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Title details for Taking Down Backpage by Maggy Krell - Available

Taking Down Backpage

Fighting the World's Largest Sex Trafficker

by Maggy Krell
Sara Sheckells
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
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1 of 1 copy available
For almost a decade, Backpage.com was the world's largest sex trafficking operation. Seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day, in 800 cities throughout the world, Backpage ran thousands of listings advertising the sale of vulnerable young people for sex. Reaping a cut off every transaction, the owners of the website raked in millions of dollars. But many of the people in the advertisements were children, as young as twelve, and forced into the commercial sex trade through fear, violence and coercion.
In Taking Down Backpage, veteran California prosecutor Maggy Krell tells the story of how she and her team prevailed against this sex trafficking monolith. Beginning with her early career as a young DA, she shares the evolution of the anti-human trafficking movement. Through a fascinating combination of memoir and legal insight, Krell reveals how she and her team started with the prosecution of street pimps and ultimately ended with the takedown of the largest purveyor of human trafficking in the world. She shares powerful stories of interviews with victims, sting operations, court cases, and the personal struggles that were necessary to bring Backpage executives to justice. Finally, Krell examines the state of sex trafficking after Backpage and the crucial work that still remains.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    January 11, 2022

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781666178159
      • File size: 195957 KB
      • Duration: 06:48:14

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      October 18, 2021
      Krell, a former deputy attorney general in the California Department of Justice, debuts with a brisk recap of her efforts to prosecute the owners of Backpage.com for sex trafficking. Inspired by her successful prosecution of a motel owner for knowingly renting his rooms for commercial sex acts, Krell formed a statewide human trafficking unit in the attorney general’s office and busted a network of brothels where women lured from Asia with promises of good jobs were forced to prostitute themselves to pay off their travel costs. In 2013, Krell, at the urging of victim’s rights advocates, turned her attention to Backpage, where girls as young as 12 were advertised in the “Escort” and “Erotic Services” sections. Krell explains how the Communications Decency Act complicated efforts to prosecute Backpage, where teenagers were “the most lucrative product” and staff were trained “to assist traffickers in posting ads of victims without alerting law enforcement.” Though Krell’s initial case against Backpage was dismissed by a California judge in 2016, her investigation helped lead to the website’s shuttering by the FBI in 2018 and company CEO Carl Ferrer’s guilty plea to charges of money laundering and conspiracy. Details of Krell’s personal life and career trajectory feel superfluous, but she lucidly explains how criminal cases are built. The result is an informative account of justice served.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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