Hon. Lex E. Anderson created the educational DVD, “Bait and Switch: The Terror and Tragedy of Child Prostitution,” to create awareness in Arizona schools. He spoke with Crimejunkies to provide more information on this important issue....

WHY DID YOU DECIDE TO CREATE A DVD ON TEENAGE PROSTITUTION?

The DVD came to mind after a 15-year-old girl was brought into my courtroom for the purpose of getting protective orders against gang members. They beguiled her into believing that she was going to be a model, and they took her from her home in Phoenix to Los Angeles where she was separated from her family and friends. They ended up putting her on the streets in LA as a prostitute. Police brought her in after she was picked up in LA and brought back to the Phoenix area. The gang members were trying to make contact with her because they were facing prosecution, and the charge of pimping her out as well as other girls. So I issued the protective orders against them and at that time, it pretty much opened my eyes to the situation with child prostitution that I was really unaware existed on any sort of a scale. Basically what happened, as a judge, I tried to look at ways that we can educate people to keep them out of the situation. I put together an educational DVD that we can distribute to the high schools and middle schools.

THAT WAS ACTUALLY MY NEXT QUESTION. YOU WILL BE DISTRIBUTING IT TO THE HIGH SCHOOLS AND MIDDLE SCHOOLS?

High schools and middle schools for the state of Arizona. The legal services in education department which is funded by the Arizona Supreme Court are the ones that are distributing this to or have distributed it to all the schools. There is a lesson plan that goes with it that is written by the Phoenix Police Department. They call the school resource officers for a talk after the video so it's not just that they watch the video and leave. They have a discussion afterwards. It's arming the kids with education about the predatory tactics of these pimps and takes the glamour out of what you may see on MTV or some of the movies that may glamorize the situation.

DO YOU HAVE ANY STATISTICS ON HOW MANY YOUNG WOMEN ARE INVOLVED IN PROSTITUTION?

The DVD does have some stats on there, and I can't remember what they were. The police have indicated that it's really difficult to get a good, real accurate number because a lot of these girls are picked up as runaways. They may be from Kansas or from some other state and then they go to California, and they get picked up and they're picked up as a runaway rather than a prostitute and then shipped back home if they get out of prostitution alive. I know that the girl we interviewed said that just in the area where she worked, she knew at least 50 other girls who were underaged prostitutes. That's something that apparently is prevalent in pretty much every city across the United States to some extent.

YOU MENTIONED THAT THESE GIRLS ARE LURED WITH MODELING OFFERS?

That's just one of the things. What young girl doesn't want to be a celebrity or be a model or things of that sort. In the DVD, the prosecutor talks about what they call the rule of three with these pimps. If they see three girls in a mall, they may go for the girl who may not the prettiest or the least prettiest, but maybe the one in the middle because maybe the prettiest girl wouldn't talk to him or the least prettiest might be suspicious. So, it's what they call the rule of three. They tell them how beautiful they are and some of these girls may not have ever had people tell them how beautiful they were, and it's all just a setup and a trap. They start spending money on them and win their confidence and try to separate them from their friends and family and quite often take them out of state and hook them up with what they call trainer girls which they work on the streets with. A lot of these recruiters that pick up the girls are not your stereotypical type of guy in the trench coat that you may have in your mind as a young kid. They may be good-looking kids and are very good at their craft, and that's why they are recruiters. They look at these girls not as human beings but as cash machines.

BUT, THEY DON'T ACTUALLY SEE THE MONEY, IS THAT CORRECT?

Prostitutes see very little, if any, of the money. In fact, in this particular video the pimps talks about how he'll buy her clothes or will get her some things that she needs to look good. But, the pimp gets all the money.

HOW HARD IS IT FOR A WOMAN TO ESCAPE PROSTITUTION IF THEY WERE LURED INTO IT?

I think it's real difficult, especially if they are underage because if the girl ever testifies against them, the pimps will go away to prison for a long, long time if they are convicted. The pimps don't want to lose these girls because these are their cash machines, and as the pimp in the video says, they will beat them and intimidate them and if they have to, they will kill them. They don't want to lose their cash machines. They don't want to have these girls testify against them and put them in prison, and they do not have a conscience and will do whatever it takes to keep these girls around. They will buy them, sell them or trade them with other pimps. It's a very inhumane and sick society that these pimps operate in.

TELL ME ABOUT WHO YOU INTERVIEWED FOR YOUR DVD.

The medical examiner, the girl who is in the video- we used her street name, which was Bianca. It's not her true name because she is underage. The police officer is an undercover officer with the Phoenix Police Department. The prosecutor does sex crimes prosecution for the Maricopa County Attorney's Office. The pimp was brought from the Department of Corrections to the Phoenix jail where he can be interviewed. Everyone that you see in the video actually has done what they said or has the profession in which they indicate. The only actress is the girl that reads the voice-over for the letter. The DVD is basically about a girl that thought that she would be a model and would be doing photo shoots. But, in actuality, she ended up being a model in front of the cameras but not in the way she ever intended because the cameras were the police crime scene and the medical examiner’s office. She ended up a model, but not in the way she planned on.

WHERE CAN YOUNG WOMEN GO FOR HELP IF THEY ARE LOOKING TO LEAVE PROSTITUTION?

The pimps will tell them to never go to the police. ‘The police won't believe you. The police will put you back on the streets.’ That's because the pimps don't want them going to the police. But, that is the place to go. Just go to the police department and tell them what's happened to you and tell them your real name and your real age. Tell them the whole story. That's what the police are there for and they will help. In addition to that, the police will have information depending upon the community that you are in as far as where someone can temporarily go. If you are underage, they will probably take you into custody and get you back home to whatever state you came from. There also are shelters and other resource opportunities the police and whatever state that you are in will have access to.