WHY IS SEX TRAFFICKING DISCUSSED MORE THAN LABOR TRAFFICKING?
Despite numbers showing that more people are trafficked for labor than sex, 16:1, victims of sex trafficking are brought to justice far more often than those of forced labor. This is due, in part, to the fact that victims of labor trafficking are so much more difficult to identify.
It is not illegal to clean dishes or build homes or paint nails, making it difficult to discern these victims from those doing that work legally. Identifying those trafficked for illegal work such as commercial sex is easier based on the illegality of the business itself. Places where sexual activity is a commodity are more closely watched than are the mom-n-pop shops that sell you your breakfast potatoes made by a Guatemalan forced to work off his “debt”.
HOW LAWS MAY NEGATIVELY EFFECT THE DETECTION OF SEX WORK VICTIMS
Given how difficult it is to identify victims of forced labor due to the legal nature of businesses, such as manufacturing companies, imagine how difficult it would be to locate victims of sex trafficking if all the brothels were made legal.
If those who bought sex work, those who pimped prostitutes, and those who ran brothels were to be exempt from prosecution, the discovery of victims of sex trafficking could be made just as difficult as it currently is to identify those trafficked for labor.
In the past couple of years, efforts have been made to fully decriminalize sex trade. Legislatures in D.C., New York, Seattle, and other major cities run strong campaigns for bills under the deceptive agenda they call “sex workers’ rights position”.
Sometimes these bills are titled so ambiguously the public doesn’t even know it’s related to the sex industry, hiding behind innocuous names like “community health and safety bill”. Who wouldn’t vote ‘yes’ on that?
These campaigns mislead the voters through what appears to be a liberal stance, an ideology of “sex work is work”. However, when a closer look is taken, the propaganda for these bills read more like dishonest representations of the laws being pushed.
EFFECT OF LEGALIZING “SEX WORK”
Many voters who sign the petitions promoted by university students outside their local grocery store believe they are aiding the rights to the prostitute and trafficked person, and they would be right.
These bills do work to protect the prostitutes who choose a career in sex. They give prostitutes and trafficked persons the ability to seek aid from law enforcement when needed without fear of legal repercussions, it increases their safety reducing rates of assault, rape, and murder, it encourages and often requires the sex workers’ use of contraception, prophylactics, and routine STI tests, and as seen in Nevada, it can be quite lucrative for both the worker and state. For these reasons, the decriminalization of prostitution may be a very good idea. The issue lies in the full decriminalization and legalization of sex work.
“Sex work”, while often used to refer to prostitution, also encompasses stripping, pimps, brothel-, street-, gang- internet- and hotel based prostitution. It also encompasses pornography, another sex industry notorious for the usage of trafficked persons, specifically children.
Bills urging the “full decriminalization of sex work” are calling for the decriminalization or even legalization of the entire commercial sex industry. It calls for all the other players outside the prostitute to escape the eyes of law.
DECRIMINALIZATION VS LEGALIZATION OF PROSTITUTION
Decriminalization of sex work simply means the loosening or even removal of criminal penalties for involvement in sex work. Essentially, when prostitution is decriminalized, law enforcement turns a blind eye.
The consensual exchange of sexual services for money or goods, is considered criminalized in most countries. Decriminalization differs from legalization in that legalizations effectively lifts laws banning the sale and purchase of sex. Additionally, it allows the government to regulate the commodity.
WHAT CAN YOU, THE VOTER DO?
When faced with a petition or issue on a ballot, read the fine print. Unpack what these bills are saying. Don’t allow yourself to get caught up in the propaganda. Don’t fall for the overly simplistic terms used by the bill writers.
The argument is not “should two consenting adults be allowed to buy and sell sex?” Many of us might very well look at a bill that sounds like a workers’ rights issue and vote in favor, when in fact it’s a “legalize pimping” bill, a bill that threatens the safety of the children in your neighborhood, it threatens the impoverished youth, foster care children, youth in juvenile systems, immigrants, and refugees; all those who are targeted for trafficking.
Read before signing,
The Abolitionist