Real Journalists Do Real Research
This week the Village Voice continued its 'investigative' series on the issue of sex trafficking in the U.S.. Framed as a hard-hitting expose uncovering the 'truth,' the series merely serves as thinly veiled editorials with a clear objective -- to disprove the existence of sex trafficking in the U.S. and to discredit those who have criticized
( Read more... )
Fact: The VV article clearly stated multiple times that the number of underaged sex slaves in this country is simply impossible to quantify, and even indicates the very limitations
"Finkelhor says there's no way to know for sure how many child prostitutes there are in America.
"All we have in the way of really hard evidence is what the police arrests are," he says. "They're way low. They're certainly not an underestimate, but it seems to me that it's incumbent on anyone who is writing about the problem to at least include that number on one end of the continuum, because that's probably the most justifiable number you have"
Fact: That "100,000-300,000" number is from an article never submitted for peer review. It indicates the number of children "at-risk" which can mean anything from being a runaway to LIVING ON THE MEXICAN BORDER. And guess what, the VV article clearly states that, and includes support for that claim from multiple academics.
Fact: The VV article ALSO points out how much these people claiming to want to help underaged sex slaves AREN'T HELPING, like how a bill in the House has stagnated that would have sent 15M towards building shelters for victims of sex trafficking and provided for therapy and support services.
So basically, this article provides zero statistical, peer-reviewed evidence regarding the number of underaged sex slaves in the US, yet implies that the VV article is full of meanies that didn't do their research before quoting the SAME DAMN NUMBERS DEBUNKED IN THE VV ARTICLE.
I don't even know what to do with you, ontd_p. I don't care how scary the problem is, SENSATIONALIST DATA IS SENSATIONALIST DATA.
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
The only thing that sounds naive and privileged here is the stubborn refusal by "advocates" to accept sound data because it doesn't satisfy their need for alarmist hand-wringing.
Reply
I've SEEN a few hundred so how could there be so few across the country? Surely everyone who's lived in a city has seen the same. And not just cities.
Maybe I missed it but the VV methodology I saw sucked. They seem to match those of arrests and stings (example) but how would that reflect how many others there are?
This article is also critical of the 200k-300k figure but explains better where it comes from. And repeats that no one knows what the true number is.
Reply
Have you in fact "seen" a few hundred, or are you simply assuming that your anecdata is both accurate and can be reproduced in any fundamental way across the country? Did you ask them if they're underage? Did you collect anonymous questionnaires?
I don't care what "feels" wrong or "feels" right to you, the fact remains that until a genuine quantitative study is conducted providing some semblance of peer-reviewed ACCURACY, the closest thing you're going to get to a number is through arrest records, and those numbers are LOW compared to that ridiculous 100k-300k figure. And guess what, THE VV ARTICLE SAID JUST THAT.
Your claim to have "seen" a few hundred is not only meaningless to me (somebody born and bred in an urban center, by the way, and in a community rife with sex trafficking), but indicative of your willingness to simply believe what is most convenient for you, as other advocates perpetuating such bloated figures do.
Meanwhile, idiots like Linda Smith are called "experts" on sex trafficking when she frankly shouldn't be considered an expert on much more than Linda Smith, but that's okay because she has her pet cause that makes people just horrified enough to vote for her but not really horrified enough to push legislators to do anything about it.
It seriously drives me crazy how the left so consistently sinks to the same level as the right. Make the figure a horrifyingly large one and it gets national attention! Villify all who claim otherwise as __fillininsulthere___!
Reply
Reply
So noted!
Reply
Reply
Reply
Going by abysmally low arrest records is just as shoddy as going by the 100k-300k number. One overestimates, the other underestimates. The actual figure is somewhere between what is documented (by law enforcement, who often dgaf) and those at risk (100-300k.) Is 300k excessive, yes, of course, because it's of those at risk, but common sense will tell you there's way more than a few hundred children and teenagers engaging in survival sex in this country. It's absurd and offensive for the VV to suggest that arrest records even come close to reflecting the real figure, they don't, not a little bit, not at all.
Reply
Reply
Reply
And if the people who keep spamming this figure need numbers and don't believe arrest records I fully accept that. So, you know, fund a better study! Think of all the field scientists they could have paid to pass out questionnaires with the money from those awful "real men..." commercials!
And what makes you think I was implying anything about anyone except "advocates" like celebrities that appropriate causes with offensive psa's and republican politicians that appropriate causes to fuel their culture war in this country? Or are you trying to paint me as a more acceptable villain in this piece now that you've failed to articulate a reasonable argument.
Reply
Leave a comment