In parts of New York City today, there has been a visible and widely-reported increase in prostitution. To some, this is seen as a crisis of community safety and quality of life; to others, it demonstrates economic opportunity for consenting adults in a job like any other. What rarely gets talked about is who the people actually are who we see walking the streets and what circumstances led them there.

The fact is that the majority of people in the sex trade - mostly young women, some barely out of their teens - were coerced, tricked, or trafficked, or forced by socio-economic circumstances as children and young adults into a life that they would never have chosen for themselves. Many remain trapped, even if they can escape their trafficker, because they don’t have other options. They were

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