Now It's A Problem

"Stacey" is a girl, pictured in the latest edition of Newsweekat the Mall of America.

She is, as the article (and this morning's "Today" show interview) says, 17, "Cute, blond and chatty". And she's a teenage prostitute:

THE ENCOUNTER TAUGHT Stacey a lesson: “Potentially good sex is a small price to pay for the freedom to spend money on what I want.” The easiest way, she discovered, was to offer her body in trade. Stacey, who lives with her parents in an upscale neighborhood, gets good grades in high school and plans to try out for the tennis team, began stripping for men in hotel rooms in exchange for money to buy clothes—then went on to more intimate activities. She placed ads on a local telephone personals service, offering “wealthy, generous” men “an evening of fun” for $400. All the while, she told her parents she was out with friends or at the mall, and was careful to be home before her midnight curfew.

Here's the part that nearly made me urp up my coffee; Suzanne Smalley (and Katie Couric) said:

And, while the vast majority of teen prostitutes today are runaways, illegal immigrants and children of poor urban areas, experts say a growing number now come from middle-class homes. “Compared to three years ago, we’ve seen a 70 percent increase in kids from middle- to upper-middle-class backgrounds, many of whom have not suffered mental, sexual or physical abuse,”

I know. It sounds like I'm dragging a quote out of context.

You had to hear the interview. I have to doubt that I'm the only one who listened, slack-jawed, and asked "...so was it a problem when it was teenage runaways and Mexican girls?"

Posted by Mitch at August 11, 2003 07:53 AM