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The Sting Show: Operation Follow The Money
Three Human Trafficking Stings, $3M in Costs, Zero Transparency Let’s talk about the American tradition of the human trafficking sting - part press conference, part moral panic, part budget sinkhole. Across the country, these branded operations promise to crack down on exploitation and rescue victims. But when the headlines fade, what are we actually left with? Mostly low-level charges, ambiguous outcomes, and taxpayer-funded theater. Today, we’re diving into three high-prof

Alex Andrews
3 days ago4 min read


December 17 Day 4: Stigma Kills
Stigma is a shadow that follows sex workers everywhere—often more destructive than the law itself.

Alex Andrews
Dec 4, 20252 min read


Stripped of Promises: The Hidden Realities of Guam’s Exotic Dance Industry
Labor trafficking doesn’t always involve chains or cages. Sometimes it looks like contracts written in legalese, passports held just out of reach, or threats veiled as “rules.” It’s coercion in a cocktail dress. It’s violence dressed up as opportunity.

Alex Andrews
Oct 27, 20254 min read


Receipts Please! Myths Don't Stand a Chance!
Myth #10: Ending Demand Will End Sex Work “End demand” laws—often marketed under the more palatable name of the Nordic Model—are...

Alex Andrews
Oct 10, 20253 min read


Receipts Please! Myths Don't Stand a Chance!
When sex work shows up in mainstream culture, it’s rarely depicted as the ordinary, complex labor that it is. Instead, it’s boxed into one of two caricatures: the tragic victim or the glamorous hustler.

Alex Andrews
Sep 5, 20253 min read


When Sport Turns to Moral Panic: Trafficking Rhetoric at Major Events
With the 2026 FIFA World Cup coming to North America, it’s already shaping up to be the “new” Super Bowl for trafficking rhetoric, complete with recycled myths, inflated statistics, and the same cast of anti-trafficking organizations eager to cash in on the global spotlight.

Swop Behind Bars
Aug 11, 20255 min read


Fantasy, Fallout, and the Politics of Outrage: The Ghislaine Maxwell Edition
This week, the national conversation once again spiraled around the so-called Epstein “client list.” The same question resurfaced:Where is it? Who’s on it? When will it be released? And just like every other time, the obsession with the list revealed more about the public’s craving for spectacle than their actual commitment to justice.

Swop Behind Bars
Jul 28, 20254 min read


Weekend Hot Takes: The "Epstein List”
The sex worker rights movement has long explored how the public—and too often, the courts—struggle to grasp the realities of exploitation, especially when it hides behind wealth, consent, or celebrity. We’ve written about coercion, manipulation, and the blurry gray lines that survivors are expected to define in black and white.

Swop Behind Bars
Jul 21, 20255 min read


Seen but Still Silenced: The Complicated Gratitude of the Sex Worker Rights Movement
When a certain child rescue organization—you know, the one whose name sounds like a Christian indie band—published their recent reflection titled “Mistakes happen in anti-trafficking work. We must learn from them,” a strange thing happened across the sex worker rights community.

Swop Behind Bars
Jun 30, 20254 min read


Tariffs and End Demand: When “Protection” Becomes the Problem
Remember when tariffs were marketed as the golden ticket to economic salvation?

Swop Behind Bars
Jun 25, 20253 min read


Degrees of Separation: Why We Must Redefine What Counts as Education
It started with a question. “What college degree do you have?” Tasha had just been released and was sitting in the intake office of a...

Swop Behind Bars
Jun 20, 20255 min read


Degrees of Survival — When Learning Is a Lifeline for Trafficking Survivors
When people imagine what “freedom” looks like for trafficking survivors, they often picture a dramatic rescue or a courtroom triumph—handcuffs off, a predator jailed, a survivor walking into the sunlight.

Swop Behind Bars
Jun 13, 20255 min read


When Feminism Wears Lip Gloss: How Pink Patriarchy Undermines the Fight for Liberation
There’s a version of feminism out there that wears a pussyhat, clutches her pearls, and still calls the manager when a sex worker speaks at a panel.

Swop Behind Bars
Jun 11, 20253 min read


Correspondence Course Hustle — Higher Education from a Cell
Education is more than a classroom, a test, or a diploma. For criminalized women, survivors, and sex workers, it’s a form of resistance. It’s a survival strategy. It’s a way to reclaim power in systems designed to keep us voiceless.

Swop Behind Bars
Jun 6, 20255 min read


Slut Shaming and the Law
What happens when the law is wrong?

Swop Behind Bars
Feb 3, 20255 min read


On the Super Bowl, Safety and Solidarity
Finding common ground in a time of crisis Every year, around this time, the airwaves in whatever city is hosting the Super...

Swop Behind Bars
Jan 11, 20255 min read


Behind the Rescue Door: The Intersection of Rules, Resources, and its impact on Healthcare in Anti-Trafficking Programs
For survivors of exploitation, and particularly with multiple intersecting issues like domestic violence,

Swop Behind Bars
Jan 3, 20259 min read


Unlocking Second Chances:
The Role of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Support for Women Transitioning from Prison

Swop Behind Bars
Dec 10, 20247 min read


Mass Incarceration: The Invisible Chains in Women's Prisons
Mass incarceration is not merely a statistical issue; it is a profound human rights crisis, disproportionately impacting women

Swop Behind Bars
Dec 10, 20243 min read


What is Trauma-Informed Care?
Trauma-informed care (TIC) is an approach to healthcare, social services, and corrections that recognizes the widespread impact of trauma an

Swop Behind Bars
Nov 24, 20249 min read
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