Human Trafficking

About this episode

Kelley Marshall shares her harrowing experience as a victim of human trafficking and her journey to advocacy.

As a young adult, Kelley Marshall had a promising start. She had a young daughter, a good job, a new apartment, and a new car. After falling on some hard times due to a traffic accident, a man came along who at first seemed to be her knight in shining armor. Initially expressing genuine concern and interest in Kelley and even helping to financially support her and her daughter, he appeared at first to be her altruistic, caring boyfriend… All along the way never revealing that he was actually a pimp, until it was too late. Utilizing grooming and psychological manipulation built upon Kelley’s traumatic upbringing, the man eventually coerced her into becoming a prostitute, separating her from her daughter and sending her down a path riddled with horrific abuses and multiple different traffickers across multiple states. After spending six years as a sex trafficking victim, Kelley finally managed to escape and rebuild her life from scratch. In the time since, she has become a vocal advocate against human trafficking. Stories like Kelley’s are unfortunately far too common. According to the United Nations, an estimated 27.6 million people are victimized by human trafficking worldwide…

People in this episode

Guest: Kelley Marshall

Topics covered

• human trafficking
• victim advocacy
• psychological manipulation
• grooming
• abuse
• trafficking statistics

Keywords

• human trafficking
• Kelley Marshall
• victim
• advocacy
• traffickers
• psychological manipulation
• abuse
• grooming

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: United Nations

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