truth about Sex Rings is Important

This was just posted on my Facebook page:
"Pat Brown you ought to be ASHAMED of yourself for announcing on Nancy Grace's show that the people who run child sex rings do not "go around kidnapping people" and that they have "plenty of runaways" to choose from. SHAME ON YOU!!!!!! You know damn well this is FALSE and that thousands of men, women and children are KIDNAPPED and sold into sex slavery and the human trafficking industry every single year. You lost ALL credibility with me with that one comment."

This isn't the first time I have ticked someone off by stating that women and children are rarely, very rarely, ever kidnapped, if ever, into sex slavery rings in the United States. Whenever I speak on the subject, I get angry emails from women who believe I am ignoring a horrible crime against women and from mothers of missing daughters who believe their daughters were abducted into such a ring and are still alive.

But, the truth is, there is hardly any instance of this kind of crime in this country. Are there big sex rings? Yes, but they are made up of immigrant women who paid a lot of money for a US passport and then were forced into the sex trade; the passport is held from them until they can "earn" it back. Other than that, most prostitution in the United States is comprised of willing adults (at least they were willing when they entered the profession) and coerced teens and adults who were homeless, unemployed, and had drug or alcohol issues (some get into prostitution for the money and then get into drugs to deal with the life). Some children are lured by neighborhood pedophiles into sex acts through pornography, alcohol, and drugs (or terrorized into providing what the pedophile wants) and one pedophile or a group of pedophiles can have a "sex ring" of kids under their control. Sometimes a child is pimped out by his or her own parents, for money or for perverse pleasure.

What does NOT happen is that children and women are kidnapped off the streets and kept in captivity by some professional sex ring where they stay under lock and key for years. The few who are held captive for sex are in the hands of sex predators for their own personal use.

There is a reason parents of missing women want to believe there are sex rings out there; if their daughter were to be in one, she would still be alive. This gives hope to a grieving parent. Sex rings are a convenient black hole for children and adults to fall into and stay alive forever in the minds of their loved ones. Another reason for this belief is that some parents do not want to admit their daughters willingly chose to work in prostitution. They want to believe they were forced into it by brute force (and not through drugs or coercion). Rarely is this true.

One big myth is that of the desire for blonde girls is so big, that they must be kidnapped: Natalie Holloway and Madeleine McCann, for example. The truth of the matter is that blond girls can be enticed with money or promises of exotic locations and lifestyles. I remember I was in California and answered an ad that turned out to be for "hostesses" in Japan. When I realized it was really prostitution, I ran the other way. I am sure some blondes went, and, that could turn out to be a bad situation over there with clubs run by the Yakuza. Read the book, Some Girls; My Life in a Harem by Jillian Lauren, and one can see blonde girls are easier to hire, not steal. And remember Maddie McCann who is thought to be a stolen blonde child? And they thought they saw her in Morocco? Turned out to be a Moroccan blonde child, so if you wanted a blonde kid, there are lots of poor ones available that don't need to be abducted out of Portugal.


Why do I want people to know the truth? Because knowing our children are choosing to go into prostitution might help us focus on preventing them from doing so, saving their lives and keeping them from suffering years of degradation and misery. Also, parents need to be vigilant that their children aren't being targeted by local pedophiles and drawn into their world; parents need to parent and make sure their children don't hang around questionable relatives, youth "leaders, and neighbors. The truth can also focus a missing person investigation in the right direction. It is a shame to waste money on foolish avenues. Money needs to be spent properly in order to help the most victims of crime that we can.

I also get hate mail from people angry say when I state a missing person is likely dead and not in a sex ring, that I crush hope and discourage a search for the person. Are they right? Why would I come out and say this? Because the truth is important. One, all this pretending gives unreasonable false hope to people who often then spend a fortune on private investigators who will soak them for everything they have following false lead after false lead. Secondly, the focus should be on recovering the body so we can find the perpetrator and put him away before he abducts another child or adult and rapes and murders them as well.

The truth may not be as pleasing as an illusion, but it saves lives and keeps money and manpower from being wasted on wrongheaded thinking. We cannot make things better if we encourage a belief in myths just to make us or others feel better.

Criminal Profiler Pat Brown

13 comments:

Keith D. said...

I'm not of the mind that such a "professional sex ring" absolutely doesn't exist in this country, but it just isn't that likely in most cases. All the information I've ever read about these crime rings when they're busted supports what you're saying Pat.

Now overseas, that's a different animal all together. But it's still largely women who got themselves into their predicament through their own actions (and certainly naivety). If we don't get the truth out about how these things occur, then we can't prepare our women and children for the way it really does happen, and they'll be powerless to keep themselves safe. That is the real tragedy!

Thank you (again) for putting the truth first.

Pat Brown said...

Yes, overseas, in places like India and Thailand and such, it is an entirely different matter. Those poor girls and boys and sold, abducted, and lured (with the promise of honest work) into prostitution. It is a horribly sad situation.

In this country, outside of the immigrant sex rings, this doesn't happen. Child rings do develop but they draw in neighborhood kids and runaways. The priesthood is yet another matter, but it still isn't about abducting kids off the street.

The truth is, it is easier to just get an available mark than to be the subject of a huge police hunt for the missing person.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for removing the last comment. It is getting REALLY tiring watching people that are supposed to be ADULTS calling people names simply because they don't agree with someone else's OPINION! I have never seen you call anyone names, change their name so that you could degrade them or write horrible comments about another person. This is a BLOG. People write their OPINIONS on blogs. That's what we do. If people can't be civil and realize that part of what makes this country so great is that people can have differing opinions without fear of retribution, then they have somethings to learn.

Anonymous said...

She didn't say it NEVER happens...what she said was: "that women and children are rarely, very rarely, ever kidnapped, if ever, into sex slavery rings in the United States." I believe the 'if ever' part of that statement is her OPINION! Then she goes on to say "The few who are held captive for sex are in the hands of sex predators for their own personal use."

You admit to talking crap. Come on now. Grow up! She isn't saying that it NEVER happens, and she certainly isn't including Thialand and other countries where this is prevalent on those statements. She is talking about the USA.

You continue to call names, use profanity among other things and it really does nothing for your credibility. NOTHING! If you want to have a civil debate about the subject matter, I am sure there are some here that would love to engage in such. However, you aren't getting anything from the way that you are acting except people rolling their eyes at their computer screens and thinking that you might just be a 10 year old that needs to assert some authority somehow and since mommy and daddy wont let you, you come to an online blog where you can do it. In other words....your behavior is really childish. How is that for fact for ya?

Anonymous said...

Here's a fact pat brown is a fake and dosent know what she's talkin bout here's another fact if people don't agree with tha garbage she writes she deletes it or blocks you how's that for facts?

Anonymous said...

And you know FOR A FACT that she doesn't know what she is talking about because you have the same experience and education that she does? And she hasn't blocked you from this blog yet, and here you continue to disagree with what she writes. Neither of the 'facts' you just stated are in fact....fact.

Pat Brown said...

What is sad is that certain people cannot separate their personal dislike for me from the issues at hand. I am trying women's and children's lives through making sure we focus on what is realistic and not what is fantasy. If I were in Indiam I might be well advising poor families to be on the watch that their children might abducted into a sex slavery ring. I might not waste my time advising something that is important in the US.

Children are most vulnerable within family circles and people that are regularly present in their lives. This is true in any country but it is even more true here where there is less opportunity due to better law enforcement and less chaos for sex slavery rings to exist (which is why in this country it is mostly immigrants who have no family here or political recourse). Parents need to watch what is happening right at home and in school and in church and in the neighborhood. They do not have to worry about their children being abducted by a professional sex ring, but the creepy pedophile down the block, absolutely.

Little boys and girls who are abducted in this country end up in backyards, farmlands, under cement porches, and in the trash. They don't end up in sex rings.

Please focus on saving lives, not calling me names. Name calling is having no effect on me, but the lost of focus on the issues may mean another child goes missing.

Anonymous said...

Do you smoke crack Pat?Because it really seems like it latly

Anonymous said...

Runaway Children are ready for the picking. It is very bad in Washington. The pimps have children from 9 years and up. They are easliy found at malls, bus stops and other teen hangouts. The pimp will either befriend them or send in a Bottom Bitch. Either way they are in trouble and not too many get out. We have changed our laws and one important one is, that anyone caught under 18 is a victim and placed in safe homes equiped just for them and their issues. Children here are sold for more than drugs or guns.But very sadly most children stolen by monsters are usually murdered. I personally know this to be true :(

Jessie'sMomGlendene said...

FUNNY - but you did not post my comment. THAT MAKES ME LAUGH MY ASS OFF.

Anonymous said...

You are correct.kids probably end up no more than 5 kms.from where they are abducted.murdered And left where they murder them.in backyards,drains,tips etc.however in the case of maddie mccann I think she's alive.

Ana said...

What difference does it make if they are kidnapped or coerced off the street because they are runaways probably from a bad home to begin with or trapped into prostitution because they were naive and believed some story? They are doing this "voluntarily", really? Are they making any money? Are they living the good life? So what is their motivation?
Johns need to be targeted and dicks need to be cut off. That will put an end to prostitution, rape and the rest of it. Get caught your dick comes off.

Pat Brown said...

Ana, it IS important how girls get into prostitution because parents, teachers, and community members need to help teach young women where danger lies and help them stay clear of the life. Yes, I am all for nailing pimps and johns to the wall so there are less predators out there to use these girls, but since we can't get them all off the streets (and our society is lame about doing to much to these creeps), we need to do what we can to keep girls from getting sucked in. Pretending that sex trafficking is rampant in the US and that girls are being kidnapped is wrongheaded because is is simply not true and is not the danger we should be warning girls about.