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State official to speak about human trafficking Nov. 7

One of the state officials leading the fight against human trafficking in Kentucky will be a guest speaker at Morehead State on Thursday, Nov. 7, at 11 a.m. in Rader Hall, room 221.   

Allyson Cox Taylor is the executive director of the Kentucky Office of Child Abuse and Human Trafficking Prevention and Prosecution, a branch of the Kentucky Office of the Attorney General. Taylor began her career working for the Jefferson County Attorney's Office prosecuting cases for the Domestic Violence, Child Abuse and Neglect and Sexual Assault Unit. In 2011 she began working with the Office of Attorney General as director of the Prosecutors Advisory Council and the Office of Victims Advocacy, positions she held until 2013. After that position, she served as a policy advisor to the commissioner of the Kentucky Department for Public Health, operating as chief of staff and legislative liaison for the department.  

Taylor received a Bachelor of Arts in English and government from Morehead State University in 1999, where she received the "Outstanding Senior Government Major" award. In 2002, she completed a Juris Doctorate at the Brandeis College of Law at the University of Louisville, where she was named "Outstanding Female Graduate" for her work to address the needs and concerns of women and children. During law school she worked for the Legal Aid Society of Louisville, incorporating nonprofit organizations and at the Center for Women and Families as an intern, representing women in domestic violence protection order hearings. 

"Attorney General Beshear has made protecting kids and victims of crime a priority mission and in such, created the Office of Child Abuse and Human Trafficking Prevention and Prosecution. Allyson Taylor, as Director of that office has assisted in changing how trafficking is identified, prevented, and prosecuted in Kentucky,” said Laken Albrink, a lecturer in MSU’s Department of History, Philosophy, Politics, Global Studies and Legal Studies. “Students interested in family law need a specialized understanding of the dynamics of trafficking, especially when family members are the traffickers."

Taylor said human trafficking does not operate in the way it is portrayed in movies and unrealistically viewing the crime makes it easier for perpetrators to get away with it.  

"Our misconceptions make [human traffickers] lives so much easier," Taylor said. "If we're all thinking of it as a kidnapping situation, we're going to miss the people who are building that trust and finding [victim's] weaknesses, and that's how sex traffickers really operate."   

She added that human trafficking happens in every county in Kentucky. Half of the victims in sex trafficking cases are minors and half of them are trafficked by family members.  

Taylor's lecture will focus on:  
  • Human trafficking laws in Kentucky.  
  • How the crime can often present as a domestic violence situation.  
  • How to understand the dynamics of family trafficking.  
The lecture is sponsored by MSU's Department of History, Philosophy, Politics, Global Studies and Legal Studies. 

For more information about the Office of Child Abuse and Human Trafficking Prevention and Prosecution, visit ag.ky.gov/about/branches/OCAHTPP.   

For information about MSU's Department of History, Philosophy, Politics, Global Studies and Legal Studies, visit www.moreheadstate.edu/hpil, email hpil@moreheadstate.edu or call 606-783-2655.