Renee Unterman and the fight over child prostitution
Consider the case of Renee Unterman of Buford, a Republican state senator.
For 12 years, she has carried the water for social conservatives in the Legislature. That “choose life” license plate? Her work. The state’s requirement that doctors offer women a sonogram before abortions? Her work.
For the last several years, Unterman has focused on child prostitution. Atlanta, you may already know, is a national capital in the trading of young flesh.
For the only female Republican in a male-dominated Senate, it has been a delicate topic.
“When I first brought it up in a caucus meeting, it was like they wanted to get underneath the table,” she said. “I’ve gently moved them along in the past three years. They can talk about the 50-year-old man who has sex with a 12-year-old, and say it’s not okay.”
Even so, Unterman was surprised on Monday when she was all but declared a lobbyist for the Georgia Association of Pimps and Sex Brokers — which, so far as we know, is a fictional organization. But you can never tell.
The accusations came via the senator’s friends in the Christian conservative movement.
At issue is SB 304, Unterman’s bill to declare that boys and girls under age 16 shouldn’t be charged with prostitution, but diverted to treatment or therapy. (Another less likely bill, HB 582, would set the age of prosecution at 18.)
Unterman’s measure is an attempt to bring a certain legal and moral consistency to Georgia law.
Sixteen is the age of sexual consent in Georgia. If a child can’t consent to sex, how can he/she consent to prostitution? State law also declares that children under age 18, if caught up in anti-prostitution sweeps, are to be tallied as victims of both human trafficking and child abuse. Not criminals.
There is also the practical consideration. “You put handcuffs on a 12-year-old kid, put them in the back of a police car, they shut up just like that,” Unterman said. “But if you get them into therapy, they never have those handcuffs put on them — they’re more apt to talk about the gang and what the gang is doing to them.”
Opponents are having none of it. They praise Unterman and say they share the same goal. But they want the senator to walk away from what they say is a wrong-headed bill.
Passage, they said at that Monday news conference, would amount to the decriminalization — nay, the legalization — of prostitution. Predators will swarm to the state.
“Who will benefit from the passage of [the legislation]? I’ll tell you who — the very profitable and growing pedophile industry,” said Nancy Schaefer, Unterman’s former colleague in the Senate.
Spare-the-rod arguments were plentiful. “The threat of arrest, public humiliation and a police record has scared straight many minors and adults,” said Sue Ella Deadwyler, who writes a Christian conservative newsletter. “Arrest is a valuable life-saving tool that must continue.”
Those lined up against Unterman’s legislation include the Georgia Christian Alliance, the Georgia Christian Coalition, Ralph Reed’s Faith and Freedom Coalition, and the Georgia Baptist Convention.
Other religious groups are staying out of the fight, and many have taken Unterman’s side. Presbyterians, for instance. But they are not organizations that sway votes in Republican primaries.
Unterman’s once-skittish GOP colleagues in the Senate are skittish again. House Speaker David Ralston thinks the language has gotten out of hand. “I don’t agree it’s decriminalization,” the speaker said. But neither would he commit to the legislation.
One of many ways to survive at the state Capitol is to view the place as a theater that combines tragedy, comedy and farce in equal measure.
Speeding toward House passage is HB 897, sponsored by Rep. Doug Collins (R-Gainesville), a bill to close the loophole that has permitted high school teachers to avoid criminal prosecution for their affairs with students — if the student is above the age of consent.
So by this spring, the Legislature could declare that a girl over the age of 16 legally lacks the judgment to enter into a romance with the aging Lothario who heads the math department. Many might call that a sound decision.
But lawmakers, through their silence, could also declare that a girl under the age of 16 should be held to criminal account when shoved into a bed by her pimp.
The author of that teacher-student bill sees the gap in logic. “I’m a pastor and I have no problem with the [Unterman] bill,” Collins said.
For instant updates, follow me on Twitter.
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
108 comments Add your comment
Georgia Tanner
February 5th, 2010
11:54 am
Conservative Christian, and parent of teens, I am heartsick that we are arresting young girls, (and boys!) who have become victims of the sex/money machine of prostitution. Most of these kids were emotionally manipulated or physically raped, and then put into the flesh pool for other’s financial gain. They are simply an expendable product; our government needs to get serious about arresting the pimps and internet pornographers, with mandatory financial fines that would go directly to healing the lives they have destroyed. A 16 year old is still a child, emotionally and mentally.A 17 year old is still a child, emotionally and mentally. If they are ‘adults’, then why don’t we allow them to have the rights of an adult; like voting or buying alcohol? All adults, Christian or not, should be screaming from the rooftops to protect these kids from their adult predators! Don’t arrest kids that are 21st century slaves.
Jeannie
February 7th, 2010
8:29 am
Hi, thank you for covering this bill and the politics surrounding it. Southside Atlanta Memories has hit on the child exploitation topic a few times, and has covered this PI blog post as well. I have been trying to confirm a commenter’s assertion that the Georgia Baptist Convention has rescinded it’s support for Unterman’s opposition. I did receive a gracious and prompt reply from GBC’s Ethics Specialist (job title) but I did not understand the reply to confirm or deny GBC’s support or lack of support. The Wellspring organization was brought to my attention, and I’m proud to say it was some women from ATL’s Southside who had the vision for its inception. There is a little more detail, and links are provided at http://southsideatlantamemories.typepad.com Thanks!
Louie
February 8th, 2010
8:18 am
With an unfortunately small amount of space to make a point in this blog, I fear that everything which needs to be said really cannot be. But I will give it a shot.
As someone who sometimes works 24/7 on the crime of child prostitution, interrupted only by the other violent crime I am responsible for investigating, I always find it interesting to read what society has to say about an issue. Especially one in which the public only hears about through the media, whether it be TV or the newspaper or the internet. I do have a clear understanding of the issue, however, because I see this crime daily and work as hard as every other person involved in the recovery of CHILDREN. I am not sure why we take this issue to the religious level.
Surely we all agree, in some small point, who cares what the Baptists or Catholics or Presbyterians or “Johns” or terrorists really think? Really. Take a small excerpt from a letter written by a 14 year old girl to her pimp (procurer if that word fits better) after she had been in jail for two days for the first time (misspellings added):
“I need 2 see you so bad rite now! I truly do mean it when I say ‘I ONLY LIVE 4 YOU, my Daddy ___!” I would give my life 4 you, I would take Many, Many sacrifices 4 you, I would give my last breath of life 2 you + 4 you, I would take risks, even if that meant risking my life; just 4 you, I would donate my organs 4 you, + my lungs 2…”
And this from a girl who had been with this pimp for two years – yes, since she was 12 years old. She had been beaten more time than remembered by this pimp, stabbed in the shoulder and was hooked on marijuana.
This isn’t an isolated story about a single kid making a bad decision. It’s about the subculture that most of you don’t ever see. A one hour documentary on CBS doesn’t give you even a glimpse of the life these kids endure.
Locking a kid up in prison is not the answer. For all you “Scared Straight” folks out there – yeah, ok, believe what you want about the prison system rehabilitating them. They sit in jail and write letters to the same person who put them there and these kids can’t wait to see their pimps again so they can be abused over and over again. If you think it doesn’t happen, you are sadly mistaken and uninformed.
Find a counseling program for them early. Get to them early. Let a counselor help get them back into a setting where they can be kids again.
I wish I could take each and every one of you on stroll down child prostitution lane.
You would geta very different perspective.
JJ
February 9th, 2010
5:10 pm
Georgia Statewide Juvenile Arrests for Prostitution-
2008-35
2007-25
2006-44
Source- GBI Uniform Crime Reports 2009
These numbers do not justify the uproar on either side….
Sharp words over a child prostitution bill | Political Insider
February 12th, 2010
1:02 pm
[...] On the other hand, it’s hard to charge a 15-year-old with prostitution when 16 is the legal age of sexual consent in Georgia. We dealt with the topic a week or so ago. Read it here. [...]
wizardofx
February 12th, 2010
3:27 pm
I propose a license plate “Women’s Right To CHOOSE” If that dumbass Unterman can impose her views on GA tags, why shouldn’t there be an equal opportunity for the CHOICE population? Stay the heck out of my womb people, and pay attention to nurturing your OWN children.
For the children
February 13th, 2010
12:44 pm
Children who are being sexually exploited is not a new concept for those of us who work in a juvenile court system. However, to charge a pimp will be a concerted effort. It is going to take law enforcement toprovide the necessary detectives to investigate and it also requires having a safe haven for the “victims” Currently there is one place in the metor Atlanta area that is appropriate for chidlren who have been sexually exploited and that is Angela”s house. However that house maximum capacity is 8. What do you do with the rest, and what about the boys, If this issue is going to be tackled correctly than money/funding has to be allocated to help these children.
Most of these children are runaways, and by law you can only detain them for 24 hrs, after that then what?? Plus, you have children that are leave there home and are never reported missing by their legal guardian. So if someone was to find them what do you do with them, they aren’t missing per say but no one tries to find out who they belong to.
It is a start but Georgia stillhas a long way to go.
TiredofNameCalling
February 14th, 2010
4:03 pm
Thank you to “Sage” and a few other commenters who have taken the time to explain positives and negatives of this bill without the sophomoric name calling. I’m still considering both sides… Perhaps a debate would be in order. After reading about both sides of this issue, I am concerned that the pimps and traffickers could benefit if “underage” prostitution is decriminalized.
I must add that I hate reading through comments on sites like this because I have to wade through the mean-spirited, sarcastic, slanderous ones, and most of the comments I have read fit into these categories. As I told my middle school students many times, just because a thought comes into your mind, it doesn’t have to come out of your mouth (or published as a comment, in this case). It’s time to GROW UP, people!