Fund a Trafficking Survivor's Dream
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My name is Kate Price. I am driven to help others like me who have survived the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (CSEC).
An active advocate for children’s rights, I am a third-year Ph.D. candidate in Sociology at the University of Massachusetts Boston. The thesis includes cutting-edge statistical analysis of what factors explain state-level legislative decisions to criminalize vs. decriminalize CSEC victims between states. This research is being utilized to inform advocates, policy makers, and elected officials about current trends in passing strong state CSEC legislation, particularly in decriminalizing CSEC victims so no child can be arrested and/or prosecuted for prostituion. I am honored to say that my research has already changed CSEC legislation in Florida to ensure CSEC victims are not detained in locked facilities while receiving much-needed services.
[Update: I recently received an American Association of University Women Dissertation Fellowship . This prestigious award will help offset my living costs while I complete my dissertation. Thanks to this award, I will be able to graduate in May 2019. I will not have to teach this summer, so I can focus solely on my dissertation!! And please know AAUW did not make a contribution to my GoFundMe campaign: I am using my campaign total to tally all of my external funding.]
* Imagine how the knowledge gained from this important study could stop so many children from being vulnerable to the various forms sexual exploitation, including child sex trafficking.
* Imagine how this study could provide much-needed data to help decriminalize child sex trafficking so all victims receive the trauma-informed care they need instead of being incarcerated.
* Imagine how this study could bolster the understanding, resources and funding for advocacy organizations, community projects, and non-profits to help vulnerable children achieve their dreams in life.
* Imagine if this study lead to increased prosecutions of traffickers and buyers of sex —and a meaningful reduction in the number of cases of CSEC.
The recent Department of Justice Report, “Confronting Commercial Sexual Exploitation and Sex Trafficking of Minors in the United States”, urges the need for survivor-informed research to address CSEC .
I strongly believe CSEC is a continuation of violence. Children are often manipulated into sex trafficking or other commercial sex work by another person and that person (i.e. that exploiter) often also has a history of interpersonal violence, particularly child sexual abuse, neglect, and systemic violence in poverty. This belief is a cornerstone of my Ph.D. study and thesis at the University of Massachusetts.
In my early childhood and throughout my adolescence, an immediate family member sold me for sex and pornography. He sold me to men at truck stops, at parties, and within my own home. My family repeated intergenerational cycles of addiction, mental illness, poverty, and violence. I survived that upbringing through education, determination, and the encouragement of a few supportive adults and friends.
Academic achievement was not only my solace growing up, but it was also my ticket away from my family. I traveled the world while getting my Bachelor’s Degree and then settled in Boston to obtain my Master’s Degree. I was finally free to heal from decades of trauma and isolation.
My primary goal for starting this crowdfunding campaign is to create a community of support. Completing my bachelor's and master's degrees was difficult and lonely. I paid for 99.99% of my bachelor's (with minimal family financial support) and all of my master's. I took six years to complete my undergraduate education and ten to complete my master's because I took some semesters off to support myself.
Additionally, most of my family has maintained I am falsley accusing my exploiter of sexual violence in order to get money for school (even though I have never asked them for a dime). Money is a tool for manipulation and control in my family. But I will not be shamed into silence.
With your help, I can lead the way for such research. I’m intending to raise $30,000, which would offset my student loans ($38K thus far) and supplement my Ph.D. program assistantship. (I have received multiple scholarships and fellowships, which has helped me reduce my intial $66K goal by more than 50%.) I sincerely appreciate any amount of support you can offer in helping to forward much-needed statistical and mixed methods research in the study of CSEC.
Thank you so much for your time and consideration. – Kate
www.kpadvocacy.com
Media:
The Feministing Five: Survivor and Advocate Kate Price , Feministing, 3/19/2018
Our Sex Trafficking Laws Hurt Sexually Exploited Girls , Ms. Magazine blog, 1/11/2018
'No One Intervened': A Sex Trafficking Survivor Says U.S. Must Do Better For Its Children , WBUR's Cognoscenti, 8/16/16
BBC World Service Personal Interview (starts 7:50 minute mark), 5/17/16
Finding Answers: A Journey toward Truth and Healing from Child Sexual Exploitation, with Boston Globe reporter Janelle Nanos, Wellesley Centers for Women Lunchtime Seminar, 4/2/15
Fund a Ph.D. Save a Child. Honor a Survivor, WellesleyWeston Magazine, Winter 2014/2015
“We’ve gone through everything we’ve gone through alone”: A human trafficking survivor speaks out, Salon.com, 11/30/14
Wellesley Survivor Has Story Go National, Hometown Weekly, 11/12/14
See the Girl Summit in Downtown Jacksonville Addresses Child Sex Trafficking, The Florida Times Union, 10/24/14
The Backstory, Chattanooga Times Free Press, 10/12/14
The Quaz #175, interview by NY Times best-selling author Jeff Pearlman, 10/8/14
Survivor-led Program Aims to Curb Child Sex Trafficking, WGBH’s Under the Radar with Callie Crossley, 10/5/14
Survivor Shares Concerns About Expolitation of Children, Fox 25 Boston Morning News, 8/13/14
Wellesley Resident Seeking Crowdfunding to Help Earn Ph.D., Wellesley Townsman, 9/4/14
Wellesley Resident Crowdfunding Ph.D., Hometown Weekly, 9/4/14
Professional Endorsements:
We all need Kate Price to take her knowledge, experience, and passion to the next level and get this PhD. As a strong survivor advocate, she is already making such an impact. Imagine all she can do for the field with her doctorate?! Join me in supporting her while she takes this next leap forward. – Lisa Goldblatt Grace, director and co-founder of My Life, My Choice, a leading CSEC prevention and intervention program featured in the PBS series A Path Appears
While conducting research for my book, I collaborated with many survivors of commercial sexual exploitation as a child. While they had been through hell as children, they emerged as brave men and women using their past victimization to help prevent child exploitation and protect victims. Kate Price was among these survivors, and her insight was and continues to be invaluable. Please support my friend and colleague as her research will benefit generations to come. – Holly Austin Smith, author of Walking Prey: How America’s Youth Are Vulnerable to Sex Slavery
We're all so blah blah blah in the football world right now about domestic violence and child abuse. I figured it helps a lot more to help someone who's actually trying to research and improve the situation. - Aaron Schatz, Editor-in-Chief, Football Outsiders
We, at Shared Hope International, applaud Kate’s academic endeavors focused on child sex trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation of children. She is a disciplined academic in a field that is in need of evidence based research and measurable outcomes; her research on the role of survivor mentors will be invaluable. - Nancy Smith, Senior Director & Emeritus Board Member, Shared Hope International
Professional Affiliations:
End Child Prostitution and Trafficking-USA (ECPAT-USA, Advisory Board Member, Child Exploitation Expert
Academic Publications:
Price, Kate. 2016. Introduction to Human Trafficking Special Edition. William and Mary Journal of Women and the Law 23(1):i-iii.
Price, Kate and Keith Gunnar Bentele. 2016. “Voting to End Vulnerability: Understanding the Recent Proliferation of State-level Child Sex Trafficking Legislation.” William and Mary Journal of Women and the Law 23(1):1-26.
Price, Kate. 2012. Longing to Belong: Relational Risks and Resilience of Commercially Sexually Exploited Children in the U.S., Wellesley Centers for Women, Wellesley College, Works in Progress, no. 111.
Price, Kate. 2011. Collapsing This Hushed House: Deconstructing Cultural Images of Child Prostitution in the United States. In Dalla, R., et al (Eds.) Global Perspectives on Prostitution and Sex Trafficking: Europe, Latin America, North America, and Global. Lanham, MD: Lexington, pp. 216-236.
Select Speaking Engagements:
Georgetown University Law School
Massachusetts General Hospital
Middlebury College
National Women's Studies Assocation Annual Meeting
See the Girl Summit, Delores Barr Weaver Policy Center
Suffolk University Law School
Wellesley College
William and Mary Law School
Worcester State University
University of Massachusetts Boston
University of New Hampshire School of Law
University of Tennessee - Chattanooga
Virginia Commonwealth University
To request Kate Price as a speaker, please contact: MacRae Speakers & Entertainment
An active advocate for children’s rights, I am a third-year Ph.D. candidate in Sociology at the University of Massachusetts Boston. The thesis includes cutting-edge statistical analysis of what factors explain state-level legislative decisions to criminalize vs. decriminalize CSEC victims between states. This research is being utilized to inform advocates, policy makers, and elected officials about current trends in passing strong state CSEC legislation, particularly in decriminalizing CSEC victims so no child can be arrested and/or prosecuted for prostituion. I am honored to say that my research has already changed CSEC legislation in Florida to ensure CSEC victims are not detained in locked facilities while receiving much-needed services.
[Update: I recently received an American Association of University Women Dissertation Fellowship . This prestigious award will help offset my living costs while I complete my dissertation. Thanks to this award, I will be able to graduate in May 2019. I will not have to teach this summer, so I can focus solely on my dissertation!! And please know AAUW did not make a contribution to my GoFundMe campaign: I am using my campaign total to tally all of my external funding.]
* Imagine how the knowledge gained from this important study could stop so many children from being vulnerable to the various forms sexual exploitation, including child sex trafficking.
* Imagine how this study could provide much-needed data to help decriminalize child sex trafficking so all victims receive the trauma-informed care they need instead of being incarcerated.
* Imagine how this study could bolster the understanding, resources and funding for advocacy organizations, community projects, and non-profits to help vulnerable children achieve their dreams in life.
* Imagine if this study lead to increased prosecutions of traffickers and buyers of sex —and a meaningful reduction in the number of cases of CSEC.
The recent Department of Justice Report, “Confronting Commercial Sexual Exploitation and Sex Trafficking of Minors in the United States”, urges the need for survivor-informed research to address CSEC .
I strongly believe CSEC is a continuation of violence. Children are often manipulated into sex trafficking or other commercial sex work by another person and that person (i.e. that exploiter) often also has a history of interpersonal violence, particularly child sexual abuse, neglect, and systemic violence in poverty. This belief is a cornerstone of my Ph.D. study and thesis at the University of Massachusetts.
In my early childhood and throughout my adolescence, an immediate family member sold me for sex and pornography. He sold me to men at truck stops, at parties, and within my own home. My family repeated intergenerational cycles of addiction, mental illness, poverty, and violence. I survived that upbringing through education, determination, and the encouragement of a few supportive adults and friends.
Academic achievement was not only my solace growing up, but it was also my ticket away from my family. I traveled the world while getting my Bachelor’s Degree and then settled in Boston to obtain my Master’s Degree. I was finally free to heal from decades of trauma and isolation.
My primary goal for starting this crowdfunding campaign is to create a community of support. Completing my bachelor's and master's degrees was difficult and lonely. I paid for 99.99% of my bachelor's (with minimal family financial support) and all of my master's. I took six years to complete my undergraduate education and ten to complete my master's because I took some semesters off to support myself.
Additionally, most of my family has maintained I am falsley accusing my exploiter of sexual violence in order to get money for school (even though I have never asked them for a dime). Money is a tool for manipulation and control in my family. But I will not be shamed into silence.
With your help, I can lead the way for such research. I’m intending to raise $30,000, which would offset my student loans ($38K thus far) and supplement my Ph.D. program assistantship. (I have received multiple scholarships and fellowships, which has helped me reduce my intial $66K goal by more than 50%.) I sincerely appreciate any amount of support you can offer in helping to forward much-needed statistical and mixed methods research in the study of CSEC.
Thank you so much for your time and consideration. – Kate
www.kpadvocacy.com
Media:
The Feministing Five: Survivor and Advocate Kate Price , Feministing, 3/19/2018
Our Sex Trafficking Laws Hurt Sexually Exploited Girls , Ms. Magazine blog, 1/11/2018
'No One Intervened': A Sex Trafficking Survivor Says U.S. Must Do Better For Its Children , WBUR's Cognoscenti, 8/16/16
BBC World Service Personal Interview (starts 7:50 minute mark), 5/17/16
Finding Answers: A Journey toward Truth and Healing from Child Sexual Exploitation, with Boston Globe reporter Janelle Nanos, Wellesley Centers for Women Lunchtime Seminar, 4/2/15
Fund a Ph.D. Save a Child. Honor a Survivor, WellesleyWeston Magazine, Winter 2014/2015
“We’ve gone through everything we’ve gone through alone”: A human trafficking survivor speaks out, Salon.com, 11/30/14
Wellesley Survivor Has Story Go National, Hometown Weekly, 11/12/14
See the Girl Summit in Downtown Jacksonville Addresses Child Sex Trafficking, The Florida Times Union, 10/24/14
The Backstory, Chattanooga Times Free Press, 10/12/14
The Quaz #175, interview by NY Times best-selling author Jeff Pearlman, 10/8/14
Survivor-led Program Aims to Curb Child Sex Trafficking, WGBH’s Under the Radar with Callie Crossley, 10/5/14
Survivor Shares Concerns About Expolitation of Children, Fox 25 Boston Morning News, 8/13/14
Wellesley Resident Seeking Crowdfunding to Help Earn Ph.D., Wellesley Townsman, 9/4/14
Wellesley Resident Crowdfunding Ph.D., Hometown Weekly, 9/4/14
Professional Endorsements:
We all need Kate Price to take her knowledge, experience, and passion to the next level and get this PhD. As a strong survivor advocate, she is already making such an impact. Imagine all she can do for the field with her doctorate?! Join me in supporting her while she takes this next leap forward. – Lisa Goldblatt Grace, director and co-founder of My Life, My Choice, a leading CSEC prevention and intervention program featured in the PBS series A Path Appears
While conducting research for my book, I collaborated with many survivors of commercial sexual exploitation as a child. While they had been through hell as children, they emerged as brave men and women using their past victimization to help prevent child exploitation and protect victims. Kate Price was among these survivors, and her insight was and continues to be invaluable. Please support my friend and colleague as her research will benefit generations to come. – Holly Austin Smith, author of Walking Prey: How America’s Youth Are Vulnerable to Sex Slavery
We're all so blah blah blah in the football world right now about domestic violence and child abuse. I figured it helps a lot more to help someone who's actually trying to research and improve the situation. - Aaron Schatz, Editor-in-Chief, Football Outsiders
We, at Shared Hope International, applaud Kate’s academic endeavors focused on child sex trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation of children. She is a disciplined academic in a field that is in need of evidence based research and measurable outcomes; her research on the role of survivor mentors will be invaluable. - Nancy Smith, Senior Director & Emeritus Board Member, Shared Hope International
Professional Affiliations:
End Child Prostitution and Trafficking-USA (ECPAT-USA, Advisory Board Member, Child Exploitation Expert
Academic Publications:
Price, Kate. 2016. Introduction to Human Trafficking Special Edition. William and Mary Journal of Women and the Law 23(1):i-iii.
Price, Kate and Keith Gunnar Bentele. 2016. “Voting to End Vulnerability: Understanding the Recent Proliferation of State-level Child Sex Trafficking Legislation.” William and Mary Journal of Women and the Law 23(1):1-26.
Price, Kate. 2012. Longing to Belong: Relational Risks and Resilience of Commercially Sexually Exploited Children in the U.S., Wellesley Centers for Women, Wellesley College, Works in Progress, no. 111.
Price, Kate. 2011. Collapsing This Hushed House: Deconstructing Cultural Images of Child Prostitution in the United States. In Dalla, R., et al (Eds.) Global Perspectives on Prostitution and Sex Trafficking: Europe, Latin America, North America, and Global. Lanham, MD: Lexington, pp. 216-236.
Select Speaking Engagements:
Georgetown University Law School
Massachusetts General Hospital
Middlebury College
National Women's Studies Assocation Annual Meeting
See the Girl Summit, Delores Barr Weaver Policy Center
Suffolk University Law School
Wellesley College
William and Mary Law School
Worcester State University
University of Massachusetts Boston
University of New Hampshire School of Law
University of Tennessee - Chattanooga
Virginia Commonwealth University
To request Kate Price as a speaker, please contact: MacRae Speakers & Entertainment
Organizer
Kate Price
Organizer
Wellesley, MA
