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Category: Sexual Assault & Trafficking

Sex Trafficking Victims of Mark Thomas Can Seek Compensation in Civil Court

A year and a half ago, a Cherokee County police officer performed a traffic stop on a vehicle containing a man in his late 30s and an underage girl. The girl seized the opportunity and told the officer that the man, Mark Thomas, had been sex trafficking her for the past three months, starting when she was 15 years old. The investigation that followed resulted in six arrests and, so far, five convictions for sex trafficking. Thomas himself has received two life sentences. His accomplice, Ce...

Atlanta’s Sex Trafficking Problem Continues to Traumatize Youth

It’s no revelation that Atlanta has a serious problem with sex trafficking. In 2014, Urban Institute published a study examining sex trafficking in eight of the U.S’s most notorious cities. Based on their findings, Atlanta’s sex trafficking industry had expanded significantly in the previous decade, surpassing even Miami’s. Ever since these numbers came to light, Atlanta has been trying to shed its “Sex Trafficking Capital” reputation, with new anti-trafficking programs and stronger anti-t...

Georgia Has Added Human Trafficking to a Crucial List of Serious Crimes

Whether you’ve been casually following the story of bill SB-461, or you’re just now hearing about it being signed into law, you might be wondering how human trafficking could ever have been considered anything but a serious crime. Using force, deception, or other methods to coerce people into providing commercial sex or other unregulated labor is an obvious violation of human rights. The human trafficking industry ruins lives, and the fight to eliminate it has passionate bipartisan support...

Coweta County’s Human Trafficking Problem Continues

As Georgia carries on with its statewide efforts against sex trafficking, Coweta County remains a hotspot. Through multiple rounds of mass arrests, the same types of criminal operations crop up again and again. For every investigation that recovers one or two more victims, it’s safe to assume that there are many more out there, unidentified and continuing to be abused. Many have no idea that there are ways out, or ways of fighting back. A Recent Sting Ended with 26 Arrests and 1 Rescue...

Human Trafficking Victims Are Entitled to Compensation for Their Suffering and Unpaid Labor

Though it often goes unrecognized, human trafficking for the purpose of forced labor absolutely does happen in the U.S. In 2020 alone, the Department of Justice opened 663 investigations into suspected human trafficking activity, and for every confirmed case, there are likely many more yet to be discovered. Human trafficking is the use of lies, threats, violence, or other forms of coercion to force a person to work against their will or under unacceptable conditions. The coercion process o...

Minors Affected by Sex Trafficking Have a Range of Options for Collecting Compensation

Child sex trafficking is, of course, an extremely serious crime with potential prison sentences to match. What many don’t realize is that it’s also grounds for a civil lawsuit. Some survivors like the idea of suing their traffickers, while others are hesitant for a variety of reasons, from emotional complications to fear of retaliation. From a legal perspective, suing a sex trafficker directly is certainly an option, but not the most practical one. The reason is that most of these criminal...

Survivor Who Escaped from Gang-Related Sex Trafficking in Albany Can Now Sue for Compensation

In the summer of 2019, a 16-year-old girl reported to police that she had been held in forced sexual servitude by the Inglewood Family Gang, a Georgia chapter of the larger criminal organization best known as the Bloods. According to the survivor’s account, she was drugged, physically abused, and forced to have sex with multiple men to raise money for the gang over the course of two months, before she escaped and reached help. Many sex trafficking victims are instilled with so much fear of...

Young Survivors Discovered in Georgia’s Latest Sex Trafficking Bust Can Now Sue Their Exploiters for Compensation

As part of the “Operation Not Forgotten” series of sex trafficking investigations now in progress, no fewer than 20 missing minors, ranging in age from 17 years down to just six weeks, were located across Georgia this past May. Most were found in Cobb, Gwinnett, Fulton and DeKalb counties. Currently, authorities suspect that sex trafficking played a role in 16 of the 20 missing minor cases. The search was a collaborative effort between the Georgia Attorney General’s Office, the U.S. Marsha...

Victims of Underage Pornography on Reddit May Now Be Able to Sue the Site and Win

An anonymous young woman has recently filed a potentially ground-breaking lawsuit against the self-proclaimed “front page of the internet,” Reddit. In her claim, she states that her ex-boyfriend has repeatedly posted images and videos of her engaged in sexual acts, taken when she was 16 and without her knowledge or consent, on various subreddits that allegedly encourage such content. She says she repeatedly reported the content to Reddit, which often took several days to respond, allowed the ...

Sex Trafficking Sting at Fayette County Hotels Ends in 21 Arrests, but Many May Be Victims

Over the course of two nights at the end of last month, undercover police officers responded to prostitution advertisements and set up meetings at two hotels in Fayette County, one in Peachtree City and one in Fayetteville, as part of a coordinated human trafficking sting. Of the 21 women and men arrested in the sting, however, only four are suspected of pimping. Of the rest, 16 are being held only on prostitution and drug possession charges, and one on charges of prostitution and identity...