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

The Good News and Bad News about Johns' Arrests

There is good news from Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart today that there has been another “National Day of Johns Arrests.” According to the release, Dart led a nationwide, 10-day effort. From the release: “A total of 314 sex buyers also known as “Johns” were arrested and charged with nearly $475,000 in fines.”  

End Demand Illinois is proud to see that one of our law enforcement partners is holding johns, pimps and traffickers accountable. We were also glad to hear that prostituted people were “offered services and safe housing opportunities to assist them in leaving their current situation.” So many people in prostitution are there because they face no other choices, but a person buying sex is almost always there by choice.

While this is an important shift and a glimmer of hope, we must also realize that the majority of prostitution-related arrests in this country are still of prostituted women, and not the men who buy sex. Johns are not usually held accountable for the harm they cause, and that is why they continue to buy sex. We applaud Sheriff Dart for his leadership, and urge you to take action in your own communities to encourage law enforcement to address demand. We still read stories every day, like this one out of Springfield, where a woman is arrested and the john is either let go or goes unmentioned. The headline says it all: "Woman accused of prostitution." You can take action:

Sign up for our End Demand Illinois' Action Alerts here.

If you see a story in your local paper about women being arrested, but no mention of johns, pimps or traffickers, write a letter to the editor. Call you local representatives and tell them that you want to end demand in your neighborhood. Find ways to end harm and demand change using our toolkit with easy action steps. Visit www.caase.org and www.enddemandillinois.org to learn more.

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.

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