U.S. Girls Ages 11 to 14 at Risk for Sex Trafficking: Panel

Between 100,000 and 300,000 girls in the U.S. are subject to sexual trafficking every year, and few cases of child rape are ever prosecuted, said Malika Saada Saar, founder of the Rebecca Project for Human Rights.

Girls between ages 11 and 14 are particularly at risk, and more American-born than foreign-born children are being bought and sold for sex in this country, Saar said in a panel discussion at the Women in the World conference in New York City on March 11. The U.S. Department of Justice estimates that “about 293,000 American youth are currently at risk of becoming victims of commercial exploitation.”