National Football League

NJ stepping up war on prostitution

Published Dec. 3, 2013 12:00 a.m. ET

foxsports

New Jersey is stepping up its war on prostitution in the weeks leading up to the Super Bowl, with an estimated 10,000 sex workers expected to descend on the area.

The state's human trafficking awareness committee is conducting seminars with city and state workers, private sector employees and middle- and high-schoolers.

"They will hear from girls who were trafficked," Tracy M. Thompson, who runs the program for the Attorney General’s Office, told NJ.com. "And they will hear it could have been stopped if somebody just said something."

She points out that while "the Super Bowl will cause a spike in it ... this is an ongoing initiative."

In May, Gov. Chris Christie signed the Human Trafficking Prevention, Protection and Treatment Act into law, establishing harsher sentences for pimps and providing a victims assistance fund from fines.