COVER
For many, the images conjured up of child sex trafficking involve a foreign backdrop—one that focuses on some vaguely familiar, overcrowded city with the all-too-common characteristics of poverty, squalor, and rampant crime. Possibly it’s Rio de Janeiro or Venezuela’s capital, Caracas; maybe one of the poorer sections of Guangdong Province in China. It could even be some Slavic country where a socioeconomic stagnation still exists as much of the population still struggles almost 30 years after the collapse of communism. The one place most Americans never picture child sex trafficking occurring is within the United States itself—yet, it’s between our borders where thousands are sold into sex trafficking every year. According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security—the federal agency responsible for investigating human trafficking, arresting traffickers and protecting victims—commercial sexual exploitation is all around us. Considered to be modernday slavery in America, it’s a grave violation of basic human rights and it’s not going anywhere unless we do something about it.
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