Just posted this blog, wondering whether people here agree, disagree, or have other insights. Thanks, James, editor, My Red Light Story.
New York has recently toughened up its anti-trafficking laws as reported in this New York Times article, "Prosecutors Focus on Pimps and Clients, Instead of Prostitutes." (
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/03/ny...ostitutes.html) It states that sex trafficking charge now can result in a maximum sentence of twenty-five years, up from fifteen years. Meanwhile, and what got my attention, clients can receive a maximum sentence of one year in jail for seeing a prostitute, up from three months.
I have not studied the intricacies of the law nor what sentences are actually being passed out, but it does seem that once again society is conflating two completely separate prostitution scenarios and applying the same remedy against both. I agree that trafficking of people for sex is a terrible crime and needs to be dealt with harshly. Whether this law actually helps in this regard is beyond my area of expertise. But applying the same "going-nuclear" mechanisms against consensual sex work in which nobody is harmed seems completely absurd. In the case of trafficking, it's clear a crime is being committed. Woman are coerced to have sex, and are effectively being raped.
In the case of consensual sex work, woman are choosing on their own free will to sell sexual services. In some cases, maybe they have run out of options in how to survive in their lives, and see sex work as the only option. That's a sad state of affairs, but nevertheless the woman is still making a choice. There are also grey areas, exemplified in a statement a provider made to me in a recent conversation, "I'm burned out on being a provider, I'm ever less tolerant of the BS that I have to deal with, especially with flaky clients, yet there's no other work I can do that will pay me near as much. I can't even imagine starting on the ground floor in some job." That also makes me sad. However, I still don't see the true crime being committed against women (or men) who choose this path.
I suppose the rationalization is that if there is sufficiently harsh punishment for clients irrespective of whether they have sex with a coerced or willing provider, they will be less likely to see any provider, and that demand for trafficked providers will decrease. I'm not convinced. Similar harsh laws for other crimes, including drug use, have resulted in the U.S. having a higher percentage of people in jail than any other country in the world at 743 per 100,000 people. That's six times higher than Canada.
I don't have all the answers but surely they should include items such as better resources for trafficked or sexually coerced women to find help and shelter. A predisposition of treating sex workers less as criminals and more as victims would probably also help.
It is a shame that these two spheres of prostitution, coerced and consensual, overlap in the way they do. For example, both use Internet ads for sexual services, making it difficult for clients to distinguish between the two. In some more enlightened society that both accepts and protects sex workers, one can imagine, it would be much harder for trafficking to exist. It's similar to the arguments that drug crime would go away if drugs were legalized. But that's certainly not the society we live in. Instead, we have scumbags profiting from inhumane exploitation of people, and society retaliating with harsh measures that end up punishing the relatively innocent.
Yikes - One Year in Jail as a Client
Uptight
..This father and son team need to be in jail for what they have done...This does not sound like two consenting adults.....just my two cents
