Living in a metropolitan area can already be a scary world within itself, but being a young college woman living in a metropolitan area creates even more dangers and precautions that must be taken– and DC’s sex trafficking problem is why.
In March of 2017, concerned community members of Ward 8 met and discussed teens, specifically girls, that had gone missing in the District. Derrica Wilson, co-founder of a non-profit Black & Missing Foundation said that the metropolitan area is “an easy way in and an easy way out” for predators seeking young girls to groom and eventually take in as sex slaves.
However, Mayor Muriel Bowser denied of any increase of missing persons. She claimed that the Metropolitan Police Department has done exceptional work with getting the information out to the public.
Wilson also pointed out that a missing woman of color does not receive as much attention from the media or police as a missing white woman does. For example, the case of Mollie Tibbets was a national news story that ran for weeks but rarely do you hear about a missing black girl in breaking news. Although the case of Mollie Tibbets was not in the DC area, it sheds light on how race factors into sex trafficking and how the police prioritize such.
The graphic above shows that black and white girls are at the same level of risk to be sex trafficked, yet, white women receive more urgency and attention than black girls do. Coverage of sex trafficking should not be differentiated by race, it should be focused on saving these missing girls and keeping young women safe in a dangerous metropolitan area.
Police dismiss these missing girls as runaway cases and frames it as their choice which leads to fewer resources being put towards finding them. This dismissal that it is the girls’ choice is also used by pimps and predators themselves in order to create a mindset where these young girls blame themselves for getting into sex trade which leads them to believe that they deserved this as a punishment and because they believe this, they are less likely to turn themselves into the police.
These specific cases of missing girls in the D.C. area display how common it is for young, black girls to go missing as these missing cases happened only within hours of each other. It is because of this commonality that community members and Derrica Wilson raised concern to Mayor Bowser. Only one out of the two girls were found eventually, but the hundreds of other cases still remain unopened by police.
But college women are also at risk for sex trafficking as predators use college parties and campuses as a way to abduct young women without being noticed. Within the community of our own campus at American, back in the spring of 2018, some say they saw sex traffickers at the Katzen Arts Center disguised and coercing women.
In the “Our America” series by Lisa Ling, she investigates a street of Washington, D.C. that is highly known for prostitution of girls as young as 11 years old. This street is only 6 blocks away from the White House. Once the night falls, the streets that are typically filled with lawmakers turn into streets filled with pimps and young sex slaves. Ling’s mini documentary on this serious sex trafficking problem in D.C. is important and timely– definitely something that everyone in the D.C. area needs to watch.
From the countless number of missing girls in Ward 8, to perpetrators being disguised on college campuses, to having 11-year-olds selling themselves only 6 blocks from the country’s biggest powerhouse– these are just a few examples proving D.C.’s recurring sex trafficking problem. Recognizing signs of victims and sex traffickers themselves is the first step towards decreasing the number of missing young women, girls and boys in the D.C. area. Once we recognize these signs, then our girls and boys can be found. There needs to be a solution to this. The fact that there has not been an end to this injustice that is happening in the neighborhoods of lawmakers is a shocking reality.