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Durbin swears in Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez before her testimony at a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law hearing. Durbin also chaired the hearing.
Alvarez Tells Senators of Child Prostitutes' Ordeals Cook County state's attorney says office treats them as victims, not crimnals February 24, 2010 Some young Chicagoans are practicing "survival sex" and selling their bodies for food, clothing or a safe place to sleep, Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez told a U.S. Senate hearing Wednesday. Alvarez, addressing a subcommittee looking into human trafficking, told of a girl who didn't want her pimp to face charges because he bought her a Subway sandwich whenever she wanted one. Another girl had sex for cash to buy food and clothing, unable to rely on her mother, a drug addict. The state's attorney said her office rarely charges juveniles arrested for prostitution-related offenses, treating them instead as victims who need "support, services and a safe future." The hearing was called by Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., chairman of the Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law. He estimated that 100,000-plus U.S. children become sex-trafficking victims every year. For nearly two hours, the subcommittee heard graphic, sometimes gruesome testimony about kids trading sex in the streets — or up and down interstate highways — and becoming addicted to drugs while veering between feelings of love for and fear of their pimps. |