Prostitution Concerns For Inauguration

WASHINGTON, DC (WUSA) -- Among the millions of people traveling to DC for the inauguration, there could be a fair share of prostitutes and sex traffickers.

It is no secret to anyone who studies the world's oldest profession that big events are magnets for prostitution. From major sporting events like the World Cup to political conventions, authorities count on a surge in sex trafficking during those weekends. In the United States, many of the women involved are natives.

"We're the only advanced Western Democracy in which we have a huge number of our own trafficking victims," said Professor Louise Shelley, a prostitution expert at George Mason University.

Shelley said in her decades of researching the sex industry, one factor remains constant. The ages of the majority of the women involved would shock any parent.

"Most of the people who've been trafficked into prostitution are our own youth," she said. "We have 100,000 to 300,000 of them. And the Washington area is one of the key areas in the United States for this juvenile trafficking. It ranks up there among the top 14 cities."

What has changed over the years is the internet's influence on the sex industry. Websites like Craigslist have further blurred the lines between legalized escorts and sex for sale. Shelley believes that will help push prostitution to a level unimaginable during inauguration weekend. She is urging the city to launch a campaign similar to one that Germany ran in the months leading up to the World Cup.

"I want to see a campaign that raises awareness about this," she said. "One that makes literature available, that puts things in hotel rooms. A campaign that sets up help numbers and alert numbers for the police and also this warning: 'if you come into our city and you're seen doing this you can be arrested.'"