“I have been researching and writing about the global sex trade for 20 years and have visited numerous countries around the world to do so. But nowhere have I encountered such normalization of prostitution as I saw in Geneva—not even in Germany or the Netherlands.” -Julie Bindel, investigative journalist 1 Geneva, Switzerland is consistently ranked among the cities with the best quality of life. It’s nestled between the French Alps...
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Last week, police from the Canadian city of London, Ontario announced that effective immediately the names of sex buyers would be made public information. This new policy is an attempt to curb the demand for prostitution by outing men who would otherwise be able to hide the harm they are perpetrating. London police previously had withheld the names of men charged with buying sex, even in human trafficking cases. The...
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On a cool Atlanta night, our outreach van pulled into the parking lot of a dingy-curtained motel. A few team members slipped out and approached a young woman, perhaps just 18 or 19, standing by the motel door, her hair pulled back in a bun. They offered her a single pink rose—a hotline number was attached with twine—and spoke loving, encouraging words to her. I watched from the window as...
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Today news broke that Robert Kraft, the owner of the New England Patriots has been charged with buying sex from women exploited in prostitution and sex trafficking, on two occasions, at a brothel disguised as a “spa” in Florida. He was caught on video coercing sex acts from the women with money and was also caught on video driving to the brothel. The sting that exposed Kraft has also charged...
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As I shared in part one and part two of my story, my sister and her boyfriend plotted to traffic me when I was twelve years old. They invited me to a “sleepover,” and the next thing I knew, I was being taken to hotel after hotel, where men lined up to pay for a virgin. In that moment, my sister’s boyfriend became my pimp. He laid out what would...
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Waterboarding, electrocution, tying a person up with ropes and chains then gagging them and tormenting them with instruments, as well as urinating on them and defecating on their face and body, are all part of the landscape of acceptable porn in England and Wales, thanks to a new law. Acts such as these were previously forbidden under the Obscene Publications Act, but a few days ago the laws were changed...
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Growing up, I was always the funny child. I was the one who made my siblings laugh. I had such an innocence and joy emanating from me. Before being trafficked I was the bravest kid. My grandfather often spoke about how tough and strong I was, inwardly and outwardly. I was the essence of innocence. But this was taken from me. The bold, joyful girl I was lost all her...
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The night has always been frightening for me. My parents divorced when I was quite young, and as a little child I would cry throughout the night while at my dad’s home—mainly because I desperately desired to be with my mom. When I moved into my dad’s home full-time at age twelve I cried for months out of deep pain and longing for an escape. I did not think my...
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“I met my first boyfriend when I was 15… He introduced me to sex trafficking. I was getting in and out of cars with people I didn't know. It was definitely nerve wracking. I had never even walked in heels before."1 This is the face of sex trafficking in Atlanta: teenage girls, like Alexa, who are forced into prostitution by much older “boyfriend” pimps. The city has become a hub...
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