Political Quotes

“There is no more vulnerable segment of this country's population than its children. For far too long, jurisdictions across the country have failed to adequately protect and support minor victims of commercial sex trafficking by treating them as the criminals. This must stop. Unfortunately, according to FBI statistics, the commercial sex trade is the fastest-growing activity of organized criminal groups. The number of children facing sexual exploitation, rape, emotional trauma, and in many cases criminal prosecution grows every day. Despite the fact that Congress has long recognized that minor participants in commercial sex acts are victims, the majority of States maintain statutes criminalizing minor prostitution, directly conflicting, in many instances, with other State laws regarding statutory rape and child abuse. Acknowledging this conflict, the Texas Supreme Court held in 2010, that ``because a 13-year-old child cannot consent to sex as a matter of law, the child cannot be prosecuted as a prostitute.'' Further illustrating this inconsistency, one Dallas police officer observed that ``if a 45-year-old man had sex with a 14-year-old girl and no money changed hands, she was likely to get counseling and he was likely to get jail time for statutory rape.…”