From the Arizona Republic:
Teen prostitutes are traded like cattle and beaten like dogs, don’t keep their money and can be lured into the profession with sweet talk and designer handbags.
This warning comes from an unusual source: convicted pimp Antoin Thurman.
"I’ve realized I wouldn’t want to see my daughter, my mother or sister in this predicament I had these girls in," said Thurman, a Phoenix resident serving a three-year sentence in the Arizona Department of Corrections, ASPC-Douglas. "Not only did I mess up my life but I messed up their lives."
Thurman, 21, this week described in an educational video how he recruited girls at malls and clubs and lured them into selling their bodies.
The 20-minute video is the brainchild of Judge Lex Anderson of Lake Pleasant Justice Court. Anderson sought and received $42,000 from the Judicial Collection Enhancement Fund to do the project. Anderson has spearheaded other educational programs focusing on topics such as drinking and driving and domestic violence.
A case in his courtroom involving a teenage prostitute stirred Anderson’s interest and led to his discovery that child prostitution was not an aberration. It’s estimated 8,000 children in Arizona are victims of sexual exploitation.