Survivor accounts of the lasting results of their prostitution by the hands of Jeffrey Epstein and his rich mates repeat the story of each trafficked woman and lady on Aurora Avenue in Seattle.
The women and girls referenced within the Dec. 7 Seattle Occasions editorial (“New Seattle City Attorney: Where’s the plan to fight sex trafficking?“) doubtless have the identical story as these on the observe in Spokane, Yakima, Tacoma … and people hidden in inns and therapeutic massage parlors. The story of their vulnerability and entrapment is similar; analysis by my mentor, Jennifer James, and me on the College of Washington confirmed a correlation between childhood sexual abuse and later involvement in prostitution. It has been replicated many instances.
The Epstein revelations level to 1 conclusion: We should do extra to penalize intercourse consumers and finish the demand for victims in business sexual exploitation. Washington state and lots of cities and counties have made investments in prevention and transition providers for sexually exploited people. Seattle has properly included funding for commercially sexually exploited minors and adults underneath the umbrella of gender-based violence, which additionally funds sexual assault and home violence applications. The place state and native governments have fallen quick is in recognizing and penalizing the hurt that intercourse consumers trigger in driving business sexual exploitation.
We don’t carve out secure areas for perpetrators of home violence and sexual assault. We must always not defend intercourse consumers who interact in these identical behaviors. Violence powers the intercourse business. Analysis findings present that the share of ladies who expertise violence and sexual assault in prostitution is over 80%. Prostitution is deadly for ladies; over one-third of people in prostitution report that a buyer or trafficker has tried to kill them.
We have to use all authorized methods, deterrents and community-based applications obtainable to go after intercourse consumers. I applaud the Seattle Police Division’s letter-writing tactic and the applying of Keep out of Areas of Prostitution orders to intercourse consumers and pimps. Making use of SOAP orders to intercourse consumers addresses a historic inequity of defending consumers, who are sometimes white males, compared with victims, who’re disproportionately individuals of colour. Efforts directed at intercourse consumers reinforce the message that intercourse shopping for is a criminal offense. In keeping with the United Nations, it’s a violation of human rights.
It’s time for the Legislature to make the penalty for purchasing intercourse a felony by passing a reintroduced model of HB 1265 within the subsequent session. Earlier efforts to extend penalties for intercourse consumers have failed; they normally by no means make it “out of committee.” The Group Security Committee is the place these payments typically die. Survivors and allies have watched the Legislature capitulate to the false arguments perpetrated by the intercourse business, ignore their testimony across the systemic hurt of prostitution and decide to guard intercourse consumers by doing nothing. The intercourse business has repeatedly tried to dam service {dollars} as a result of acknowledging {that a} majority of these in prostitution need out undermines its narrative of “private company” and cuts right into a system depending on recruiting essentially the most susceptible.
There isn’t a strategy to make prostitution secure. It’s time the Legislature chooses to cease defending intercourse consumers and joins the efforts initiated by the SPD and Seattle Metropolis Council to extend penalties for consumers and ship the message that we’re going after demand. Let’s study the lesson: The privilege and safety prolonged to Jeffrey Epstein subjected essentially the most susceptible to excessive sexual violence. Let’s cease defending intercourse consumers in Washington.
