Cambodia compared to America

Before reading The Road of Lost Innocence I truly didn't know much about sex trafficking or even prostitution for that matter. All that I really knew was that it was a horrible thing and I never thought sex trafficking was such a big deal in America. Whenever a subject like this was brought up it was usually always talking about it occurring in a different country. So I was doing some research about what is going on here in America and found some interesting things.

In many ways the same things are occurring in both countries. The average age of girls going into sex slavery is between 12 and 14. Many of the girls in the U.S. meet a guy who then convinces them that life with him would be much better than their life now. This is where the sex trafficking begins, unlike in The Road of Lost Innocence where they are enslaved because they must pay off a debt. In both Cambodia and America, there are manipulative men who find these girls and do horrible things to them that will change their life forever. The lasting effects these situations have on the girls, are incomprehensible, and the girls will never feel the same or even trust anyone again.

I found this article interesting. Its by a woman who went through this as well, and she hits on a lot of the topics we talked about while reading The Road of Lost Innocence, for example addressing why they just didn't escape.

http://www.womensfundingnetwork.org/resource/past-articles/enslaved-in-america-sex-trafficking-in-the-united-states