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.

Local Sex Trafficking Arrests, Training Signs of Progress

We wanted to share some signs of progress in the fight against sex trafficking in Illinois.

First of all, law enforcement is holding more pimps and traffickers accountable and offering services to survivors of the sex trade. Recently, the Cook County Sheriff’s Office arrested a Chicago man, Henry McLaurin, who was then charged with one count of promoting prostitution and one count of domestic battery. McLaurin had been placing ads for women he prostituted on Backpage.com, where he would arrange "dates" with johns and then pocket the profits from the women he prostituted. The women who law enforcement encountered in this case were not arrested but instead offered supportive services, which recognized that they were in need of help.

We are pleased that Chicago law enforcement has increased awareness and dedication to learning how to identify and help trafficked individuals.

Also in the news recently, the Chicago Police Department hosted a training on prostitution and forced labor at its headquarter, highlighting terms to understand, why demand continually fuels the sex trade, and ways to identify victims of human trafficking. Read more about that training there.

While it may seem discouraging that Chicago is a central hub for trafficking, you can help to change that.
Continue to encourage law enforcement to focus on the perpetrators of the sex trade -- to arrest and prosecute the pimps and johns whose livelihood is the sexual exploitation and violation of women. Support rehabilitation organizations that provide survivors of prostitution with much needed services. To learn more about how you can help, visit End Demand, Illinois.

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.

Share Valentines from CAASE

As signs of Valentine's Day are everywhere, we've been thinking: What does love mean for CAASE?
For us... 


Love means a world without sexual exploitation.
Love means ending sexual violence.
Love means young men (and young women!) becoming allies to end sex trafficking.
What does love mean to you?

Show your love by making a donation to CAASE in someone’s honor this Valentine’s Day.

We can send your Valentines an email letting them know about the special gift.*
Donations help support all of CAASE's work, which includes:

• Offering free legal representation to survivors of sexual assault and abuse.
• Advocating for new laws and policies to help survivors of the sex trade in Illinois.
• Educating more young men about the harms of the sex trade and empowering them to be allies in the movement to end sexual violence.

Make Your Valentine Donation Here.

*Please note: If you are making a gift in someone’s honor and would like us to send them an e-Valentine from you, please include their name and email address in the comments field of the online form, or give us a call at 773-244-2230 ext 7. We will send these e-Valentines on Feb. 14.

Reflections on Mamet's Take on Race (and Gender and Sex and Exploitation)

 

When a rich, powerful white man rapes a woman of color, how do our culture and our legal system react? These questions are central in David Mamet’s play Race, which is running at the Goodman Theater through February 19. Earlier this week, CAASE participated in a panel discussion at the theater with other advocates, examining constructs of sexual violence. (Spoiler alert—we talk about details from the play in this post.)

A few of us from the CAASE staff have seen the play, and in addition to dealing with the issues of race, sexual assault, and sexism, we believe the play also touches on exploitation within the sex trade. Some in the audience didn’t notice prostitution in the plot, or disagreed that it was present. However, Charles (the character who is accused of rape) admits that he gave the victim money and that he exploited her. At one point he asks his attorney, “Just because I gave her money, does that mean I paid her?”

I personally noticed that once it was revealed that the victim was in prostitution, the attorney characters shifted their attitudes in a way that could be summarize as: “Sure, he was a racist, but how could he have raped a prostituted woman?” This underscored the terrible myth that a woman in prostitution cannot be raped—that once money is exchanged, a woman gives up her right to say no.

These and many other criticisms were raised at the panel discussion. Caleb Probst, CAASE’s education outreach associate, spoke on the panel about how he teaches young men in high school about the realities of the sex trade. Caleb was in excellent company, as the panel featured Aishah Shahidah Simmons, producer, writer and director of NO! The Rape Documentary; Sharmili Majmudar, executive director of Rape Victim Advocates; Rachel Caidor, founder of INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence, and was moderated by Alison Cuddy, host of WBEZ's Eight Forty-Eight.

Several members of the panel were concerned that Mamet used sexual assault as a plot device to talk about race, and that the play perpetuated many myths about sexual assault. As Sharmili Majmudar pointed out, Race makes it seem like it’s very easy for a woman to make an accusation of rape. Sharmili also reflected on how we never hear the victim’s voice in Race, and this absence dehumanizes the victim.

Aishah Shahidah was deeply concerned about the use of racist and misogynist language in the play and felt like those hateful words were coming from Mamet himself. When an audience member asked if rape should ever be portrayed in art, Aishah recommended Ruined, a play by Lynne Nottage about rape in the Congo.

Rachel Caidor reported that when she attended the play, the audience seemed confused by the intersection of racism and sexism, and that people were laughing at moments that made her concerned. (I also noticed that people were laughing, sometimes out of discomfort.) Rachel balked at the idea that the character who was accused of rape didn’t know that he was racist. “You’re not an accidental racist or a rapist.”

Certainly, Mamet is a divisive playwright, but I believe the discussion that ensued at the Goodman was excellent. Have you seen or read this play? Do you think that it does a good job of addressing these issues, or does it fail? Again, Race runs at the Goodman through next week (student and day-of tickets are available at a discount),

Leave us a comment and have a great weekend!