The nonfiction The Truth About Sex Trafficking: A Survivor's Experience and What It Means for All of Us explains how traffickers in the United States easily manipulate kids and adults, why some victims are more vulnerable, why many victims protect their traffickers, how to recognize victims, and how survivors get out.

Sex traffickers target men, women and children of every race, culture, geographic location and socioeconomic status. Children are most often sold by family members or people they trust. However, traffickers also reach thousands of kids and adults through smart phones and online video games. In The Truth About Sex Trafficking, read what anti-trafficking advocates, survivors, law enforcement, mental health professionals, attorneys, forensic interviewers and others have to say about:

· The tactics of sex traffickers

· Indicators of trafficking victims

· How sexual predators use the Internet, smart phones and computers

· The link between pornography and sex trafficking

· The link between childhood sexual abuse and sex trafficking

· The role of trauma before, during and after being trafficked

· Trafficking laws in the United States

· How victims and survivors get help

This well-researched book is for young people and for adults who have kids, who know kids, or who care about kids and vulnerable adults.

After learning about the reality of human sex trafficking while working as a reporter, Melanie K. Patterson has done extensive research on sex trafficking, anti-trafficking organizations and Internet safety. She has a B.A. in Anthropology and studied History at the graduate level. She has almost twenty years of journalism experience at newspapers in Alabama and Colorado. Melanie served eight years as a U.S. Army Reserve journalist, where she completed assignments in France, El Salvador, Bosnia-Herzegovina and across the United States. Melanie lives in north Alabama with her family. Visit her at www.forgedinwords.com, www.melaniepattersonbooks.com and on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram.