When she was 16 years old, Kat was abducted and trafficked by men she met online — all in her home state of Arizona.
“I didn’t even know what sex trafficking was before I was taken,” Kat says in the FRONTLINE documentary Sex Trafficking in America. “I didn’t know that I would end up in this situation that I ended up in.”
Jezza Neumann and Lauren Mucciolo — the director and producer behind the film — found that, like Kat, many people were unaware of the American woman and girls being sexually exploited within the U.S.
“Most people thought it was an international thing,” Neumann said.
To capture that hidden reality, Neumann and Mucciolo followed a police unit in Phoenix, Arizona, combating child sexual exploitation over the course of two and a half years. They talked to FRONTLINE about how they found the story, and what impact they hope the documentary has.
