Young And Trapped: Homeless Youth And Young Adults Ensnared In Human Sex Trafficking

Madison Police Detective Maya Krajcinovic, who investigates sensitive crimes, hugs a 23-year-old woman who had been addicted to heroin and a victim of human trafficking for four years.

STEVE APPS -- State Journal

 

Alone and vulnerable, homeless youth frequently fall prey to human sex traffickers

• DEAN MOSIMAN and DOUG ERICKSON | Wisconsin State Journal

By age 19, the petite, blond-haired woman was homeless, a slave to heroin and becoming ensnared by a sex trafficking industry that is quietly rampant in Madison.

Eventually, she would sell her body to three or four men a day, most days of the year, making lots of cash but surrendering most of it to a lover-pimp who provided food, cheap motel rooms and "protection" — and, most importantly, fed her drug addiction.

At 22, heroin had transformed her body to an anemic rail and she estimates she'd been with 1,500 men.

"Drug dealers will take what you want most and absolutely use it against you," she told the State Journal.

Her sister lived the same life.

Read more from Madison Wisconsin 

 

Night Club Sex Trafficking Case Sparks Debate In Lawrence

A Topeka man takes a plea in a sex trafficking case with Lawrence ties. 46-year-old Sean Hall pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy, despite being originally charged with sex trafficking of a minor.

"They are stolen off the street. The more vulnerable they are, the more susceptible they are," said Joan Schultz, director of the Willow Domestic Violence Center.

Schultz says homeless men and women, as well as those aging out of the foster care system, are most at risk for human trafficking.

Read more from Lawrence