Our History
Introduction
Since 1979, Children of the Night has operated a variety of programs for America’s child sex trafficking victims including a 24-hour toll-free nationwide hotline, a drop-in center in the heart of Hollywood, street programs throughout the Western United States, and a world-class shelter home in Van Nuys (1992 – 2017) where 3,048 children lived and received comprehensive case management and onsite schooling.
Over the years, we have maintained a 70% - 80% success rate and we have placed hundreds of America’s child sex trafficking victims in college.
Children of the Night has gained the reputation as one of the most prominent and successful organizations in the nation addressing the needs of America’s sex-trafficked children. Since our inception, all Children of the Night programs have been exclusively funded by private donors.
The Early Years
In the mid-70’s Lois Lee, a master’s student in Sociology at California State University Dominguez Hills reviewed popular literature on civil rights activists, pimps, and hustlers.
She cataloged the social-psychological strategies pimps used to control women and created a typology of strategies entitled “The Pimp and His Game.”
“The Pimp and His Game” became one of the most recognized works of Lois Lee, and in the 80’s she served as an expert witness for state and federal courts to prosecute pimps who skillfully manipulated women and little girls into prostitution. Lee’s work clearly delineates why victims of prostitution are reluctant to testify against the pimp/trafficker, and she has trained thousands of members of law enforcement worldwide to intervene and engage the victim of prostitution in the prosecution of the pimp/trafficker. Her testimony resulted in some of the first prosecutions of pimps/traffickers, including the first life sentence (United States v. Carlos Curtis).
In 1975, as a Ph.D. student in sociology, Lois Lee initiated lawsuits against the Los Angeles Police Department and Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department for the unequal enforcement of the prostitution law. She analyzed thousands of police reports filed by LAPD and LASO and testified to the police practices of arrests for prostitution. While documenting the number of female and male prostitutes and the small number of customers, she was struck by the fact the most common age of female prostitutes was 19 years old.
This led Lee to the streets of Hollywood where she asked young prostitutes if they were really 19. She was struck by the number of children using false identification provided by a pimp to avoid juvenile hall if arrested – thus they could be easily bailed out as adults.
It was during this time the “Hillside Stranglers” had murdered, tortured, and displayed the corpses of 10 young prostitutes on hillsides in Hollywood. A young prostitute defendant Lee met while testifying in the court challenge of police practices of arrests for prostitution called Lois Lee one evening. She told Lee of a young girl she sent to meet a man for prostitution. The girl had not returned and the address the man provided did not exist in the Thomas Guide nor was he answering the phone number he provided. These and other unusual circumstances created an alarm of danger.
Lois Lee tracked the information provided by the caller, relying on the expertise she had cultivated in interviews with prostitutes, police and from the police reports she researched and identified the location of the male caller. After hours of talking with the police and standing in the police department, she was told by an LAPD officer, “We are not sending a car because this girl is just a whore who changed “trick houses.”
Frustrated, Lois Lee called a KNBC reporter who had been covering her court cases. In the early morning hours, the reporter went to the location and confirmed the facts Lois presented.
The next morning it was confirmed the young girl was Hillside Strangler Victim #11—she was only 17 years old.
Angrily, Lois appeared on KNBC and stated, “If you are in the prostitution business and you know who the Hillside Strangler is and don’t want to talk to the police, don’t call them call me.” Her home telephone number appeared under her interview, and Lois immediately became a legend among the underground sex trade. This effort eventually led to the arrest and prosecution of Angelo Buono and Kenneth Bianchi.
Lois met members of the adult entertainment world and found children working in adult entertainment and from 1979 – 1981 over 250 children ages 11–17 lived in her home: girls, boys, and transgender youth from all over America.
Since that time, Children of the Night has been uniquely positioned to identify prostituted children not accessible to law enforcement or traditional social service agencies.
These children were rejected by their parents, social workers, and the juvenile courts.
Lee began her crusade to force social workers to include prostituted children in their system of care, but in the meantime, something had to be done about the children who were being referred by the underground.
The Hollywood Drop-in Center (1981 – 1989)
In 1981, Lois Lee established the first drop-in center specifically for children who were prostituting for food to eat and a place to sleep. Thousands of children came through the doors of the drop-in center in the heart of Hollywood to take showers, receive food, clothes, government identification, medical referrals, dental referrals, take naps, etc. Children of the Night was their home during the day, and they slept on the streets at night – shelters were not available for children engaged in prostitution.
Support for Dr. Lee’s work came from the far right and the far left – from President Reagan’s Kitchen Cabinet to the famed Hugh Hefner of Playboy. The only shared characteristic of Children of the Night’s supporters was their compassion for a forgotten group of children.
Children of the Night’s Street Teams (1977 – 1999)
Children of the Night was noted for its gutsy outreach on the streets to help prostituted children and to find forgotten kids no matter how dangerous or filthy the conditions where they lived. Children of the Night outreach workers put stickers on payphones “Tired of Turning Tricks – Pimps Don’t Care – We Do Call Day or Night,” they ran ads in weekly newspapers and stood side by side with pimps competing for the attention of kids at risk. Children of the Night expanded its street outreach program throughout the Western United States and operated a team reaching out to truckers in the truck stops from Los Angeles to Las Vegas.
Children of the Night’s street programs were so successful that the Los Angeles Police Department’s Hollywood station referred all missing children reports to Children of the Night.
Children of the Night street team’s intelligence network, made up of pimps, parolees, drug dealers, truckers, bikers, detention center staff and undercover cops, could identify a missing child within 3 hours.
Children of the Night staff and volunteers have received worldwide recognition for their work and their expertise has been sought after by law enforcement, politicians, prosecutors, and parents for over 40 years.
CHILDREN OF THE NIGHT’S SHELTER HOME (1992-2017)
Over 3,000 prostituted children, 11 -17 years old, lived in our home during our 25 years of operation.
Before the Children of the Night home was established by Dr. Lois Lee, these children had virtually nowhere to turn for help – they remained on the streets.
We paid for flights to our home from all over the United States, and our staff greeted them upon arrival at the Los Angeles International Airport.
Our 24-bed home in Los Angeles, California, was the first, largest and most comprehensive home for prostituted children aged 11 -17. The home featured 12 bedrooms - each with a private shower, and two children shared each room.
Delegates came from all over the world to visit the Children of the Night home and see for themselves the magic that occurred when resources were available and properly managed for a forgotten group of children.
On-Site School
Our school curriculum followed the California State Standards of Education. Our students competed in the Los Angeles County Science Fair against the top 1% of students in Los Angeles.
A corporate gift from Kumon rapidly raised reading and math scores to their appropriate grade levels.
Absence from Children of the Night’s school was permitted only with a written medical doctor’s order.
Recreational Outings
On Fridays, residents were taken on supervised outings to Laker games, LA Times tour, Little Tokyo, Olvera Street, Horseback Riding, Snowboarding, Shambala Wildlife Preserve, Universal Studios, Sea World, Disneyland, Magic Mountain, La Brea Tar Pits, Museum of Tolerance, Long Beach Aquarium, Raging Waters, Catalina Island, Whale Watching, the Queen Mary, a Rope-Climbing Course, the Circus…
Evening Workshops
Monday – Friday evenings, workshops were hosted by talented volunteers from Warner Brothers, Disney, and Universal Studios as well as famous musicians and actors.
Sundays: Softball Games and Barbecues at a Private Field
And, the kids ALWAYS had access to Lois…
Annual High School Graduation Party
New Laws and New Culture in 2017
In 2018, Dr. Lee claimed victory with mixed blessings. Children who have been prostituted are now accepted in social services and eligible for foster care. These children are now regarded as victims and cannot be arrested for prostitution.
Disappointingly, law enforcement has begun to use federal policies to hold prostituted children in solitary confinement on “witness protection holds” until they testify against a pimp/trafficker, and when released they are dumped into foster care or shelters based only on their age.
The social services system is ill-prepared to provide adequate intervention and care for the prostituted child. Prostituted children are still viewed as dirty or vulgar and willing participants in their own victimization.
Social workers throughout the United States routinely reach out to Children of the Night case managers for assistance in providing services to prostituted youth. Together, with new entitlements afforded by social services jurisdiction (government identification, public health insurance, funds for placement) we can provide effective intervention and placement services for prostituted children who had no resources prior to recent changes in state laws.
Residential programs are no longer relevant to sex-trafficked youth. The digital age has changed the conditions of children who have been sex trafficked significantly.
Today, children run to their friends on social media instead of running to the streets. Frequently they end up with more dangerous people and require rescue services.
For some children, the gang members who dominate the streets become the new residential care, the family, the neighborhood. Gang members do not allow children to live in shelter homes even for a short respite.