The Hidden Story of America's Prostituted Children and the Battle to Save Them
by Julian Sher
Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Jan 2011
352 pages
Genre: History, Current Affairs and Religion
Publication Information
They are America's forgotten children, the hundreds of thousands of child prostitutes who walk the Las Vegas Strip, the casinos of Atlantic City, the truck stops on interstates, and the street corners of our cities. Many people wrongly believe sex trafficking involves young women from foreign lands. In reality, the majority of teens caught in the sex trade are American girls--runaways and throwaways who become victims of ruthless pimps.
In Somebody's Daughter: The Hidden Story of America's Prostituted Children and the Battle to Save Them, meet the girls who are fighting for their dignity, the cops who are trying to rescue them, and the community activists battling to protect the nation's most forsaken children. Author Julian Sher takes you behind the scenes to expose one of America's most underreported crimes: A girl from New Jersey gets arrested in Las Vegas and, at great risk to her own life, helps the FBI take down a million-dollar pimping empire. An abused teenager in Texas has the courage to take the stand in a grueling trial that sends her pimp away for 75 years. Survivors of the sex trade in New York, Phoenix, and Minneapolis set up shelters and rescue centers that offer young girls a chance to break free from the streets. ?The sex trade is the new drug trade," says one FBI special agent, and Somebody's Daughter is a call to action, shining a light on America's dirty little secret.
"The sex trade is the new drug trade," writes Sher, who draws attention to the 300,000 American minors trafficked and prostituted each year in his thorough, deeply affecting study." - Publishers Weekly
"Sher takes on the story of teen prostitution in the U.S. by primarily focusing on three cities, Las Vegas, Atlantic City, and Dallas....Sher clearly has a great deal of empathy for his interview subjects, and is at his most gripping when writing about their decisions to stand up against former pimps. He also writes in detail about the glamorized pimp image and how it has flooded pop culture." - Booklist
"Masterful, absorbing ... To date the most definitive account of sex trafficking of children in the United States and the culture that supports it." - Norma Ramos, executive director, Coalition Against Trafficking of Women
"Parents every day suffer the anxiety and sorrow of a daughter or son who has run away or is missing. There are few books as well written, insightful, and motivating as Somebody's Daughter. Julian Sher, in his extraordinarily masterful manner, has brought out the truth of this well-organized, underrecognized and continuously growing threat to children in America." - Dr. Sharon W. Cooper, consultant, National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
"[A] powerful and compelling book ... as riveting and disturbing as this book is, it is also uplifting and hopeful. [Sher] showcases some modern-day heroes whose courageous efforts are rescuing kids and bringing those who prey upon them to justice. It is inspiring. We need more such heroes." - Ernie Allen, president & CEO, National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
"Compulsively readable account . . . that elevates a collection of horrifying statistics into a cinematic, fully dimensional story." - Bust
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