Local kids threatened by different crimes
HOUSTON - The threats for your child loom closer than you think. We spoke with a very involved advocate to stop human sex trafficking and the CEO of Crime Stoppers Houston, and both say that kids here in Houston are being targeted in different ways.
"One of the biggest things I am seeing so far this school year is the exploitation mainly of boys. Of course, it happens to girls, but we are really seeing a peak when it comes to boys," said Rania Mankarious, CEO Crimestoppers of Houston.
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"Boys who are talking to, online, gaming with, engaging, chatting with, people who they don’t know in real life, but start to let their guard down. They either take an inappropriate photo or even take a benign photo. Those photos are used against them to exploit these young boys. I think of all the trends we study and we see, this trend has effected more Houston families than any other trend I have been following."
Jennifer Hohman is an advocate to help abolish child sex trafficking deals with local victims and their families.
"We are seeing a number of more cases where the trafficker, or what we would call pimp, has some connection to cartel. They are using their organizational structure of drugs and arms and human smuggling, they are using that same organization structure to traffic local children," said Hohman.
"If we can’t attack those organizations and bring them down quickly, like we didn’t do with the war on drugs, it’s our children at stake now."