National Human Trafficking Center, 2018 Gragg, F., Petta, I., Bernstein, H., Eisen, K., & Quinn, L. (2007). New York Prevalence Study of Commercially Sexually Exploited Children. A WESTAT Report prepared for the New York State Office of Children and Family services. Lederer, L. & Wetzel, C. (2014). The Health Consequences of Sex Trafficking and Their Implications for Identifying Victims in Healthcare Facilities. Annals of Health Law, The Health Policy and Law Review of Loyola University School of Law, 23 (1), 61-91.

Bouché, V., A Report on the Use of Technology to Recruit, Groom and Sell Domestic Minor Sex Traficking Victims, Thorn: Digital Defenders of Children, 2015 What We Know About Sex Trafficking, Prostitution and Sexual Exploitation in the U.S., World Without Exploitation, 2017

Illinois: Changing minds and hearts in the Heartland.

In 2012, The Ugly Truth was piloted in Illinois as part of the larger End Demand Illinois (EDI) campaign to transform the state’s legal and social responses to prostitution. Developed through a partnership between  Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation (CAASE) and The Voices and Faces Project, The Ugly Truth was created in the wake of a two-year listening project, during which Illinois-based survivors of trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation shared their stories of being in “the life.” They also expressed concerns about a troubling media-perpetuated narrative: that prostitution is glamorous, not often dangerous, and most often a woman’s choice. “My reality is very different from what you see on TV,” noted a survivor who shared her story with The Ugly Truth creators. “It’s time to challenge these myths with something that comes close to my truth.”

The Illinois Ugly Truth campaign ran in 2012 and 2013, with primary funding from NoVo Foundation. Additional media support came from Kemery Bloom and Chicago’s Lakshmi Foundation