Book Review: Walking prey: How America’s youth are vulnerable to sex slavery

• DOI: 10.1177/0734016814543351
• Published date: 01 December 2014
• Date: 01 December 2014
• Author: Chyna N. Crawford
• Subject Matter: Book Reviews

Book Reviews

Book Reviews

Smith, H. A. (2014).

Walking prey: How America’s youth are vulnerable to sex slavery. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan. 256 pp. $27.00

(Hardcover), ISBN 978-1137278739.

Reviewed by: Chyna N. Crawford, Prairie View A & M University, Prairie View, TX, USA

DOI: 10.1177/0734016814543351

Holly Austin Smith, an advocate for human trafficking victims, has released her first book. It is

entitled, Walking Prey: How America’s Youth Are Vulnerable to Sex Slavery. In this work, the author

provides readers a glimpse into the world domestic sex trafficking. As a survivor of sex trafficking,

Smith is in a unique position to effectively address what too many Americans are willing to ignore:

That sex trafficking is very much alive in contemporary America. Her account analyzes the social

circumstances that make American children vulnerable to sexual exploitation, exposes current

weaknesses in treatment for and of victims, debunks myths about child sex trafficking, and provides

advice for adults who seek to address with this serious and all too often covert problem.

Throughout, Smith uses her own experience as a 14-year-old trafficking victim in Atlantic City as

a backdrop to discuss key definitions, risk factors, the process of being trafficked, polices, programs,

and prevention. The author begins the text with a prologue that highlights how and why, as a

14-year-old, she was both susceptible and was victim of the tactics of a trafficker. It is acknowledged

that certain personal factors, like early sexual abuse, substance abuse in the home, and absent parents

can contribute to a child’s vulnerability to pimps and predators. The work further explores how and

why unstable communities may factor into increased risk to this sort of victimization. Community

factors, such as presence of an illegal or legal commercial sex industry; a high rate of transient males

in the population; and proximity to gangs, truck stops, transit areas, and borders all may make youths

more vulnerable to sex trafficking. The author notes that even though some youths may not be

exposed to these risk factors, they may still be at risk. Overuse of notions of love and romance that

permeate mass media and popular culture also may play an important (and often understated) role.

Due to availability and increasing rates of Internet use by youths, unsupervised youths can fall prey

to traffickers through various social media outlets. Importantly, the increased use of social media

may have the effect of expansion of the reach of sex traffickers from traditionally disorganized inner

cities to more affluent suburban regions.

From her personalexperiences, Smith notes that there is a burgeoning gapbetween the availability

and the need of appropriate treatmentand aftercare for victims of domestic sex trafficking.She advo-

catesfor immediate residentialtreatment for rescuedvictims as well as intermediateand long-term after-

care. Family counseling services shouldbe employed to facilitate communication between the parents

and child becauseoften many do not understandthat the youth did not willinglyengage in prostitution.

In addition to pointing out warning signs and methods of prevention, Smith focuses extensively

on the failings of the legal and support systems in helping child victims heal. In the appendix, the

author includes reproductions of personal psychiatric evaluations and discharge summaries to

Criminal Justice Review

2014, Vol. 39(4) 455-465

ª2014 Georgia State University

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