“…placing their lives in the hands of 16 year olds?”

“…overlook the warning signs that something odd was going on?”

This is a lower-income inner-city area of Pheonix, so many of these questions can be answered with “no”, or “doubtful”, or “because lifestyles are different from what you experienced as a child”.

Most of the recruited kids probably do not have a watchful parent. No solid upbringing / values instilled. Their lifestyle may already include many types of risky behavior; perhaps the addition of money into the mix was the only new factor for them to consider – so this doesn’t look like a life/death situation to them.

“…they wouldn’t beat them up like a male pimp might.” May indicate that prostitution is a known path or even common in their environment.

Renting an apartment? – again, inner-city. Money talks, and I’m sure these girls have some 18+ year old friends and customers who take cash with no questions asked.

School administrators (parents for that matter)? – No – kids can hide anything from all grown-ups if they really want. I know I did!

Tax issues? As if. Same category as any black market (absolutly no pun intended) activity.