Springfield Police Help Woman Who Was Harmed in the Sex Trade

Most people in prostitution report that they endure violence in the sex trade. In one study, women in prostitution identified johns (customers) as the number one perpetrators of this violence. When police in Springfield encountered a woman in prostitution who had been robbed at gunpoint by a john, they did the right thing. From the State Journal-Register:

“The woman said that after the sex act was completed, the man attempted to pay her $10 instead of $20. She argued with him, and the man displayed a handgun and threatened to kill her.

When officers arrived, the woman realized her purse had been stolen.

Officers checked the area, but were unable to locate the man. The woman said she had recently met him, and she didn’t know where he lived.

The woman did not suffer any injuries. She was not arrested for prostitution because of the circumstances, the police report said.”

Law enforcement in this case considered the woman’s safety as being of the foremost importance, and they did not arrest her for prostitution. We applaud the Springfield police for recognizing that this woman was the victim of a crime and worthy of their help.

Violent johns like the one this woman encountered must be deterred. To learn more about addressing the demand for commercial sex in your community, sign up for our End Demand Illinois action alerts.

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.

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

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

Backpage.com Connected to Murders in Detroit

Last week, the Detroit Free Press and CNN revealed the staggering earnings of websites like Backpage.com that are fueling prostitution and sex trafficking. In the story, it’s estimated that Backpage.com sold about $24 million in escort ads in the past year. These ads were linked by police to the recent murders of prostituted women in Detroit.

Four women's bodies were found in the trunks of cars after they had apparently been solicited via the internet and murdered. These women had been advertised on Backpage.com and other websites as "escorts." Backpage is, by its own admission, a “middle man” helping to facilitate the sale of sex through its ads. There's more in a video from CNN at the end of this post.

You might ask: What’s the difference between escort services and street level prostitution? Isn’t being an escort something glamorous, more akin to Pretty Woman than to life on the street? The gruesome details of this story and so many others involving prostituted women reveal just how much violence and risk prostituted people endure, whether they are sold on the street or on the internet.

Local research here in Chicago by Jody Raphael found that the safety of women in prostitution is threatened at similar levels in both indoor and outdoor venues. No matter whether the women were escorts, worked in strip clubs or hotels or on the street, they experienced violence at the hands of customers and their pimps. Most prostituted people are forced to turn over some or all of their money to a pimp, and it’s often that pimp who places the ads with Backpage.com and other websites. When someone else is profiting from the sale of another’s body for sex, it is trafficking.

People who buy sex—those who surf through these ads and decide where to buy and with whom—are the ones driving the trade. If we want to end the violence of the sex trade, we have to start by stopping people who create demand. We applaud efforts to shut down Backpage.com’s escort ads and support local law enforcement initiatives that hold pimps, johns and traffickers accountable for the harm they cause.
To learn more about our End Demand Illinois campaign, visit www.enddemandillinois.org

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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.

Buying sex makes you a john, not a sugar daddy

We heard about national media coverage (on the Huffington Post and the Today Show) of websites that cater to older men who want to make “arrangements” to pay for sex with younger women. The stories have focused on college students who are turning to prostitution to pay down their loan debt.

What are the real implications of men using their money and power to exploit women? Although they use the euphemism “sugar daddy," let’s be clear. These men are johns. These sugar daddy websites are fueled by men who buy subscriptions and create a system that facilitates the selling of young women’s bodies.

CAASE’s study of 113 johns in Chicago showed that men purchase sex because they face very few barriers or consequences. It’s disturbing to think that some of these “sugar babies” are on the site out of desperation and, instead of proposing that we reach out to help them, the media is treating this as simply another side effect of the bad economy.

It’s unacceptable for our society to ever, ever be ok with a woman being pressured into prostitution. That seems to be the crux of the story—women with tremendous debt who feel they will be of more value to society if they could pay off their loans. As one woman interviewed in the HuffPost article said:

"I just wanted to get it over and done with as quickly as possible," recalls Taylor, forcing out a nervous smile. "I just wanted to get out of that situation as safely as possible, pay off my debt, and move on."

Let’s be clear, prostitution is dangerous. One study showed that the rates of violence were similar for women who were prostituted on the street as those in indoor venues. The average life expectancy for a woman who enters prostitution is seven years from the date she enters the trade.

It’s time to stand up against men who are fueling a system that exploits young women. End the demand for prostitution by asking law enforcement to hold “sugar daddies” accountable and call them what they are: men who are buying other human beings.

Learn more at www.enddemandillinois.org

Dear New York Times: Stop Blaming Women in Prostitution for Violence

Violence against women in prostitution is a daily reality, not a rare threat. The New York Times portrayed the serial killing of prostituted women as exceptional cases of violence (Discovery of Bodies on Long Island Is Stoking Fear, May 30, 2011). Unfortunately, many women in prostitution have experienced violence at the hands of pimps, johns, traffickers and even the police. These murders are horrifying, but equally disturbing are the reporter’s assumptions about the lives of prostituted women.

In the opening paragraphs, the reporter blames women for not being more careful and assumes that women can exit the trade at any time:

The discovery of bodies on Long Island has cast a light on the illicit sex trade, forcing many women to rethink what they do and broaden whatever precautions they may take.

Most women don’t choose to stay in prostitution, but instead are faced with no other options. A study in Chicago revealed that most women would exit the sex trade if other opportunities were available to them. Another group revealed that their average age of entry into prostitution was 16. When prostituted women are controlled by violent pimps, poverty and addiction, they have no viable way to leave.

It’s time for reporters to seek the truth about women and girls who are exploited in the sex trade.

The NYT reporter’s description of a woman dialing her pimp on speakerphone for “protection” during a date with a volatile john is absolutely heartbreaking. Any discerning reader would recognize that this tactic offers a woman no real protection from rape or murder. As the pimp is listening in, his thoughts are undoubtedly on one thing—his expectation that she bring home the money. If she doesn’t deliver, there will certainly be consequences. Does this sound like a choice to you?

Instead of blaming women for their experiences of violence, we must examine a system that leaves them without any choices. In Illinois, CAASE and our End Demand Illinois campaign are proposing a network of resources for prostituted people and refocusing law enforcement’s attention to the people who create a demand for the sex trade—pimps, johns and traffickers. Demand that our media take a closer look at the demand side of the sex trade. To learn more, visit www.enddemandillinois.org

Photo: Creative Commons on Flickr by Becca.

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.