Board of Supervisors Highlights Problem of Sex Trafficking of Minors

The Board of Supervisors today highlighted the problem of sexual trafficking of minors.

"Sadly, this county is recognized as one of the major hubs for sex trafficking in the nation, primarily of girls as young as 11 and 12 years old," Supervisor Don Knabe said. "Untold numbers of these children fall victim to predatory adults who sexually exploit them for personal gain and often abuse them in unspeakable and brutal ways."

Knabe thanked Probation Department staffers for their work in obtaining a $1 million federal grant to aggressively combat the problem.

Chief Probation Officer Jerry Powers said the department had identified 175 young girls as victims of sex trafficking over the last two years.

"In a county of 10 million, I can tell you that we're just scratching the surface," Powers said. He added that about 50 percent of current Los Angeles County probationers with arrests for prostitution began selling their bodies as juveniles, on average between the ages of 12 and 14.

saw five men accused of bringing minors from the Inland Empire to Long Beach and North Hollywood for prostitution purposes. The men have been charged with a variety of different crimes, including rape by use of drugs and oral copulation of a person under 16, pandering by procuring and soliciting for a prostitute, sexual penetration with a foreign object and unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor. The arrests were part of an investigation by the Los Angeles Innocence Lost Task Force, comprised of the FBI, the Los Angeles Police Department, the District Attorney's Office, the U.S. Attorney's Office and the Department of Homeland Security.

Knabe recommended that the board direct staffers to develop a strategy for fighting child prostitution and potentially dedicate a unit within the Probation Department to sexually exploited minors.