She had it coming. She was asking for it. She consented to this. She never said her safe word. These phrases are being used at an alarming rate not only to diminish the severity but to condone violence against women, and it’s not something that’s only started happening in the last decade. The “rough sex” defense has been around since the 1980s but has become an increasingly popular plea since...
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After being trafficked in porn for nearly a year, a 15-year old girl is finally free. The crimes perpetrated against her are clear because they were recorded and posted on porn websites. Sex trafficking has been most often associated with prostitution, but as this case reminds us sex trafficking also happens in porn. Last week the New York Post reported that “a teenage girl who had been missing for nearly...
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A few days ago the D.C. Council held a hearing to help decide whether or not they'll pass the Community Safety and Health Amendment Act of 2019, a deceptively named bill that would fully decriminalize the sex trade in that city. This would include not only the sale of sex, but buying sex, pimping, and brothel-keeping. During this very long day, the council listened to testimonies from the pro "sex...
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Several years ago, I attended a film screening hosted by a reputable anti-trafficking organization. The documentary was about the reality of prostitution and the commercial sex trade. At the end of the film, the event organizers introduced a panel of subject matter experts and invited the audience to ask questions. The very first question was, "so this is why we need to legalize prostitution, right?" I looked around at the...
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I met my trafficker in high school. He was in the grade above mine. He lured me out of high school with promises of a good life, assuring me I could just get my GED and become successful. He started advertising me online, without my knowledge, and that’s when men started coming to our apartment to rape me. I didn’t know I was being trafficked, prostituted, then. When I ask...
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In the city where our Supreme Court of justice resides a bill is being considered to fully decriminalize prostitution in Washington, D.C. They call it “The Community Safety and Health Amendment Act of 2019,” but it will not make prostituted women safe. And legalizing sex buying, pimping, and brothel keeping of vulnerable women is not justice. It is a human rights disaster. “Council members would do well to look beyond...
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Last week Congresswoman Ann Wagner (R-MO-02) and Congressman Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY-08) jointly introduced the bi-partisan Sex Trafficking Demand Reduction Act HR 4326 in Congress. This important bill will strengthen the United States government’s efforts to ensure that nations around the world are effectively preventing sex trafficking by working to eliminate the demand for commercial sex. In practice, this means passing laws that greatly reduce the number of sex buyers. Upon...
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Germany is a country where prostitution has been legalized and normalized to the degree that over one million men are purchasing sex in the country per day. Nearly half a million women are sold in 3500 brothels, on the streets, in drive-through sex stalls, and other locations. Because of laws that allow men to buy sex with impunity, the sex industry in the country is enormous and sexual exploitation is...
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On August 19, a trial began in San Diego, in which 22 women testified to being manipulated and tricked by producers into making internet pornography for a website called Girls Do Porn. Each woman’s claim includes being seriously deceived by the producers from beginning to end. What began as a Craigslist ad for a modeling job, featuring pictures of fully clothed women, turned into a bait-and-switch to make amateur porn....
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