Theresa Flores, “The Slave Across the Street”

Women and Adversity: Theresa Flores and

human  trafficking

Most people don’t understand human trafficking. Theresa Flores tells her story in “The Slave Across the Street.” As a 15-year old in Birmingham, Michigan, she unknowingly became a sex slave. At amazon.com, the intro to the book tells of how Theresa moved to a new school and was flattered when an older boy, Daniel, offered to take her home. He didn’t take her home. Instead, she became a sex slave for two years. Daniel, it turned out, was a criminal. Read a blurb about the book at http://www.amazon.com/Slave-Across-Street-Harrowing-15-year-old/dp/0099588137/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1446073314&sr=8-2&keywords=theresa+flores.

At http://www.traffickingresourcecenter.org, the term is defined as a crime when a trafficker uses force, fraud or coercion to control another person for the purpose of engaging in commercial sex acts or soliciting labor or services against his/her will.

At http://www.polarisproject.org/human-trafficking/overview it states in the United States, sex trafficking commonly occurs in online escort services, residential brothels, brothels disguised as massage businesses or spas, and in street prostitution. Labor trafficking has been found in domestic servitude situations, as well as sales crews, large farms, restaurants, carnivals, and more.