Oklahoma Law Review Volume 65 Number 2 2013 Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places: A Call to Reform State Law on Sex Trafficking Kristian Bryant Rose Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.law.ou.edu/olr Part of the Criminal Law Commons Recommended Citation Kristian B. Rose, Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places: A Call to Reform State Law on Sex Trafficking, 65 OKLA. L. REV. 303 (2013), https://digitalcommons.law.ou.edu/olr/vol65/iss2/3 This Comment is brought to you for free and open access by University of Oklahoma College of Law Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Oklahoma Law Review by an authorized editor of University of Oklahoma College of Law Digital Commons. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. COMMENT Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places: A Call to Reform State Law on Sex Trafficking I. Introduction In fall 1980, high school sophomore Theresa Flores relocated from her home in Ohio to Birmingham, Michigan, an affluent and mostly white suburb just outside Detroit.1 Her father, a corporate executive, moved the family around often.2 Like any fifteen-year-old girl, Theresa struggled with the adjustment to a new school and a new life.3 Leaving her friends behind, she endured the process of starting over again.4 After eight moves in fifteen years, she was becoming an expert at starting over.5 An average student of average looks,6 Theresa soon joined the track team and developed a steady social rhythm.7 But instead of settling into a nice, normal high school experience, Theresa discovered over the course of the next year the brutal realities of sex trafficking.8 She suffered a ravaged body and spirit, and nearly lost her life.9 Theresa’s nightmare started with a seemingly innocent crush on an older Chaldean boy.10 His exotic cultural identity evinced a mystique that sent her swooning.11 As they spent increased time together, the romance intensified.12 What began one day as a kiss at his house became a grave 13 miscalculation Theresa would inestimably regret.