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Sex-trafficked kids are crime victims. In Las Vegas, they still go to jail.
性交易儿童是犯罪的受害者。在拉斯维加斯，他们还是要进监狱。
Seven nights a week, undercover officers fan out to cover casinos, strip clubs and street corners, using beards, tattoos and fake accents to evade detection, then arrest women when they agree to a price. Stings like these are becoming rarer as police departments turn away from criminalizing people who may be pushed into the sex trade by desperation - or by a human trafficker.
每周有七个晚上，便衣警察分散到赌场、脱衣舞俱乐部和街角，用胡须、纹身和假口音来躲避侦查，然后在女性同意出价时逮捕她们。像这样的圈套越来越少了，因为警察部门不再将那些可能因绝望或人口贩子而被迫从事性交易的人定罪。
Teenagers, especially those in poverty or the foster-care system, are particularly vulnerable. Traffickers pose as trusted adults or befriend them on social media, then manipulate them to be sold for sexual abuse. Under federal law, these children are victims, not criminals. Yet every year, kids who have been sex trafficked are detained and charged with crimes. At least 290 minors were arrested for a prostitution-related offense in 2019, the most recent year national data is available. Forty were 14 or younger.
青少年，尤其是那些处于贫困或看护系统中的青少年，尤其容易受到伤害。人贩子假扮成可信赖的成年人，或在社交媒体上与他们成为朋友，然后操纵她们以性虐待的名义出售。根据联邦法律，这些孩子是受害者，而不是罪犯。然而，每年都有被性交易的孩子被拘留并被指控犯罪。2019年，至少有290名未成年人因卖淫相关罪行被捕，这是可获得的最近一年的国家数据。其中40人年龄在14岁或14岁以下。
The state that arrested the most kids - at least 110 - was Nevada. Here, the multibillion-dollar casino industry has long been a magnet for traffickers, like the one who brought the girl in the pink dress to the Motel 6. Now she was standing in the headlights of a police car, watching detectives dig through her rhinestone-crusted purse. The girl told the detectives her name, which begins with a K. The Washington Post, which witnessed her arrest, is identifying her only by her first initial, because she is a minor and the victim of sex crimes.
被捕儿童最多的州——至少110名——是内华达州。在这里，价值数十亿美元的赌博业长期以来一直吸引着人贩子，比如那个把穿着粉色裙子的女孩带到6号旅馆的人。现在她站在一辆警车的前灯下，看着侦探们在她镶满人造钻石的钱包里搜东西。这名女孩告诉了侦探她的名字，她的名字以k开头。目睹了她被捕的《华盛顿邮报》只通过她名字的首字母来确认她的身份，因为她是未成年人，也是性犯罪的受害者。
