Ignoring Demand Puts Exploitation on Repeat in Chicagoland

There is a pattern of sexual exploitation repeating over and over again in Chicagoland, and it is being ignored. Men are buying sex, and women are the only ones being punished for their crimes.

In the most recent (and particularly glaring) case this weekend, a woman was arrested in the Chicago suburbs for prostitution. The article begins by explaining how law enforcement was tipped off:

“After they observed an inordinate amount of customers, who would frequent a Warrenville spa for very short periods of time, police in the west suburb last month launched an investigation into the Green Spa, 2 S 610 IL Route 59.”

The reporter does not mention whether or not a single john was arrested. There was a veritable parade of johns right in front of law enforcement, and it seems that they may have failed to act. Arresting a dozen johns would have gone a tremendous way to curbing the sex trade in the community. How do we know? Johns say so themselves when they talk to each other in online message boards, as well as in CAASE's research on 113 johns in Chicago. They could be deterred from buying sex if they were arrested and charged. Instead, these men in Warrenville will continue to seek out places to buy sex.

Should businesses that are fronts for prostitution be shut down? Absolutely. But it’s highly unlikely that the one woman who was arrested in this sting was the person running that business, keeping the profits, or marketing the exploitation within the spa to potential customers. If those things were indeed happening, and someone else was in charge, it could potentially be a case of human trafficking. It’s also not clear who else was selling sex within the spa, and if any others were there by choice or against their will. As we saw in a case in Mt. Prospect, massage parlors can be fronts for sex trafficking.

What can you do to take action? Ask your local law enforcement to address demand. When you read stories like this one that are ignoring demand, reach out to the reporter and ask if any johns were arrested. Support legislative initiatives that hold pimps, johns and traffickers accountable while proposing support and services for prostituted people.

Start by signing up for our action alerts at End Demand Illinois and learning more at www.enddemandillinois.org

Photo by Thomas Hawk.

Survivors of Sexual Harm Coming Forward on Twitter

The topic #ididnotreport has been trending on Twitter, with survivors of sexual harm telling very powerful stories in 140 characters. This movement is showing the world just how prevalent sexual assault is and how often women (and men) are disbelieved when they do come forward:

Katharine ‏ @rockon_musegirl

#ididnotreport because the first time I tried telling someone they asked what I was wearing. It was an orange bikini. I was 12.

Becky B ‏ @MrsBeBe_

#ididnotreport systematic sexual abuse over a 2 yr period by boys at my school because teachers didn't believe me so why would anyone else?

cate cate ‏ @birdgehrl

#ididnotreport the man who would not listen to me when I said no, even though I was drunk.

Vicky Kapoor ‏ @hrsyofgrmnghst

#ididnotreport because I have no faith in our justice system where so few rapists are jailed + victims are treated like perpetrators

Most sexual assaults happen between acquaintances, and the vast majority are never reported to police. Survivors fear that they won’t be believed, or worse, that they will be shamed.

What can you do? If you feel comfortable, share your story using the #ididnotreport hashtag. Tweet your support for survivors using #ididnotreport and #webelieveyou.

For everyone:
If someone shares with you that they’ve been assaulted, your response makes all the difference. Learn more about how we can, as individuals and a culture, stand in support of survivors of sexual assault. Download the powerful presentations and posters at www.startbybelieving.org

For survivors:
The Chicago Rape Crisis Hotline is -1-888-293-2080 and nationally the RAINN hotline is 1-800-656-HOPE (4673)

In Chicago, CAASE’s legal program offers free representation to survivors of sexual harm. Learn more about our services here.

Lifetime Glamorizes Prostitution

I don’t need to watch the forthcoming Lifetime television series, “The Client List,” to know it glamorizes the sex trade and dismisses the harm prostitution causes to women and girls. All I needed to do was click on the preview page on the website, which has a giant photo of Jennifer Love Hewitt in her underwear and a 15 second voice-over with seductive music, describing how she’s recruited into the sex trade in a small town massage parlor:

The series follows Riley balancing these two worlds - one that revolves around her kids and family - and the other that revolves around the massage parlor and it’s [sic] special clientele. These two worlds couldn’t be farther apart, yet she’s totally comfortable in both.

To us, this sounds like a john’s fantasy, which is to say, entirely delusional. Johns (men who buy sex) want to see things like this on TV because it legitimizes their behavior. The sad truth is that prostitution in massage parlors is happening here in Illinois and harming women and girls in our own community.

Just in the past year, several Illinois massage parlors have been shut down because of prostitution and, more to the point, for sex trafficking. A recent conviction of a pimp in Mt. Prospect, Illinois, shows how traffickers recruit and keep women in the sex trade through massage parlors.

Unfortunately, law enforcement’s approach to addressing these harms is usually to simply arrest the women working inside and to let the owners and johns go (as happened this week in Ottawa, Illinois). So the plot point that Riley should be worried about being arrested is certainly accurate, but that wouldn’t be her only concern. She would, most likely, live in fear of violence.

If the accounts of johns chatting with each other in online message boards is any indication, being prostituted in a massage parlor is not fun work. Johns describe groping, assaulting and denying pay to the women working in Illinois massage parlors. Most women in prostitution experience fear, threats and violence at the hands of pimps, johns and traffickers. More than 20% of women working in escort services and exotic dancing report being raped more than 10 times.

Lifetime says it’s “committed to offering the highest quality entertainment and information programming content that celebrates, entertains and supports women.” Tell Lifetime you don’t think The Client List does any of those things by sending them a message, boycotting this show and asking your friends to do the same.

Want to take action locally? Sign up for our action alerts at www.enddemandillinois.org/subscribe

Judging RedEye by its Covers

Last week, Chicagoans learned about a proposed law that would tax strip clubs $5 per customer to fund rape crisis services in Illinois. News quickly went viral about the law. State Senator Toi Hutchinson and Lt. Governor Sheila Simon support the bill, which is an advocacy effort of the Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault. CAASE supports this proposed tax, and we have a lot of work to do addressing how our local media talk about this issue and violence against women in general. RedEye, Chicago’s free newspaper, broke the story with a cover that looked like this:

RedEye set the tone and brought the conversation down to the basest level possible. A caption could have been: “Women in strip clubs are simply body parts you can buy and tax.”

Senator Hutchinson did a great job re-framing the conversation in a press conference. “This is an important conversation,” she said. “There’s a connection between this industry and the objectification of women that allows rape to continue, and that’s a fact." She continued: “Women are whole human beings with hearts and spirits and minds. We’re not a collection of body parts that are for sale." She must have been facing some smirks in the audience, because she added, "This is nothing to laugh about. It’s up to every one of us that the conversation is where it ought to be.”

Violence against women is routinely trivialized and glamorized in order to sell, sell, sell. (If you’re not familiar with this problem, see the awesome new film, Miss Representation.) Women in the commercial sex trade are snickered at, blamed, dehumanized. So what does the media have to say about all this?

Today on WBEZ, a media panel (Scott Smith of Chicago Magazine and Jen Sabella of Huffington Post Chicago) talked briefly about the use of the word “ass” on the RedEye cover and the image of a woman’s feet in apparent “stripper shoes.” They quickly summarized that the cover was tailored to RedEye’s audience, a group that will only pick up and read the most salacious stories. Smith likened it to the old timey days of news boys hawking headlines to sell papers, when the veracity of the message on the cover didn't matter, really, as long as it motivated people to read a well-researched story.

Of course, he’s right. This is absolutely how RedEye is operating, or we never would have seen that cover. The inside story was fair and informative, but covers matter too.

That cover should have been about the perpetration of sexual violence. It should have been about how women in strip clubs (and women who live near the clubs) experience harassment and sexual assault. It should have been about efforts to end exploitation. Let's demand that our local media elevate the conversation.  Tell the RedEye that it matters to you what they put on their covers, in their pages, and on their website. Send an email or a letter to the editor urging them not to objectify women or trivialize sexual violence (email ritaredeye@tribune.com).

See the whole press conference (CAASE's Lynne Johnson speaks about our End Demand Illinois campaign!) with Senator Hutchinson and Lt. Governor Simon below, and stay tuned for more.

Strip Club Owners Took $3 Million in Fees from Women Dancers

News broke today that strip club owners in Elgin, Illinois, allegedly earned more than $3 million in fees from women who danced in their venue. They are under investigation for not reporting this money for taxes. Sadly, the fact that this much money was earned in a strip club is not surprising. Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation urges the community to become aware of the exploitation that occurs in strip clubs throughout Chicagoland. From the Chicago Tribune:

"Buttitta and his son received about $3,704,959 from “house” fees they collected from women for each shift they worked as dancers at Blackjacks, according to the U.S. attorney's office."

Some people believe that stripping makes women rich. Instead, they are often indebted to the club indefinitely. From our fact sheet:

As soon as a woman begins dancing at a club, it can cost her money rather than being a lucrative job. Many of the women who dance at strip clubs or strip for a house-call company are hired as independent contractors instead of as employees and are therefore not paid a salary or hourly wages. Despite this classification, the clubs maintain enormous control over the women, setting their schedules and hours and setting the prices a dancer can charge for table or private dances.

Additionally, the women often pay the club stage fees or “rent,” sometimes as high as $150 per night. In addition, women pay the club a commission of up to 20% from private dances and tips. Many clubs also require dancers to “tip out”—sharing a percentage of what they earn with the bartender, waitresses, bouncers, house mother, and DJ.

Strip clubs and other indoor venues are also recruiting grounds for pimps and traffickers. In this video, Olivia describes how she was forced into the sex trade after taking a job as a dancer at a Chicago strip club. 

Take action by signing up for our End Demand Illinois action alerts here. 

To learn more about the harms that strip clubs cause to women, please visit our fact sheets.

Kristof Takes on Pimps, Backpage.com

Nicholas Kristof of The New York Times posted a column today about pimps who are using websites like Backpage.com to facilitate the trafficking of girls as young as 13. We’re heartened that the issue of domestic sex trafficking is receiving more attention and that pimps are being seen for what they really are--traffickers. Kristof calls for the shut down of websites that are making it easy on pimps:

“It’s true that there’s some risk that pimps will migrate to new Web sites, possibly based overseas, that are less cooperative. But, on balance, that’s a risk worth taking. The present system is failing. Pimps aren’t the shrewdest marketers, and eliminating a hub for trafficking should at least chip away at the problem.“

Kristof points out that ordering a girl for sex off the internet is as easy as ordering a pizza. That's not the first time we've heard that comparison, and he's sadly very right: When Rachel Durchslag, CAASE's executive director, interviewed 113 johns in Chicago, on purchaser said: "I usually call for a girl, you know, like a pizza.” There are so many disturbing things happening there--a girl being a commodity, available to order--it's important to know that johns are a driving force as much as pimps are.
 

Kristof identifies the issue of encouraging law enforcement to go after pimps in the first place, and we are fortunate locally that Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez and Sheriff Tom Dart are embracing the End Demand approach. We’ve seen signs of progress in Illinois, with local stings that led to the arrests of more than 10 traffickers and 27 johns.

There is much more to be done, however, and you can help address this problem in Illinois. Through our End Demand Illinois campaign, prevention curriculum for young men and direct legal services for survivors of the sex trade, CAASE is working to hold perpetrators accountable and advocating for supportive services for survivors of the sex trade. You can:

1. Sign up for the End Demand Illinois Action Alerts to keep up with the latest news and advocacy efforts. If you're already signed up, share Kristof's article with a friend and ask them to sign up!

2. Bring CAASE’s curriculum for young men to a high school near you. Our instructor talks to the students about the realities of the commercial sex trade and human trafficking. Young men are asked to consider how pressures to “be a man” can influence their decisions to patronize the sex trade.


3. Make a donation to support CAASE’s work, which includes legal services for survivors of the sex trade.

For more information visit www.caase.org and www.enddemandillinois.org

Responding to "The Misunderstood Sex Offender"

If you pick up a copy of today’s Chicago Reader and flip to page 6, you’ll see a letter from our executive director, Rachel Durchslag, in response to the story “The misunderstood sex offender.” While we thought the story tackled some important issues, it missed the mark by failing to inform readers about the larger scope of the problem: most rapists are never arrested, charged or convicted. Did you catch the article in the Reader? What did you think? 

CAASE's attorneys work with survivors of sexual assault every day. Many of these survivors were raped by acquaintances, and few of them ever see their attacker held accountable until they reach out to us. Learn more about our legal services here. 

Here’s our response to the Reader article:

Dear Editor,

Readers of “The misunderstood sex offender” (Dec. 8, 2011, by Sam Worley) might conclude that Illinois is over-punishing sex offenders when, in reality, the overwhelming majority of perpetrators of sexual assault are never held accountable for their crimes. Within the realm of sexual violence, the men featured in Worley’s article represent a tiny minority of sex offenders; the men he featured were actually convicted. It’s estimated that fewer than 11 percent of rapists in Illinois are ever arrested, let alone charged or convicted of their crimes. Current law enforcement practices and the laws pertaining to sex offenders are clearly ineffective, and we must begin by demanding that perpetrators be arrested and charged. Reforming our response to sexual assault should never center on the needs of the offender, as Worley suggests, but instead on creating justice for crime victims.  

Rachel Durchslag

Executive Director
Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation

Police help 15-year-old girl who was trafficked in Chicago

Recently in Chicago, local law enforcement discovered a 15-year-old girl who had been lured into prostitution by two adults. The story is terrifying but had a just outcome: After the couple recruited the girl on the street, initiated her and tried to pimp her out, a police officer recognized that the girl was a minor. She was treated as a crime victim worthy of services and even helped identify her traffickers. It was discovered that the offender was already out on bond for involuntary servitude of a minor.

The Illinois Safe Children Act, passed last year, ensures that all minors are immune from prosecution for prostitution in our state. We send kudos to law enforcement for looking beneath the surface to recognize that this young woman needed help and that there were others behind the scenes seeking to profit. The Chicago Police Department’s Human Trafficking Task Force along with the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office, Salvation Army’s STOP-IT program and DCFS all helped with this sting—many thanks to them for their collaborative response to human trafficking in our community.

The End Demand Illinois campaign seeks to hold pimps, traffickers and johns accountable for the harm they cause. The people who profit from the commercial sex trade are creating a demand for young women like the one in this story. Stand up against demand for the sex trade—visit www.enddemandillinois.org and sign up for our action alerts.

Looking beneath the surface only takes a minute.

We’ve all seen the mug shots lining the margins of online news sites. Women are charged with prostitution. Sometimes they are in the city, but more often than not, they’re in the suburbs. Not on the street, but busted in a sting in a massage parlor or spa. And our gut reaction at CAASE is to wonder “Did anyone look beneath the surface? Did anyone ask that woman if she was there by choice?”

When you see these stories, do a short screening for yourself. Does the reporter ask the police about the potential of trafficking in the case? Were the sting efforts targeting purchasers (johns) and traffickers (pimps) or only the prostituted women? Is there a plan for holding the business accountable, or figuring out who was really profiting? Or might the arrested women soon be replaced with others? Why are there only photos of prostituted women, but no photos of the johns? Were there efforts to arrest johns?

If not, they’re ignoring demand—the people who perpetrate harm and profit from the sex trade.

If you don’t see reporters and law enforcement looking beneath the surface to address demand, it’s up to you to call them out. Leave a comment. Write a letter. Ask your local law enforcement and elected officials to address demand for the sex trade. Join our campaign and tell Illinois that we must end demand. Visit www.enddemandillinois.org

Sample letters and other information can also be found in our media response guide.

Photo by Elea Chang

Notre Dame Rape Victim’s Case Parallels Experiences of Women in Chicago

The Chicago Tribune has a story today about a Notre Dame student who reports being sexually assaulted and how her family is speaking out about the treatment she received in the wake of her attack. The writers draw parallels to the case of Lizzy Seeberg, who took her own life this fall after allegedly being raped by a Notre Dame football player.
We are saddened and angry for both of these women and their families, and we want you to know that there are many, many people here in Chicago who are going through similar experiences in the wake of a sexual assault. CAASE and our partners in the community are witnessing an epidemic of victims who are attacked by acquaintances and who find a lack of resources to hold their perpetrators accountable.

The terrible reality is that people who are assaulted are often doubted at every turn—by police, prosecutors, and even their own loved ones. The problem of disbelief is often worse for women like those at Notre Dame who were attacked by acquaintances during incidents involving alcohol. Rather than believing these women and continuing a fair investigation that could lead to a trial, it seems that university officials did everything they could to protect the attackers from prosecution. CAASE sees the same issues here in Chicago, and we fight to counteract this through direct legal representation and advocacy. We must believe people who come forward after they are assaulted.

Our legal director, Kaethe Morris Hoffer, helps rape survivors to navigate the criminal justice system and to seek out options in civil court. She is a compassionate advocate for victims’ rights, and thanks to a generous grant from the Department of Justice, CAASE’s capacity to offer these free services is expanding. Kaethe meets with survivors and their families every week who simply want to be treated fairly.

The Tribune quotes the victim’s father as saying: "If there was a prompt, thorough and comprehensive investigation conducted and they came to the conclusion in consultation with the prosecutor that they could not successfully prosecute the individual, I would rely on that.” In Chicago even this approach doesn’t guarantee justice, as there is a lack of transparency about the way the Cook County State’s Attorney approaches sexual assault cases.

A study released last week by the Chicago Justice Project revealed that it is rare for the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office to pursue felony assault charges. The report states that while the police had filed more than 1,500 incident reports, only 288 sexual assault cases were approved for felony charges in 2009. That means fewer than 20% of reported sex crimes are being tried as felonies in Cook County.

The Notre Dame victim’s experience mirrors that of many people in Chicago—victims are kept in the dark about their cases, and they are asked over and over again if they really want to go through with pursuing charges. Even if the victim does stick with it, prosecutors may reject the case during their felony review process. The Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office declined to provide data or information about their felony review process for the CJP report. Until the State’s Attorney’s Office provides transparency and more complete data, it is nearly impossible for advocates to analyze and improve our community’s response to rape.

CAASE urges the Chicago community to read the CJP report about our local law enforcement’s response to rape. Be educated about the realities of this problem right here at home, and know that CAASE stands with survivors of sexual assault every day as they seek justice. We know that our services are needed more than ever.

To learn more about CAASE’s legal services for survivors of sexual harm, click here.

Photo courtesy of Nigsby.

What Did You Think of "Saved on the Strip"?

I watched Hookers, Saved on the Strip on Discovery Channel last night. It’s a new reality TV show about Annie Lobert, a survivor of prostitution (above). I wanted to weigh in about my reaction to the show and hear what you all have to say about it.

First of all, I want to acknowledge that the show perpetuates a lot of stereotypes about women in prostitution. It’s set in Las Vegas, and the B-roll used to tell Annie’s story includes many shots of women wearing fishnet stockings and looking generally happy and glamorous. This made me cringe—the vast majority of women in prostitution in the U.S. are having sex to survive, and they certainly aren’t wearing six-inch heels. Real women in prostitution live in our own community—from Naperville to Elmhurst to Chicago—not just in “sin city.”

However, I think the show tackles a lot of issues that women right here in Chicago are facing as they try to exit prostitution. She touches on issues pertaining to violence, pimps, the legal system and more. I think it’s very brave of Annie and the other survivors on the show to tell their stories. They’re educating the public about the harms of prostitution and trying to help other women. Here are a couple things that stood out to me as being as being informative and pertinent to Chicago:

From what I could tell, Annie was a minor when she was recruited into prostitution. She was lured into it by someone she knew. This is really, really sad and also a very common experience for women in prostitution. Until recently in Illinois, girls could be charged with prostitution even though they were minors, and adults were paying to have sex with them. Our End Demand Illinois campaign advocated for a law that ends this practice: The Illinois Safe Children Act is changing the way law enforcement in our state treat survivors of domestic sex trafficking. Instead of being treated like criminals, youth survivors of prostitution are seen as being worthy of service and treatment.

Annie is also showing how the arrest and re-arrest of women in prostitution makes it incredibly difficult for women to leave the sex trade. This practice ignores the cause of this problem—the people who are buying sex and creating a demand for prostitution. Regina, a survivor on the show, was working to have her criminal record sealed so that she could apply for a job outside of the sex trade. She found this process incredibly difficult and wondered aloud if returning to stripping wouldn’t just be easier on her. This was a really sad moment in the show. Our culture’s stigmatization and legal treatment of women in prostitution is so harmful and cyclical. The End Demand Illinois campaign seeks to stop this cycle by shifting law enforcement’s attention to the cause of the problem—the men who are buying sex—and to stop the arrest and re-arrest of women.

To learn more about how to end the demand for prostitution, visit CAASE's resource page.

Security Screenings and Survivors of Sexual Harm

There’s lots of chatter today about TSA security screenings and pat-downs at the airports on this busy travel day. Our legal director, Kaethe Morris Hoffer, was on WBEZ this morning talking about how the issue affects survivors of sexual harm. She states that the screenings could be traumatic to survivors. Listen to what she had to say, and leave a comment!

Kaethe and CAASE offer low- or no-cost legal representation to survivors of sexual harm. To learn more about our efforts, visit http://www.caase.org/work_legal.aspx.

Have a safe and Happy Thanksgiving.