Florida governor may grant singer Jim Morrison of the Doors a posthumous pardon for a 1969 indecent exposure conviction. Why not advocate getting rid of stupid nudity laws all together, Governor?
Censorship advocacy group, Parents TV Council releases a study (pdf) that says profanity on broadcast TV has increased 70% since 2005.
Movie about ethically challenged anti-prostitution crusader and rising CNN star, Eliot Spitzer says he is a victim of overzealous investigators who caught him doing the same stuff he so enthusiastically prosecuted as New York Attorney General.
Probabtion has been terminated early for former madam Kristen Davis, who purportedly supplied hookers to the aforementioned New York Governor Spitzer and who, unlike Spitzer, did prison time (and was not offered her own show on CNN).
The FBI has issued a press release about a 3-day operation that claims to have “recovered” 69 child prostitutes.
The operation included enforcement actions in 40 cities across 34 FBI divisions around the country and led to the recovery of 69 children who were being victimized through prostitution. Additionally, nearly 885 others, including 99 pimps, were arrested on state and local charges.
The release then goes on to explain that the local charges may be supplemented with federal obscenity charges.
While an impressive 885 arrests were made, the release goes on to say that the task force has only landed 625 convictions in its entire seven year history, so one can presume that the majority of those arrested in this operation will ultimately not be convicted of any serious crime, much less trafficking in child prostitutes.
Although it is certainly an honorable mission to protect children from being used in the sex trade, some skepticism is warranted when it comes to claims by both law enforcement and organizations like National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Both entities, but especially the latter, are practiced at inflating the problem as well as their accomplishments to suit their own agenda.
An estimated 800,000 children are reported missing each year – more than 2,000 children every day. An estimated 1 in 5 girls and 1 in 10 boys will be sexually victimized before age 18.
Statements like this are carefully crafted to imply that every child is at risk for being abducted into child prostitution. The literal interpretation is that thousands of children in the U.S. disappear each day and hundreds of those are being sexually exploited (and yet a nationwide crackdown by 2100 personnel from 186 different law enforcement agencies netted only 69 of them?).
But the reality of the war on prostitution is not as it’s portrayed by the rescue industry. The statistics about child prostitution are intentionally inflated to garner public support for a mission that mainly targets adult sex workers.
While the FBI’s Operation Innocence Lost is supposed to focus on the exploitation of minors, according to attorney Sienna Baskin from Urban Justice, “in the process [it] arrests hundreds of consensual adult sex workers.” Urban Justice’s Melissa Broudo also observes that the rate of sex worker arrests have risen during the past few years as a result of increased police and FBI activities:
In contrast to the rare child prostitute, adult prostitutes are numerous and easy prey for law enforcement trying to generate arrest statistics. Nearly all adult sex workers are repulsed by sexual exploitation of children, but by driving adult prostitution underground, rescue organizations and law enforcement agencies are sealing the fate of the children they claim to be concerned about. While those actually in the sex business are in the best position to detect pimping and exploitation of children, the aggressive crusade against them discourages them from reporting it. Who in the sex industry is going to report suspected abuse of children knowing that, by doing so, they will have to put their own freedom and livelihood at risk?
Make no mistake. The rescue industry, by targeting prostitution in general, are doing more harm than good when it comes to removing children from the sex trade. For that reason, one can only conclude that they are far more interested in advancing their own moral and political agenda than saving sexually abused children. Just another social crusade capitalizing on the slogan “for the children” without actually doing anything positive for children.
I think at this point it is only fair that I point out that I am, in fact, a victim of the high tech electronics industry and was trafficked from Nevada to my current state of residence by those who wished to exploit my youth and engineering skills for their own profit.
I should also add that the company that hired me conspired with transportation entities to facilitate my interstate travel and dislocation from my long-time home to a new and unfamiliar city where I would be dependent on their help to find accommodations, make new acquaintances, and establish a new life. I had to agree to work at the new company for a year after they paid for my move.
While I always thought my decision to take the job was voluntary, thanks to everything I’ve read about trafficking, I now know that such thoughts are a manifestation of being in denial. It is now patently clear to me that work is forced on us by the threat of poverty and the primitive desire to improve our lives. I fell victim to an offer of a much higher salary than I was previously getting and am now addicted to the extra income and more flexible hours. If I really had a choice I would most certainly not be working here (or anyplace else, for that matter).
As if that’s not enough, my wife was actually part of the conspiracy. Once, after learning that work is slavery and exploitation, I considered quitting, but she laid a guilt trip on me, telling me how having a job and a good income is a critical ingredient in raising a family. And you know what? We live in a culture that actually promotes that materialistic viewpoint. Needless to say, I caved into the psychological torture and stayed employed.
I feel doomed, but I hope to be rescued soon, so I can write a letter to the newspaper where I first saw the ad for the new job so I can castigate them for the part they played in my enslavement.
According to an article by Nathalie Rothschild in spiked-online.com:
We all know that there is a big sex industry in south-east Asia. In fact, it often seems that sex is the only thing we hear about in reports from this part of the world as the media peddles salacious stories about ‘sex tourism’, ‘ladyboys’, virgins for sale and girls tricked into prostitution. But in recent years another kind of trade has boomed there: the anti-trafficking industry. And local sex worker rights activists tell me that this industry is a far bigger problem for them than punters looking for sex or company.
It gets better. In fact, I may have to tag this post as “Humor” (I don’t have a “Fucking ridiculous” category).
Today, there are hundreds of non-governmental organisations in Cambodia alone working to ‘rescue and rehabilitate’ sex workers. Local sex-worker representatives even claim that there are more anti-trafficking activists than there are genuine trafficking victims.
The article goes on to discuss that no one knows how many trafficking victims there are in Cambodia despite money spent on studies. Only 12 people were convicted of trafficking crimes in 2009.
The USAID report explained that other organisations and researchers had also failed to establish just how many trafficking victims there are in Cambodia. One of the obstacles identified was that ‘Human trafficking victims may be unaware, unwilling, or unable to acknowledge that they are trafficking victims, so it is difficult to reach them…’
Yeah, there’s nothing worse than an uncooperative victim who refuses to acknowledge their victimhood. How rude.
Andrew Hunter from the Asia-Pacific Network of Sex Workers (APNSW) tells me that there are NGO-run women’s shelters across Cambodia that rely on funding from donors like USAID and that they use ‘lurid stories of sexual abuse to raise money. It’s kind of pornographic in a way – but it seems making up stories of the enslavement and sexual degradation of women raises more funds.’
Wait a sec! Is Mr Hunter questioning the credibility and integrity of the rescue industry? Well, butter my buns and call me a biscuit. Who would have thought?
For Andrew, saying that women are unwitting victims – even if they vehemently deny it – is tantamount to denying ‘the idea that women have agency’. (Ironically, the anti-trafficking industry is to a large extent made up of self-described feminists. But feminists have traditionally fought for women to be regarded as autonomous, free-thinking individuals, not as clueless victims.)
I’m beginning to see some forms of feminism as crusade by women to dispel the idea that women have a brain and are capable of actually making decisions. Think about that. If we can’t trust women to control their own bodies, how can we trust them to, you know, vote and help decide the fate of humanity and shit?
Anyone who reads news relating to prostitution in other countries soon realizes that “legal” does not mean legal in the sense that prostitution is treated like other businesses. Nope. When it comes to prostitution, legal often means slightly less illegal. It’s like calling a glass half full or half empty.
Paying for sex is legal in Canada. Soliciting, or talking openly about what you expect to be paid for those sexual favours, is against the law.
So is asking a would-be client about little things, like whether they will wear a condom or have a sexually transmitted disease, before you climb into their car for a quick romp.
Inviting a sex worker into your home or hotel room is legal. Invite a john into your flat, and you court arrest for running a bawdy house.
Such conflicting restrictions are common in European countries that permit prostitution clearly showing that, despite their more rational attitudes about sex, they still consider sex workers to be an underclass unworthy of the same rights and privileges of other citizens. As a result, prostitutes are often faced with unnecessary risks that are solely a function of politics and social intolerance.
“We believe sex workers have the right to live and work safely, in an environment free of violence and discrimination,” a statement signed by 40 professors, lawyers and community activists says.
“Current laws force sex workers to work in dangerous conditions and compromise their access to police protection, which in turn renders them even more vulnerable to violence.”
So, who supports legal prostitution in Canada?
Last month, an Angus Reid poll found roughly half of all Canadians – but most men – supported decriminalization of prostitution, and believed prostitutes should be allowed to work indoors or in brothels for safety’s sake.
So, who opposes the measures to make it safer for women? You guessed it: Anti-trafficking folks to whom the only goal is the complete eradication of prostitution no matter who they hurt in the process. At least the Canadian Press seems to give voice to both sides whereas in the U.S., the mainstream press is largely blind to any point of view aside from that of the rescue industry.
I’ve started watching the new HBO series called, Boardwalk Empire. The story begins on the day before the the Volsted Act goes into effect.
What started as a moral crusade, launched the future of modern organized crime. The underworld was the sole beneficiary of Prohibition. Everyone else was a victim.
It doesn’t take much to see how the current drug war parallels alcohol prohibition. They are exactly the same thing. The criminalization of any recreational activity by consenting adults is prohibition, whether it be drug use, gambling, or sex.
Anti-prostitution activists are like a modern day version of the Anti-Saloon League. They see the sale of sex as immoral and destructive. They think, if only it can be eradicated by law, the world would be a better place. Of course, prostitution is already a crime in all but one state in the U.S. and, as during alcohol prohibition, the business still flourishes.
The problem the anti-prostitution movement faces is that no one really cares. Prostitution is called “the oldest profession” and most people simply think it’s here to stay. How could they mobilize an apathetic public? The rescue industry is the answer to that question.
First, they needed to redefine the issue as one affecting children rather than adults. They do this by focusing exclusively on children as if adults are an inconsequential minority in the selling of sex.
Secondly, they had to dispel the public perception that prostitution is consensual. To accomplish that, they adopted new language. Prostitution is now called trafficking in people. Slavery.
Thirdly, they had to greatly expand the dimensions of the problem so no one felt safe. We see this in their profligate use and abuse of inflated statistics.
Finally, they had to recast themselves as heroes. They now call themselves abolitionists and their mission is to stamp out slavery.
But they aren’t stamping out slavery. Slavery isn’t just about being forced to do something you don’t want to do. It’s also about not being free to do what you want. By preventing people from owning and controlling their own bodies, prohibition makes people slaves to someone else’s morality.
And, like all prohibition, the criminal underworld is the main beneficiary, while everyone else loses.
They may call themselves abolitionists, but they’re really prohibitionists.
This weekend an organization called Stop Child Trafficking Now is hosting a 5K walk in 39 cities to raise funds to support their rather unique program to stop child trafficking by targeting the demand side of the equation.
SCTNow has launched a national campaign to raise money for retired elite military operatives targeting the demand side of trafficking. These Special Operative Teams gather information on child predators both in the U.S. and abroad, information that will be used to convict child sex buyers. These operatives use the skills developed in the War on Terror in this war to bring down predators. Professional law enforcement have vetted this strategy and are eager to work with these operative teams once funding is secured.
And what can these “operatives” do that ordinary law enforcement can’t?
As a private organization the Special Operatives are not bound by the same restrictions that keep U.S. law enforcement from conducting research against sexual offenders. The Operatives provide high-level information and evidence to appropriate authorities that is needed to build packages against U.S. child sex offenders.
Restrictions? I wonder if they’re referring to the restrictions placed on government by those pesky Constitutional Amendments commonly referred to as the Bill of Rights.
They also make this startling claim about the failure of the U.S. law enforcement and justice system:
Stop Child Trafficking has chosen to fund a bold, new approach, one that addresses the demand side of child sex trafficking by targeting buyers/predators for prosecution and conviction. While over 260 organizations are currently focused on rescuing children, until the demand side is addressed, the supply will always exist. Few people know that virtually no convictions have occurred in the U.S. in the last 10 years, thus this heinous crime grows.
I gather they have apparently already identified one class of dangerous predator from comments made by one of their staff about the guy in the Pedobear costume at Comic Con.
“They are getting stimulated by that one touch. You don’t see it we don’t know it because they are hidden under that costume but that’s their sexual stimulation,” says Weis who is also a member of Stop Child Trafficking Now an organization that advocates against child abuse and human slavery. “Keep your children away from these mascots. Keep your child away from people dressed up. Know who your child is around and know what they are doing,” says Weis.
Kristen Weis is a National Walks Director/Sponsorship Development Manager at SCTNow.
You have to wonder if they’re mobilizing to send out one of their special ops teams to “research” the Pedobear guy. Or maybe they’re massing their troops in preparation for a D-Day style assault on the character breakfast at Disneyland.
You’ll notice the update at the top of that report clears up a minor error where the Tulsa Police apparently told Fox 23 that the Comic Con Pedobear guy was a registered sex offender. Turns out he wasn’t. I wonder where the cops got the bad info.
Melanie Phillips at the Daily Mail has some observations about how prostitution has recently been exhibiting a trend away from the stereotypes portrayed in the media.
Something strange is happening to the oldest profession. It’s switching off its red light and becoming respectable.
To put it another way, girls from comfortable backgrounds are now treating it as a profession.
Almost every week, it seems, we read of middle-class girls openly working as prostitutes.
The article goes on to note this disturbing development:
It also seems that our colleges and universities are providing a steady stream of highly educated hookers, while prostitution has become an increasingly popular way for students to pay their way through college.
How dare they! Far better to stay stupid or go deep into debt than “work” your way through college.
Of course, there have always been high-class prostitutes and courtesans: girls from respectable families who have chosen to lead unrespectable lives. But that’s just the point. Respectable people considered their activities to be shameful.
But today’s middle class hookers apparently are reaping all the benefits of the life without paying the obligatory price of being shamed by society.
Yet behaviour that once led to certain disgrace is becoming openly accepted, even flaunted. Prostitution even has a respectable new title - the ‘sex industry’ - as though it has equal status with, say, electronics, publishing or the motor trade.
Or journalist?
With sexuality having been remorselessly stripped of any higher meaning than physical pleasure, the line between the predatory one-night stand and paying for sex has inevitably become very blurred.
Predatory one night stand? Perhaps Melanie needs to raise her threshold for what qualifies as predatory behavior to something a bit higher than not coming back for seconds.
Prostitution, accordingly, looks like joining the list of behaviour once viewed with disapproval - sex outside marriage, children born out of wedlock, homosexuality - but which has now become a ‘ lifestyle choice’.
We can only hope.
The article largely degenerates from there.
But prostitution is not an acceptable lifestyle to choose. It is a form of slavery.
…
Such commodification of the body and of the most intimate activity between men and women coarsens and barbarises not just the individuals involved, but society in general.
…
This is because it treats the female body with at best indifference and at worst contempt.
Yada, yada, yada. Then later in the article she blames feminism for it. She must not hang around many feminists.
If you’re a regular visitor to this site, you may have already read through the comments on a recent post challenging a ridiculous claim that “the average age of entry into prostitution in the United States is 12″. The evidence offered by the group to support their claim was a quote from a Department of Justice website:
“The average age at which girls first become victims of prostitution is 12-14….”
What the advocacy group failed to mention is that the statistic they surgically culled from the DOJ website clearly excludes adult prostitutes. When you’re only looking at children, the age is obviously going to be very young.
Leaving out that very crucial distinction implies that the average age for entry into prostitution, in general, is 12-14. Why is that important? Because it suggests that those advocating for the cause may be willing to intentionally distort the facts to achieve a greater impact on their audience. It calls into question the objectivity of the entire production. Furthermore, using exaggerated information to solicit funding and donations or influence legislation poses ethical questions.
After tasting victory in the war against Craigslist, a mob of grandstanding state attorneys general are continuing their intimidation campaign to restore prostitution to its time-honored place next to other street crime. While it’s understandable that adult prostitutes see that as seriously endangering their lives, the crusaders against the site willingly accept that risk. After all, it’s “for the children”.
Like Craigslist, Backpage has been trying to placate the monster with a policy of social responsibility and like Craigslist they are being slapped down for their efforts. Nothing whets the monster’s appetite for blood like the knowledge that it’s winning.
As we all know, it would be a simple matter for these online classified sites to step up to the plate and refuse ads that are illegal. From what I’ve seen, most so-called advocacy groups seem to think they are magically color coded immediately upon entry so as to make it a snap for website screeners to separate out the chaff from ads that are legitimate, First Amendment protected, speech. Of course, these sites are privately owned, rather than government controlled, so the First Amendment offers no protection from the torch wielding angry mob. It’s true, Backpage and Craigslist can, at their choosing, deny anyone’s ad.
All the anti-prostitution crusaders want is to make that decision for them.
First, they needed to redefine the issue as one affecting children rather than adults. They do this by focusing exclusively on children as if adults are an inconsequential minority in the selling of sex.