At Atlanta man is under arrest for sex trafficking involving children. Demetrius Darnell Homer is accused of recruiting and maintaining three young girls for prostitution. U. S. Attorney Sally Quillian Yates said, “This defendant allegedly recruited very young girls and turned them into prostitutes, robbing them of their youth, their dignity, and their freedom. Vigorously prosecuting those who exploit children and young women is a top priority for our office.”
Atlanta is considered a hot spot for child prostitution. An estimated 7,200 men are paying for sex with teenage girls every month in Georgia, according to a study called “Men Who Buy Sex with Adolescent Girls.” The report, commissioned by the campaign called A Future Not a Past, paints an alarming picture of the sex trade in North Georgia.
- 12,400 men pay for sex with young females each month; 7,200 of them end up having sex with underage girls.
- While many men were not looking for sex with teenage girls, close to half were willing to go through with the transaction even after they found out they would be hooking up with someone under 18.
- Commercial sex exploitation is not just a city problem. Men responded to ads from all over metro Atlanta, including the suburbs.
- Researchers found 9% of customers were near the airport, fueling a theory that travel and tourism play a role in sex trafficking.
The FBI’s Metro Atlanta Child Exploitation Task Force is handling the Homer investigation. Members include police departments in Atlanta, Gwinnett County, Marietta and Sandy Springs.
Congratulations to all who participated in this investigation. With the involvement of four police departments along with the FBI, it must have been expensive. And the costs haven’t all surfaced yet. There will more investigations, attorney’s fees, court costs, and rehabilitation for the victims. This begs the question — how committed are the taxpayers of Atlanta to defeating this lurid industry? Will they demand that law enforcement put forth the resources needed to ensure that no Atlanta child is forced, intimidated, duped, drugged, or in other ways coerced into America’s highly profitable commercial child sex industry? Will we, a couple years from now, be reading news reports to the effect that all, or perhaps a very high percentage, of operators in Atlanta’s lucrative child sex trade enterprise are living behind bars?