It's not just females.  Young boys are also sold on the boats, sometimes by their mothers.  I hope we start using gender inclusive language, so that men can feel more comfortable talking about their exploitation.

Thanks for working on this, Wildgoose.

Hillside Church
201 E. 1st Street
Community Event:  Monday, Sept 19: 7-9pm
Professional Training: Tuesday, Sept 20: 9am-noon

I'm not a fan of human trafficking. However, I feel this issue has been blown far out of proportion.

In a recent Zenith City Weekly article, Richard Thomas interviewed many of the players who are involved in solving the "problem" of human trafficking in Duluth. Few could cite real instances of human trafficking, and what data was available relied on horribly flawed methodology.

Thomas writes:

"No one can deny sex trafficking occurs and, by its very nature, is hidden and hard to quantify, but highly suspect figures are cited as evidence that selling children for sex is reaching epidemic proportions.

"Minnesota saw a 64.7 percent increase in just six months, according to a 2010 study by the Georgia-based 'A Future. Not A Past' campaign, whose research keeps turning up in media, governmental, and victim advocate reports on the subject.

"However, the campaign derived its figures by looking up adult Internet ads and counting the number of photos that appeared to depict females under 18, without any attempt to confirm their actual ages nor the legitimacy of the photos.

"When pressed by a reporter, Future-Not-Past Director Kaffie McCullough acknowledged their research is questionable, but said it was necessary to get funding from the state legislature."

Counting photos of people who appear to be under 18? I find this kind of crappy science abhorrent -- not only because it makes a mockery of true investigation, but because it may well divert scarce public dollars from other, more serious societal problems.

I'm sorry, I have to disagree with Ramos.  I have lived in this area my whole life.  I know that child sex trafficking is happening.  I have seen it with my own eyes.  I know this is a huge problem and will only get worse if we continue not to do anything about it. We also need to make resources more available and known to victims so they know they have somewhere to go for help.

Regarding the DSK case:

"Media accounts suggested that Diallo's suit was dismissed because of her 'questionable past,' but that wasn't what weakened the case most. It was that she lied to prosecutors again and again and again. The fact that she falsely claimed to have been gang-raped in Guinea probably wasn't enough to doom the case — she might still have presented herself quite sympathetically as a desperate refugee fleeing a war zone — but there were other things undermining her credibility. Diallo repeatedly confused or misrepresented crucial sequences of events to the grand jury, to police and to prosecutors. Not only did the police investigation turn up a jumble of discrepancies in her story; her own attorney permitted her, even advised her, to talk and talk and talk to all manner of tabloid media hounds. That rather unusual — I would say reckless — decision captured yet more discrepancies for the record and diminished her reliability further."
— Patricia J. Williams, "Sex, Lies and the DSK Case" in The Nation.