A woman was found murdered in a hotel in Chicago’s Gold
Coast this week, and the tone of the media coverage has been deeply disturbing.
The woman was likely the victim of a crime, and yet all reports have centered
on what she may have done to deserve it. Why would the media be so cruel? For
one reason: this woman had also been arrested for prostitution.
Reports about the murder assert that the woman lived a“high-risk” lifestyle because of her involvement in the commercial sex trade. Certainly
it’s important for the public to know that the murder could possibly be
connected to prostitution, and it’s true that prostitution is dangerous for
many women involved. The deeply disturbing detail that’s being left out is
this: the most frequent perpetrators of violence in the prostitution are the
customers, often called “johns.”
In her study, Sisters Speak Out, Jody Raphael of DePaulUniversity interviewed 222 women in Chicago about their experiences in the sex
trade. The women said that customers were the number one perpetrators of
violence, both in indoor sex trade venues and on the street. Even women in
escort services reported high rates of violence; more than half reported being
raped. Instead of having compassion for prostituted people, our culture tends
to blame these women for the harm they’ve endured.
Johns have also remained invisible as the public expressed
surprise that prostitution could take place at a high-end hotel. In reality,
most men who buy sex would have the means to pay for that hotel room. Ourresearch of 113 johns in Chicago found that most johns earned more than $40,000
a year, with 17% earning more than $80,000. These are men with disposable
income, and they are facing few deterrents to their crime. Only 7% of men
interviewed had ever been arrested for solicitation.
When conversations about women in prostitution come up, it’s
time to stop stigmatizing women and start talking about johns. To learn more
about efforts to create accountability for johns in Illinois and resources for
survivors of the sex trade, visit www.enddemandillinois.org