30-year-old Shanteria Barnes of Pompano Beach, Florida is accused of allegedly trafficking underage girls for sex. One of her victims is said to have included an 11-year-old girl. The 11-year-old girl was a runaway who was staying at a hotel with an older man when she met Barnes.
Barnes asked the girl to dance for her then offered her money if the girl stripped at her aunt’s birthday party. Barnes then showed the girl pictures of people that had stacks of cash and told the girl she could make that kind of money selling her body for sex. Then Barnes arranged ‘dates’ (child rape) for the girl and told her not to collect anything less than $40 from the men. According to police, the girl went on 15-17 of these so-called dates.
Among Barnes’ other victims were two other girls ages 15 and 17. Both of these victims were said to be from the same group home for runaways. Online advertisements were found for the 15-year-old girl.
To me, this story shows that women are just as capable as men when it comes to child trafficking. In my opinion, women can be just as dangerous as men when trafficking children for sex. At least in this case, they can be just as manipulative as men since Barnes seemed to act like a mother figure to her disenfranchised victims.
Again, this is more the reality of child trafficking and is more common than anything that is currently grabbing national headlines and the imaginations of conspiracy theorists.
Real Crime with Trench Reynolds 