By: Las Vegas Now Staff
The next time Metro Police arrest a prostitute, officers will look for the pimp pushing her to work. That’s exactly what happened earlier this week. Police documents show that Jacob Canto and Kristin Stillman ran a small prostitution ring.
Police have not yet arrested Canto, but Thursday Stillman made her first appearance in court, charged with forcing underage girls to work as prostitutes.
The arrest warrant shows the prostitution ring worked the major casinos. It lists Imperial Palace, the Flamingo, Bally’s, MGM, Caesars Palace and Mandalay Bay by name. That does not surprise UNLV professor and researcher Alexis Kennedy.
“You are going to work where the crowds are. You are going to work the Strip. Sometimes you will be standing on the Strip and see the pimp standing up on the walkway yelling at the girl as she is walking up and down trying to make contact,” she said.
Kennedy co-wrote a report detailing the growing problem of teenage prostitution. She says the relationship between an underage girl and pimp is like that of a domestic violence victim. Kennedy adds the average age of a girl getting into prostitution is 14-years-old.
“What you can offer a 14-year-old? A chance to leave home and go away somewhere glamorous, fancy clothes and cash lifestyle. That is not impressive to a 28-year-old,” she said.
In this latest arrest, the girls involved were between 15 and 17-years-old. Kennedy says she is glad police identified the pimp.
“A lot of them are psychopaths and have psychopathic tendencies. They are going to be out at the next bar and next mall picking up the next girl as soon as the girls are arrested,” she said.
She says the solution rests in law enforcement and help for the girls.
The recent report on teenage prostitutes shows Las Vegas has no place for young girls to turn. Right now there is only one program here in southern Nevada and it is designed to help adult prostitutes get out of the business.
Email your comments to Reporter Edward Lawrence
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I find it unconscionable that anyone would place a minor child’s name in the news.
The victim impact statements at sentencing tells the story of a child and her family devastated by the vile, vicious exploitation of two pimps - Stillman and Canto.
Pimps are frequently victims of horrible crimes as children and so are other criminals. Our jails are full of people who were victimized as children because our social service system failed them.
That does not make them immune from punishment for crimes they commit.
Comment by Dr. Lois Lee — July 1, 2008 @ 6:20 pm