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5 Essays On Human Trafficking You Can Access Freely Online

Every country faces specific human rights issues, but human trafficking is a problem for every place on the planet. Wherever there’s poverty, conflict, a lack of education, or political instability, vulnerable people are at risk. Human trafficking is the world’s fastest-growing criminal industry. Sexual exploitation brings in most of the billions of dollars of profit, but forced labor also generates wealth. The universality of human trafficking doesn’t negate the fact that the issue is multi-faceted and as a multitude of root causes . Certain countries are more dangerous than others and certain people groups are more vulnerable. To learn more about specific human trafficking issues and solutions, here are five essays you can read or download for free:

“Human Trafficking and Exploitation: A Global Health Concern”

By: Cathy Zimmerman and Ligia Kiss

While labor migration can be beneficial to workers and employers, it’s also a hotbed for exploitation. In this essay from PLOS, the authors argue that human trafficking and the exploitation of low-wage workers have significant negative health impacts. Because of the magnitude of human trafficking, health concerns constitute a public health problem. Thanks to certain business models that depend on disposable labor, exploitation is allowed to flourish while protections are weakened. The essay states that trafficking initiatives must focus on stopping exploitation within each stage of labor migration. This essay introduces a special collection from PLOS on human trafficking and health. It’s the first medical journal collection on this topic. It includes pieces on child sex trafficking in the United States and the slavery of sea workers in South East Asia. Cathy Zimmerman and Ligia Kiss, the guest editors and authors of the first essay, are from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

“Introducing The Slave Next Door”

By: Jen Birks and Alison Gardner

Published in a special issue of the Anti-Trafficking Review on public perceptions and responses to human trafficking, this essay focuses on Great Britain. According to the essay, there’s been a shift in what the public thinks about trafficking based on local reporting and anti-slavery campaigns. British communities are starting to realize how prevalent human trafficking is in their own backyards. The essay takes a closer look at the media and campaigns, how they’re representing cases, and what people are doing with the information. While specific to Britain, it’s a good example of how people can perceive trafficking within their borders.

Jen Birks is an Assistant Professor in media at the Department of Cultural, Media, and visual Studies at the University of Nottingham. Alison Gardner is at the School of Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Nottingham with a Nottingham Research Fellowship. She is part of the university’s Rights Lab.

“My Family’s Slave”

By: Alex Tizon

One of The Atlantic’s biggest stories of 2017, this essay tells a personal story of modern slavery. At 18-years old, Lola was given to the writer’s mother and when they moved to the United States, Lola came with them. On the outside, Tizon’s family was, in his words, “a poster family.” The truth was much darker. The essay sparked countless reader responses, including those of people who were once slaves themselves. Reading both the criticism and praise of the essay is just as valuable as the essay itself.

Alex Tizon died at age 57 years old before his essay was published. He had a successful career as a writer and reporter, sharing a Pulitzer Prize while a staff member at The Seattle Times. He also published a 2014 memoir Big Little Man: In Search of My Asian Self.

“Vietnam’s Human Trafficking Problem Is Too Big To Ignore”

By: Thoi Nguyen

In November 2019, 39 Vietnamese people were found dead in a truck container. They were identified as victims of a human trafficking ring. In Nguyen’s article, he explores the facts about the severity of human trafficking in Vietnam. For years, anti-slavery groups have warned the UK about a rise in trafficking, but it took a tragedy for people to start paying attention. Nguyen discusses who is vulnerable to trafficking, how trafficking functions, and Vietnam’s response.

Freelance journalist Thoi Nguyen is a member of Chatham House and a member of Amnesty International UK. In addition to human trafficking, he writes about the economy, finance, and foreign affairs. He’s a specialist in South East Asian geopolitics.

“History Repeats Itself: Some New Faces Behind Sex Trafficking Are More Familiar Than You Think”

By: Mary Graw Leary

This essay highlights how human trafficking isn’t only a criminal enterprise, it’s also an economic one. Leary looks specifically at how businesses that benefit (directly or indirectly) from slavery have always fought against efforts to end it. The essay focuses on government efforts to disrupt online sex trafficking and how companies are working to prevent that from happening. Human trafficking is a multi-billion dollar industry, so it makes sense that even legitimate businesses benefit. Knowing what these businesses are is essential to ending trafficking.

Mary Graw Leary is a former federal prosecutor and currently a professor of law at The Catholic University of America. The Chair of the United States Sentencing Commission’s Victim Advocacy Group, she’s an expert in exploitation, missing persons, human trafficking, and technology.

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129 Human Trafficking Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

📝 key points to use to write an outstanding human trafficking essay, 🏆 best human trafficking topic ideas & essay examples, ⭐ simple & easy human trafficking essay titles, 📌 most interesting human trafficking topics to write about, 👍 good research topics about human trafficking.

• ❓ Research Questions about Human Trafficking

Human trafficking is one of the most challenging and acute assignment topics. Students should strive to convey a strong message in their human trafficking essays.

They should discuss the existing problems in today’s world and the ways to solve them. It means that essays on human trafficking require significant dedication and research. But do not worry, we are here to help you write an outstanding essay.

Find the issue you want to discuss in your paper. There are many titles to choose from, as you can analyze the problem from various perspectives. The examples of human trafficking essay topics include:

• The problem of child trafficking in today’s world
• The causes of human trafficking
• Human trafficking: The problem of ethics and values
• The role of today’s society in fostering human trafficking
• Human trafficking as a barrier to human development
• The rate of human trafficking victims in the world’s countries
• How to prevent and stop human trafficking

Remember that you can select other human trafficking essay titles if you want. Search for them online or ask your professor for advice.

Now that you are ready to start working on your paper, you can use these key points for writing an outstanding essay:

• Study the issue you have selected and do preliminary research. Look for news articles, scholarly papers, and information from reputable websites. Do not rely on Wikipedia or related sources.
• Work on the outline for your paper. A well-developed outline is a key feature of an outstanding essay. Include an introductory and a concluding paragraph along with at least three body paragraphs. Make sure that each of your arguments is presented in a separate paragraph or section.
• Check out human trafficking essay examples online to see how they are organized. This step can also help you to evaluate the relevance of the topic you have selected. Only use online sources for reference and do not copy the information you will find.
• Your introductory paragraph should start with a human trafficking essay hook. The hooking sentence or a phrase should grab the reader’s attention. An interesting fact or a question can be a good hook. Hint: make sure that the hooking sentence does not make your paper look overly informal.
• Do not forget to include a thesis statement at the end of your introductory section. Your paper should support your thesis.
• Define human trafficking and make sure to answer related questions. Is it common in today’s world? What are the human trafficking rates? Help the reader to understand the problem clearly.
• Discuss the causes and consequences of human trafficking. Think of possible questions you reader would ask and try to answer all of them.
• Be specific. Provide examples and support your arguments with evidence. Include in-text citations if you refer to information from outside sources. Remember to use an appropriate citation style and consult your professor about it.
• Discuss the legal implications of human trafficking in different countries or states. What are the penalties for offenders?
• Address the ethical implications of the problem as well. How does human trafficking affect individuals and their families?
• A concluding paragraph should be a summary of your arguments and main ideas of the paper. Discuss the findings of your research as well.

Check out our samples (they are free!) and get the best ideas for your paper!

• Human Trafficking: Process, Causes and Effects To make the matters worse they are abused and the money goes to the pockets of these greedy people as they are left empty handed after all the humiliation they go through.
• Three Ethical Lenses on Human Trafficking As a result of the issue’s illegality, a deontologist will always observe the law and, as a result, will avoid or work to eradicate human trafficking.
• Trafficking of Children and Women: A Global Perspective The scale of women and children trafficking is very large but difficult to put a figure on the actual number of women and children trafficked all over the world. The demand for people to work […]
• Dark Window on Human Trafficking: Rhetorical Analysis In this essay, Ceaser utilized his rhetorical skills to dive into the dark world of human trafficking, which severely hits Latin America and the USA, through the usage of images and forms of different societal […]
• Human Trafficking in the UK: Examples and References The bureaucracy and lack of flexibility pose quite significant threats to the success of the UK anti-trafficking strategies. An illustration of this lack of flexibility and focus is the case of the Subatkis brothers.
• Human Trafficking and Exploitation in Modern Society It is necessary to determine the essence of human trafficking to understand the magnitude of the problem of slavery in the modern world.
• The Human Trafficking Problem Another way is through employment and this involves the need to create more jobs within the community that is at a higher risk of facing human trafficking.
• Enhancing Human Trafficking Laws with Technology and Training Improvements Sex trafficking is one of the most common forms of human trafficking in the U.S. Challenges affecting the enforcement of human trafficking laws in the U.S.are broad and multifaceted.
• Human Trafficking: Social Media The article purposed to unearth the available evidence of the role of social media in perpetuating the crime and how the agents use the platform to perpetrate the act.
• Human Trafficking and Its Characteristics In today’s world, human trafficking is frequently carried out secretly, and many people are unaware of the spread of this criminal business.
• Human Trafficking: Impact on Victims from Eastern Europe What are the causes of human trafficking in Eastern Europe? How do the citizens of Eastern Europe react to the fact of human trafficking in the region?
• Human Trafficking, Rights, and Dignity Both human dignity and human rights fall victim to trafficking because the affected people have no position to express their emotions or negotiate the circumstances under which they are kept. Very few people are sensitive […]
• Human Trafficking: Focusing on Texas and the City of Houston The authors outline the creation of the pilot program, which included educating medical staff on the warning indications of human trafficking and how to handle potential instances.
• Human Trafficking: Slavery Issues These are the words to describe the experiences of victims of human trafficking. One of the best places to intercept human trafficking into the US is at the border.
• Reflection on Human Trafficking Studies When researching and critically evaluating the global issue of human trafficking, I managed to enrich my experience as a researcher, a professional, and an individual due to the facts and insights gained through this activity.
• Human Trafficking Through the General Education Lens First and foremost, the numerous initiatives show that the regional governments are prepared to respond to the problem of human trafficking in a coordinated manner.
• Discussion: Human Trafficking of Adults Human trafficking of adults is one of the most essential and significant issues of modern times, which affects the lives of millions of people in almost every corner of the globe.
• Human Trafficking and Related Issues and Tensions In the business sector, therefore, discrimination leads to the workload of the trafficked employee to make a huge lot of work to be done at the right time required.
• Doctor-Patient Confidentiality and Human Trafficking At the same time, it is obligatory to keep the records of all the patients in the healthcare settings while Dr. To conclude, the decision in the case of an encounter with human trafficking should […]
• Policy Issues on Human Trafficking in Texas The challenge of preventing human trafficking in Texas and meeting the needs of its victims is complicated by the multifaceted nature of the problem.
• Human Trafficking in Africa Therefore, Africa’s human trafficking can be primarily attributed to the perennial political instability and civil unrest as the root causes of the vice in the continent. Some traditions and cultural practices in Africa have significantly […]
• Human Trafficking: Giving a Fresh Perspective One question I find reoccurring is, “Are all victims of human trafficking being dishonest?” Throughout my career and law enforcement, I met the cases in which victims were dishonest, and I wanted to discover why.
• Human Trafficking and Variety of Its Forms The types of human trafficking that harshly break human rights are sex trafficking, forced labor, and debt bondage. To conclude, it is essential to say that human trafficking has been the worst type of crime […]
• Child Welfare and Human Trafficking Young people and children that live in “out-of-home care” due to reasons of abuse or lack of resources are at higher risk of becoming subjects of trafficking.
• Human Trafficking and Healthcare Organizations Human Trafficking, which is a modern form of slavery, is a critical issue nowadays since it affects many marginalized people around the world.
• Human Trafficking Is a Global Affair It refers to the unlawful recruitment, harboring and transportation of men, women and children for forced labor, sex exploitation, forced marriages, through coercion and fraud.
• Human Trafficking and Nurses’ Education Therefore, there is a need to educate nurses in understanding human trafficking victims’ problems and learning the signs or ared flags’ of human trafficking.
• Intelligence Issues in Human Trafficking To begin with, the officer is to examine the social groups of migrants and refugees, as they are the most vulnerable groups in terms of human trafficking.
• Intelligence Issues in Border Security, Human Trafficking, and Narcotics Trafficking This paper aims to emphasize drug trafficking as the main threat for the nation and outline intelligence collecting methods on drug and human trafficking, border security, and cybersecurity.
• Criminology: Human Trafficking However, the UAE clearly has admitted that there is a high level of rights infringement against women by the ISIS in Iraq and Syria.
• Human Trafficking: Labor Facilitators and Programs Labor trafficking is a significant issue in the modern world because it refers to people who are forced to engage in labor through the use of coercion, fraud, and force.
• Human Trafficking: Solution to Treat Survivors And A Public Health Issues Ultimately, this led to the child’s lack of a sense of security, to the presence of a strong desire to be loved and important to someone.
• Human Trafficking and Its Social and Historical Significance Human trafficking is a type of crime that involves kidnapping and transporting of women, men, and children out of the country with the purposes of slave labor, prostitution, organ harvesting, and other nefarious purposes.
• Egypt and Sudan Refugees and Asylum Seekers Face Brutal Treatment and Human Trafficking In this report by Amnesty International, the issue of the security of refugees and asylum seekers in Shagarab refugee camps, which are located in the eastern parts of Sudan, is raised.
• Stephanie Doe: Misyar Marriage as Human Trafficking in Saudi Arabia In this article, the author seeks to highlight how the practice of temporary marriages by the wealthy in Saudi Arabia, commonly known as misyar, is a form of human trafficking.
• Effects of Human Trafficking in Teenagers: The Present-Day Situation In this case, the inclusion of the additional factor, the type of human trafficking, will contribute to a better understanding of the problem and develop a solution.
• Aftermath of Human Trafficking in Children and Teenagers The major part of the available research is concentrated on the victims of sex abuse and the applied means of their treatment.
• Human Trafficking in the USA However, the development of the society and rise of humanism resulted in the reconsideration of the attitude towards this phenomenon and the complete prohibition of all forms of human trafficking.
• Child Welfare: Human Trafficking in San Diego The paper consists of an introduction, the consecutive sections addressing the definition of the issue, its legal background, the occurrence of child trafficking, and the interventions initiated by the authorities to fight the threat.
• Human Trafficking as an Issue of Global Importance Being a threat to global safety and well-being, the phenomenon of human trafficking has to be managed by reconsidering the existing policy statements of organizations responsible for monitoring the levels of human trafficking and preventing […]
• Psychotherapy for Victims of Human Trafficking The use of different dependent variables is the primary feature that differs a single-subject design from a program evaluation the essence of which is to cover a range of questions and evaluate them all without […]
• Human Trafficking: Enforcing Laws Worldwide This essay focuses on the issue of enforcement of laws concerning human trafficking, the influence of country prosperity on the approaches to solving this problem, the vulnerable categories at high risk of becoming victims, and […]
• Social Work: Human Trafficking and Trauma Theory One of the theoretical frameworks is trauma theory that focuses on the traumatic experiences victims are exposed to as well as the influence of these traumas on their further life.
• Human Trafficking Problems in Canada The authors describe the government’s influence on the level of human trafficking and argue that the concept of slavery is almost the same as modern human trafficking.
• Human Trafficking and Modern-day Slavery One of the biggest challenges in addressing modern slavery and human trafficking is the fact that the vice is treated as a black market affair where facts about the perpetrators and the victims are difficult […]
• Combating Human Trafficking in the USA It is necessary to note, however, that numerous researchers claim that the number of human trafficking victims is quite difficult to estimate due to the lack of effective methodology.
• The Fight Against Human Trafficking Human trafficking constitutes a gross violation of the human rights of the individual as he/she is reduced to the status of a commodity to be used in any manner by the person who buys it.
• Criminal Law: Human Trafficking Promises of a good life and the absence of education opportunities for women have led to the increased levels of human trafficking.
• Human Trafficking: Definition, Reasons and Ways to Solve the Problem That is why, it becomes obvious that slavery, which is taken as the remnant of the past, prosper in the modern world and a great number of people suffer from it.
• Human Trafficking and the Trauma It Leaves Behind According to Snajdr, in the United States, most of the Black immigrants who came to the country during the colonial era were actually victims of human trafficking.
• Mexican Drug Cartels and Human Trafficking Reports from Mexico says that due to the pressure exerted on the drug cartels by the government, they have resolved in other means of getting revenue and the major one has been human trafficking alongside […]
• Tackling the Issue of Human Trafficking In Europe, prevention of human trafficking is interpreted to mean both awareness raising and active prevention activities that ideally look into the primary causes of human trafficking.
• Human trafficking in Mozambique The reason for this goes back to the fact the government in place has failed to put the interests of its people as a priority.
• “Not For Sale: End Human Trafficking and Slavery”: Campaign Critique To that extent, Not for Sale campaign attempts to enhance the ability of the people in vulnerable countries to understand the nature and form of trafficking and slavery.
• Human Trafficking in the United States: A Modern Day Slavery The question of the reasons of human trafficking is a complex one to answer since there are various causes for it, but the majors causes include; Poverty and Inequality: It is evident that human trafficking […]
• Human Trafficking in the United States The paper also discusses the needs of the victims of human trafficking and the challenges faced in the attempt to offer the appropriate services.
• Definition of Human Rights and Trafficking One of the infamous abuses of human rights is the practice of human trafficking, which has become prevalent in the current society.
• How Prostitution Leads to Human Trafficking This is a form of a business transaction that comes in the name of commercial sex either in the form of prostitution or pornography.
• Criminal Enforcement and Human Trafficking
• Combating Human Trafficking Should Go Towards the Recovery of The Victim
• Connections Between Human Trafficking and Environmental Destruction
• The Problems of Human Trafficking and Whether Prostitution Should Be Legal
• The Issue of Human Trafficking, a Criminal Business in the Modern Era
• The Problem of Human Trafficking in America
• Ways You Can Help Fight Human Trafficking
• Assignment on Human Trafficking and Prostitution
• The Plague of Human Trafficking in Modern Society
• Critical Thinking About International Adoptions: Saving Orphans or Human Trafficking
• The Issue of Human Trafficking and the Backlash of Saving People
• The Role of Corruption in Cambodia’s Human Trafficking
• A Theoretical Perspective on Human Trafficking and Migration-Debt Contracts
• Conditions That Allow Human Trafficking
• Understanding Human Trafficking Using Victim-Level Data
• Evaluation of the International Organization for Migration and Its Efforts to Combat Human Trafficking
• Causes and Consequences of Human Trafficking in Haiti
• Fishing in Thailand: The Issue of Overfishing, Human Trafficking and Forced Labor
• Differences Between Definitions of Human Trafficking
• Banks and Human Trafficking: Rethinking Human Rights Due Diligence
• The World Are Victims of Human Trafficking
• Understandings and Approaches to Human Trafficking in The Middle East
• The Issue of Human Trafficking, Child Prostitution and Child Soldiers
• Human Trafficking and the Trade in Sexual Slavery or Forced
• The Protection of Human Trafficking Victims by the Enforcement Bodies in Malaysia
• The Remnants of Human Trafficking Still Exists Today
• The Issue of Human Trafficking and Its Connection to Armed Conflict, Target Regions, and Sexual Exploitation
• Causes Effects of Human Trafficking
• The Issue of Human Trafficking and Forced Child Prostitution Around the World
• Assessing the Extent of Human Trafficking: Inherent Difficulties and Gradual Progress
• The Unknown About Human Trafficking
• Trafficking: Human Trafficking and Main Age
• The Issue of Human Trafficking in Thailand and South Africa
• The Tragedy of Human Trafficking
• Vertex Connectivity of Fuzzy Graphs with Applications to Human Trafficking
• Child Pornography and Its Effects on Human Trafficking

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Published: Mar 5, 2024

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I Was Trafficked as a Teen. Here’s What I Want People to Understand

W hen I talk about being trafficked as a teenager, people ask two questions: How did it happen, and how did nobody know it happened? For most of my life, these conversations happened with the few friends, and then recently it happened more frequently after the release of my novel, The Lookback Window , which is about recovering from sex trafficking and pursuing justice in the wake of New York’s Child Victims Act. Sex trafficking isn’t dinner conversation, and the instances where it makes the news often revolve around paranoid fantasies of the alt-right. Recently, this manifested as Sound of Freedom , the terrible, white savior film starring Jim Caviezel, which doubles as a biopic of Tim Ballard and a false charity.

Tim Ballard is a conservative multi-hyphenate who created Operation Underground Railroad, an anti-child trafficking organization, after witnessing the horrific commercial sex trade from his work in the Department of Homeland Services’ Internet Crimes Against Children task force. This is the subject of the film, his heroic origin story. Nowhere in this biopic do you ever understand anything, really, but the notes of the film feel familiar enough, as if they have been recycled from another story, another fiction, another con. In October 2023, Ballard was accused of grooming and sexually harassing women, allegedly using his work with Operation Underground Railroad as a narrative cover, asking women how far they would go to help the cause. Would they pose as his wife, sleep with him, do what it takes to save the children?

At some point in the film, Caviezel says, “Nobody cares.” The dominant narrative has been that nobody cares because no one understands how the practice exists around them. It’s a lonely feeling and a sentiment that I have felt at times in my recovery. Media like this doesn’t do much but exacerbate this feeling. It preys on the right’s xenophobia, conspiracists, and religious fanaticism under the guise of saving the children.

But the problem is that the international commercial sex trade doesn’t just exist—it persists. In fact, it lives here, in America, all around us. And by sharing what happened to me, I hope that other victims will have an easier time speaking up and advocating for justice.

When I was 14, I got a message on MySpace from a 19-year-old who also lived in my same city in Westchester, telling me that he thought I was attractive. He lived across the street from my high school and asked if I wanted to go on a date. I didn’t respond at first, but I showed a friend of mine the message, and she told me she knew him. He was a family friend. I was lonely, had a difficult relationship with my parents, and was closeted. So, I responded to the message. 

When we met, he kissed me on the lips, asked my age, and then asked if I had ever smoked a blunt. I got so high I thought I was having a stroke. He asked me to be his boyfriend and then raped me in his bedroom and told me he loved me. When I was bleeding after, he said the same thing happened to him the first time he had sex, and that it was normal to bleed. I trusted him.

He’s what’s known as a “Romeo,” a pimp who lures a vulnerable person using the structure of a romantic relationship. He would give me a ring to wear, promising to marry me when I turned 18, too. He picked out a wedding date and wrote it on his wall. I don’t have many pictures from that era because my stomach turns if I’m reminded of how young I really looked, knowing what happened to me. But my family took a trip to Colorado that year and that friend who knew my rapist came along. She took pictures of the two of us, and if you look at my hand you could see the ring. I thought my boyfriend loved me.

There are other types of pimps: gorilla pimps whose main method of control is violence, CEO pimps who promise money, and familial pimps who sell the people in their family. Nothing is ever so separate, and when you’re being groomed you don’t realize what’s happening to you. He started out by telling stories of what he had done when he had been my age. They started out as cool, funny stories of hooking up with older men. The drugs he had done. Fights he had been in. That he had burned down part of his house when he was younger. (Later, after years had passed, I found out that he had been in-and-out of jail for various assaults.) He came up with a story that he was 16, if anyone asked, and that I couldn’t tell anyone about us or he could go to jail, and if I were talking about him to use a fake name.

Read More: She Survived Sex Trafficking. Now She Wants to Show Other Women a Way Out

I would skip school and walk to his house. On the weekends, I would tell my parents I was sleeping over at a different friend’s place, where he would get me high or drunk, and then post the ads on Craigslist with naked pictures of me that he had taken. Old men would reply and come over, give him money or drugs or both, and rape me in his bedroom. Some had wedding rings, some would force other drugs into me, and all of them asked how old I was. Sometimes he would drive me to their house. He would give me pills to calm me down the next day, buy me food, tell me details about the wedding. He would give me hickeys and teach me how to cover up bruises, and then by the time the older men hurt me I knew how to cover up bruises on my own. He bought me jockstraps and short shorts, and he had once casually joked about taking child porn in conversation to my friend who came to Colorado. I only know this detail because when I eventually went to the police, that friend had written it down in her diary, which was dated, and given over to the detective.

I failed classes and missed so much school my parents were alerted. I was rail thin, depressed, and was put on benzos by a psychiatrist. I was caught hanging out with this other older guy with a fake name. I wore very short shorts, tight shirts, and fell asleep during the day since I could barely sleep at night. I didn’t have many friends. All of these are considered signs that point to a risk factor.

He “broke up” with me when I was 17. I stopped looking as young as I once looked. No longer did I have braces. I went through puberty. One of the last times I saw the man who pimped me out, I told him how much he had hurt me and that I thought about going to the police. He threw my phone against the wall, beat me, and warned me what would happen if I ever told anyone. I overdosed on pills later that year, wanting to end the panic attacks, depression, and fear, but I was too young to know what had happened to me—that I was dealing with complex PTSD, and the extent of the violence.

The day after I graduated high school, I moved to San Diego without knowing anyone because I could not stomach being near the scene of the crimes. It was the farthest place away I could find. I have been in recovery for almost two decades now, and finally got the proper help I needed once I started telling people what happened. I was referred to the Crime Victims Treatment Center, a place where I could actually learn how to deal with living as someone who had once been trafficked. I could have had an easier time had I spoken more about what happened, had I known there are real treatments, had I not only thought of trafficking as something that happens far away from New York. If I had the language for what happened to me earlier, I could have saved myself years of private shame and self-destruction.

What is the sound of freedom? It’s what wakes my husband in the middle of the night as I scream in my sleep, 17 years later, and the softness of his voice telling me I’m safe. Or a notification from Instagram as a stranger who read my book tells me: “I was also trafficked as a teenager and our stories are super similar.” And the crowd asking questions about vengeance and justice at Strand Books where I talk with a friend about how angry I am and the solace I’ve found in being open. The practice of liberation requires creating room for the speech of victims. When I finish my events, I have a moment of silence for others to raise their hands, to talk after the event, to send a message. You are free to say what you need.

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