The Village Voice, which I've never been crazy about because I'm boring, is up in arms over an anti-child prostitution campaign by Demi Moore & Ashton Kutcher that cites what they've uncovered to be unsubstantiated data. They're campaign says that 100,000 to 300,000 children are being forced to work as prostitutes or in some other sex-related capacity, the Village Voice has found that this oft-quoted statistic is from a study that was identifying the amount of children at risk.They offer up as an alternative the averaged 827 arrests per year. While I'm all for correct information and the compilation of as much data as possible and a perfectly informed public and legislature, and while I have no love for either Demi Moore or Ashton Kutcher (actually, the most interesting part of the article is about the PR/charity firm that helps celebrities put together these public causes, confirming once again that even the "best" intentions are always commercial enterprises), the writers of the article so clearly have an axe to grind that it's hard to take them seriously. And it's not even an axe against underage prostitution. They clearly just don't like Ashton Kutcher. It's not even-handed or even well-informed, and certainly not convincing. It's a rant against a few groups of people (celebrities, conservatives, anti-prostitution politicians, anyone who doesn't like the Village Voice). Even if it does offer up new information, it is only going halfway. You cannot offer up arrest records as an alternative data source for something that is illegal and underground. Even their graphic is clumsily worded, saying "Advocates Insist 100,000 to 300,000 American Juvenile Prostitutes Annually" (do what, annually? I assume "exist"; the benefit of not specifying is because those advocates use the statistic in several different ways)-- there is a word missing there, especially if you're making the comparison, as they are, directly underneath, to "Actual Underage Arrests Yearly: 827 Across America." It is wishful thinking on the journalists' (...) part that the actual number of children in this situation is matched by the arrests each year, and a strangely optimistic assessment of the efficacy of the police in quashing this problem. I welcome a broad-minded look into the numbers, but this article is not it. It's like if I came up to you and told you that I've looked at the arrest data and that's how I know not only how many people smoke weed, but also that only blacks and Hispanics smoke. With a straight face.
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