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Runaway

Whether she was coaxed away, ran away or thrown away, she is a prime target for exploiters.

“I was sitting at a bus stop and a lady rolled up with a really nice car.”

Appearances

Survivors Noel, Jasmine, Jeri

The majority of girls arrested for running away are trying to escape abuse.

[17] Saar, M. S., Epstein, R., Rosenthal, L., & Vafa, Y. (2015). The Sexual Abuse to Prison Pipeline: The Girls’ Story. Human Rights Project for Girls, Georgetown Law Center on Poverty and Inequality, & Ms. Foundation for Women.

When a girl leaves home or foster care, she is usually running away from something with hopes for a better life.

For a girl who has been abused, leaving might be the bravest thing she can do.

Once she is on her own, however, she is exceptionally vulnerable.

In one study, one out of four homeless children were taught how to make money in the sex trade.

[18] (2005). Homeless Youth in Minnesota: 2003 Statewide survey of people without permanent shelter. Wilder Research Foundation, pp. 54.

At Higher Risk

Girls of color who run away are at particular risk. A recent study shows that adults see black girls as less childlike and innocent. In their eyes, these girls are more independent and need less nurturing and support.

[19] Epstein, R., Blake, J. J., & González, T. (2017). Girlhood Interrupted: The Erasure of Black Girls’ Childhood. Georgetown Law Center on Poverty and Inequality.

Some girls are treated like “throw-aways.”

Whether she was neglected by the adults in her life or left multiple homes, no one is looking for her now.

Me and my uncle got in a lot of physical fights. That’s when I started veering toward the streets because they were always so mean to me. I didn’t run away. I didn’t really have to. I didn’t have any rules.

— Jasmine, Survivor

When they are on the streets without food or shelter, homeless girls have a high risk of entering the Life.

Approximately 70% of homeless youth engage in prostitution in order to meet their daily needs, according to one study.

[20] Estes, R. J., & Weiner, N. A. (2001). The Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in the U.S., Canada and Mexico: Final report (of the U.S. national study). University of Pennsylvania, School of Social Work.

at higher risk

LGBTQ kids, who may have left an abusive home or one where they weren’t accepted, face greater job discrimination and even fewer safety nets from their home communities.

In a national study, LGBTQ youth comprised almost 40% of the clientele served by homeless youth organizations.

[21] Durso, L. E., & Gates, G. J. (2012). Serving Our Youth: Findings from a National Survey of Services Providers Working with Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Youth Who Are Homeless or At Risk of Becoming Homeless. The Williams Institute, True Colors Fund, & The Palette Fund, pp. 3.

REASONS WHY LGBTQ YOUTH RUN AWAY

[21] Durso, L. E., & Gates, G.J. (2012). Serving Our Youth: Findings from a National Survey of Services Providers Working with Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Youth Who Are Homeless or At Risk of Becoming Homeless. The Williams Institute, True Colors Fund, & The Palette Fund, pp. 4.

Family rejection of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

Physical, emotional or sexual abuse at home.

As the challenge of living on the streets intensifies, girls become increasingly vulnerable.

Recruiters actively seek homeless youth. Girls with a history of sexual abuse are particularly at-risk.

The group home was like a jail where you’re locked in 24 hours. So we ran away one night. Whoever I met, I was staying at their house, sleeping on their couch. One night, we accidentally got in a pimp car. That was it. He wouldn’t let us out of the car. The doors were locked. Him and his two sons, they all had weapons, so we couldn’t leave.

— Stacy, Survivor

She may start to feel her exploiter is offering everything she needs:

stability, shelter, food and even a loving relationship.

If a youth shelter treats her like a criminal and detains her, she may be driven back into the arms of her trafficker.

The greatest challenge I have when working with runaway girls is that I can’t replicate everything that a pimp provides—at least not right away. The money, the stuff, the sense of belonging, the affection. How can I create that bond quickly?

— Mel, runaway shelter director

A survivor said to me, ‘My pimp controls me 24 hours per day. If you lock me up, how are you any different?’

— Dennis, youth services director

System Story: In Context

Systems have historically treated running away as a crime. In some circumstances, however, it can be a survival mechanism and a response to untreated trauma. This is how girls can find themselves funneled into an abuse-to-prison pipeline that particularly impacts communities of color. Systems can respond differently. The 2014 Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act seeks to ramp up support for runaways and deliver services to kids whose vulnerability has been exploited.

Girls are being punished for running away from abuse while traffickers often get away with exploiting them.

— Ramatu, foundation program officer

Who can shift

The System?

A girl who is abused at home, disproportionately punished at school and sent to juvenile detention for running away encounters many adults on her journey. Any one of them could make a difference.

Teachers

Have a daily view of changes in behavior and attendance

Shelter Staff

Can recognize her vulnerability to sexual exploitation and take steps to support her

Medical Providers

Meets her after she experiences violence on the streets

Child Protective Services (CPS)

Able to follow her case and connect her to help

Mass Transit Drivers and Operators

Can access the National Trafficking Hotline when they encounter runaway girls seeking shelter and transportation

Law Enforcement

Encounter homeless and runaway girls while patrolling the streets and can help them instead of punishing them

Steps Toward

Change

How can systems and adults support girls with histories of untreated trauma to help them avoid sexual exploitation?

Caring and belonging are what runaways may think they’ll get from recruiters on the street. However, adults in foster care, group homes, shelters, youth ministries and neighborhoods can build nurturing relationships with homeless children that are truly supportive.

I think mentors are very important for teenage girls. Someone who can listen and help them establish healthy boundaries and learn to trust the right people.

— Andrea, survivor and advocate

For a girl under the influence of a pimp, shelter staff and foster care providers can acknowledge what’s happening and connect her to specialized services. To encourage her to continue accepting help, she needs to hear a consistent message from all who support her: she is valued, she is in control and she won’t be hurt or held against her will.

As a young girl, I was a runaway. I quickly found myself caught up in drugs and alcohol as well as more sexual abuse. If I had a place to go that was supportive and safe, I may have gone there instead of living on the streets. But these places have to be culturally sensitive, and the staff must be as real as the girls’ circumstances.

— Roxanne, Indigenous survivor and advocate

A runaway seeking help will intersect with many service providers. As a child, she won’t know how to navigate complex systems, but she shouldn’t have to. Connected social service agencies can work together to provide the safety, shelter and services she needs, when and where she needs them.

There needs to be more housing for sexually exploited youth with professionals that specialize in working with them. The youth need to be offered counseling, psych evaluations, chemical dependency services, mentorship, group counseling and school. These houses need to be strategically located so that they are in secure locations, away from the environment that they came from.

— Noel, survivor and founder of survivor services organization

Whether they focus on education, youth services or sexual assault, service agencies are often competing for the same scarce resources. New policy and budgeting approaches, as well as task forces that cross siloes, can empower and incentivize collaboration to figure out the best way to link services and build a better safety net.

It’s the relationship that ultimately matters. Their pimp never goes away or gives up on them. They need to believe the same about you… you the staff person, you the program, you the agency, you the system.

— Dennis, youth services director

Make the

Connection

When a girl leaves home or foster care, especially as a response to abuse, she is at the center of multi-system failure where sexual exploitation is ready to catch her.