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Fifteen-12 months-previous "Debbie" is the middle little one in a near-knit Air Force family from suburban Phoenix, and a straight-A pupil -- the final man or woman most of us would count on to be forced into the seamy world of sex trafficking.

But Debbie, which is not her genuine title, is a single of 1000's of young American ladies who authorities say have been abducted or lured from their standard lives and produced into sex slaves. Although several Americans have heard of human trafficking in other elements of the planet -- Thailand, Cambodia, Latin America and eastern Europe, for instance -- number of folks know it transpires right here in the United States.

The FBI estimates that effectively in excess of 100,000 kids and youthful girls are trafficked in America right now. They assortment in age from 9 to 19, with the typical age becoming 11.

And several victims are no longer just runaways, or youngsters who've been abandoned. Several of them are from what would be considered "great" families, who are lured or coerced by clever predators, say specialists.

"These predators are particularly adept at reading through youngsters, at reading youngsters, and understanding what their vulnerabilities are," said FBI Deputy Assistant Director, Chip Burrus, who began the Misplaced Innocence project, which specializes in child- and teen-intercourse trafficking.

And, he mentioned, these predators are going the place the youngsters are.

"What you can see, time and time again, is that the predators will adapt their means to what ever the youthful folks are undertaking -- whether it truly is malls, whether it truly is ski slopes, regardless of whether it truly is seashores," Burrus explained. "Predators ... are going to do everything in their power to try to convince youthful girls, youthful boys, to come with them and enter this particular way of life."

Abducted From Her Own Driveway, Teen Says

Debbie's story is notably chilling. A single evening Debbie stated she received a contact from a casual good friend, Bianca, who asked to quit by Debbie's house. Wearing a pair of Sponge Bob pajamas, Debbie went outside to meet Bianca, who drove up in a Cadillac with two older. http://emailset.operationquickmoney.training/52d968623ef37