Comments on: Hundreds of Adult Sex Workers Arrested in “Child Prostitution” Stings

By: Holly

Holly — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 01:03:07 +0000

Faith wrote, “However, saving children from a lifetime of daily rapes is worth the arrest of adult women to me, in a sense.’

What about the daily rapes that many sex workers have been subject to by police and prison guards under the criminalization of prostitution? Persecuting sex workers is not simply a “necessary” evil in the fight against child prostitution. Rather, incarcerating sex workers and subjecting these workers to brutality from police and guards is in and of itself a human rights abuse that must end. Incarcerating sex workers has nothing to do with stopping child prostitution and it is totally unneccessary if the objective really is to stop child prostitution.

By: Holly

Holly — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 00:51:59 +0000

I don’t look at survival prostitution from a choice-based paradigm, but rather from a survival-based paridigm. If you have the time and luxury to be able to dispute whether this is a choice, then consider yourself privleged because if you were actually in a position where you have to engage in prostitution or any other industry for survival, you wouldn’t have the luxury of being able to dispute whether it’s a choice. Rather, your focus would be more on getting what you need to survive.

By: Holly

Holly — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 00:47:52 +0000

Eghead wrote, “And make no mistake, having sex because one feels she has to, in order to survive, is absolutely rape. That is why I am so concerned with prostitution. Because I am concerned with rape, and I am concerned with the poverty that fuels such rape.”

Would so say the same thing about marriage, Eghead? There are also people who get married out of necessity rather than by free choice, and sex is often part of marriage. Thus, would you also say that having sex in a marriage that one enters for surival purposes is rape?

By: March 3rd is International Sex Workers’ Rights Day « random babble…

Wed, 04 Mar 2009 04:03:45 +0000

[...] women at risk of bodily and mental harm. I think that projects like nation-wide stings that are supposedly aimed at saving children are really about punishing women who have the audacity to be sexual. It enforces a moral code of [...]

By: Steve

Steve — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 02:29:29 +0000

If prostitution were legal, law enforcement could periodically check the brothels and make sure everyone was a consenting adult. When was the last time you heard about an underage prostitute at one of the legal brothels in Nevada? Most people want to satisfy their needs legally, so they don’t get arrested and serve lengthy prison terms for sex with minors. It is like alcohol. When was the last time someone offered you moonshine? Moonshine only flourishes in places where liquor is illegal. If consenting adult prostitution were legal, law enforcement could focus its limited resources on prostitution involving minors and other crimes that actually hurt people. We might have found some missing people or arrested some serial killers if the FBI and other law enforcement agencies hadn’t been wasting their time busting consenting adult prostitution operations such as the ones involving Elliot Spitzer, David Vitter, and Heidi Fleiss. How many children were involved in those operations? None.

By: Eghead

Eghead — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 05:46:28 +0000

Wow, this thread got seriously ugly seriously fast. Can we try to keep some civility up in here?

By: Jane Brazen

Jane Brazen — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 02:03:22 +0000

Thanks for this, Cara! I think what also should be noted here is that there is a lot of studies right now and work about the use of raids and busts for trafficking. I’m thinking of the Urban Justice Center’s report Kicking Down the Door. When we proliferate these images of trafficking and child trafficking especially (totally agree with the poster who mentioned that traffickers and child traffickers aren’t posting on goddamn Craigslist of all places), law enforcement then follows suit. Public policy follows suit. If someone isn’t the “picture” of trafficking (an 8 yr old little girl from Eastern Europe chained to a radiator?), they aren’t recognized as being “legitimately vicitimized”. That’s why so few T visas have been issued.

I guess that’s kind of a side issue. I just think it’s ridiculous that anyone could suggest trying to separate the issue of child trafficking from adult sex work is demanding to child survivors. People like me, activists who draw attention to this shit, do care. We care a whole lot.

By: Fionnabhair

Fionnabhair — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 01:42:09 +0000

frau sally benz: Ahh. Yeah, that doesn’t surprise me.

Saving the children, my ass. Only the children “worth” saving.

By: frau sally benz

frau sally benz — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 18:47:25 +0000

Are non-citizen child prostitutes not saved, are they arrested/deported, or are they just being left where they’re found?

If I remember correctly (and darn me, I need to find some sources), when non-citizens are found, they’re just deported. Which, of course, only worsens the problem because most of them were probably trafficked here in the first place. So taking them back to where they were trafficked from doesn’t solve a damn thing.

By: Fionnabhair

Fionnabhair — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 18:14:26 +0000

Something else about this that bothers me, in addition to the number of arrests made vs. children saved, is the need to mention that the children that were saved are US citizens between the ages of 13 and 17. What about the non-citzens? Why are they not included in the count? Are non-citizen child prostitutes not saved, are they arrested/deported, or are they just being left where they’re found? I find it hard to believe that, in these raids, law enforcement is only finding citzens. What about the rest?