eggsistoast

I read your novels "Bliss" and "Rhymes With Witches" several years ago on a whim and I loved them. Easily some of the best YA horror/suspense fiction I've ever read. I love how believable and real your characters are.

My question for you is, is there another coming out in the "Bliss" series? I need more!

This topic seems under-studied (and difficult to study), and there's a debate in the research community about the relationship between legalized sex work and human trafficking. This paper addresses some of the controversy and looks in depth at The Netherlands. I haven't had time to read the whole paper yet, but it's very well written and is organized nicely.

(Paper is by Huisam and Kleemans and published in Criminal Law and Social Change, from 2014.)

Edit: Here's a bit from their conclusion that summarizes the relationship in the Netherlands very nicely:

Regulatory enforcement by the city administration is still largely dependent on criminal investigations made by the police to uncover the legal façades of organized crime. While the city administration and the tax authority try to deal with brothel owners and prostitutes as legitimate entrepreneurs, the prostitution business retains many characteristics of an illegitimate market. This hinders regulation and monitoring. Yet, in turn, to be able to investigate and prosecute sex traffickers, the police are reliant upon the information provided by regulators. The regulation has hidden the legalized sector from the view of the criminal justice system, while human trafficking still thrives behind the legal façade of a legalized prostitution sector. Brothels can even function as legalized outlets for victims of sex trafficking. Monitoring the regulated sector drains capacity away, which could alternatively be devoted to criminal investigation and other tasks, thus preventing the police from focusing on the investigation of sex trafficking in unregulated forms of prostitution.

I understand. A lot of girls (and young people in general) shy away from that genre. I re-read them a little while ago (I'm 19) and Sandy still managed to scare the bejeesus out of me.

If you ever do write another novel in that series I would buy it in a heartbeat. :)