Laws the state uses to put sex traffickers behind bars can sweep up their prey, too. A few years in age can mean the difference between a chance at rehabilitation and a lengthy prison sentence, as Yvette learned.
Morgan Smith
Morgan Smith was a reporter at the Tribune from 2009 to 2018, covering politics, public education and inequality.
In 2013, she received a National Education Writers Association award for “Death of a District,” a series on school closures. After earning a bachelor’s degree in English from Wellesley College, she moved to Austin in 2008 to enter law school at the University of Texas.
A San Antonio native, her work has also appeared in Slate, where she spent a year as an editorial intern in Washington D.C.
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Texas couldn’t help this sex-trafficked teen, so authorities sent her to jail
No one wanted Lena behind bars. She was not a prostitute; she was a child who had been sexually exploited. But teenage sex-trafficking victims in Texas end up in jail for one simple reason: There’s nowhere else for them to go.
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When foster care couldn’t help this 16-year-old, she ran to a pimp
After her father raped her, Jean became one of the roughly 12,000 Texas kids in long-term foster care, a system that often leaves children more damaged than when they arrive. For Jean, selling sex seemed like a safer bet.
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In their own words: How Texas pimps recruit and sell girls for sex
Texas Tribune reporters talked to three convicted traffickers to try to understand the power they wield over victims and the attraction of what they call “the lifestyle.” Here they are in their own words.
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How underage girls are sold for sex online
You don’t have to dredge the backwaters of the Internet to find underage girls sold for sex online. Take a tour of the commercial sex trade’s most recent marketplace, hidden in plain view.
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How hollow rhetoric and a broken child welfare system feed Texas’ sex-trafficking underworld
Texas leaders have publicly battled sex trafficking for more than a decade, but they’ve devoted hardly any resources to helping victims.
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Criminal Justice
Help us report on sex trafficking in Texas
Over the past five months, The Texas Tribune has investigated the hidden world of sex trafficking. Now, we want to hear about your experiences.
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Politics
Timeline: Attorney General Ken Paxton’s Legal Saga
This week, a judge scheduled Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s trial on criminal securities fraud for May 1. Use this timeline to to keep up with the legal and political drama.
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Politics
Texas Democrats lick their wounds, look for silver linings after rough night
As Texas Democrats pick up the pieces of the 2016 election, a single-digit margin in the presidential race here and a few legislative victories don’t offer much comfort.
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Politics
Man Arrested After Breaking into Texas Capitol
A Fort Worth man was arrested early Sunday morning after allegedly breaking into the Texas Capitol building and defacing a portrait, according to the state Department of Public Safety.