sex trafficking

Want to work responsibly on the issue of sex trafficking? Here’s some of what you should know.

Until recently, I had not experienced any adverse issues at the halfway house. I know a few other women that received write-ups for minor things, like talking to the men or getting off the bus at the wrong set. I heard from others about verbal warnings for the same things.

I was too young then to wear a wire, and the DA, a scary albino man, had me point to an ugly plain doll and tell him what happened.

I reached out to Kate to discuss her film, her impact on the 2011 Massachusetts anti-trafficking law, and her take on the distinctions between “sex work,” “sexual exploitation,” and “abolition.”

Now I wake up every morning in a jail cell. I make my instant coffee and get ready for work. I press on toward the day I can go home and be with my kids. I don’t know when that will be.

"Sex is a connection between two people," she says. "For women who have been trafficked or worked in the industry, that whole concept has been changed for them. Sex is turned into something they do to serve somebody — and often in a violent manner."

Sex trafficking in real life and the court room is so different from sex trafficking on TV that no one even recognizes it. You’re reading this story, and there’s humor and drama and suspense and the people are just regular people.

We're all for shaming pimps, but is shame an effective way to combat crime?