Craigslist "Wal-Mart of child sex trade", Pope acts against incest priest group

also: Japan's Child Abuse Reaches Record High
How predatory gangs force middle-class girls into the sex trade
Susan Sarandon's Child Sex Trafficking Crusade
WGBH Investigates: Sexual and Human Trafficking in Southern New England
US law enforcement 'failing' on child prostitution
A Guide To Catholic Sex Scandals - More than a dozen of the church's worst sex abuse scandals of the past 30 years.

Craigslist: The 'Wal-Mart of child sex trade'? What does CNN's surprise interview with the founder of Craigslist reveal about his site's role in sex trafficking and underage prostitution? August 5, 2010 Popular classified ad website Craigslist has come under fire for profiting off of illegal prostitution ads. While Craigslist executives insist that they screen ads posted to their "adult services" section, police and anti-human trafficking advocates say the site has become a hotbed for online prostitution, which often involves underage women forced into the sex trade. "Craigslist is like the Wal-Mart of online sex trafficking right now in this country," Andrea Powell of the anti-human trafficking group The FAIR Fund tells CNN.
http://theweek.com/article/index/205788/craigslist-the-wal-mart-of-child-sex-trade

Japan's Child Abuse Reaches Record High - Japanese child abuse cases reach record high; 187 victims, 18 deaths in 1st half of 2010 By YURI KAGEYAMA TOKYO August 5, 2010 (AP) During the first six months of this year, there were reports of 187 children who were victims of abuse, mostly physical abuse but some sexual, the highest since such records began to be compiled in 2000, the National Police Agency said. The cases resulted in 18 deaths, and 199 people were arrested, it said. In another disturbing sign, the police report also found child pornography on the rise, with cases surging 63 percent from a year earlier to 599 cases in the first half of the year. About half the cases involved the Internet. http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=11329689

Special investigation: How predatory gangs force middle-class girls into the sex trade By Sue Reid 7th August 2010 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1301003/Special-investigation-How-predatory-gangs-force-middle-class-girls-sex-trade.html

August 6, 2010 Susan Sarandon's Child Sex Trafficking Crusade
by Ken Lombardi ....Sarandon said, "Sex trafficking happens everywhere. People profit from it who are also connected to governments. It's definitely exists within the United States...Kids coming from other countries. The problem exists right here." Statistics back up the actress' claims. The U.S. Justice Department estimates that anywhere from 14,500 to 17,500 foreign nationals are trafficked into the United States every single year. But the number of U.S. children faced with being potentially trafficked is much higher. As many as 200,000 American children are at risk of being forced into the sex trade industry. http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-31749_162-20012861-10391698.html


WGBH Investigates: Sexual and Human Trafficking in Southern New England - My four part investigative series that was part of a WGBH Radio team effort:
Part One: Sexual and Human Trafficking
Phillip Martin begins his investigation of human trafficking in Boston and beyond.
Part Two: Sexual and Human Trafficking
Phillip Martin talks to state agencies and police in Massacusetts and Rhode Island about their ongoing investigations.
Part Three: Sexual and Human Trafficking
Phillip Martin looks at the most most heinous dimension of human trafficking:The kidnapping of children for commercial sexual exploitation
Part Four: Sexual and Human Trafficking
Phillip Martin looks worldwide and close to home for lessons that might help in better understanding the dimensions of the problem. http://www.liftedveils.org/



US law enforcement 'failing' on child prostitution 9 August 2010 UK By Sima Kotecha American law enforcement agencies are being accused of not doing enough to combat the problem of child prostitution. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) in the United States estimates that between 100,000 and 300,000 American children are forced into prostitution every year - sometimes through being kidnapped near their homes....The FBI and the Department of Justice (DOJ) are working together with NCMEC to combat the problem. The DOJ claims the average age at which girls first become victims of prostitution is 13. http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/10896771

Pope acts against incest priest's group - Immensely wealthy Catholic organisation, set up by controversial Mexican cleric and favoured by John Paul II, likely to be closed down By Hugh O'Shaughnessy 8 August 2010 The late John Paul II gives his blessing to Father Marcial Maciel in 2004. Senior figures in the church benefited from the huge fortune amassed by Maciel's Legionaries of Christ

The Legionaries of Christ, the Roman Catholic group that combines an estimated £21bn fortune with intense moral turpitude and extreme conservatism, is facing its nemesis this month. For years the organisation was protected by John Paul II, the Polish pope, and his former secretary Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, Archbishop of Krakow. Now the reputation of Father Marcial Maciel, a Mexican who founded the group in 1941 when he was studying for holy orders, is at last falling victim to the reforming drive of John Paul II's German successor, Benedict XVI.

Incestuous father of three – or perhaps six – children, serial paedophile, morphine addict, lover of la dolce vita, and pretend CIA agent, Maciel, who died in 2008, aged 87, built up a huge religious empire. It commanded the allegiance of 750 priests and 2,500 seminarians from 39 countries in the Legion proper, with 70,000 members in a lay offshoot, Regnum Christi, the Kingdom of Christ, and 131,000 students in its schools and universities....

The Pope has now given Archbishop Velasio De Paolis, an expert on running religious orders and a financial specialist, full powers over the Legion. He is getting down to work, and the Legion is unlikely to survive in any recognisable form. Benedict is tacitly repudiating the attitudes of John Paul II and Archbishop Dziwisz. The late pope had called Maciel "an efficacious guide to youth", and applauded his gift for attracting young men to the depleted ranks of the priesthood. Senior figures in the church, who were often the recipients of the Legion's financial largesse, rejoiced in his genius for fundraising and fortune building.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/pope-acts-against-incest-priests-group-2046517.html

A Guide To Catholic Sex Scandals - More than a dozen of the church's worst sex abuse scandals of the past 30 years. http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/slideshow/guide-catholic-sex-scandals-11289279