Health & Welfare | Daily Report

Flickr photo by Salvatore Barbera

A law signed Monday by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger would change the way Los Angeles treats teen prostitutes, sending them to rehabilitation rather than jail.

The bill analysis says it’s a crime to recruit or pimp juveniles in California. A juvenile, in turn, is deemed too young to consent to sexual relations with an adult and is considered a victim in cases of statutory rape.

However, if a teen takes money in exchange for sex, the minor can be prosecuted as a prostitute.

“This is a grave injustice in many cases where minors are forcibly coerced and manipulated, often by adults, into selling their bodies for the benefit of pimps,” an analysis of the bill says.

The law by state Sen. Fran Pavley, D-Santa Monica, would launch a pilot program in Los Angeles based on one in Alameda (and spurred by legislation passed in 2008). That law in Alameda sent sexually exploited teens to counseling and treatment programs. It also mandated 40 hours of training for prosecutors and court personnel in issues related to child exploitation.

If the Los Angeles program sees youths similar to those seeking services in Oakland, they will reach a young, vulnerable and rootless group of mostly women.

Misssey, an Oakland organization that serves sexually exploited youth, surveyed 149 clients it recently worked with. Ninety eight percent were women and 60 percent reported they had been raped once or more in the past. The average age of the first rape was 11. About half of the young woman lived in foster group homes.

Ed Howard, senior legal counsel for the Child Advocacy Institute, relayed the numbers and said advocates are glad to start working more on the issue in LA.

"We think this is an enormous leap forward to changing the way we treat these young children generally, to treat them as victims of sex abuse rather than as prostitutes and criminals," he said.

There’s a catch to the newer law, though. It says the pilot will only be launched if funds are available.

If the program goes forward, one national study suggests there will be plenty of candidates for the services. Researchers in New Hampshire surveyed police departments from coast to coast on their treatment of juvenile prostitutes.

They found that Los Angeles has the highest arrest rate of large police departments that responded to their survey.

That national study found about 31 percent of juvenile prostitutes are treated as delinquents, although “views about the nature of juvenile prostitution appear to be evolving.”