"Can you show the relevance of even a single one of those statistics?
No. The relevance is superordinate to some sub sets of statistics in general. The vulnerable in society are subject to the abuses of rape, assault, and sexual exploitation.
It is estimated there are between 143 million and 210 million orphans worldwide (recent UNICEF report.)
Each year 14, 505, 000 children grow up as orphans and age out of the system by age sixteen
Each day 38,493 orphans age out
Every 2.2 seconds another ORPHAN ages out with no family to belong to and no place to call home
In Russia and the Ukraine, studies have shown that 10% – 15% of these children commit sucide before they reach age eighteen
These studies also show that 60% of the girls become prostitutes and 70% of the boys become hardened criminals
Another Russian study reported that of the 15,000 orphans aging out of state-run institutions every year, 10% committed suicide, 5,000 were unemployed, 6,000 were homeless and 3,000 were in prison within three years…
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When persons are considered without community kinship and as objects to be exploited for pleasure or monetary gain, they may be victims of dehumanization by powerful others. When we establish supportive policies, institutionalize practices and legitimize the economic functions within society which condone prostitution, we also sanction the ideas that the sexuality of some people, mostly women and emasculated boys, are economic property to be exploited by powerful others. The evidence lies in the fact that those who are most vulnerable lack societal power which can be associated with economic security, low social class, and minority status. When we establish this as a common community value, it reaches across culture into the homes of our sons and daughters everywhere.
I would ask you not to try to interpret isolated statistics in a vacuum but to look at the broader picture painted when all the subsets are viewed together, and ask yourself what kind of society you champion to represent us.
Another subset of this issue is human trafficking.
Human Trafficking is already large scale and on the rise.
"The UN Office on Drugs and Crime notes that "over the past decade, trafficking in human beings has reached epidemic proportions. No country is immune" (2005). They estimate that 700,000 people worldwide are trafficked into forced labour and prostitution each year, and a more recent United States (US) government estimate of 600,000 to 800,000 supports this figure (US State Department 2004a: 6). This latter report also estimates that "80 per cent of the victims trafficked across international borders are female and 70 per cent of those females are trafficked for sexual exploitation" (2004a: 23)." |
