Hidden America: Chilling New Look at Sex Trafficking in the US

we're going to bring you a really powerful and eye-opening report that might challenge everything you think you know about prostitution it's the latest in our series hidden america and i'm here with our colleague diane sawyer welcome back diane so great to see you juju it's always great to have you on nightline but i know this is also a story that we both care very deeply about i've covered it over the years and we've talked about it all around the world but tonight sex trafficking something happening right here at home our colleague nick kristof of the new york times and his wife cheryl wudon have made a remarkable documentary called a path appears and they have been following women often very young girls locked into a life of prostitution by highly skilled profiteers pimps and you're going to hear nick argue when you look closely these women are in fact not criminals but hostages walking among us by night and by day across the country young american girls controlled by pimps are sent out to have sex for money sometimes 20 men a night we had to make at least a thousand dollars a day there was no days off you have to sleep with 10 to 20 strangers per night i would probably have up to like 20. i was so exhausted i was so i didn't want to do it anymore he hit me a few times and then he he had a gun and he pointed at me and he was like you need to do what i say he's like i will kill you savannah was looking at websites when she was lured away a study says the average age a girl enters prostitution is 12 to 14 years old so one day i think i was 13. i didn't really know a lot about anything so i went online and i wanted to i don't know how i came across like this website for like you know like sugar daddies guys would pay for yourself i didn't know that i would have to have sex with them i just thought they were gonna i don't know what i was thinking but i just thought that you know they would buy me stuff and just because i was pretty i don't know i still did not understand what was happening like completely even when we went to the hotel room until it happened and that is just one way pimps lay the trap a lot of times we'll walk in and again it's not that bad at new york's port authority two plainclothes officers sergeant hector martinez and officer jack collins tell me we are surrounded by pimps just out of sight who come here to stalk runaways the pimps can spot them immediately but you're in a kind of race against the pimps absolutely they see your left hand side as soon as they walk into greyhound right where they want to be pimps recruiters the officers try to intervene a lot of the kids are from foster care a lot have been sexually abused and the predators know exactly what they hope to hear they sell them on the idea of a warm place to stay for a night the possibility potential for romance maybe earning some money so these officers may be the last chance before a girl disappears into the shadows maria has been looking for her daughter who ran away when she was 15. i haven't heard from her in his documentary a path appears nick kristoff continues his lifetime mission going in search of missing girls with an anxious mother looking on he searches some of the websites where the girls are most often advertised he spots a picture and the offer mixed latina catering to your needs there's a mixed latina catering to your needs emily can you click on it yeah would you recognize it yeah well let me see and then i'll um maria maria that's her we have to make sure okay that's her oh my god okay so what happens with these men will they find them too as he continues his search nick tells maria her daughter has been trafficked in more than one state so she was taken to new hampshire as well um and um and there's another girl with the same phone number uh and at least one other maybe a couple so it's evidently somebody who's running a couple of girls and you know it's big business a pimp can pull into a truck stop with an rv full of seven girls and make fourteen hundred dollars an hour this fundamental misperception is somehow a pimp and this girl are dividing up money or something every penny she earns goes to the pimp every penny and if she holds them back or she doesn't meet her quota that she is given whatever 700 800 that day then she is going to be beaten up in the documentary a former young girl on the street named shauna drives her car to an area she knows is frequented by pimps one pimp used to call her shelly money hi you remember me who am i what was your name shelly money so like what are you doing you got a girl out here three three girls so you waiting on one to come back now yeah in the car with her a long time activist actress ashley judd how much do you expect her to bring 40 no less that's a new rule 40. so if she comes back with more than 40 do you expect that she'd be up front with you and give you the full whack or is she only going to give you 40 because you told her that was the minute i didn't think you can get her you know i gotta back in a room and places safe to stay in uh drugs so you know the one you're waiting on now what's her habit correct everybody yeah everybody so you supply your dope and if she if she comes back then with less than 40 i mean god forbid what's going on what's going to happen i got a different system than you know other people i try to treat them right like in the morning before they want to eat i give them either a v8 or orange juice as we said it's big profit supported by the thousands of men buying sex every day the chance that any one of those is going to be arrested is infinitely lower than the chance they'll be struck by lightning last year in one new york city court more than 400 charged with prostitution offenses but only 10 accused of being pimps or johns in 19 states they tried something different highly publicized stings on the johns this is chicago cook county predictably the men arrested say this is their first time first time ever the first time getting caught the first time how many times per month do you think would you say you do this never there isn't really demographic you know occupation you know doctors lawyers police the sheriff says he always asks the men a memorably trick question would they like to avoid the fee for having their car towed one of the things we always offer them as opposed to the 500 fee to get your car back will allow you to call your wife and have her pick your car up and that one has ever taken us up on it and so in cities across the country thousands of young girls are at the crossroads we're back at new york's port authority where the predators are stalking i see a girl alone wonder if she's okay so i'm looking at that girl over there give me a sec if you want me to uh go do my thing it's your fault sure no problem why not she looks okay hey you don't know i'm sorry i bother you you're not in trouble anytime her id says she is 19 older than she looks and she says she has a job at the terminal but for these two officers a night has just begun last year 69 runaways were pulled to safety normally anywhere between one to three runaways a week and most of those would be trafficked if you hadn't intervened absolutely either they're about to be trafficked they are being trafficked or they're out here living the life around the corner from the port authority covenant house one of the largest shelters for at-risk youth jane bigelson says she hears from the girls who fell victim how easy it was one young person said you know he was the first person to ever give me a birthday cake he was you know they know what the young person needs if there were gun traffickers out there that we would find ways to get them out of the picture but somehow if it's people who are trapping 15 year old girls then somehow that's not enough of a priority and so we regret it but that's they're still out there covenant house tries to provide housing therapy the real help in life only promised by pimps these are homegrown american girls it's basically been seen as a public nuisance issue rather than as a human rights problem shauna who started at age 14 remembers the day she couldn't take it anymore she says after 22 years she was here waiting above a filling station you know what i'm saying i was so tired and it was like if you were our god save me i walked back out to murfreesboro road right out there and the police picked me up and took me to jail and i was so tired i just couldn't do it anymore as she's driving she sees a woman she recognizes on the street someone who was also once young and had a different life ahead of her why are you even you're playing clean for three years now well i'm not get away from it when you get tired i'm not a hoe no more when you get tired let me know give your number i got 320. i am tired hear me are you tired yeah are you ready to go today no no well i'm tired i just want to get well one more time i love you i've been there i know god she used to be so beautiful she's messed as up as the young girls back at home tonight the mother whose daughter was seen on that website and that young girl who didn't know it would be about sex who found her way home to her mother and as beautiful as the young girls still lost in the shadows and nick kristoff's documentary of path appears premieres on pbs monday night juju thanks so much diane a remarkable piece of reporting you

Channel: ABC News

Views: 3,926,898

Rating: 4.8085818 out of 5

Keywords: New York, Sex Trafficking, Diane Sawyer, vulnerable young women, prostitution, prostitution rings, victim, hidden america, pimps, sex, abc, abcnews

Id: gSgTmcq-bBk

Length: 11min 45sec (705 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 24 2015