Human Trafficking

Pimp Beat 14-Year-Old Prostitute For Failing To Bring In Enough Cash

You hear about pimps and underage girls, but they rarely seem to come out of the shadows. This week the LAPD was shining a spotlight on the war against sex trafficking. Cops say Charles Bland, a 26-year-old from Lancaster, used social media to recruit a teenager before abusing, assaulting and pimpi ... More >>

Teen Prostitution Finds Home Under L.A. Government's Watch

Sex trafficking is a major scourge that has become a top issue for L.A. County leaders, who supported a state ballot initiative that will increase penalties for pimps and other miscreants who coerce people for the skin trade. But it turns out that a key source of victims for sex traffickers is righ ... More >>

Landslide Victory for Proposition 35 to Increase Sex Trafficking Penalties

California voters have approved Proposition 35, to increase penalties for human trafficking convictions, by wide margins, according to the Associated Press.

Sex Trafficking Sweep Rescues 79 Children Nationwide, 5 in L.A.

Sex trafficking is a huge national story with little evidence that it's as pervasive as some of its critics say. But today the FBI came up with a solid case that minors are indeed being prostituted across America, including the "recovery" of 79 children and the arrests of 104 alleged pimps. The L. ... More >>

Sex Trafficking Law Heads to California Ballot For Your Vote in Novemeber

Backers of the CASE Act, a needless but popular proposal to fight sex trafficking (because no one ever gets arrested for that in California) declared this week that they have qualified for the November ballot: The CASE folks turned in enough signatures this spring to make the grade. Look, we don't ... More >>

Ashton Kutcher Is A Philandering, Racist Toolbag? VIDEO

Ashton Kutcher is a true moralist who has made no secret of his distaste for sex traffickers, adult classified advertising, and men who employ prostitutes (U.S. Secret Service agents be damned). He even launched an ad campaign called "Real Men Don't Buy Girls." Then he allegedly cheated on his wif ... More >>

Roshaun Kevin Porter Pimped Out Women He Met on Craigslist For Dates, FBI Says

A Long Beach man met women on Craigslist and forced them into prostitution, federal authorities alleged today. Roshaun "Kevin" Nakia Porter, 36, was indicted last week after five women told agents they met him on Craigslist or seekingarrangements.com thinking they were headed for a romantic one-on- ... More >>

Sex Trafficking Law Appears to Get Enough Signatures For California's November Ballot

Backers of a sex trafficking law say they have turned in enough signatures to put the initiative before voters in November. Organizers of the Californians Against Sexual Exploitation Act said today they turned in 865,000 signatures to the Secretary of State. The law would ...

The Super Bowl Prostitution Hoax

Indianapolis mobilizes for an epic battle with an urban legend

Teen Sex Trade Targeted by L.A. County Officials, State Ballot Initiative

This week L.A. County leader Don Knabe noted that a vast majority of the area's child prostitution cases (84 percent) are happening in his Long Beach-South Bay supervisorial district. He thinks the numbers are underreported, and he has asked the county probation department for a report. At the same ... More >>

VILLAGE VOICE MEDIA ASKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT OF SENATE BILL 596

Lost Boys

New research demolishes the stereotype of the underage sex worker — and sparks an outbreak of denial among child-sex-trafficking alarmists nationwide

Teen Prostitute From Southern California Found Working Tijuana Streets

Nathan GibbsA woman in Tijuana's Zona Norte.​As we've noted, it's sweeps time for TV news in L.A. So you can expect a lot of typically sensational reporting (CBS2 found a city worker buying alcohol before heading to the mayor's house, for example). NBC Los Angeles' look into Tijuana prostitut ... More >>

Sex Worker Billboards by Group That Wants to Decriminalize Prostitution Roaming Streets of L.A.

'Sex and Zen'​You might call them victims or exploited, but a pro-sex-worker group founded in L.A. wants you to know pros are in control of their own bodies. And it's doing so with mobile billboards that are being driven around town this week. The group, SWAAY (Sex Work Activists, Allies, and ... More >>

Ashton Kutcher: Do Real Men Cheat on Their Wives?

Following revelations that Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore might be splitting up as a result of an alleged rendezvous on the part of the young Two and a Half Men star at a San Diego hotel last weekend, we have to ask, do real men cheat on their wives with a 23-year-old woman? You see, this was bound ... More >>

Samuel Martinez Gonzalez Charged With The Sex Trafficking of Underage Teenage Girls in Orange County

One PSA's claim about sex trafficking.​Recent stats about a wave of sex trafficking in the United States have come across as far-fetched if not overblown. But on Monday federal authorities said they caught a man with three teen girls -- including a 15- and 16-year-old -- from Texas that he al ... More >>

Ashton Kutcher Alert: LAPD to Screen Sex Trafficking Documentary

Ashton's cause.​Paparazzi should be on alert. Because this is the kind of thing we think Ashton Kutcher -- adamant in his disgust over sex trafficking -- would really want to check out. The LAPD, strangely, is trumpeting a screening of a sex trafficking documentary called FLESH, Bought & Sold ... More >>

Daphna Edwards Ziman, NY Times Bestselling Author of The Gray Zone: Our 'Ask the Author' Interview

Ziman's first novel, The Gray Zone, published by Greenleaf Book Group Press in June 2011.​ Local author Daphna Edwards Ziman garnered a lot of attention for socially aware novel The Gray Zone, which chronicled the fate of kids put in the American foster care system via a fast-paced thriller o ... More >>

The Whistleblower Review

Underage Sex Trafficking: Don't Get Your Facts From Ashton Kutcher

True. But they also get their facts straight.​No one, save for sickos, thinks underage sex trafficking is a good thing. But contrary to what you might've heard from Ashton Kutcher's latest media blitz, there are not 100,000 to 300,000 children in America becoming prostitutes every year. How ... More >>

Book Review: Tomatoland , A Tale Of Tasteless Tomatoes, Toxic Chemicals And Slavery

​Forewarning: If you ever want to buy a grocery store tomato again, you should not read this review. Tomatoland by Barry Estrabrook is a contrasting story of McMansions and crumbling shacks, the bright red, beauty pageant-worthy orbs on your $8 Angus burger versus the fruit sprayed with so ma ... More >>

Ashton Kutcher, Demi Moore Criticized For Sex Trafficking PSA Campaign

Sofia Vergara promotes 'real men.'​The Demi and Ashton Foundation came under fire this week for, well, trying to do good. Because we all know Fox News hates do-gooders. Actually, what happened was that Norma Ramos, director of the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women, told the network that ... More >>

Sex Trafficking System From Mexico Using Teen Girls, Residential Brothels, Sophisticated Payment Reported (But We're Doubtful)

Underground brothels in L.A?​Lots of overblown hype about sex trafficking in America. Much of it is seriously debunkable. On Monday the Los Angeles-based Catholic Online website was touting a report of a new form of sex trafficking reaching the United States from Mexico. In this particular s ... More >>

Wall of Shame

CNN, USA Today, and other media organizations got fooled

Super Bowling for Dollars

The great American game is another chance to foist false research on a gullible media

Women's Funding Network Sex Trafficking Study Is Junk Science

Schapiro Group data wasn't questioned by mainstream media

Missing 17-Year-Old, Cocaine, $100,000 In Cash Allegedly Found By LAPD During Raid Of L.A.'s Club 907 Downtown

Laurie Avocado via FlickrClub 907, in the dark.​Turns out that raid of a downtown hostess club over the weekend was kind of a big deal. The LAPD late Wednesday released some of the seedier allegations that resulted from the bust, including the seizure of drugs, the discovery of a 17-year-old ... More >>

Krystina Cordasco, Missing 14-Year-Old Feared Used By Pimp, Found Safe: Police Say There Could Be Other Victims Of Suspect Leroy Bragg

Krystina Cordasco was found safe.​Police on Monday said a missing 14-year-old believed to have been used by an alleged pimp was found safe, but that he could have put dozens of others of teenage girls on the streets is Southern California. Los Angeles police Capt. Ann Young called the victims ... More >>

Leroy Bragg, Alleged Hawthorne Pimp Accused Of Using 13-Year-Old, May Be Linked To Teen Trafficking Ring And Missing Krystina Cordasco

Daily BreezeKrystina Cordasco.​Updated after the jump with suspect's plea. Originally posted at 3:59 p.m. Authorities say Leroy Bragg is a pimp of the worst kind -- a man who allegedly put a 13-year-old girl on the streets of the Los Angeles area to sell her body for his benefit. Now police fear ... More >>

Man Gets 17 Years For Using MySpace To Lure, Pimp 17-Year-Old

​A man who met a 17-year-old on MySpace and promised to make her a star by bringing her to Southern California was sentenced Thursday to 17-and-a-half years behind bars for pimping her and another underage girl, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles. Authorities say that Washi ... More >>

City Declares May 30 'Ronnie James Dio Day'

Dio and the devil horns.​The Los Angeles City Council has officially declared May 30 Ronnie James Dio Day. The announcement was made at Sunday's public memorial service for the recently deceased, eternally awesome metal singer. Event MC Eddie Trunk, the host of VH1 Classic's That Metal Show, ... More >>

HEAVY TRAFFIC

Enslaved in Suburbia: Inside the World of Trafficked Indentured Servants and the Visa Violators Who Care for Our Old

Two women, two fractured American dreams

Aaron Cohen: Sex Slaves, Drug Trade and Rock n' Roll

In his quest to free slaves around the world, Aaron Cohen thought he’d seen it all. Then he went to Myanmar.

Freed Sex Slave Caught in Legal Bind

Looking for Schwarzenegger pardon to save trafficking victim–turned–counselor Maria Suarez from deportation

Sex and Gambling on the Polite Screen

BBC America and Lifetime get ambitious and tackle sin