Global Association of Human Trafficking Scholars (website)

Global Learning Community (website)

Courtney Furlong and Ben Hinnant, Sex trafficking vulnerabilities in context: An analysis of 1,264 case files of adult survivors of commercial sexual exploitation. PLoS One, Nov 20, 2024.

Courtney Furlong, Refuge or Danger? The truth about the link between foster care and child trafficking. Street Grace, Dec 5, 2024. See Courtney Furlong and James Benjamin Hinnant, Examining the Intersections of Family Risk, Foster Care, and Outcomes for Commercially Sexually Exploited Children. Social Sciences, Dec 5, 2024.

International Christian Alliance on Prostitution (website)

Greg Clarke, Caroline Cox on Modern Slavery. Centre for Public Christianity, Apr 28, 2009.

Megan Twohey, Americans Use the Internet to Abandon Children Adopted from Overseas. Reuters, Sep 9, 2013.  Part 1 of a 5 part series called The Child Exchange: Inside America’s Underground Market for Adopted Children. See also Carrie A. Goldberg (Twitter, Feb 7, 2021)  “Here is a Reuters series about the thriving online market of "re-homing" adopted children. Big surprise about who wants unwanted children. Pedophiles.” Thread includes more up-to-date info.

Megan Twohey, In a Shadowy Online Network, a Pedophile Takes Home a ‘Fun Boy’. Reuters, Sep 9, 2013.  Part 2

Megan Twohey, With Blind Trust and Good Intentions, Amateurs Broker Children Online. Reuters, Sep 10, 2013.  Part 3

Megan Twohey, Despite ‘Grave Danger,’ Government Allows Internet Forums to Go Unchecked. Reuters, Sep 10, 2013.  Part 4

Megan Twohey, Orphaned in Russia, Brought to America, and Then Abandoned Time and Again. Reuters, Sep 11, 2013.  Part 5

Andrew Henry, Santa Never Fought Sex Trafficking, But Saint Nick Did. Dec 1, 2013.

Melissa Gira Grant, Fighting Sex Trafficking With Jesus: How the Religious Right's "Healing" Hurts. Salon, Apr 27, 2014.

Glenn Miles and Christa Foster Crawford, Stopping the Traffick: A Christian Response to Sexual Exploitation and Trafficking. Fortress Press | Amazon page, May 12, 2014.

Valeria Fraschetti, Meet an Italian Nun Who's Been Helping Sex Trafficking Victims for 20 Years. Global Post, Jul 21, 2015.

Reuters, Nuns Who Rescue Sex Slaves Expands Efforts to 140 Countries. Religion News Service, Nov 18, 2015.

Ellen Wulfhorst, Religious Sisters Pose As Prostitutes To Rescue Trafficking Victims From Brothels. Reuters, Nov 18, 2015.

Glenn M. Harden, The Sex Trade, Evil, and Christian Theology. Wipf and Stock Publishers | Amazon page, Apr 7, 2016.  

Christa Foster Crawford and Glenn Miles, Finding Our Way Through the Traffick: Navigating the Complexities of a Christian Response to Sexual Exploitation and Trafficking. Wipf and Stock Publishers | Amazon page, May 1, 2017.

Julia Flynn Siler, Asian Women Fought the West’s Slave Trade. And Then They Were Written Out of History. Los Angeles Times, Aug 4, 2019.  re: a San Francisco Christian mission/rescue home for Chinese women survivors of human trafficking, from 1874 - 1930’s, including Tien Fuh Wu, Bessie Jeong, Tye Leung Schulze, and Yamada Waka. See also Julia Flynn Siler, The White Devil's Daughters: The Women Who Fought Slavery in San Francisco's Chinatown. Knopf | Amazon page, May 2019.  along with review and critique by Gary Kamiya, Saving Girls From Sexual Slavery in San Francisco’s Chinatown. New York Times, Jun 21, 2019.  and review and interview by Anna Diamond, The Women Who Waged War Against Sex Trafficking in San Francisco. Smithsonian Magazine, May 8, 2019.

Department of Homeland Security, Human Trafficking Response Guide for Faith-Based Community Leaders.  Oct 2022. 

Lena Nealson, Why Prostitution Should Not Be Fully Decriminalized. Demand Abolition.  is related to restorative justice because in secular liberal moral systems, consent alone defines what is moral, and therefore purchasing sex consensually should be moral.  But in a larger relational vision where a person can exploit one's self and another, even consensually, then we are trying to restore that vision of relational personhood.  The Christian vision fits well.

Carina Patritti, Restoring Human Trafficking Victims Through Victim-Offender Dialogue. Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution, linked through Centre for Justice and Reconciliation, Jan 6, 2014.

Marquette University Law School, Restorative Justice and Human Trafficking - From Wisconsin to the World. Marquette University Law School conference, Mar 20, 2015.

Deanna Davy, Justice for Victims of Human Trafficking in Australia? Issues Associated with Australia’s Criminal Justice Response to Trafficking in Persons. Contemporary Justice Review, Aug 19, 2015.

Lilly Yu, Jeanette Hussemann, Hanna Love, Evelyn McCoy, and Colleen Owens, Alternative Forms of Justice for Human Trafficking Survivors Considering Procedural, Restorative, and Transitional Justice. Urban Institute, Mar 2018.

Ear Hustle, Dirty Water. Ear Hustle podcast, Mar 28, 2018.  Sara and LA share their different experiences of being “in the life,” at the same time demonstrating the difficult, yet important work of restorative justice.

Department of Homeland Security, Human Trafficking Response Guide for Faith-Based Community Leaders.  Oct 2022. 

Polaris Project (website) does advocacy and education around human trafficking

Global Slavery Index (website)

U.S. State Dept, Trafficking in Persons Report (website) stats per year

Human Trafficking (website)

Project Reach (website) in Brookline, MA

Businesses Ending Slavery & Trafficking (website) based in Seattle, WA

Charlotte Alter, Catching Johns: Inside the National Push to Arrest Men Who Buy Sex. Time, date unknown.

Danielle L. McGuire, "It Was like All of Us Had Been Raped": Sexual Violence, Community Mobilization, and the African American Freedom Struggle. Journal of American History, Dec 2004.  the exploitation of black women by white men in the U.S. has to be considered an aspect of human trafficking

Women's Justice Center, Sweden's Prostitution Solution: Why Hasn't Anyone Tried This Before? Women’s Justice Center website, 2005?.  “In just five years Sweden has dramatically reduced the number of its women in prostitution. In the capital city of Stockholm the number of women in street prostitution has been reduced by two thirds, and the number of johns has been reduced by 80%. There are other major Swedish cities where street prostitution has all but disappeared. Gone too, for the most part, are the renowned Swedish brothels and massage parlors which proliferated during the last three decades of the twentieth century when prostitution in Sweden was legal… In 1999, after years of research and study, Sweden passed legislation that a) criminalizes the buying of sex, and b) decriminalizes the selling of sex.”

Browne Onuoha, The State of Human Trafficking and Human Rights Issues in Africa. Contemporary Justice Review, Dec 2, 2009.

Kevin Bales, How to Combat Modern Slavery. TED Talk, Feb 2010.

Miki Mistrati, U. Roberto Romano, Helle Faber, The Dark Side of Chocolate. video documentary, 2010.

Eric Kasum, Columbus Day? True Legacy: Cruelty and Slavery. Huffington Post, Oct 11, 2010.  includes Columbus’ involvement in sex slavery and human trafficking

Amanda Milkovits, Missing Girl from Boston Found Dancing at Providence Strip Club. Providence Journal, Aug 3, 2013.

Daniella Silva, Nearly 400 Children Rescued and 348 Adults Arrested in Canadian Child Pornography Bust. NBC News, Nov 14, 2013.  “Police seized over 45 terabytes of data from the $4-million business that distributed to over 50 counties including Australia, Spain, Mexico, Sweden and Greece. As a result of the investigation thus far, 50 people were arrested in Ontario, 58 in the rest of Canada, 76 in the United States, and 164 internationally. What was most alarming, Inspector Beaven-Desjardins said, was that many of the arrests were of people who worked with or closely interacted with children. Among those arrested were 40 school teachers, nine doctors and nurses, six law enforcement personnel, nine pastors and priests and three foster parents, she said.”

Lara Salahi, MGH Receives Grant to Open Human Trafficking Survivor Clinic. Boston.com, May 1, 2014.

John-Henry Westen, Want to Stop Sex-Trafficking? Look to America's Porn Addition. Huffington Post, Jan 28, 2015.

Choe Sang-Hun, Suit Has South Korea Looking Anew at Its Hard Line on Prostitution. New York Times, Jun 20, 2015.

Mark Weber, Decriminalization of Sex Work Would Only Expand Abuse. Seattle Times, Aug 6, 2015.

Craig Greenfield, Is Prostitution a Human Right? Craig Greenfield blog, Aug 26, 2015.

Katie Grant, Scottish MSP's Plans to Decriminalise Sex Work Wins Support Across the Country. UK Independent, Sep 11, 2015.

Rafael Romo, Human Trafficking Survivor: I Was Raped 43,200 Times. CNN, Nov 10, 2015.

Goldie Taylor, The Sex-Trafficking Victim Next Door. Daily Beast, Jan 22, 2016.

Boston Metro, Man Pleads Guilty to Boston-Area Human Trafficking Sex-Ring. Boston Metro, Feb 2, 2016.

Amanda Hoover, 5 Indicted on Charges Related to Human Trafficking Schemes. Boston Globe, Apr 7, 2016.

Cheryl Fiandaca, Human Trafficking is the Fastest Growing Criminal Enterprise in the World. WHDH News, May 4, 2016.

Joe Cochrane, Indonesia Approves Chemical Castration for Sex Offenders Who Prey on Children. New York Times, May 25, 2016.

Fight the New Drug, Florida Girl in Bathroom Sex Scandal Revealed as Former Sex Trafficking Victim. Fight the New Drug, May 26, 2016.

Sandra Hoyn, Heartbreaking Photos Show What It's Like Living in a Walled City of a Brothel. Washington Post, Jun 13, 2016.  Bangladesh

Mike McPhate, California Today: A Shift in the Child Sex Trafficking Trade. New York Times, Oct 3, 2016.

BBC, US Shuts Down Sex Trafficking Ring Targeting Thai Women. BBC, Oct 5, 2016.

Don Thompson and Terry Wallace, Backpage.com Raided, CEO Arrested for Sex-Trafficking. ABC News, Oct 6, 2016.

Brian Latimer, Uber Driver Saves 16-Year-Old Girl From Sex Trafficking. NBC News, Dec 29, 2016.

Blue Matters, 400 Children Rescued/348 Adults Arrested After Police Take Down $4 Million Child Porn Empire. Blue Matters, Apr 6, 2017.

Matt Stout, Sex Trade Feared to Be Even Worse Than It Once Was. Boston Herald, Apr 25, 2017.

Marian Hatcher, 76% of All Inmates End Up Back in Jail Within 5 Years. Here's How I Broke the Cycle. Vox, Aug 8, 2017.

Julie Bindel, My Work as a Prostitute Led Me to Oppose Decriminalization. BBC, Oct 2, 2017.  In favor of criminalizing the sex customer.

Imogen Calderwood, India Rules Sex With a Child Bride Is Always Rape in a Massive Win for Girls’ Rights. Global Citizen, Oct 11, 2017.

Sarah Wildman, "America First" Means Human Rights Last During Trump's Visit to Asia. Vox, Nov 8, 2017.

Nima Elbagir, Raja Razek, Alex Platt and Bryony Jones, People for Sale: Where Lives Are Auctioned for $400. CNN, Nov 14, 2017. about human trafficking in Libya, and interview of Nima Elbagir by Trevor Noah, Uncovering Libya’s Modern Slave Trade. The Daily Show, Apr 7, 2018.; see also John Wight, Libya "Chose" Freedom, Now It Has Slavery. Counterpunch, Nov 27, 2017. and Ben Norton, Media Erase NATO Role in Bringing Slave Markets to Libya. FAIR, Nov 28, 2017. 

Amy Goodman, Nigerian Environmental Activist: Displacement from Climate Change Contributed to Rise of Boko Haram. Democracy Now, Nov 16, 2017.

Tim Swarens, Who Buys a Trafficked Child for Sex? Otherwise Ordinary Men. USA Today, Jan 30, 2018.  

Jennifer McKim, Illicit Massage Parlors Are Across Massachusetts. Why Is Police Action So Rare? WGBH, Jan 16, 2018.  The first of five in a series.

News 12 Westchester, Turn To Tara: Sex Trafficking of Children Flourishing in the Hudson Valley. News 12 Westchester, Apr 30, 2018.

Amanda Arnold, 94 Percent of Native Women in Seattle Survey Say They’ve Been Raped or Coerced Into Sex. The Cut, Aug 27, 2018.   See also Urban Indian Health Institute, Missing and Murdered: Indigenous Women and Girls. Urban Indian Health Institute, 2018.  Data from 71 cities

History.com Staff, When Sexual Assaults Made History. History.com, Oct 9, 2018.  Including Christopher Columbus likely slave trafficking.

Alan Feuer, Ashley Southall and Ali Winston, The New Brothels: How Shady Landlords Play a Key Role in the Sex Trade. New York Times, Nov 14, 2018.  On Brooklyn, NY.

End Slavery Now, Learn About the Prosecutions of Tim Nolan and Robert Poole. End Slavery Now, Dec 2018. Nolan was a Republican judge, a former leader in the Republican Party, and former chairman of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign in Campbell County, Kentucky. On February 9, 2018, he pleaded guilty to 19 counts of child sex trafficking and human trafficking; he was sentenced to serve 20 years in prison. Poole was an attorney from Boone County.

Marissa Wenzke and Kareen Winter, Human Trafficking Sting Across California Nets 339 Arrests, Rescue of Nearly 50 Victims Including Teens. KTLA News, Jan 29, 2019.

Paul Strand, 'Dirty Dozen': These Top US Companies and an Entire State Accused of Sexual Exploitation. Christian Broadcast Network, Feb 12, 2019.  Re: Amazon, Google, Twitter, United Airlines, etc. for enabling porn use.

The Young Turks, Bombshell: Trump Secretary Violates U.S. Constitution. The Young Turks, Feb 22, 2019.  re: Labor Secretary Alex Acosta, while a federal prosecutor, lied to victims of Jeffrey Epstein (pedophile, trafficker) about prosecuting Epstein; Trump meanwhile claims that human trafficking across the U.S.-Mexico border is a reason to build a border wall

Gil Smart, Robert Kraft Prostitution Scandal Exposes the Horrors in Our Backyard. USA Today, Feb 25, 2019.

Raj Patel and Jason W Moore, How the Chicken Nugget Became the True Symbol of our Era. The Guardian, May 8, 2018. when you turn the natural world into a profit-making machine

Brian Kahn, Scientists Have Pinpointed the Mystery Source of an Ozone-Destroying Chemical.  Gizmodo Earther, May 22, 2019. traced to China

Dexter Roberts, The Myth of Chinese Capitalism: The Worker, the Factory, and the Future of the World. Amazon book, Mar 2020. and Krystal Ball and Saagar Enjeti, How Multinational Corporations Partner with China to Exploit Workers. Rising | The Hill, Mar 15, 2020. China exploits migrant workers, who were additionally vulnerable to COVID-19.

Ian Urbina, The Outlaw Ocean: Journeys Across the Last Untamed Frontier.  Vintage Books, Amazon page, Aug 2019.  “There are few remaining frontiers on our planet. But perhaps the wildest, and least understood, are the world's oceans: too big to police, and under no clear international authority, these immense regions of treacherous water play host to rampant criminality and exploitation. Traffickers and smugglers, pirates and mercenaries, wreck thieves and repo men, vigilante conservationists and elusive poachers, seabound abortion providers, clandestine oil-dumpers, shackled slaves and cast-adrift stowaways—drawing on five years of perilous and intrepid reporting, often hundreds of miles from shore, Ian Urbina introduces us to the inhabitants of this hidden world. Through their stories of astonishing courage and brutality, survival and tragedy, he uncovers a globe-spanning network of crime and exploitation that emanates from the fishing, oil, and shipping industries, and on which the world's economies rely.”  See also interview by Jordan Harbinger, Confronting The Modern Day Slavery in Our Oceans | JHS. Ep. 856.  The Jordan Harbinger Show, Jul 19, 2023.  A 64 minute video.  

Cody Johnston, Katy Stoll, and David C. Bell, The Anti-Sex Trafficking Law That Made Sex-Trafficking Worse. Some More News, May 21, 2019.  the shutting down of websites drives sex-work further underground and made more dangerous

Audrey Conkling, Hawaii Becomes First State To Protect Victims Of Sex Trafficking Who Were Convicted Of Prostitution. Daily Caller, Jul 3, 2019.

Chelsea Hale and Meghan Matt, The Intersection of Race and Rape Viewed through the Prism of a Modern-Day Emmett Till. American Bar Association, Jul 16, 2019.  “An exploration of the historical practice of exploiting and violating the bodies of African American women with impunity and how African American defendants accused of raping white women are treated differently under the law.” This sexual exploitation was akin to human trafficking.

Ali Breland, Why Are Right-Wing Conspiracies so Obsessed With Pedophilia? Mother Jones, Jul-Aug 2019.  “The patriarchal family was under siege, as conservatives saw it, and day-care centers had become the physical representation of the social forces bedeviling them. “You had this Reagan-­driven conservative resurgence,” Beck says, “and day care was seen as at least suspicious, if not an actively maligned force of feminism. Day care held a prominent place in right-wing demonology. As far back as the 1960s, conservatives were warning darkly that child care “was a communist plot to destroy the traditional family,” as sociologist Jill Quadagno writes in The Color of Welfare. In 1971, President Richard Nixon vetoed the Comprehensive Child Development Act, which would’ve established a national day-care system. In his veto message, Nixon used the Red-baiting language urged upon him by his special assistant, Pat Buchanan, saying the program would’ve committed “the vast moral authority of the national government to the side of communal approaches to child-rearing against the family-centered approach.” In a decade of rising divorce rates, at least conspiracism and reactionary social conservatism could enjoy a happy marriage. By the time Judy Johnson came forward in 1983 with allegations that a teacher at the McMartin preschool had molested her child, the country had been primed to assume the worst by more than a decade of child-care fearmongering.

Michael H. Keller and Gabriel J.X. Dance, The Internet Is Overrun With Images of Child Sexual Abuse. What Went Wrong? New York Times, Sep 28, 2019.  “Online predators create and share the illegal material, which is increasingly cloaked by technology. Tech companies, the government and the authorities are no match.” “Children, some just 3 or 4 years old, being sexually abused and in some cases tortured.”

Farron Cousins, Republican Official Indicted For Human Smuggling And Selling Babies. Ring of Fire, Oct 10, 2019.  re: Paul Petersen. See also Matthew Chapman, GOP Official Indicted for Human Smuggling and Sale of Children in Bizarre International Fraud Scheme. Raw Story, Oct 9, 2019.  “Maricopa County assessor Paul Petersen has been indicted on 11 counts, including human smuggling and sale of a child, as part of a far-reaching international adoption fraud scheme.”

Taylor Riggs, How Authorities Used Bitcoin to Bust a Giant Child Porn Site. Bloomberg Technology, Oct 16, 2019.  De-anonymizing Bitcoin.

Jennifer Savin, Pornhub Has Come Under Fire for Allowing Real Rape Videos. Cosmopolitan, Feb 11, 2020.  “Following her own experience of being raped at the age of 14, blogger and writer, Rose Kalemba, has spoken out saying that after her assault took place in 2009, she found videos of it online. This comes at a time where women are increasingly seeking out alternative, safer and better regulated porn sites to use, for their personal pleasure.”

Christina Maza, Inside Baltimore’s Human Trafficking Industry. Aljazeera, Jul 30, 2020.  “Baltimore, Maryland is a hotspot for human trafficking, according to experts. The confluence of highways, including the I-95 corridor that connects Baltimore to other nearby cities like Washington, DC and New York City, combined with the proximity to several major airports, a plethora of hotels and casinos, and extreme poverty beside extreme wealth, has created the perfect conditions for the trafficking industry to thrive. Several interstate highways cut through the heart of the city, running on the east and west of the Baltimore port. Thousands of trucks, cruise lines, and cargo ships pass through Baltimore each year.”

Casey Chalk, Let’s Talk About Contemporary Slavery. The American Conservative, Jul 31, 2020.  “Human trafficking is driven by America's unhealthy obsession with sex.”

Vice News, Indigenous Women Keep Going Missing in Montana. Vice News, Dec 3, 2020.  examines stats, and legal-jurisdictional challenges (tribe, federal, state, county agencies)

KSLA Digital Team, Past U.S. Congressional Candidate Arrested for Alleged Child Pornography. KSLA, Dec 10, 2020.

Melissa Gira Grant, The Non-Hypocrisy of QAnon’s Sexual Politics. The New Republic, Feb 16, 2021. A string of Trump-associated Republicans have recently faced charges related to the sexual exploitation of minors. It won’t matter to Q’s true believers.

Aya Gruber, The Atlanta Massacre and US Anti-Trafficking Laws. Aljazeera, Apr 4, 2021.  “In the US, Asian sex work has always been singled out for particular reprobation and regulation since its inception. The early legal regime reflected an American fascination with, fear of, and disgust with Asian female sexuality, as well as a paternalistic desire to “save” Asian women – by deporting them. It was expanded and formalised over decades through the efforts of not just xenophobes and racists but concerned citizens and liberal activists.”

Keith Zubrow, Maria Gavrilovic, and Alex Ortiz, Whistleblower’s Sec Complaint: Facebook Knew Platform Was Used to “Promote Human Trafficking and Domestic Servitude”. 60 Minutes | CNBC News, Oct 4, 2021.  includes documents and other problematic aspects of Facebook’s complicity with other crimes and problematic social outcomes. See also Andrea Cipriano, Facebook Liable for Human Trafficking Connections: Court Ruling. The Crime Report, Jun 28, 2021.

Siddarth Kara, Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives. St. Martin’s Press | Amazon page, Jan 31, 2023. See summary by Terry Gross, How 'Modern-Day Slavery' in the Congo Powers the Rechargeable Battery Economy. Houston Public Media, Feb 1, 2023. “Phone and electric car batteries are made with cobalt mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Cobalt Red author Siddharth Kara describes the conditions for workers as a “horror show.””

Choe Sang-Hun, A Brutal Sex Trade Built for American Soldiers. New York Times, May 2, 2023. “It’s a long-buried part of South Korean history: women compelled by force, trickery or desperation into prostitution, with the complicity of their own leaders.”

Jordan Harbinger, Exposing The Chinese Slave Trade Nobody's Talking About | JHS Ep. 833.  The Jordan Harbinger Show, May 23, 2023.  “Nathan Paul Southern and Lindsey Kennedy are investigative journalists working to bring awareness to the growing issue of cyber-slavery in Southeast Asia facilitated by Chinese triads with links to local government and law enforcement agencies.  What exactly is cyber-sl*very? When gambling was banned in Cambodia during the early days of the pandemic, local operators quickly repurposed for online criminal activity — which rapidly spread across Southeast Asia to other gambling hubs. To remotely run their shady cyber-scams, organized criminals have enslaved thousands of people across Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar. After being lured to a physical location with bogus job offers, victims are held against their will, beaten, and tortured if they don’t make enough money — or try to escape. Chinese organized crime groups run these operations while local authorities turn a blind eye or even arrest victims who try to speak out.”

U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Massachusetts, Three Arrested for Operating High-End Brothel Network.  Nov 8, 2023. 

Steven Hassan, Human Trafficking & Cult Corruption: Exposing Opus Dei's Dark Secrets with Gareth Gore. Cult Expert - Dr. Steven Hassan, Sep 20, 2024.

“In this eye-opening episode of The Influence Continuum podcast, Steven Hassan sits down with investigative journalist Gareth Gore to uncover the shocking truths behind Opus Dei—an organization often viewed as a benign part of the Catholic Church. Gareth reveals his extensive research into the financial flows connecting Opus Dei to various initiatives worldwide, exposing a sinister network of abuse and exploitation. Discover how the corrupt organization lured vulnerable girls under false pretenses, promising education and a better life, only to trap them in a cycle of labor trafficking and psychological control. Through compelling anecdotes and critical analysis, we explore the hidden connections between Opus Dei, influential political figures, and the unsettling truth about how power and religion intertwine. This conversation challenges the perception of Opus Dei as merely a religious order and highlights the urgent need for awareness around coercion and informed consent within religious organizations.”

Ryan Grim and Emily Jashinsky, Whistleblower Exposes Sugar Daddy Website As Trafficking Front. Counterpoints | Breaking Points, Dec 6, 2024.

Benjamin Weiser, Patricia Mazzei, and Debra Kamin, Prominent Real Estate Agents and Brothers Charged With Sex Trafficking. New York Times, Dec 11, 2024. Oren and Tal Alexander, once stars of the real estate industry, had a precipitous fall after women filed lawsuits accusing them of sexual assault. Their brother Alon was also charged. An example of success and power in one field can lead to exploiting women.

Angelique Chrisafis, ‘A Rapist Can Be in the Family’: How Dominique Pelicot Became One of the Worst Sexual Predators in History. The Guardian UK, Dec 11, 2024. How he might have been caught earlier. How men cooperated.

Matt Burgess, Elon Musk’s Starlink Is Keeping Modern Slavery Compounds Online. Wired, Feb 27, 2025. “A Wired investigation reveals that criminals who make billions from scam compounds in Myanmar—where tens of thousands of people are enslaved—are using Starlink to get online.”

David Paul Kirkpatrick, Modeling Was the Machine. Epstein Was Just the Middleman. Medium, Jul 26, 2025. Glamour wasn’t a cover — it was the system. This is how elite sex trafficking operated in plain sight.

“Forget Epstein. Forget even Maxwell. If you want to understand how elite sex trafficking truly operated — not as a scandal but as a system — you start with the modeling agencies.

In the late 20th century, John Casablancas (founder of Elite Model Management) built the original model: turn teenage girls into glamorized assets. Jean-Luc Brunel took it international, founding MC2 and receiving at least $1 million from Jeffrey Epstein to expand operations. Paolo Zampolli cornered the visa angle, using U.S. immigration loopholes to bring in young foreign models — often from Eastern Europe and South America — under false pretenses.

Then came Mister Donald Trump.

In 1999, Donald Trump launched Trump Model Management. His agency followed the exact same pattern: bring girls in on tourist or “extraordinary talent” visas, overcrowd them in overpriced apartments, charge them for every service, and send them to work illegally while racking up debt they could never repay. Former models from his agency say they were instructed to lie to customs and start working immediately upon arrival.

This wasn’t theory. It was documented. The visas were real. The labor was real. THE FRAUD WAS REAL.”

Emily Baumgaertner Nunn, Can Anyone Rescue the Trafficked Girls of L.A.’s Figueroa Street? New York Times Magazine, Oct 26, 2025. Inside the effort to pull minors from ‘the Blade,’ one of the most notorious sex-trafficking corridors in the United States. In July 2020, the Los Angeles City Council decreased the LAPD budget by $150 million in response to public protests about police misconduct especially related to George Floyd. But by 2022, police budgets and funding had risen back to pre-Floyd levels in Los Angeles and many other US cities (91 of 109 analyzed). See Grace Manthey, Frank Esposito, and Amanda Hernandez, Despite ‘Defunding’ Claims, Police Funding Has Increased in Many US Cities. ABC News, Oct 16, 2022. See also Dakota Smith and David Zahniser, L.A. Cut Millions from the LAPD After George Floyd. Here’s Where That Money Is Going. Los Angeles Times, May 26, 2021. The article lists alternative community program budgets, but with no concrete outcomes listed. The United Police Fund claimed that criminals won; see United Police Fund, LAPD Officially Defunded by $150 Million; Criminals are the Winner. United Police Fund, Nov 2020.

Hafiz Rashid, ICE Agent Arrested in Sex-Trafficking Sting Told Cops: “I’m ICE, Boys”. The New Republic, Nov 19, 2025. “An employee for Immigration and Customs Enforcement was one of 16 men arrested in a sex-trafficking sting.”

Kristin Kobes du Mez, Epstein’s Web. Du Mez Connections | Substack, Nov 21, 2025.