A woman pushed into prostitution at the age of 13 became the first U.S. citizen whose criminal record for prostitution was expunged by a judge who agreed with both prosecutors and defense attorneys that she was protected under a recent New York State law that identifies pimps as sex traffickers.   A Reuters article examined the violence in the lives of women controlled by sex traffickers, including rape, beatings and cruel punishment, such as locking women in car trunks or forcing them to have sex with one another. 

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