suicide. Other important numbers from the NRS include: • Youth ages 12 to 17 are more at risk of homelessness than adults. • 75 percent of runaways are female. • 46 percent of homeless youth report being physically abused. • 38 percent report being emotion- ally abused. • 17 percent report being forced into unwanted sexual activity by a family or household member. • 75 percent of homeless or runaway youth drop out of school. • One in four youth who age out of foster care become homeless. Covenant House reports that nearly half of youth who engaged in commercial sex activity said that the main reason for initial involvement was a lack of a safe place to sleep. These kids stated that if there had been another option or anywhere else to stay except the streets, they would not have needed to sell sex. Sexual assault among homeless youth occurred in 14.5 percent of study participants, 32.3 percent had been beaten up, and 18.3 percent had been assaulted by a parent, other relatives, or friends. AGRM’s own 2016 Snapshot Survey recognizes that 86 percent of visitors to rescue missions are individuals, one-third have never been homeless before, and one-third 34 WWW.AGRM.ORG MAY/JUNE 2017 Young Preying on Young Trafficking incidents in Canada show those under age 25 almost as likely to be a perpetrator as a victim About 25 percent of recorded human trafficking victims in Canada are under age 18, according to data from 2009 to 2014 in a Statistics Canada report. Anecdotal evidence indicates that 12 or 13 was a common age for girls to be forced into the sex trade. But as Global News reports, even more alarming is that minors also make up about 7 percent of perpetrators. And the 18–24 age group made up close to half of the victims, as well as 41 percent of the perpetrators. When looking at straight numbers, human trafficking doesn’t seem to be a big problem in Canada, with just 396 victims of police-reported human trafficking in the five-year study. But Nicole Barrett, a human-trafficking expert at the University of British Columbia’s Allard School of Law, believes Canada isn’t doing a good job of monitoring labor trafficking in particular (such as nannies and seasonal agricultural workers), and human trafficking is still “vastly undercounted.” For trafficking cases that are reported to the police, few make it all the way through the court system. And prosecutors will often decide to charge traffickers with other related crimes (such as drug possession or passport forgery) which are more likely to result in a conviction. The following charts show how both human trafficking victims and perpe- trators in Canada break down by age: 25% Under 18 Victims by Age Perpetrators by Age 47% 18–24 19% 25–34 7% Under 18 41% 18–24 36% 25–34 2% 45–54 1% Over 54 6% 35–44 5% 45–54 1% Over 54 10% 35–44