BOULDER, Colo., March 1 (UPI) -- Colorado researchers say public perceptions about child sex trafficking are often at odds with the grim facts of the global problem.
AnnJanette Rosga, a sociologist at the University of Colorado at Boulder, said Tuesday people often think all child sex traffickers kidnap their victims, but in many cases their own impoverished families are behind the practice.
"Sometimes the children leave home voluntarily because of abuse or other harmful conditions," she said.
"The global sex trade is as much a product of everyday people struggling to survive in dire economic straits as it is an organized crime problem," she said. "Attacking the crime and not the poverty is treating the symptom but not the disease."
Rosga said many Western-style "rescue" operations end up targeting adults "against their will. ... They rescue children but only have provisions to return them home. Those who have left unhealthy home situations can end up being harmed all over again."
