Underage Prostitution and Somaly Mam

http://www.riverfronttimes.com/2011-11-03/news/commercial-sexual-exploitation-of-children-john-jay-college-ric-curtis-meredith-dank-underage-prostitution-sex-trafficking-minors/

I read this article a little bit after we read the Road of Lost Innocence, and thought it was a very interesting contrast to the book. For anyone interested, the article is about a study done on underage prostitution in New York City that shows that the myth of the teenage sex worker (a teen girl controlled and sometimes even held captive by a pimp) is, at least in NYC, largely just a myth. I thought this was interesting in light of the messages sent by Somaly Mam. It seemed to me that she promoted this stereotype of victimized girls, brainwashed by society and helpless (until Somaly rescues them.) And while it is a touchy subject, obviously this is a real problem and Somaly is helping a lot of people, I thought it interesting to read a different perspective on the issue. I know this comes a while after we read the Road of Lost Innocence, but it is an interesting article, and gives us another story of underage prostitution (if we want to avoid the danger of a single story.)