Recruitment can take place anywhere, at a shopping mall, at a city park or even aboard a city bus or the DART light rail.

A girl, in many cases underage, approaches another vulnerable-looking minor and starts a seemingly innocent conversation. They talk about school or their alienation from their parents. It looks like the blooming of a casual friendship, especially for teens who feel isolated and have no one to talk to about the angst of growing up.

But this will be no friendship.

The "bottom girl," as women who work recruiting other women for prostitution are known, is doing her job: luring young women into the business with promises of jewelry or designer clothes. It's hard to say no for those who live with hopelessness and need.

The company feels good and they end up spending more time together. They talk, without giving details, about a job where the new girl can make pretty good money.

Soon after, they're in a hotel room. A man is about to show up seeking sex. The new girl refuses, and the older one tells her to hide in the bathroom. But the customer wants to be serviced by both. Tough talk and threats of violence fly: No one will get out of that room until he is satisfied.

Either the girl complies with his demands or she will have to pay $10,000 to be freed. The new girl succumbs because all she wants is to survive the abuse and go back home.

But she's not going home. She's now under the control of an often invisible, yet powerful, pimp.

That day was the first of many filled with abuse that will be very difficult to escape, according to experts who research sex trafficking.

Leaving the business is hard because human traffickers cleverly exploit their young victims' vulnerabilities. Once they trick the girls into the business, they make the victims feel guilty. They are always in debt, either for the next meal, or for a roof over their heads. Then there's the constant threat of hurting the victims' families.

Prostitutes tend to get pulled into other illegal activity, like drug dealing, or helping to recruit and smuggle even younger girls.

This scenario plays out every day in Texas, where about 79,000 youth are victims of human trafficking.

Michael Hogue/DMN Staff

Prosecuting the victims

Women lured into prostitution often are the only ones paying the legal consequences of this crime. Traffickers exploit women in the streets, in nightclubs, massage parlors, hotels and through online offers, but they know how to remain hands-off in case of a police bust.

So in most cases, the girls are the ones paying. They are the ones who get arrested and become registered as convicted sex criminals for life.

The designation as a sex offender can prevent them access to rehabilitation and professional assistance to help them heal socially and emotionally, explained Kim Robinson, director of New Friends New Life, a Dallas-based nonprofit that supports teens and women who have been sexually exploited.

"When a girl is registered as a child sexual offender, she can't even be around our girls and we can't even serve her in the fashion we served the rest of the youth in our agency," Robinson said.

"She can't receive the restoration she needs for something she was forced to do. We have to make special arrangements outside of business hours to be able to help her in some way."

Robinson said the criminal code should be revised to allow trafficked and sexually exploited women to expunge their criminal records.

"Certain individuals (including employers) have ways to access criminal records, and it isn't easy for women to explain what they did against their will."

Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot said in an email that expunctions are determined "on case-by-case basis."

"It can depend on the charges and the [individual's] criminal history."

In a Feb. 21 memo, the district attorney's office announced it will agree to limited expunctions "if the petitioner signs a waiver saying that Dallas County may keep his/her name, date of birth, offense, and state identification number."

According to this policy, the window for clearing first-time offenders' records will open three years from the date of an arrest on any felony (human trafficking), one year on Class A or B misdemeanors (prostitution) or six months on Class C misdemeanors.

Vincent T. Luciano, who leads human trafficking investigations at the Criminal Investigations Division of the Texas Department of Public Safety, said his group's priority is to "actively target the trafficker ... and making sure that people trafficked are in a safe environment so they can file a report."

According to the International Labour Organization, about 300,000 minors are at risk of sexual exploitation in the U.S. (4.5 million worldwide).

About 79,000 cases are believed to occur in Texas, second in the country only to California. And in Texas, Dallas is second to Houston in the number of cases.

In fact, the sex trade of minors in North Texas is worth $99 million a year, according to estimates from New Friends New Life.

And 80 percent of trafficked persons inside the U.S are American citizens.

The pimp's facade

Pimps are the invisible yet powerful hand that makes this business run. But don't believe in the movie stereotypes, Luciano said.

"They look and behave like normal boyfriends. Some girls truly believe they are in a committed relationship, in which they are doing their part to pay bills. Self-identifying as a trafficking victim doesn't happen. There's a lot of manipulation."

Pimps may be out of sight, but they are always pulling the strings on these women.

When a girl works the streets, the pimp walks unabashedly behind her, head down, Luciano said. That explains why a minor might be afraid of running away. She feels like she is under the watchful eye of an adult.

What's Luciano solution to eradicate this evil? Vigorous prosecution of the traffickers, he said.

"It'll make (pimps) think that it isn't worth engaging in this kind of activity if they end up doing a life sentence," he said.

As it is, the Texas penal code is a high-yield, low-risk gamble for pimps. He explains: A serial rapist who attacks 25 women will spend the rest of his life in prison. The same sentence should be imposed on an average pimp, who has five girls working every night, making him potentially responsible for 25 rapes a day.

Who are the victims?

Most victims of the sex trade are young women from dysfunctional households or victims of some sort of sexual abuse, according to a 2017 report by the Urban Institute, a social research center based Washington, D.C.

The findings are devastating:

Investigators recommend parents and teachers be on alert for signs in young women like sudden behavioral changes, skipping class, acquiring fine clothes, and using expensive jewelry or purses. Keep an eye out for tattoos that might signal their allegiance to a certain pimp, they said.

Some corporations and agencies are training employees to spot sex trafficking victims. For example, DART has trained its employees to identify victims and connect them to services and nonprofits that can help.

Who are the customers supporting slavery?

The average age of prostitution customers is 49, according to a 2012 report by Christine Milrod, a sex therapist from California, and Martin Monto, a University of Portland sociology professor.

Other characteristics are:

--Average income: $142,000.

"In our agency, we are working to curb this demand," Robinson said. "We are talking to high school boys about how their use of pornography is one critical lead to end up wanting to buy someone for sex. The mistaken view that women are just objects for sexual gratification is what we are focused on."

Jenny Manrique is a reporter for Al Dia, the Spanish language publication of The Dallas Morning News.