Editor’s note: Lauren Hersh is New York Director of Equality Now and head of its Sex Trafficking program combatting violence against women and girls. She is a former prosecutor at the Kings County District Attorney’s Office which covers Brooklyn.
By Lauren Hersh, Special for CNN, New York
Three months ago, Ruth came into my life. Sixteen years and two weeks old, Ruth is spunky and smart.
Over 27 million people are slaves today: more than during all 400 years of the transatlantic slave trade.
ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- A national group dedicated to educating and making people aware of human trafficking held a training session in Rochester Saturday morning.
A group known as Forsaken Generation came to Roberts Wesleyan campus on Buffalo Road to teach and inform the public on how to get involved and stand up against child sex trafficking.
In opening statements, he called the alleged victims happy “hoes.”
Today, a day later, the hard-charging defense lawyer in a XXX-rated Manhattan sex-trafficking case called the prosecution’s expert witness something similar.
“You’re being paid, right?” Howard Greenberg, lawyer for accused violent pimp Vincent George, Sr., asked Chitra Raghavan, a “trauma bonding” expert.
As I looked around the South Auditorium in the Old Executive Office Building during the White House's Forum to Combat Human Trafficking, I felt a surge of hope in a field that could use so much more.
NEWBURGH, N.Y. -- A federal attorney arrested 13 people in connection with a sex trafficking ring earlier this week.
The operation spanned from New York City to parts of Newburgh and Poughkeepsie. Federal prosecutors said dozens of women were victimized and now local advocates are speaking out.
