atlanta_women_05_girls_0109

Service Provider SurveysA survey instrument was developed and administered to human service and law enforcement agencies thatwork with at-risk girls and girls who have been victims of sexual exploitation. The survey was administered tocollect data on the type of services offered and utilized, geographic coverage of these services, and the age andethnicity of girls who utilize services. At least 175 service providers were identified in the Metro-Atlanta areathrough an exhaustive search.Although this study focuses on the city of Atlanta, providers outside of the city were not excluded. Severaldirectories were used to compile the human services agency list including The Child Sexual ExploitationResource Directory 2003-2004 Edition, the United Way Help Book 2002, and the Rescue and Restore agencylist. Juvenile justice agency and law enforcement official addresses were compiled using internet searches.Follow-up phone calls were made to agencies a minimum of three times. A total of 32 surveys were returned.Of these, 12 were returned with an indication that the survey was not applicable to the type of services and/orclientele they served.Spatial MappingSpatial mapping was done using Atlanta Police Department crime data for 2002, 2003, and 2004. Includedin the data set were adult and juvenile prostitution arrests, prostitution related 911* calls for service (incidentreports), and juvenile truancy and runaways arrests. Prostitution arrests were gender specific (female). Incidentreports and juvenile arrests for truancy and runaway offences were not.An exhaustive effort was made to identify hotels, MARTA stations, public schools, and legal adult sexvenues, including strip clubs, lingerie modeling establishments, and adult sex shops on the maps. GeographicInformation Survey (GIS) software was used to analyze crime data spatially in relation to public schools,MARTA stations, Atlanta Underground and area malls, hotels and legal adult sex venues. Two types of mapswere created, both citywide and zone specific.LimitationsSeveral limitations to the methods used in this study affected the data collected. Gaining access to the populationof interest was constrained by time limitations and the hidden nature of this population. Only one girl wasidentified though a human service agency and agreed to be interviewed. All other attempts to interview girlswere blocked by human service agencies to protect their clients’ confidentiality.A second limitation was the small return of surveys. There were many reasons for this. First, due to the sensitivenature of commercial sexual exploitation, many agencies may fear the legal consequences of discussing theseareas. Second, many agencies, due to budget constraints and personnel shortages, have difficulty finishingtheir cases, let alone reporting on them. Third, for many agencies commercial sexual exploitation does not fitwithin the scope of their services; therefore, they do not screen or track their clients for this type of abuse. Inlight of the lack of information from agencies, it is impossible to estimate the number of potential cases ofcommercial sexual exploitation in the city of Atlanta with any degree of certainty. Recommendations regardingother mechanisms for gaining this type of information from service agencies are discussed elsewhere.7