But since the rapist paid money for the privilege, she’s also a criminal, subject to arrest, prosecution, and incarceration, no matter how young she is. And according to state law, she is a victim, yes-of statutory rape, since the legal age of consent in New York is 17. The federal law technically applies, but local law- enforcement follows state law. citizen like Lucilia is seen by the law as a prostitute. She would be a sex slave, a victim of human trafficking, and if she had the good fortune to be discovered by the police, she would be given federal protection and shielded by the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000. If Lucilia were a 13-year-old Chinese girl smuggled to New York and made to work in a Queens brothel, she would not be seen, in the eyes of the authorities, as a prostitute at all. “You’re a moneymaking ho.” “Is that good?” she asked. She knew the word only as an insult, as in, you’re nasty. “I’m a pimp, and you’re a ho.” “What do you mean I’m a ho?” she asked. “You making this money for me to take care of you.” And then he explained what he called “the Game,” how he would love her and be her “daddy,” how he would take care of her and buy her whatever she wanted, as long as she brought him money. “You not getting your money back!” he said. “Let me count it.” Lucilia took the cash out of her pocket and watched him flip through the bills. “Where the money?” Romeo asked her when she climbed back inside his car. He paid her $500, had sex with her, and then dropped her off. The man inside drove her to one of the big parking lots nearby, close to the Belt Parkway. It’s just a one-minute thing.” He sent her out. He’s gonna give you money, and then you’re gonna just do whatever he wants you to do real quick. “You charge him whatever you want to charge him, you ask if he’s police or a pimp. “All you got to do is go up to the car in front of us,” said Romeo, the young black man with heavy-lidded eyes at the wheel. Behind the tinted windows of the first car, Lucilia, a beautiful half–Puerto Rican, half-Dominican girl from Flatbush with long dark hair, pale skin, and wide eyes, sat with the other girls and listened carefully to her instructions. Another car was already parked there, waiting in the dark. The low-slung black car rolled to a stop on Rockaway Boulevard.
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