Former exploited teen now runs KC-area nonprofit

After running away to escape an abusive home, Kristy Childs said she began selling sex to over-the-road truck drivers in exchange for rides.

She was 12 years old.

"I was 36 years old by the time I got completely free of having to prostitute myself to survive," said Childs, who lives in the Kansas City area. "It took me years to get out. It was difficult and lonely."

Determined that others wouldn't be alone in their fight for survival, Childs founded Veronica's Voice (www.veronicasvoice.org) in 2000. It provides shelter, counseling and programs to help survivors of commercial sexual exploitation.

To Childs, the women still caught in the grasp of the sex trade are the children who weren't found.

"These little girls turn into grown women," Childs said. "If we had a 15-year-old in 2005, she's now 21. Because the reality is we're not going to find all those kids being prostituted."

While children are now seen as victims, Childs said older women still face criminal charges. And they face longer sentences than the men who pay to have sex with them.

Often they become addicted to drugs — one way Childs said pimps controlled her.

"She ends up being looked upon by people who drive by as a 'crack ho,' " Childs said. "But they don't understand her history."

Those on the streets represent only 5 percent of the commercial sex trade, Childs said. Pimps keep their business behind closed doors, she said.

Another secret: the children sold by their own families.

A woman convicted in 2009 for selling her 5-year-old daughter for sex shocked Wichita residents.

But it's not a rare story inside Veronica's Voice. During one eight-month period, Childs said 22 women told her they had been commercially exploited for sex before age 10.

In this life, Childs said one girl can expect to have 25 customers, or "johns," a day.

To combat the consumer end, Veronica's Voice holds "John School."

Courts in Johnson County are sending men caught soliciting for sex to the classes, Childs said. The men pay a fee to participate in classes, which include victim impact panels, where women tell them the horrific truth about how they live.

Money collected goes back into programs such as providing a safe house, counseling and vocational programs.

"It's restorative justice," Childs said. "But that's for first-time offenders. We need harsher penalties for repeat offenders. We have to start asking ourselves, 'When are we going to start protecting our children?' "

In Kansas City, judges are starting to send women convicted of prostitution to Veronica's Voice instead of jail.

"Whether or not you see them as criminals, do want them off your streets?" Childs said. "Because throwing them in jail doesn't work. They're coming back.

"And if you're looking for a permanent solution, isn't it neat to think they can become something different?"

This story was originally published March 13, 2011 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Former exploited teen now runs KC-area nonprofit."