Book 12: Help at any Cost by Maia Szalavitz

I bought this book after reading this Cracked article on the troubled-teen industry, wilderness camps and faux therapeutic facilities that ostensibly help rehabilitate teens with drug problems, eating disorders, behavioral problems, and a whole host of other problems parents might find troubling in their teenaged children. In reality, as Szalavitz reveals, many of these programs have no licensed therapists on staff and are usually run by teenagers themselves, totally unequipped to deal with addiction, and there have been a number of suspicious deaths from the children in their care.

This was definitely not a fun read, but it was engrossing and informative. The individual accounts of the kids that Szalavitz provides are harrowing, especially the long-lasting effects of the therapy/brainwashing. It's incredible that this industry has been allowed to operate under so little regulation for so long, and hopefully by bringing more attention to these programs books like these can help to change that.

Book 6: Trafficked by Sophie Hayes

Trafficked is the memoir of Sophie Hayes, a young British woman who was a victim of sex trafficking in Italy. Sophie travels to Italy to spend a vacation with a man she considers her best friend, he beats her, takes her passport, and forces her to work as a prostitute on the streets of Italy. The transition from her normal life to prostitution is terrifyingly sudden, basically overnight, and its unbelievable that this is done to her by a man she's been close friends with, albeit mainly over the phone, for four years.

Equally frightening are all the book reviewers who claim that Sophie must have enjoyed the abuse and sex work because she didn't run away when she had a chance.

I can't really find much about Sophie Hayes online that doesn't relate to the book or the Sophie Hayes Foundation, but there is this interview: http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/bestoftv/2013/10/17/exp-freedom-project-sophie-hayes-human-trafficking.cnn.html.