In the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, a teen escort company, also called a youth transport firm or secure transport company, is a business that specializes in transporting

teenager Adolescence () is a transitional stage of human physical and psychological development that generally occurs during the period from puberty to adulthood (typically corresponding to the age of majority). Adolescence is usually associated wi ...

s from their homes to various facilities in the

troubled teen industry In the United States, the troubled teen industry (also known as TTI) is a broad range of youth residential programs aimed at struggling teenagers. The term encompasses various facilities and programs, including youth residential treatment centers, ...

. Such businesses typically employ a form of legal

kidnapping Kidnapping or abduction is the unlawful abduction and confinement of a person against their will, and is a crime in many jurisdictions. Kidnapping may be accomplished by use of force or fear, or a victim may be enticed into confinement by frau ...

, abducting sleeping teenagers and forcing them into a vehicle. Teen escort companies in the United States are subject to little or no

government regulation Regulation is the management of complex systems according to a set of rules and trends. In systems theory, these types of rules exist in various fields of biology and society, but the term has slightly different meanings according to context. F ...

and commonly result in permanent trauma.

Methodology

Teen escort companies regularly employ the practice of gooning, a form of legal

occurring predominantly in the

, in which parents hire rehabilitation organizations to seize children they perceive as troubled and transport them to boot camps, behavior modification facilities,

residential treatment center A residential treatment center (RTC), sometimes called a drug rehabilitation, rehab, is a live-in health care provider#Medical nursing home, health care facility providing therapy for substance use disorders, mental illness, or other behavioral pr ...

s, substance abuse treatment facilities,

wilderness therapy Wilderness therapy, also known as outdoor behavioral healthcare, is a treatment option for behavioral disorders, substance abuse, and mental health issues in adolescents. Patients spend time living outdoors with other peers. Reports of abuse, ...

, or

therapeutic boarding school Therapeutic boarding school is an institution where students reside on campus and are provided with both educational and therapeutic services. These institutions first began to emerge in the late 1960s. Description A therapeutic boarding school ...

. In most cases, the organizations send a group of people to show up by surprise and force the teenager into a vehicle. Children to be transported are often picked up during the middle of the night to take advantage of their initial disorientation and to minimize confrontation and flight risk. Aggressive tactics, such as being punched, restrained with handcuffs, or hogtied with cable wires, are common. Children are sometimes picked up at school, with the school staff unaware of the escort company's employees' true intentions. Children who resist are frequently threatened, restrained with handcuffs or zip ties, blindfolded, or hooded. Children who have been gooned frequently report

post traumatic stress disorder Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental disorder that develops from experiencing a traumatic event, such as sexual assault, domestic violence, child abuse, warfare and its associated traumas, natural disaster, traffic collision, ...

, problems sleeping at night, and recurring nightmares into adulthood.

Paris Hilton Paris Whitney Hilton (born February 17, 1981) is an American media personality, businesswoman, and socialite. Hilton was born in New York City and raised there partially; shuttling between Los Angeles and New York City; she is a great-grandda ...

's documentary '' This Is Paris'' details her experience at age 17 with gooning, culminating in her transport to Provo Canyon School where she was abused.

United States

As a transport option, parents in the

are able to hire teen escort companies to transport their children from their homes to

s (RTCs) and other facilities in the

. These facilities go by many names, and include private religious re-education facilities, teen residential programs,

programs,

s, boot camps, or behavior modification programs.The Exploitation of Youth and Families in the Name of “Specialty Schooling:” What Counts as Sufficient Data? What are Psychologists to Do?
by Allison Pinto, Robert M. Friedman, and Monica Epstein, Louis de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute,

University of South Florida The University of South Florida (USF) is a Public university, public research university with its main campus located in Tampa, Florida, Tampa, Florida, United States, and other campuses in St. Petersburg, Florida, St. Petersburg and Sarasota, ...

American Psychological Association The American Psychological Association (APA) is the main professional organization of psychologists in the United States, and the largest psychological association in the world. It has over 170,000 members, including scientists, educators, clin ...

, ''CYF Newsletter'', Summer 2005 (file dated September 28, 2005). Page 3. In 2004, it was estimated that there were more than twenty teen escort companies operating in the United States. Parents may use this type of service when they believe their child needs treatment outside the home, but the parent or child is not willing to travel there. The service can cost $5,000 to $8,000 U.S. dollars. Many teen escort companies do not have any training or background requirements for prospective employees. The use of such services is controversial, because the services are subject to little or no

Want your kid to disappear?
by Nadya Labi, ''Legal Affairs'', July–August 2004 and

and because they are associated with treatment services which are themselves controversial. For teenagers seized in the middle of the night by strangers, being abducted by a teen escort company may result in permanent trauma. Attempts to establish similar services in other countries have been quickly closed down by the authorities under their laws against

child abuse Child abuse (also called child endangerment or child maltreatment) is physical abuse, physical, child sexual abuse, sexual, emotional and/or psychological abuse, psychological maltreatment or Child neglect, neglect of a child, especially by a p ...

assault In the terminology of law, an assault is the act of causing physical harm or consent, unwanted physical contact to another person, or, in some legal definitions, the threat or attempt to do so. It is both a crime and a tort and, therefore, may ...

and

torture Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons including corporal punishment, punishment, forced confession, extracting a confession, interrogational torture, interrogation for information, or intimid ...

In popular culture

Films and television

* Boot Camp (2008) * Coldwater (2013) *

Self Medicated ''Self Medicated'' is a 2005 American teen drama film written, directed by and starring Monty Lapica. Based on actual events in Lapica's life, the film is about a troubled teenager whose mother has him Kidnapping, kidnapped at age 17 by a teen e ...

(2005)

References

Bibliography

External links

* Ortiz, Michelle Ray (June 13, 1999).
'Escort Service' or Legalized Abduction
. ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

''. * Telep, Trisha (April 22, 2014).
The man who takes troubled youths to therapy camp
. ''

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...

''. * * Johnson, Raye. (March 25, 2016)
Experience: I paid to have my daughter kidnapped
. ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

''. {{DEFAULTSORT:Teen Escort Company Troubled teen programs Transportation in the United States Human trafficking in the United States Behavior modification Euphemisms Punishments Society Youth rights Child abduction