MASSACHUSETTS News

A Suffolk County program has identified more than 400 child prostitutes in the past five years, taking them off the streets and diverting them to social services in a program that Attorney General Martha Coakley wants to expand to the rest of the state.“Whether we talk to the DAs individually or this is something that needs to be addressed through legislation, I am looking for ways we could do this statewide,” Coakley said after a meeting yesterday on online sexual exploitation and human trafficking at Suffolk University Law School.Three states — New York, Connecticut and Illinois — already have so-called “Safe Harbor” laws that prevent prosecutors from pressing criminal charges against underage youths who are pushed into the skin trade, according to Susan Goldfarb, executive director of the Children’s Advocacy Center of Suffolk County.The program she runs with Suffolk District Attorney Daniel Conley — Support to End Exploitation Now, or SEEN — has diverted more than 400 potential child prostitution cases from the courts to social services, picking up seven children in the past 10 days alone, Goldfarb said.“A Safe Harbor Law in Massachusetts is critical to strengthen law enforcement’s efforts to punish johns and exploiters and to ensure that exploited children are not blamed for their victimization,” she said.“We’re drafting this legislation because at-risk youth across Massachusetts deserve the same support and protections statewide that they get in Suffolk County,” Conley said. “Policies like this one have been proven to work in other states. Why not here?”District attorneys in Middlesex, Essex and Norfolk counties said youths picked up for prostitution in their counties are also treated as victims and are generally not prosecuted. Goldfarb said making that law, and having a safety net such as the SEEN program, can help kids get their lives back on track.Referrals to SEEN come from police officers, Department of Children and Families officials, youth workers and other mandated reporters who spot signs of abuse, Goldfarb said. She said the program’s success is based on having several agencies work together so all of their resources are brought to bear on a single case.The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children estimates that 100,000 children are the victims of prostitution each year, with many being put to work between the ages of 11 and 14, according to testimony the organization gave before Congress this year.