Survivor accounts of the lasting results of their prostitution by the hands of Jeffrey Epstein and his rich buddies repeat the story of each trafficked lady and girl on Aurora Avenue in Seattle.
The women and girls referenced within the Dec. 7 Seattle Instances editorial (“New Seattle City Attorney: Where’s the plan to fight sex trafficking?“) possible have the identical story as these on the monitor in Spokane, Yakima, Tacoma … and people hidden in lodges and therapeutic massage parlors. The story of their vulnerability and entrapment is identical; 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 at least one conclusion: We should do extra to penalize intercourse patrons and finish the demand for victims in business sexual exploitation. Washington state and plenty of cities and counties have made investments in prevention and transition providers for sexually exploited people. Seattle has correctly included funding for commercially sexually exploited minors and adults below the umbrella of gender-based violence, which additionally funds sexual assault and home violence applications. The place state and native governments have fallen brief is in recognizing and penalizing the hurt that intercourse patrons 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 shield intercourse patrons who interact in these identical behaviors. Violence powers the intercourse trade. Analysis findings present that the share of girls who expertise violence and sexual assault in prostitution is over 80%. Prostitution is deadly for girls; 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 patrons. I applaud the Seattle Police Division’s letter-writing tactic and the appliance of Keep out of Areas of Prostitution orders to intercourse patrons and pimps. Making use of SOAP orders to intercourse patrons addresses a historic inequity of defending patrons, who are sometimes white males, compared with victims, who’re disproportionately folks of shade. Efforts directed at intercourse patrons 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 getting intercourse a felony by passing a reintroduced model of HB 1265 within the subsequent session. Earlier efforts to extend penalties for intercourse patrons have failed; they normally by no means make it “out of committee.” The Neighborhood 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 trade, ignore their testimony across the systemic hurt of prostitution and decide to guard intercourse patrons by doing nothing. The intercourse trade 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 probably the most susceptible.
There isn’t a strategy to make prostitution secure. It’s time the Legislature chooses to cease defending intercourse patrons and joins the efforts initiated by the SPD and Seattle Metropolis Council to extend penalties for patrons and ship the message that we’re going after demand. Let’s study the lesson: The privilege and safety prolonged to Jeffrey Epstein subjected probably the most susceptible to excessive sexual violence. Let’s cease defending intercourse patrons in Washington.
