What types of human trafficking crimes are being committed here in the United States? Who are the victims of traffickers? How do we all unknowingly consume the services and products of slavery? And why are human traffickers able to maintain their illicit operations with relative impunity--indeed, with less than .01 percent of human traffickers ever being held accountable for their crimes?
Hidden in Plain Sight: America's Slaves of the New Millennium documents how human trafficking and its byproducts touch every community in America, from impoverished inner-city neighborhoods to middle-class suburbs and alcoves of wealthy estates. It presents information derived from narrative accounts of real-life trafficking cases, interviews with convicted human traffickers, empirical research, and criminal case files to expose the grim realities of human trafficking in America, perpetrated by Americans.
Readers will grasp the origins, evolution, and extent of the problem; understand how trafficking plays an unrecognized role in our day-to-day lives; and see why advancements in awareness and anti-trafficking resources have not changed the status quo. The victims of trafficking continue to be criminalized by law enforcement, and the offenders continue to exploit and profit from new recruits. This book equips readers with the knowledge needed to identify human trafficking cases and advocate for policy changes to end this scourge in America.
Dr. Kimberly Mehlman-Orozco is an accomplished survey methodologist, research scientist, and quantitative & qualitative consultant on issues related to human trafficking. She is one of the few researchers with a background to qualify as an expert witness and subject matter expert on human trafficking in criminal and civil court. Her work is published in books, peer reviewed journals, magazines, and news outlets. She has served as a peer reviewer for human trafficking publications and taught human trafficking material at the #1 ranked criminology school in the country, University of Maryland College Park.
"Unfortunately, every single American has used, consumed, worn, and purchased products of slavery at multiple points throughout their life."
That's not something one wants to think about but we, as society, also do not want to think about mail order brides, child sex tourism, adult sex tourism, indentured servants, human trafficking, forced labor and sex slaves. Not fun subjects, but the reality is, these subject affects all of us.
Here is a fact: "When people eat chocolate, they are eating my flesh" -Drissa, Freed Cocoa slave.
**When you purchase chocolate it, it may have come from a reputable well-known chocolate manufacturer.... but have you ever thought about where they get the chocolate? I never did!
This book is a sobering and sad look at all kinds of slaves - both sexual and non-sexual. How people are tricked, sold, conned and manipulated into lives they never would have chosen for themselves. How traffickers are getting away with horrific acts and accountability is low, with less than .01 percent of human traffickers ever being held accountable.
"A cunning individual is very capable of making another person believe that he or she is in control, concealing their intentions until they lead the person to the edge of the cliff." -Serge Petrov, convicted human trafficker
Most of us would like to think we are untouched but these things are happening in our communities. Indentured slaves may be working in the nail salon you frequent, that young person coming to your door, may be working off a debt for coming to this country. Your neighbor may frequent a happy endings massage parlor. I could go on and on. Depravity is alive and well out there. It is one thing when consenting adults are involved. I'm all for letting your freak fly, but what happens when one party is a slave? When one is forced, when one is injured, when one has no way out, when one is drugged, when one is a minor, what about then?
This book is extremely well researched and written. The writing may be disturbing to some but keep in mind this is no fairy tale. Most people know and do not care that they are having sex with a person who has been forced into the sex trade. United States Secret Service agents got in trouble a couple of years ago in another country for soliciting sex. Military personnel have been caught engaging in sexual activities with sex slaves in brothels overseas. People travel to countries such as Indonesia to have sex with minors. It's not just American's doing this. The book focuses on what happens in American and what Americans are doing, but it is obvious that these brothels in other countries are being frequented by those from around the world.
"Anyone know which country I can buy a sex slave from, or go to fuck one who will do absolutely anything I command her to do?" -Anonymous Commercial Sex Consumer, Philadelphia
Human trafficking is alive and well. It does in fact happen in plain sight and sadly, the punishments are not severe enough to deter many. This book will be in your face about some of the harsh realities of life. We would all like to live in a bubble where bad things do not happen, but sadly bad things do happen. Very terrible things. I learned a lot and was surprised at some things especially about the chocolate. Some things did not surprise me. Education is the start to changing things, maybe if we all educate ourselves and demand change things will change. The Lorax (via Dr. Seuss) said it best "Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not."
Thank you to ABC-Cilo Praeger and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Hidden in Plain Sight is a book to be read by everyone. It highlights areas of human trafficking occurring in nail salons to sex tourism overseas. The title of this book says it all. Right before our eyes at the places we visit often, maybe every day. Kimberly Mehlman-Orozco does a thorough job of taking the reader to the many areas where trafficking is taking place with examples and actual candid conversations. At the beginning when she describes a young girl selling cleaning products door to door made me think twice about the young man who approached me in the grocery store parking lot selling magazines. I have gained a broader understanding of what human trafficking looks like. Also, who and how people are seduced into trafficking. It’s an exhausting and frustrating effort for law enforcement to enforce and prosecute.
I recently moved from Washington state to Nevada. When I was in WA, I heard a lecture on human trafficking, my interest was piqued. How could that be an issue in my small town? Wow, my eyes were blown wide open. There are a lot of migrant workers in the orchards. Human trafficking? Absolutely.
When I went to change my drivers license, while I was waiting I noticed an add on the TV for Truckers Against Trafficking. The word is getting out there and everyday people are being made aware to report suspected activity and save lives. Hidden in Plain Sight is an important book to bring awareness to readers.
I thank Kimberly Mehlman-Orozco for the meticulous research to bring the issue of human trafficking to light. I also thank the publisher Praeger and NetGalley.
Many thanks go to Kimberly Mehlman-Orozco, Praeger Publishing, and Netgalley for the free copy of this book in exchange for my unbiased review.
I dont know how I feel about this. According to the author everything we touch, eat, wear, and see is affected by labor trafficking. I’m sick. Can't go shopping, can't eat fast food, can't play sports, can't buy chocolate-nothing is sacred. This was a very depressing book. It covers both labor and sex trafficking. And this author, who has done graduate-level course work in this field goes way overboard studying this issue and sees it everywhere she looks. She's practically paranoid. At least that's how it comes across. I'm not denying this happens, and I believe her when she says,"the factionalized narrative of an innocent victim who is kidnapped and forcefully held against her will is not the reality...". But I also don't think that every lawn service I see is hiding all of its employees in a rusty trailer or that every man serving in high level military positions in foreign countries take whores to hotel rooms. There is too much generalization. First sign one may be going to far in a study: when you are being accused too. Maybe take a hint to back off a bit. The best feature of the book is the glossary in the back. So many terms and abbreviations are used , it was refreshing to look for a meaning otherwise I would have no clue what the author was talking about. I'm glad I read this book because now I'm more aware of this problem, but I'm just freaked out by the authors approach.
This is a book about a topical issue that is very relevant. Human trafficking is not considered just a crime now but it’s classified as an INDUSTRY! How messed up is that?
The book is well researched. At times it reads a bit dry like a textbook but that is understandable as ……… also teaches at the community college.
I was in the bookstore when I saw the writer w/her table of books set up. To be honest, I dismissed it until I happened to be standing near by & heard her discussing the book w/another customer. She was explaining some of the examples she sited in her book about the businesses that support human trafficking. That got my attention.
First, because she said it was happening in our area. (something I never thought about. You just assume it happens in big cities not suburbs) Second, because of the types of businesses she mentioned. (nail salons, beauty shops) Who knew?
I think this is a disturbing subject matter but important to read about so we can be more aware. Of course, I don’t have a solution. But perhaps, there may be little things I could do to help ease the situation & help not propagate it further. There are organizations/ways listed in the book to help. It also made me do further research online.
I have worked with survivors of human trafficking on the services side for over five years and still struggled to make sense of how it happens and why it happens and what our government does and doesn't do about it. Until now. Mehlman-Orozco fills in in the gaps on this domestic epidemic that we have got to get a handle on. Hidden in Plain Sight is a gripping and compelling look at the underworld of human trafficking. This human rights epidemic is worth educating yourself on, and this book is an engaging, efficient way to do so.
Very well written and researched. I'd have never thought that kids that go door-to-door selling might be subjects of human trafficking. This book opened my eyes to different forms of human trafficking (some I knew). The saddest part is that the perpetrators rarely get convicted or get convicted for a very short time.
The book is easy to read.I wonder if this was the author's dissertation turned into a book? Very well done.
Got this from netgalley in exchange for an honest review... Enlightening book about a serious problem around the world. Extremely well researched, and organized particularly effectively.
This was a strong read. I remember a few years ago modern slavery was in the "wind". Making the public more aware of how workers were exploited and not payed their shares of the sold goods. I was helping giving out samples of fairtrade coffee during my confirmation year, but years later it seems we have gotten tired of hearing about this. This book is a reminder that slavery still exist, even though we do not hear about it in the media that much any more. I liked reading this book as it gave a view into a world I never considered as real to be honest. I love that we have researchers exploiting these problems and then publishing accessible books. I know there probably exist a lot of research on this tema, but mostly research is written for other researchers, in the language they understand and talk in. This book is written so that it is accessible for the everyday person. The thing I found bad about this book was that it made it seem that only women are exploited for sex and men for work. It shone a light on the fact that children of both sexes are exploited. I miss the information about women who exploit men for sex, and women for work. I felt the book fell a little short on this. Both sexes can be victims, and both sexes can be exploiters..
*Copy provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*
Intriguing look at modern human trafficking victims, their abusers and customers.
Hidden in Plain Sight addresses the many ways to exploit humans to make money. It includes those forced into prostitution, paid little for domestic work or to work on produce and cocoa farms, and coerced into solicitation crews.
Sexual victims are typically not kidnapped but instead coerced by the trafficker (aka pimp) to join his stable. The pimp provides for basic human needs for the victim. If the victim is poor, the pimp provides food, shelter and safety. If the victim is middle class, he provides love and emotional support. Both stop if the victim balks at the idea of prostituting herself. Then the violence and possibly threats to family members begin. There is little risk to the pimp as the book cites statistics of less than 0.01% of traffickers are caught. Even those caught usually plead their crimes down to misdemeanors with little jail time. The victims are typically criminalized and jailed because it is difficult for police to differentiate between voluntary and forced prostitution especially if the victim doesn’t go to the police as soon as possible.
Domestic and agricultural workers are typically brought into the United States under a work visa but sometimes smuggled into the country from third-world countries. They are assessed both transportation and paperwork fees in the thousands of dollars. Their passports, visas and other paperwork are held by the trafficker. The workers are paid less than agreed upon before deciding to leave their home country partly to pay off the cost of their arrival but also because they have little recourse to argue the point. Many domestic workers are paid nothing to be on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week. All have little to no chance to escape their indentured servitude.
Solicitation crews victimize young people typically 18-24 years of age. The crews sell the trafficker’s products door-to-door, often for more than 12 hours a day. Not meeting their daily quota results in beatings. The crews are charged for their appalling room and board. The trafficker moves the crew every two weeks from state-to-state to remove the victims’ social network that may allow them to escape.
The author, a PHD in criminology with an emphasis in human trafficking, researched websites where human traffickers meet and describe their exploits. There are many fascinating quotes from pimps, other traffickers, victims, and customers. There is even an appendix that defines the terms they use. It is amazing how much hurt can be done in the name of money or sexual pleasure.
Hidden in Plain Sight is an enlightening read that will open most reader’s eyes to what is just under the surface of their middle class life. As the writer describes, most people have either seen human trafficking victims without even realizing it or used the product of their labor. 4 stars!
Thanks to the publisher, Praeger, and netgalley for an advanced review copy. This book will be published on October 31, 2017.
Hidden in Plain Sight: America's Slaves of the New Millenium is a real eye opener. There is so much information on the victims, the criminals, the consumers, and the part of the legislation and law enforcement that deals with these various elements. As citizens, we need to be better informed, ask questions from our representatives, and put pressure on them to introduce legislation that would really help the victims of human trafficking and enslaved workers. Above all though, we are responsible to keep an eye on our children, teach them what's right and wrong, support them and listen to them when they feel sad or insecure. Do not let them become the next victims of gangs that will sell them into prostitution.
This was a well researched discussion on human trafficking. The author was knowledgeable and provided substantial back up documentation and reference to all the different aspects of human trafficking. The information presented was quite disturbing and I was left with a feeling of helplessness about what can be done about this issue. There seems to be no effective way to disrupt the vast system of human trafficking in the world today. Lots of information presented but no solutions.
Why are we not calling it SLAVERY? Why fight it, why not go back to the rules ancient rules written in the book everyone professes to follow? Yeah that one called the HOLY BIBLE. If it is the word of GOD why are you not following the WORD? Just picking and choosing…. Right but guess what changing the words to make it sound more… modern has only shown by hiding it you have caused filth, drugged induced, violence… on and on against the thousand of years of world history because you know better.
While the book did a good job detailing the different sorta of trafficking that can occur, it read like an expanded upon thesis paper. I do appreciate the author's devotion to ending the exploitation of the many unseen victims.
Judging by the latest news stories and popular headlines, human trafficking is a 21st century phenomenon. However, it is not new. The neoteric volume of stories and the realization that human trafficking is perpetuated by superficial desires begs for a solution. What is the answer? Where do we begin to prevail against this modern form of slavery?
Enter Dr. Kimberly Mehlman-Orozco, a Ph.D. from George Mason University, and Hidden In Plain Sight. Cleverly revealing the clandestine world of trading in human lives, she offers insight into the current realities of situation all Americans unwittingly perpetuate.
She passionately implores us to take off our rose-colored glasses and begin to look into the malevolent eyes of those trading in human lives. We must become abolitionists and effectuate change!
Intensely researched and skillfully executed, the contents of Hidden In Plain Sight took me behind the curtain of a disturbing trend. In this disquisition of a sensationalized topic, each argument is supported by personal accounts, primary court documents, peer-review research, quotes from online forums, and detailed explanations of the how, who, why, where, and types of human trafficking.
For example, while most news channels incite outrage for child and teen sex trafficking victims, the emotional devastation wrought by the tsunami of labor trafficking rendered me speechless. Dr. Mehlman-Orozco lifted the veil and showed me that this issue is literally in my backyard.
Read Hidden In Plain Sight and you will get a good handle on the issues surrounding the two avenues of human trafficking.
Material Disclosure: I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
So this book is about trafficking, in all its many twisted forms. This is actually a topic that I am familiar with and have research in the past. I have seen several documentaries on the topic also, but there were definitely topics in here that were totally new to me as well.
From child exploitation, to commercial sex tourism, to door to door labor trafficking, to Backpage.com and immigrant exploitation, this author really covered the whole gamut of ways and means that people are exploited in countries all throughout the world.
One of the most interesting sections for me was the Backpage.com section, as it really changed my point of view on this topic. I saw a documentary about this, and it was before BP had decided to shut down their Adult ads section, and they were very much for having it closed down. The author's point was very interesting, in that BP and Craigslist before it were good resources for the authorities and a way to have access to save possible victims. Shutting down these websites does NOT end exploitation of women and children, it just pushes it further into the dark. The more light the better!
All in all a tough read, as I could sense the despondency of the author in knowing what a HUGE issue this is, and how far we have to go in being able to combat it effectively. A really important read and a good education on giving people different perspectives on what the eat, buy and wear, and what services they use (and how that may be impacting people negatively on the other side of the world).
This is an eye opening book about trafficking daily in many places and forms you would never think about. What about the nail salons, the door to door sales girl. So many people are inslaved and we don’t realize it. This book made me think about the many people we walk past each day and to take a second look.
Excellent, informative treatise. I highly recommend it. Must read for students of criminal justice, law enforcement departments, district attorneys, etc.