craigscrimelist

Five girls in care have been selling sex on Craigslist, police say:
Five teenagers in the care of British Columbia's children's ministry have been discovered prostituting themselves on craigslist. The teens are 16 and 17 and have been claiming in their ads that they are 18-20.

This is a great article about how the Vancouver area has a problem with child prostitution on carigslist and how it's almost tolerated.

Mother, Son Accused Of Pimping 15-Year Old Girl. Girl Allegedly Pimped Out To More Than 1200 Men:
37-year-old Lavern Vaughn and her son, 20-year-old Lavor Carter, of Vallejo, California have been arrested for pimping out a 15-year-old girl. The pair posted almost 700 ads on craigslist pimping the girl out in Northern California.

The victim couldn't just leave either...

The federal indictment alleges carter would whip her with a belt and plastic rod, burn her with a lighter, or strike her. She reportedly tried to leave Carter on multiple occasions, but he told her that if she left, she would not leave alive.

In the same indictment, Carter allegedly duct taped the minor to a chair inside an apartment and left her there for 12 hours. Other accusations include pouring boiling water on her leg and chest, and locking her in a garage all night long.

If this story couldn't be any sicker read what the suspects' relative said when confronted by the media...

We asked Gail Vaughn, mother and grandmother of the woman and young man arrested by FBI agents, if they were really pimping out a young girl. "No," she said. "The girl they're accused of pimping [isn't] a kid. She's 16 and has a two-year old daughter."

But she's still a minor under the law. "Yeah, but we didn't know that."

Who the hell doesn't know that minors are under 18 and why is that supposed to make a difference?

And that's right I said victim. You can take your victimless crime and shove it.

Technology helps fuel 'pimping' of young girls:
This is a very powerful article about a case of child prostitution in the Bay Area that was in part facilitated by craigslist.

I would do the story and its author a great injustice if I tried to either quote or summarize the story. That's how good I think it is.

For those of you who think that child prostitution is not happening on craigslist you need to read this article.

And again for those of you that think prostitution is a victimless crime you need to read this article.

Craigslist child sex ads lead to arrests:
A 15-year-old runaway girl from Onalaska, Wisconsin was found in Milwaukee prostituting herself on craigslist.

Milwaukee police found that girl's ad on Craigslist offering oral sex and other acts. She also was advertised as working with another female whose age was not listed in the warrant. Like the 16-year-old, detectives found the Onalaska girl at the Port Motel.

Around that time, 33 advertisements on Craigslist offered prostitution in the Milwaukee area, about half of them from the 15-year-old girl, the warrant indicates.

Police arrested an unnamed 21-year-old male who posted the ads on craigslist for her.

But there's no victims here right?

Our favorite craigslist mouthpiece had this to say...

"Our hearts go out to the victim and their family, and there is nothing more gut-wrenching to our staff than to hear Craigslist has been abused to exploit children," said Susan MacTavish Best of Craigslist.

Riiiiiight. If your gut is that wrenched why does the erotic services section still exist?

craigslist, the home of lip service.

Attorney Arrested for Answering Child Sex Ad:
29-year-old attorney Adam Bryant has been arrested in a craigslist undercover sting where undercover detectives placed an ad on craigslist from a father that was offering his 13-year-old daughter for sex. Bryant offered $1000 and was arrested when when he arrived at the predetermined meeting place.

Investigators are also saying that Bryant has been in contact with child prostitutes since 2006.

How is this a victimless crime again?

Feds Charge 5 in Craigslist Child Sex Ring:
This is basically a press release from the U.S. Attorney's office in Michigan but it doesn't change the fact that child prostitution is being carried out on craigslist...

Five defendants were charged in federal district court today with sex trafficking of minors, manufacturing child pornography, and other offenses arising from interstate prostitution networks based in Detroit, United States Attorney Stephen J. Murphy announced.

Murphy was joined in the announcement by Andrew G. Arena, Special Agent-In- Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in Detroit. Robert C. Daniels, a/k/a "Motor City Mink," 28, of Detroit, and Dennis Paige, a/k/a "Detroit Slim", of Novi, are alleged to be the leaders of separate but related interstate prostitution networks. Stephanie Head, 22, of Detroit, is described as Daniels' "bottom," the
highest ranking prostitute working for Daniels and is accused of soliciting and training minors to engage in prostitution, as well as photographing them engaged in sexually explicit conduct and posting digital solicitations on the internet. Sarah Dutton and Hortense Canty, of Novi, are alleged to have served similar roles for Paige.

The defendants are alleged to have posted over 2,800 advertisements on craigslist.org beginning on January 10, 2006. Solicitations for prostitution were posted for Houston, Texas, Chicago, Illinois, Detroit, Michigan, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Cleveland, Ohio, Washington, D.C., College Park, Maryland and New York City, New York. Other websites alleged to have been used to advertise and solicit child and adult prostitutes include myspace.com, cityvibe.com, blackplanet.com, and eros.com.

For those of you that belong to the cult of craig who think that child prostitution doesn't happen on your precious craigslist this is just more proof that you're fooling yourself.

Local Woman Charged With Pimping Juveniles:
22-year-old Felisha Mock of Sacramento, California has been arrested for pimping out girls as young as 16 over craigslist.

Investigators tell CBS13 that Mock set up the ring using Craigslist. The way it worked is the teenagers would allegedly solicit sex to customers, and investigators say Mock's customers would then broker a deal over the phone getting a percentage of the sale.

Some neighbors aren't surprised because they say drug addiction is a big problem in this neighborhood.

"And they need their drugs so they need to make money. They're not going to work because they can't pee in a cup," says Carol.

But they all must have entered prostitution voluntarily because people keep telling me it's a victimless crime.

Dirty Dozen: 'Craigslist' Hooker Ring Busted:
Police in Westland, Michigan broke up a craigslist prostitution ring involving at least a dozen prostituted that were run by one couple.

Police were tipped off by a 16-year-old who was working for the pair. There's that victimless crime again.

Remember kids even if prostitution is legalized doesn't mean it will stop child prostitution.

I received another e-mail shortly after the last one from an organization called Love 146. They're an organization dedicated to stop human trafficking. Go over to their site and you'll see how they got their name.

They contacted me because we have a similar goal in mind. The complete eradication of human trafficking and child prostitution on craigslist erotic services section.

In that aim Love 146 has started their craigslist Call to Action Campaign.

Their hope is that through speaking engagements, press conferences, and petitions craigslist will follow in the footsteps of MySpace and Facebook to make their site safer for children and it doesn't get any more dangerous for children than human trafficking.

To this effort they have requested that their members, sponsors, and anybody else to boycott craigslist until they implement safeguards and monitoring procedures that will eradicate the sale of human beings on the erotic services section of the website.

For further information please click the links that I've provided.

10 charged in Internet prostitution:
Cook County Sheriff's Department in Illinois arrested 10 members of a craigslist prostitution ring that ran in Illinois and Indiana.

Rodney "Mook" Williams, Eddie Wells and Terrance "Big T" Greenlee Jr., all of Chicago, and Gregory Key of Evergreen Park are accused of operating the prostitution ring. If convicted, they could face up to 30 years in prison.

Six women were charged with prostitution. The juveniles were questioned by police but released without being charged, officials said.

Yes you read that right, juveniles.

The ring operated in Illinois and Indiana and involved at least 11 women, some of whom were high school freshmen and sophomores, he said.

Two of the juveniles—one from Iowa—were runaways, officials said, adding the alleged leaders recruited some women from a strip club and found others at a currency exchange.

There's that 'victimless' crime again.

Teen suicide spurs war on child prostitution:
This is an article about Atlanta's war on child prostitution. It briefly mentions craigslist and it's usual denial of facilitation...

Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin wrote to craigslist founder Craig Newmark and Chief Executive Jim Buckmaster in August, urging them to remove postings of women engaged in activity that broke Georgia law and called on other mayors to file similar protests.

Buckmaster said the company "shares Mayor Franklin's concerns and are evaluating her suggestions."

The site warns its users that it prohibits illegal activity but he added: "We do not monitor the content of more than 25 million free postings craigslist users self-publish each month."

But I mostly wanted to point out the plight of Samantha Walker who committed suicide after testifying against one of the men who paid to have sex with her when she was 15.

This is why I believe that craigslist needs to eliminate it's erotic services section. Please read the entire article.

There are no victimless crimes.

Pleasantville man admits prostituting minors:
I originally posted about this story at MyCrimeSpace back in June. Casson Coward of Pleasantville, New Jersey was arrested back in June for pimping out two girls ages 14 and 16 from Allentown, Pa. on craigslist.

Yesterday Coward pleaded guilty to interstate transporting of minors for the purposes of prostitution. His partner Kevin R. Mayfield was also arrested. Both of them are looking at 10 to life and a $250K fine.

The so-called victimless crime continues.

Oldest Profession Has Young Victims, New Methods: Ann Woolner:
This is a great article about Atlanta's perceived problem with child prostitution and what police are doing to combat it. Of course craigslist is brought into the conversation because Mayor Shirley Franklin previously called craigslist on the carpet for facilitating child prostitution.

The author of the article, Ann Woolner, tried to contact craigslist about this and was met with the usual response.

I tried to contact craigslist Chief Executive Officer Jim Buckmaster to ask whether he had instituted any reforms since Franklin wrote him in August seeking closer monitoring, more stringent warnings and a tougher attitude toward those who advertise illegal services or otherwise break the Web site's rules. Questions e-mailed to a press contact for Buckmaster weren't answered.

How long will craigslist continue to stick its fingers in its ears and go "LALALALALALALALALALALALA I'M NOT LISTENING"?

Responding to concerns:
It wasn't that long ago that the Mayor of Atlanta, Shirley Franklin, chided craigslist for facilitating child prostitution. Of course craigslist brushed it off. One of Ms. Frankin's advisors even mentioned that Facebook and MySpace have been very forthcoming with the mayor's officeeven when not legally obligated to do so.

However our favorite craigslist mouthpiece, Susan MacTavish Best, had this to say...

"Craigslist has an erotic services section on the site because our users asked us to create it in order to keep the personals section clear of erotic service ads. (Some folks when looking for a date do not want to have to look at ads for erotic services). Certainly, we ... don't want the site to be used for illegal activity. But we do believe that there should be a place for people to advertise legal escort services. We have over 30 million users a month. As we responded to the Mayor of Atlanta, we are always interested in hearing how we can make Craigslist better. Craigslist makes no money from erotic services because like most of the site, it is free to post there ... "

Legal escort services? No such thing my dear. They may pose as legal but we all know what they're fronts for. And again you say that you don't want craigslist used for illegal activities but you're not doing anything to discourage it. So basically by moving the erotic services section out of the personals you just swept in under the rug hoping nobody would notice.

What's it going to take craigslist before you do something about this? Are you waiting for a toddler to get pimped out or worse?

Link (Second story down)

A Braintree man is in hot water after allegedly pimping a young girl on the Internet, police say.

According to the police report, the girl advertised herself as a prostitute on Craigslist. Police set up a sting to apprehend her.

A plainclothes cop met the girl on West Seventh Street Tuesday morning, and noticed she was accompanied by two males who waited for her in a car.

The juvenile allegedly offered to provide sex to an undercover officer for $175. After agreeing to the price, the cop placed the girl under arrest for prostitution while nearby cops confronted her companions.

Joseph Venezia of Braintree was charged with deriving support from prostitution, contributing to the deliquency of a minor and driving with a suspended license.

Damon Isles of Charlestown, the passenger, was arrested on drug charges, police said.

But it's a victimeless crime and these girls want to be prostitutes right? Give me a break.