If you’re a member of a book club that reads non-fiction then books on child sex trafficking may make excellent recommendations for your group to read. If your group normally only reads fiction, you might suggest doing an annual non-fiction book on a human rights subject or other global issue. Don’t be discouraged if your fiction-only group declines this proposition, many book clubs have firm guidelines on what can be suggested and what cannot be suggested.
If you’re not a member of a book club, you might be interested in joining one or starting one up. You can use social media to reach out to people already in your personal network, or websites like readerscircle.org, goodreads.com, or meetup.com to find new friends and like-minded individuals. There’s also no reason why you can’t simply read these books on your own and use the discussion questions to provoke your own introspection and reflection on the reading.
Category: CSEC
Girls Like Us
Fighting for a World Where Girls Are Not for Sale, an Activist Finds Her Calling and Heals Herself
Rachel Lloyd grew up in England but had to flee her home while just thirteen due to an alcoholic and abusive mother. Not too long after she found herself working in a strip club in Germany, handing all of her earnings over to a drug-addicted and abusive ‘boyfriend’. After a suicide attempt, and with the help of a local church community, she found the strength to break free of her pimp and her old life. She moved to New York City, earned her GED and won full scholarships to college and a graduate program, and since 1998 has been the Executive Director of the Girls Education and Mentoring Services (GEMS) in New York City, a non-profit that is now one of the largest providers of services to commercially sexually exploited and domestically trafficked youth in the US. 277 pages.
Click here for a list of discussion questions (coming soon).
GEMS Website
Somebody’s Daughter
The Hidden Story of America’s Prostituted Children and the Battle to Save Them
Julian Sher takes you behind the scenes to expose one of America’s most underreported crimes, child sex trafficking. This anthology of life-experience contains the real life stories of a girl from New Jersey who 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 who has the courage to take the stand in a grueling trial that sends her pimp away for 75 years, and survivors of the sex trade in New York, Phoenix, and Minneapolis who 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. 352 pages.
Click here for a list of discussion questions (coming soon).
Renting Lacy
A Story Of America’s Prostituted Children (A Call to Action)
Author Linda Smith brings to life characters based on real stories and interviews with teen survivors, revealing the underbelly of our country’s commercial sex trade. Get to know the men who sell them, and the ones who buy them. Let Renting Lacy draw you into the lives of these young girls as they struggle to survive each night, watching their childhood hopes and dreams slip away in the darkness. 168 pages.
Click here for a list of discussion questions (coming soon).
God in a Brothel
An Undercover Journey into Sex Trafficking and Rescue
Daniel Walker, an undercover investigator in New Zealand, details his experiences in infiltrating the illegal underground sex industry. He freed many hundreds of victims of child sex trafficking and aided in the prosecution of dozens of perpetrators. 320 pages.
Click here for a list of discussion questions (coming soon).
Sold, by Patricia McCormick, 263 pages
The Road of Lost Innocence: The True Story of a Cambodian Heroine, by Somali Mam, 224 pgs
Children and the Battle to Save Them, by Julian Sher, 352 pgs
Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide,by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, 320 pgs
The Slave Next Door: Human Trafficking and Slavery in America Today, by Kevin Bales and Ron Soodalter, 336 pgs
Not for Sale: The Return of the Global Slave Trade – and How We Can Fight It, by David Batstone, 304 pgs
Sex Trafficking: Inside the Business of Modern Slavery, by Siddharth Kara, 320 pgs
The Slave Across the Street, by Theresa Flores and Peggy Sue Wells, 160 pgs
Trafficked: The Diary of a Sex Slave, by Sibel Hodge, 96 pgs
The Johns: Sex for Sale and the Men Who Buy It, by Victor Malarek, 320 pgs
In Our Backyard: A Christian Perspective on Human Trafficking in the United States, by Nita Belles, 192 pgs
Escaping the Devil’s Bedroom: Sex Trafficking, Global Prostitution, and the Gospel’s Transforming Power, by Dawn Herzog Jewell, 192 pgs
Runaway Girl: Escaping Life on the Streets, One Helping Hand at a Time, by Carissa Phelps, 320 pgs
Sex Trafficking: The Global Market in Women and Children (Contemporary Social Issues), by Kathryn Farr, 262 pgs
Terrify No More: Young Girls Held Captive and the Daring Undercover Operation to Win Their Freedom, by Gary Haugen, 264 pgs
Slave Hunter: One Man’s Global Quest to Free Victims of Human Trafficking, by Aaron Cohen, 336 pgs
Not in My Town: Exposing and Ending Human Trafficking and Modern-Day Slavery, by Dillon Burroughs, 192 pgs
Forgotten Girls: Stories of Hope and Courage, by Kay Strom and Michele Rickett, 175 pgs
Daughters: The Heartbreak of Human Trafficking, 114 pgs
The Natashas: The Horrific Inside Story of Slavery, Rape, and Murder in the Global Sex Trade, 320 pgs
Enslaved: True Stories of Modern Day Slavery, 240 pages
Category: Human Trafficking
Ending Slavery: How We Free Today’s Slaves, by Keven Bales, 274 pgs
A Crime So Monstrous: Face-to-Face with Modern-Day Slavery, 352 pgs
Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global Economy, by Kevin Bales , 324 pgs
Human Trafficking: A Global Perspective, by Louise Shelley, 356 pgs
The War on Human Trafficking: U.S. Policy Assessed, by Anthony DeStefano, 208 pgs
Category: CSEC, Documentary
What I’ve Been Through Is Not Who I am (2011, 22 mins)
Bought & Sold: An Investigative Documentary About the International Trade in Women (2009, 42 mins)
Born Into Brothels (2004, 83 mins)
20/20: Prostitution in America – The Working Girls Speak (2008, 83 mins)
ABC News Primetime Sex Trafficking in America (2007)
Category: Human Trafficking, Documentary
ABC News Nightline Stolen Childhood (2007, 22 mins)
Not For Sale Parts 1 & 2 (2011, 117 mins)
Category: Fiction
Holly (2010)
Trade (2009)
Taken (2009)
Human Trafficking (2006)
Category: Human Trafficking, Drama
Whistleblower (2010, 122 mins)