Thank You Gary Smith and all of your colleagues for what you are doing.
7
The world’s second oldest oppression is self appointed morality police criminalizing sex between consenting adults.
3
WOW!.. Such a hot button topic,..It's hard to have a discussion with such polarized points of view. Prostitution and those involved run such a great gamut that it is not possible to make such vast generalizations as are made in these responses. In the 70's here in the Bay Area a group known as COYOTE was active and as a photo journalist I listened to Margo St,James and others discuss this topic very differently. Yes many involved are victims, but I have difficulty seeing Heidi Fleiss's organization as victim based. Not all prostitutes are victims, not all 'John's' are evil.
Until we can come to grip with the ramifications of silent ovulation and men's 24/7 evolutionary response, without the vitriol, we will not find a way through this. So, as C.O.Y.O.T.E. stood for, "Cast off your old tired ethics" and lets find a solution, together.
2
@oldbugeyed
Maybe not all Johns are evil, but all certainly range from pathetic to slimy.
8
There is little discussion about the pimps. How about this: You pimp a woman, get 20 years in the big house.
8
This is "rigorous reporting"? Nope.
punishment should be severe for these pimps who use young girls as sex slaves.
7
Thank, Gary Smith and Garner Trucking - you make your fellow Buckeyes proud!
7
REMEMBER, if you're a truck stop hooker, stay away from the Learjets and Bombardiers because those sex buyers have two dozen lawyers that can prove that you're not a sex slave
6
Perhaps we should think twice before replacing all these truckers with robots?
1
As a sex trade survivor I am THRILLED to see a New York Times article critical of the sex trade. Please let me share some things I know as a sex trade survivor: Sexual Consent Can Never Be Bought, Only Sexual Submission Can Be Bought. Sex trafficking happens on a continuum, and as an incest survivor, I was easy pickings for pimps. "Feminists" would say I "chose" to be in the sex trade. But as the brilliant survivor leader Bridget Perrier says "I did not choose prostitution, prostitution chose me." My fellow Lefties promote the myth that sex trafficking and the commercial sex trade are miles apart, when in reality one could not exist without the other. Without sex buyers, there could be no sex trafficking. There will never be enough willing "supply" to meet buyer "demand" and yet the commercial sex trade aggressively promotes and defends sex buying. What I will never understand is how mainstream "feminism" could be so out of touch as to defend "sex work". What is "sex work" other than submitting to unwanted groping and penetration? #MeToo for you, but not for me? This hypocrisy has got to end. You cannot support the commercial sex trade without supporting sex trafficking. Until it's #TimesUp for sex buyers, it will never be #TimesUp for sex trafficking.
11
Beautiful, New York Times. Thank you for opening the minds of people who may not fully understand under-age sex trafficking. You may have saved some lives.
5
Criminalizing sex between consenting adults by trotting out the myth that all sex workers are slaves is just a cover for the real motive: protecting women's sexual power over men.
1
@God
A 14-year old is not a consenting adult.
13
Organized crime got organized by making alcohol illegal.
Illegal drug trade and prostitution share the same issue.
I think from a moral point of view All Christians and All Muslims should have their rights to vote taken away, because their Crimes Against Humanity by imposing their religious beliefs are the greatest problem.
Alcohol is a drug. It is potent enough that one gallon of bonded 40 proof alcohol made under excellent sanitary and scientific conditions will KILL any person consuming that amount in a 24 hour period.
There are two types of alcoholics, physical ones who cannot process alcohol properly and emotional ones. There are still people in both the aforementioned religions who think alcoholism is a weakness. I hope they will add obesity, diabetes, cancer and heart disease to these Moral Crimes.
Very few people drink themselves to death in a day. Most people can drink and have zero problems. Same with drugs and those cases where addiction is a problem, making the drugs legal would bring the cost down to a reasonable level. There are plenty of functional alcoholics.
Sex Trafficking is trafficking. Just like killing someone with a knife, gun or car is murder.
Make selling sex legal. When some religious 'crazy' wants to stop this, arrest them for denying our human rights.
I do not have the right to murder.
You do not have the right to force me to follow your religion, especially by passing laws.
Great the Pope is protecting his pedophiles while being 'moral.'
1
"Lot Lizards" are never allowed to speak for themselves in any of these operation rescue sermons. Only their self-appointed rescuers are heard.
2
So what is the difference between sex trafficing and sex work?
1
Sex work should be legal.
4
Good thing they will all be out of work in the next few years. You don't need an electric car to be self driving. Gas and diesel cars can pilot themselves. If we only made prostitution legal, we would probably have less sex trafficking with minors.
2
Regardless of how many Christian truckers, laws or eyes on the street, prostitution will never be wiped from the earth, it’s something innate in human beings, it’s not the oldest profession for no reason
2
@There
The world's "oldest profession" is nursing.
2
Start with Kraft and Trump's circle or else all legal efforts will fail.
3
It is clear from this article and the Robert Kraft debacle that sex-trafficking is not only for the lonely OTR truck driver, but the well-heeled. In both cases, we are dealing with men who abuse women out of sexual need for the john, and avarice for the supplier. As a former OTR driver, I was approached once in my two-year tenure, and I did the right thing. I turned her down gently, for we were warned not to insult lot lizards that might do something nasty to your truck while you were sleeping. In my case, the lady was no teenager, but definitely looked and acted uncomfortably. It was sad, but that was 2008 and now there is TAT. This is good news.
2
The textbook definition of a noble and worthy cause...
50
I am a former DOD contractor. Prior to each overseas assignment, I had to take an online course on human trafficking. Imagine my surprise when I learned that just up the road, at a truck stop right off the interstate, women, some as young as 14, were being exploited. That was 15 years ago and I understand it still happens today. Only through education—witness Mr. Smith’s journey—will this scourge be solved.
116
Prostitution is already legal in much of America. Over the last several years, mainly in suburban areas, law enforcement authorities have learned the most effective ally against trafficking is the roadside massage parlor. It has every reason to turn in traffickers, and make sure their business does not harbor disease and robbery.
This is possible because such businesses are not run by members of a crime culture. They are often run by immigrants who see this storefront as a foothold in the entrepreneurial economy that must protect. And law enforcement sees it as far preferable to the alternative.
1
As a Federal grand juror for two years, we occasionally got some of the overflow trafficking cases. We had about a dozen witnesses testify, all young women who were essentially kidnapped and then held prisoner by their pimp, a man so vile that he stole children from his women in order to control them. Stories of abuse including beating a woman unconscious and leaving her on the ground at a gas station, and other acts too awful to recount here.
What struck me most was the last questions for each witness; "Do you love him? Do you think he loves you?" The answers were always yes and yes.
4
@Clearheaded Are you implying that these women are gullible and stupid, or that Stockholm Syndrome is real?
I applaud efforts to engage truckers in aiding trafficked women and girls, but it's not enough. What can the rest of us do? Is there a ring or bracelet I might wear, for example, to signal silently that I am willing to assist victims? Or a particular shade of pink I might use to paint my lips, or my one fingernail? (You get the idea.) And then I need to know what steps I should take next. Should I call the police with a description of the victim? How can I help and not endanger her?
We need a massive grassroots movement to help fight this problem.
6
It would be a lot easier to prosecute sex trafficking if prostitution were legal. Because of it's illegality, people can avoid distinguishing between prostitution & sex trafficking. And they're not the same thing.
7
@Jenifer Wolf As a sex trade survivor I can PROMISE you that is not true. It is much easier to disguise sex trafficking where prostitution is legal. Germany and the Netherlands are the center of sex trafficking in Europe. Why? Because legalized sex buying increase buyer demand, and there is never enough willing "supply" to meet the demand. Sex traffickers are more than happy to move in and fill in the gap.Only the Nordic Model (passed in Sweden, Iceland, Norway, France, and Canada) suppresses demand and decreases trafficking. Please check out NordicModelNow.org
8
@Jenifer Wolf Crime increases where prostitution is legalized. The statistics on this are clear.
5
All forms of slavery and oppression are abhorrent. Good on the truckers for recognizing this and working to help women escape from the cruel world of sex trafficking.
I'm sure I'll get "dogpiled" for this question, but here goes: Is it possible that a woman might freely, willingly, and knowingly provide sexual services for payment without having been trafficked, oppressed, or enslaved?
2
@James Yes, James, there is a small group of women (and men) in privileged positions who choose to go into the sex trade. But this minority of "sex workers" is being privileged FAR above the majority of people in the sex trade who tend to be poor women of color. This is why privileged people on the Left opposed the FOSTA law: this law protected trafficked women and kids, but it cut into the profits of privileged women who sell sex by choice. The few who choose to sell sex, despite having other options, fuel sex trafficking by promoting sex buyer demand. There is never enough willing "supply" to meet the demand promoted and legitimized by the sex trade, so sex traffickers happily move in and make enormous profits. Those who promote the sex trade are a sex trafficker's best friend.
6
@James Plenty of women go into sex work willingly. And it's a great way to make money and be empowered, right up until a client beats them up, or they get robbed or raped, and discover they have no recourse.
3
@James
Yes. At least 2 have written books.
Brooke Magnanti: "The Sex Myth" and "Sex, Lies & Statistics"
Scarlett O'Kelly: "Paying for It: How Turning Tricks Paid the Mortgage, Kept the Kids in Trainers and Gave Me Back My Life"
"Superfreakonomics" by Levitt & Dubner has a chapter on a medium-price call girl who was happy with her choice. They assert that street prostitute is the worst job in America, but at the higher end it makes sense.
Also see the TED talk:
https://www.ted.com/talks/juno_mac_the_laws_that_sex_workers_really_want?language=en
1
In the late 70's, I was a runaway who found safe haven in a therapeutic program, and in that program, every single teenager there was a child abuse survivor. And I mean abuse: beatings with bats, rapes, all the worst stuff you can imagine.
We also had a program to try and do outreach to get teen prostitutes off the streets, many, if not most, who also came from horrific home circumstances. Not one of those teens chose to be on the streets.
I find the arguments about sex work = s freedom and empowerment naive. There is real evil afoot in the world. Try to imagine how desperate and scared you would be to be selling your body at 3:00 am on a rainy night in Indianapolis. That girl, and all boys, women, and men in that circumstance need our help, and need us to see the reality instead of having intellectual arguments about theoretical possibilities.
72
Income inequity? Can we get to the cause, the motivation and once there, are we willing to do something about it?
4
As a trucker I see very little evidence of prostitution and trafficking. This leads me to believe it is an underground activity with it’s own coded language, symbols and signals.
I am not naive enough to believe it is not happening, but I am hopeful that the anti trafficking movement is having a positive effect and many young victims are being spared from a life of sexual enslavement.
11
Prostitution slavery is a world problem. I had noticed young women dressed scantily with older men in hotels, particularly in Asia. The young woman girl usually wear a blank face, and mute in the company of the client. These women risk being exposed to sexual desease. I appreciate this author for letting the world know about the work of TAT. I hope United Nations will also see prostituion as against human right, to start an organization to combat sexual slavery.
10
As a trucker I see very little evidence of prostitution and trafficking. This leads me to believe it is an underground activity with it’s own coded language, symbols and signals.
I am not naive enough to believe it is not happening, but I am hopeful that the anti trafficking movement is having a positive effect and many young victims are being spared from a life of sexual enslavement.
2
Penn State University filmmaker Pearl Gluck has made an amazing film about this - "The Turn Out" showing in film festivals nationally.
3
People have been trying to end prostitution for thousands of years now. Congratulations on all the success you have had so far.
If the law says that something is illegal, no matter what it is, and large numbers of people do it anyway, then that law is senseless and needs to be changed. That held good during the prohibition, it stays true during the ridiculous ongoing war on drugs, and the absolute failure that is the attempt to end prostitution.
The only way to drive bootleggers out of business was to end the prohibition. The best way to make sure kids can't buy cannabis is to sell it in in stores with ID requirements. The only sure way to ensure that people do not die from fentanyl laced heroin is to give addicts the right to legally buy uncontaminated heroin. The only way to make a significant dent in sex trafficking is to strictly regulate a legal, licensed sex work trade.
Morality gets in the way of practical solutions that can actually help people.
18
@A Cynic Good luck with creating a legal, licensed sex work trade. That's been tried in Germany, where I live. The result? Pimps have become very, very wealthy and now they're rich enough and respectable enough to have political clout. Now they get to treat the sex workers like Uber drivers, and charge them for their rooms and equipment. As the price of sex plummets, the women have to have more and more sex to break even, and anybody who objects to sex acts they personally find degrading or painful is out the door. Fresh women are still trafficked from Eastern Europe. Great result.
9
@Fenella
Germany is a good example of what not to do. Just being legal is not enough. It needs to be strictly regulated and licensed as well. All that is needed is a rule that allows only citizens of any particular country to get a license to work as a sex worker in that country. That would eliminate the problem of legal cross border trafficking. Reduced labor supply will inevitably lead to better wages and working conditions.
2
@A Cynic I agree with you that ending the ban onsex work is a good idea. But you are inappropriately conflating prostitution and sex trafficking and they are related, but not the same.
1
Religious groups, such as the ministry mentioned, often imply that most, if not all, sex workers are trafficked or forced. This is a deliberate marketing choice by people religiously opposed to sex outside of marriage, as Maggie McNeil pointed out in the Washington Post in 2014, quoting an activist group's action plan. There don't seem to be any figures on the actual percentage of sex workers who are trafficked in the US, but McNeil points out the Dallas Morning News claimed 300,000 cases are prosecuted in Houston alone every year -- when the actual number is 2. The only statistic in this article is 612 calls to a hotline, but how many of those resulted in charges or convictions for sex trafficking is not mentioned.
9
@Jeff White I am a sex trade survivor. Maggie McNeil makes her living off the sex trade so she has a financial interest in whitewashing it (literally - most people in the sex trade are poor women of color, but most of its defenders are white women). I was raped by my father as a child which is - as prostitution survivor Andrea Dworkin stated - boot camp for prostitution. Most of us come from abusive backgrounds, which make us easy pickings for pimps. We are rarely physically forced into the sex trade, but are groomed into it. Once we're in though, it is almost impossible to get out. We drug ourselves to endure daily unwanted sexual groping and penetration. This further traps us into the "life". We become isolated from the rest of society, and we have nothing on our resumes to allow us to find other "work". If we live long enough to escape the trade, we often suffer from debilitating PTSD, addiction, anxiety, and depression. Sex trafficking is not taken seriously because women are still viewed as appliances to be used by men. #TimesUp for that. No man has a right to buy his way into a woman's body. We are entitled to REAL sexual consent, just like men are. If you have to be religious to understand that, then maybe religion is no more misogynistic than atheism.
9
Ms. Rosenberg works for Solutions Journalism Network. The mission of the network is to solve problems. I don't see that as journalism at all. Advocates for change are activists, politicians or ideologues. The Network's fealty to the truth is questionable. Their ultimate purpose is to eliminate what they consider wrong and replace it with what they consider right.
When a newspaper runs a didactic essay it would be helpful if it disclosed that the author is a partisan advocate who may mislead in order to serve her ideology. Here, for example, Ms. Rosenberg leaves out the fact that there are millions of truckers, most of whom have no interest in fighting trafficking and many of whom have been arrested, usually when the police get prostitutes to work undercover.
The notion that truckers are surrogate cops, putting an end to truck stop prostitution is tremendously misleading. And the fact is that cops are the ones who are doing more than anyone else to fight trafficking.
7
@michjas
What is didactic about the article? I don't see it making any claims that truckers (especially as a group) are surrogate police, nor that they are somehow doing more than police.
Your objections seem to be against things that you read into the article, but weren't actually there. I read an article about one group of people, TAT, and the work that they are doing. Nothing more, nothing less, and not once did I read it as stating or implying an advocacy about how things should be.
45
@michjas Wow, you read a lot into an article that wasn't there. Who said anything about truckers being surrogate cops or that all truckers were participating in this? It says TAT has trained over 700,00 truckers and that there are approx 3.5 mil total. The numbers are right in the article. Cops need the communities help to fight a lot of crime & 700,00 more eyes/ears is nothing to discard.
The fact that she co-founded the Solutions Journalism Network is the very first thing listed after name. Everyone is free to google it and find out more if they wish.
17
@ImagineMoments And yet, as the article mentions, truck stops are the exception to the norm with regard to sex trafficking which for the most part is done through social media and the internet. Clearly there are enough truckers who patronize these child workers or else the traffickers wouldn't ply their vicious trade.
Good luck.
You'll need it.
As Donald Trump won the presidency appealing to people's atavistic fears, prostitution has survived for so long (the world's oldest profession?) because it appeals to people's atavistic wants.
Maybe we'll be be able to erase both fear-based exploitation and sex-based exploitation with reason and empathy.
But I doubt it so, like I say, good luck.
15
@J. Cornelio Prostitution has survived for so long because Male Supremacy has survived for so long. But you are right, if male supremacy persists, the sex trade will persist. In countries where women have much more equality (Sweden, Norway, Iceland, etc) sex buying has been criminalized while sex workers have been decriminalized. This has shifted the balance of power in the sex worker's favor, and has decreased both sex trafficking and the murder of sex workers by sex buyers. But the USA is an extremely misogynistic and pornified country, so the sex trade will be harder to fight here than in other places. Female bodies in the USA are still primarily seen as commodities.
1
While Biden and his unwanted touching is getting a lot of press, few know or care about the proliferating sex slave scene happening in every state.
26
@KJeeee Sadly, mainstream feminists don't care about sex trafficking. Why? Because it's mostly poor women of color who get trafficked - especially Black and Indigenous women - and most prominent mainstream feminists are economically privileged and white. They can afford to romanticize the sex trade because to them it's a sex fantasy. To the women trapped in the sex trade, it's a nightmare we can't wake up from. If feminists cared about poor women of color they would aggressively advocate for specialized Exit Services to help women get out of the sex trade. Instead (as my friend and fellow survivor Rae Story says) they wear their support for the sex trade like an edgy accessory. Trafficked women have been severely let down by so-called "feminists" and have nowhere to turn but the religious community, which is often inadvertently shaming toward us. Still, some help is better than no help at all.
5
@KJeeee
Sex slaves were just on the news rather extensively thanks to the charges against the Patriots' owner and others.
People know, we simply have to take action when we encounter any form of exploitation and not wait for someone else to care.
1
Sex trafficking is not in the same class as labor trafficking - there is a very real difference in the nature of the crime, in the effect on the victim.
At its core sex trafficking is rape, and like all rape-related crimes there is a deep and unique form of damage sustained by the victim. Our working definition for the past twenty-five years is 'forced self violation', a semi-clever way to reference the forced modification or eradication of the victim's original self-model, a circumstance made all the more horrific by the mechanisms at work, which require the victim to perform the destruction his or herself, in effect voluntarily.
The memories formed of these events are real, but false in the sense they reflect the experience of making changes to the internal self-model without any supporting framework to provide the larger context in which the victim's personal responsibility has been completely compromised.
False they may be, but the reality of these memories is usually devastating; this is the kernel of the damage that sets these crimes apart from any other, worse, in a way, than even murder. The victims face a difficult recovery, and finding his or her original self-model, re-establishing who they originally were, this can be near to impossible.
We've been chipping away at this problem for a long time. A lot more people need to be working at it before there will be much of an impact.
--Tom and Kay
38
How dare a woman believe she has the right to control her own body ! If a woman, knowingly and intelligently decides to use her body to earn an income that meets her needs, and requires only an hour or two a day of work - she should be stopped. It’s not like adult women are capable of making their own decisions about their bodies. Thankfully many women join men in confirming women are not to be permitted to make decisions with which do-gooders disagree.
9
@William--Prostitution is slavery--the buying of human flesh. Would you support the right of a consenting adult to sell him- or herself into any other form of slavery? If someone genuinely wants to be a slave, and another person genuinely wants to be a master, should that be legal? Civilized people unanimously say No; slavery is simply WRONG, even if some people would willingly be slaves. Prostitution is no different. It is slavery, and it is wrong. Full stop.
23
Prostitution is not slavery if both parties involved are consenting adults. Do you sell your time each day for a paycheck? That's prostitution of your time, maybe not for sex, but for money to survive. Good example: In Nevada, women apply to work, and are protected by laws and regulations, at brothels. It is their choice to go to work each day and they do so willingly. I would rather everyone work legitimately and share the burden of paying taxes for their income like I do.
7
@Tim DuBois Hi, Tim. I am a sex trade survivor, and I can promise you that selling your time is not the same thing as selling sexual access to your body. When we work a paid job, we often submit to our bosses by doing things we don't want to do: writing code, washing dishes, filing papers, etc. But compelling someone to perform paper filing is not a crime; compelling someone to perform sex acts IS a crime. But until women are viewed as fully human, men will deny that we have a complex inner life that is negatively impacted by sexual coercion. We are mainly still viewed as appliances.
69
During my time pushing rigs cross-country, the sex for sale action was so bad at some Truck Stops that I preferred napping on interstate on ramps. What are these truck stop operators doing to alleviate the problem?
75
@Jess Juan Motime
Possibly getting a kickback.
1
I applaud these drivers. I think a lot of people just don't get it. You have a billionaire who goes low rent just because he can and his colleagues, friends and Patriot fans think it is okay - he is just a lonely old guy who lost the love of his life. There are photos of women laughing and standing under the massage parlor sign in Florida - some fun ladies!! Grow a sensitivity chip will ya!
Well those poor women and young girls are prisoners. They are trapped and if they have a passport, they don't have access to it. They are drugged, abused and brainwashed. They need our help, not our ridicule, or our laughter.
Keep up the good work - 10-4!
81
To expand on my previous post, Johns should be charged as accessories to kidnapping of a child after the fact. No more fines or a overnight stay at a city jail. Being shamed should be the least of their problems.
I had a very long time friend, now deceased, that was addicted to everything you could be addicted to, including sex. He saw no problem with going to the Dominican Republic to take advantage of the inexpensive exploited people there, it gave me the creeps. Personally I would rather be alone than pay for sex, it strikes me as a really disturbing thing to do. I’m male, not religious or have any problem with someone who willingly chooses to prostitute themselves. In a way we all do it when we go to work that we don’t enjoy to support ourselves.
18
@Paulie "I’m male, not religious or have any problem with someone who willingly chooses to prostitute themselves. In a way we all do it when we go to work that we don’t enjoy to support ourselves." Paul, as a sex trade survivor I can PROMISE you that submitting to sex you "don't enjoy" is NOTHING like submitting to any other act that you don't enjoy. There are no laws against a boss telling an employee she has to write code she doesn't feel like writing. There are laws against a boss telling an employee she has to perform a sex act she doesn't feel like performing. See the difference? I do not understand why (mostly) men have such a hard time understanding this. I suspect its because women are viewed as being created "for" the sexual use of men, so we should be immune to the pain of sexual violation. Well guess what? We are NOT.
5
The best place to stop it, is at the border.
Many, if not mmost, of the unfortunate souls have been brought into the US from somewhere else.
Build a wall, and force them to come through entry portals, and it will grind to a halt.
3
@Objectivist
Did you read the article?
It states exactly the opposite
27
Most victims of sex trafficking do not come through the southern border, as you seem to think. They either come through local ports of entry, often by airplane, or are smuggled in cargo containers right through those ports of entry. Pimps also recruit (more like kidnap) underage American girls from depressed parts of the country.
2
I haven't heard Donald bring that one up yet. I wonder why.
Whatever happened to sex-positive feminism?
8
@Ed Sex positivity assumes consent between willing participants. Slavery and sex trafficked children are pretty much the polar opposite of sex positivity.
And while there may well be adults who choose to sell their bodies, but would they choose it if there were any other reasonable options? Still, that's not what this is about. This is about criminals selling humans and people who do not care buying them.
24
@Ed
It's still around, it's just a different thing from sexual exploitation.
1
@Ed Hi, Ed. I am a sex trade survivor, and what is popularly known as "sex-positive" feminism could more accurately be called "rape positive" feminism. Privileged women, who will never be in a position where they have to endure unwanted sex to survive, have romanticized the sex trade. Many of them get a thrill imagining themselves as glamorous call girls with a flurry of attractive clients. They sometimes play at being strippers for a thrill, thereby erasing the women who have no option but to be strippers, and who submit to being groped and penetrated if they want to keep their jobs. I stopped calling myself a feminist when I experienced this betrayal. Mainstream "feminists" don't get us, and they don't want to get us. If they did, they'd have to question whether the woman in the porn they're watching is truly giving her consent, or is forced to be there. They Don't Want To Know.
This topic really gets my blood boiling: It's just so awful, these young girls suffering an abysmal lifestyle. It, to me, is unthinkable, totally unacceptable even on our worst day.
What are you Johns thinking? I guess about yourself only.
I can't discuss this calmly.
42
@Jim Muncy Thank You. Sex trafficking could NOT EXIST if it weren't for sex buyers. It is sex buyers who fuel sex trafficking and they must be held accountable if we are ever going to stop it. This is not Rocket Science: No Sex Buyers = No Sex Trafficking.
3
I would suggest that the penalties for human trafficking be substantially increased. They should be at least as harsh as kidnapping, a life sentence in some states, proof of crossing state lines, it should be a federal crime of kidnapping.
35
Prostitution is the direct consequence of the dismal rules of inheritance in Judaism and Christianity. They literally stripped widows and girls of any inheritance, leaving them at the mercy of horrible males eager to take advantage of them . They were left to to beg for food on the streets . This is by far the most devastating legacy of male dominated religions . I despise all religions witch I studied in order to debunk them. Men and their fabricated fake gods have a lot of explaining to do. NO women or girl would ever, ever choose to voluntarily subject her self to such degradation and misery. Patriarchy with no checks and balances will destroy us.
18
@JG: All of the evil you blame on Christianity and Judaism has existed in every human culture since the beginning of time. It isn't about religion but male possession of women.
14
@JG what about the huge business of prostitution in Asia, where the religion is not the Abrahamic religions?
19
@Mary What is the status of women in Asia? It's horrific. And there is a thriving sex tourism industry fueled primarily by men in the West. Patriarchy = Prostitution. If women had equal access to economic and political power, prostitution would be extremely rare and expensive.
2
I'm sure that human trafficking exists. That said, there are also many sex workers who engage in this without being forced. Yes, it's probably sad and all that, but it's also the world's oldest profession, and it's never going to go away. By treating prostitution the way we have, we've driven into dark corners where folks are more likely to be exploited and trafficked.
Free Backpage.
8
@August West Please stop repeating that trope that prostitution is "the world's oldest profession." It's not. Motherhood is.
30
Gross. People who pay for sex need therapy. What a degrading humiliating act.
11
@Jeanine
Most jobs are degrading and humiliating. Many people need therapy. I agree that it's gross but I also think lobster is a disgusting thing to consume. That doesn't mean lobster farmers should be shunned and barred from practicing their trade.
8
Nice to know there are individuals making a positive difference.
If society could only accept the possibility that sex trafficking, like most social ills, can easily be linked to unacknowledged addictions (to sex, money, power) triggered by the same dopamine responsible for all acknowledged addictions (e.g., drugs and gambling).
Same neurotransmitter, same symptoms including denial, self-deception, and a total disregard for the damage caused by the addictions.
So pimps (aka money and power addicts) seduce and control youngsters to supply sex addicts who, like the pimps, only care about scoring dopamine squirts while ignoring their victims' suffering.
DopamineProject.org
2
Fire the sex police. Legalize, regulate, tax, provide health care for and bring the sex workers into society as respected people filling a demand that has existed since the beginning of civilization. It is time that Americans grew up and live in the real world. The sex scandals in the Catholic Church has demonstrated that religious leaders are largely hypocrites and should be ignored.
21
@Robert Pryor look at what is happening in Europe if you think legalizing it will resolve the issue. Legalizing has INCREASED sex trafficking.
-----" Germany has become a "center for the sexual exploitation of young women from Eastern Europe, as well as a sphere of activity for organized crime groups from around the world," says Manfred Paulus, a retired chief detective from the southern city of Ulm. He used to work as a vice detective and now warns women in Bulgaria and Belarus against being lured to Germany."
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/human-trafficking-persists-despite-legality-of-prostitution-in-germany-a-902533-3.html
17
@Robert Pryor Would you stipulate that the regulated and taxed prostitutes be over the age of consent in their jurisdictions? If yes, what would you like to do about those who are not of age if we "fire the sex police"?
7
Prostitution is legal - it’s called marriage. The next time you see a beautiful 24 year old women with an 80 year old guy driving his Rolls to their mansion ...
9
I m from Arkansas they forced me to sign up
On this sex trafficking thing awareness whatever.
I got to tell you I have only had one person approach me at a truck stop just once in 10yrs I think most of them have went online and they are out of sight for the most part. However maybe the problem is only as big as who ever is making money off of drivers having by to take the sec trafficking course to renew our license. This is not a huge problem like they make it out to be. I've know street kids before and most of them are on the streets cause the home is worse.
They do get hooked on drugs and alcohol and become dependent and enslaved to that and others may exploit that dependency but it doesn't make it a sex trafficking problem where they are unwilling subjects of others desires. I will say there are probably a few out there who are being forced against their will,but that number is so small I have never in my life seen it. Why do they think truckers should be involved in this? Because now we are the ones being exploited and doing something we don't want to do. Just to keep our license. I never asked for this. What about the desk jockeys who go partying every Friday and Saturday night are they making them do a class on sex trafficking?
12
@Robert Your complaint is bout having to take a course to raise your awareness of the issue of sex trafficking? Not much of a complaint. Stop whining.
24
@MidcenturyModernGal
His complaint is that he has not seen much evidence of sex trafficking in his career as a truck driver. I would agree with him. The days of the prostitute knocking on cabs is over, too much risk. The age of social media and internet solicitation is far more likely.
Five years over the road and I have seen virtually zero prostitution activity. The pay for sex trucker community has gone deep underground.
1
There’s something about the image of the cold young girl in the rain, with no hope in her eyes, trying to sell herself with words that didn’t deserve their context - there’s something about that image that absolutely tears me to pieces inside. God bless those who are fighting this ugly practice.
57
None of this would be a problem if legal brothels were more common. No one at a legal brothel in Nevada is forced into their profession. Stop criminalizing what you can give away for free. It makes no sense.
13
@Peter No one at a legal brothel in Nevada is forced into their profession - I would like to believe this, but I wonder, how do you know? There is an Irish prostitute memoir, where she claims that not a single person has ever become a prostitute on their own accord. She probably knows what she is talking about. Maybe, it's different in the US, but, again, what is your evidence?
18
A tired and ugly argument. People who pay for sex need therapy. It is an ugly and humiliating act.
13
@Yulia I have known some happy (part time) hookers.
Any success in going after the actual traffickers, not just the customers?
8
If going after the Johns is effective as well as going after the exploiters of these children I’m all for it. The problem is the police often treat the victims, that is the children, as criminals. A lack of compassion is quite common in the average cop. I have watched numerous times as a patrol car ignored people in obvious distress on the side of the road, it would have interfered with their donut break.
7
@Mike McGuire There would be no traffickers if there were no "customers". Sex trafficking ONLY exists because of sex buyers.
1
Great idea perhaps some of those FBI folks who no longer need to investigate the president can be trained as truckers and do some real good for our country. Sounds like a perfect sting operation.
2
Oh, you needn’t worry, those FBI agents still have plenty of work to do investigating the most corrupt administration and POTUS in the history of the US.
22
@vulcanalex, those good FBI folks have moved from one issue the president is involved in to another - White Christian fundamentalism.
6
This article makes me wonder, also, about the nail salon and day-spa businesses that are so common in our metropolitan areas....
What's being done to help women trafficked for labor in those industries? I read the "what to look for" lists on the websites the article links to, such as Polaris, and have to say that workers at many of the salons and day spas I've been to or walked by have workers who exhibit many of the characteristics described on those lists.
48
I worry about that too. They don’t even get to keep the tips customers try to surreptitiously give them. Why I get my occasional pedicures done at a bona fide salon where the nail person rents her chair just like my hair stylist. No slaves.
8
A wide-ranging federal decoy operation could end this in a week and get a lot of young women the help they need. Cheap and easy to do, which is probably why it won't happen.
8
Sitting at my desk overlooking an Amsterdam canal I do wonder if there is a way to create a legal sex-worker program in the model of the Netherlands. I find it sad and horrifying but I do not think the business of sex for money is ever going to leave us entirely.
43
@Jason Sypher There are numerous studies that show that legalization leads to increase in human trafficking. I agree with you that this is a difficult problem to eradicate as there are people who'll stooop anything, including enslaving others, for money.
25
@Jason Sypher
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/human-trafficking-persists-despite-legality-of-prostitution-in-germany-a-902533-3.html
-----" Germany has become a "center for the sexual exploitation of young women from Eastern Europe, as well as a sphere of activity for organized crime groups from around the world," says Manfred Paulus, a retired chief detective from the southern city of Ulm. He used to work as a vice detective and now warns women in Bulgaria and Belarus against being lured to Germany."
11
What a wonderful program! One thought: I wonder if having the TAT sticker actually dissuades folks from knocking on the door. If young women are cowering in these lots, it’s possible their traffickers are nearby watching. Perhaps *not* advertising in the window that a trucker is a source of help will actually make those selling sex more likely to knock on the door, which gives the trucker a real opportunity to offer help without making the person being trafficked come seek it out. Advertising help and hotlines is definitely important — and we also must recognize that it’s often difficult or dangerous for those in trouble to reach out or make that call themselves.
11
I have some questions about this:
>And many sex trafficking victims are male. L.G.B.T.Q. boys and men are particularly vulnerable, according to the Polaris Project. One study of child sex trafficking in New York City found that boy victims were far easier to find than girls.
First, please stop using LGBTQ as a sexual orientation. Boys and men aren’t lesbians (L). I don’t think you’re talking about transgender men (T), which isn’t even a sexual orientation (it’s a “gender identity”). I maintain that queer (Q) is meaningless, but I’m all ears if you can find a scientific (or at least consistent) definition. More importantly, traffickers don’t really care about the sexual orientation of the boys or men they exploit. (Surely you’ve heard of “rough trade” or “gay for pay.”) So why not just say “boys and men” without qualification?
Second, it’s extremely counterintuitive that gay boys and men are more vulnerable than girls and women, and one study about New York City in 2008 doesn’t really prove otherwise. Also, how is that claim even relevant to a phenomenon that almost exclusively involves girls and women? It’s not boys and men hanging around truck stops or working at “massage parlors.”
Is this really what “inclusion” looks like in 2019?
13
@Mssr. Pleure
Inclusion, to me, means, " I don't want to leave anybody out." It doesn't mean "Jump through my definitional hoop before you try to help."
5
Boys and trans sex workers tend to work different “strips” than truck stops, places where they are less likely (though not entirely unlikely) to be beaten to death for coming on to a man.
9
Good on Mr. Smith for going into that trailer exhibit about sex trafficking. Many wouldn't.
Reading about that traveling exhibit really made an impression on me. I don't remember the last time I heard anything positive about someone with a blue-collar job doing something to get educated about a problem affecting other people and then build on that education.
I know how condescending this sounds, but it's the reality.
I often wonder how to heal this very divided country. Respecting people like Mr. Smith--both for their achievements in helping other people and for having the confidence and energy to go out and take advantage of public education efforts (in this case, about sex trafficking) would be a great start that might help more get involved.
12
@Ant
"I know how condescending this sounds....."
Yes, horrifyingly so. I weep that such narrow mindedness exists.
"...but it's the reality."
Please consider that your statement (and the underlying belief) is exactly the cause of much of our divide, as blue collar and less educated people resent being seen as somehow "less than" as human beings.
Kindness, goodness, and concern for others doesn't require a Stanford MBA.
I think it's time for legislation to promote stricter penalties for traffickers. These new guidelines could identify patterns of trafficking as distinct criminal behavior and hopefully provide stronger deterrents to modern-day slavery.
12
The fact that the nature of the human animal, especially the male, is given to being a sexual predator, and the fact that too many young girls are driven to gravitate towards these type of men, is really what is happening, not just at truck stops, but in the inner cities, in hotels, motels, out in the suburbs, along the smuggler's route to the southern border from central America all the way through Mexico, and into this country. If Robert Kraft, one of the richest, and most famous men in America, can be caught up in paying for sexual favors at a spa in Palm Beach, we must agree that it is a common everyday occurrence, not only in this country, but around the world. I would adventure a guess that even what goes on with the googly eyed interns in the political world, in that many of them gladly take part in some form of this as well, only the favors they are selling are for more money, and better positions. There were too many girls who were well taken care of by not only John F. Kennedy, and Teddy, but others, too. It is a tightly kept secret. Remember, we live in the world the last 40 years, of fewer fathers in the home, most mothers working, and the age of television and social media, where Hollywood promoted blatant sexuality of the female. I lived in New York, Beverly Hills, and Los Angeles, starting at the age of 20. I learned everything there is to know about men, the entertainment industry, and my job in the financial sector. There is nothing new under the sun.
7
Technology to the rescue. Driverless trucks are on their way!
7
@Daniel F. Solomon And sex-bots.
I am all for fighting sex trafficking but I disagree with how this article portrays ALL female sex workers as females that were forced into the oldest profession. This is no different than women who chose to steal, do drugs, kill, commit fraud, abuse, lie, etc... Yes, some were influenced or forced to do something against their will but in the end most do it on their own knowing very well what they are getting into.
We should use the same standard applied to young males that are forced to join street gangs. When a young male commits a crime because of gang pressure, do we let the young male off the hook because of gang pressure? I don't think so.
This article does an injustice by not pointing out that we are all ultimately responsible for own behavior.
19
@mrpisces I agree and disagree because there's nuance to human behavior. For example, someone may have been exploited and that trauma informs their subsequent behavior.
12
@mrpisces
Just stop. Mansplaining women and especially GIRLS being trafficked and yes, Raped makes you look foolish and heartless. That may be the case, but we don’t need that brand of Crazy here.
Period.
50
@mrpisces What's needed is for everyone to be educated differently. Most trafficking victims aren't kidnapped at gunpoint, they become slaves to their own mental imperatives, the blind spots that make them unable to see a way out, or to even conceive of one. Libertarian ideology is based on the lie that since all people potentially have free will we all do have it in equal amounts (it's either or). Free will, and thus culpability, is a learned skill, one many people never learn. My parents didn't teach it to me, and if I hadn't been lucky I can see how I would have been vulnerable to being convinced that there were invisible chains of debt or threat. A friend taught me to value freedom and think for myself. That friend's lessons should be institutionally broadcast.
14
Re Rosenberg's idea of enticing truckers with sex ads to text a machine at the police station -- did she ever hear of entrapment?
6
Did you ever hear of an undercover investigation?
10
Legalize it, regulate and tax it, and the problem is mostly solved. Prostitution will never go away, and I am not sure if there is even a reason for it to go away if it is regulated. It is mostly illegal for religious reasons. Why not address the issues what we can? Let’s minimize the abuse and do whatever we can to get rid of underage sex.
21
@John Visco
No, the problem will not be solved. A business where such incredible amounts of money are to be made will continue to exist, criminals will just find new ways.
And the reason for prostitution to be illegal is humanistic. Sweden has the model to follow.
10
@John Visco
Legalization, taxation, and regulation haven't stopped human traffickers and their "customers" from enslaving construction, agricultural, or janitorial workers; what makes you think it will stop the sex slave trade?
16
@John Visco unfortunately, legalizing prostitution has spurred traffickers to recruit children and marginalized women to meet demand. Take a look at what is happening in Europe. In eight European countries (The Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Greece, Turkey, Hungary, and Latvia), prostitution is legal and regulated. Here is what is happening in Germany:
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/human-trafficking-persists-despite-legality-of-prostitution-in-germany-a-902533-3.html
6
It's called 'human trafficking" but sadly, is simply another though more desperate form of immigration.
2
@Paulo, if you had read the article, you'd know that many or most of the women trafficked are not even immigrants. There are cheap and easy ways to snag young girls as runaways or "girlfriends" here.
7
Reading the article, it turns out the statement from the header, "These are slaves" refers to some "Lot lizards," maybe, anecdotally. The implication that all prostitutes are slaves, either at truck stops or elsewhere, is fake news that the Time should strive to avoid.
11
@Juvenal451
It's a very good bet, based on evidence, that most re not "Happy Hookers" either. This piece is nice summary nd has links you might find interesting.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/look-around-and-look-within/201504/getting-enlightened-about-prostitution
4
@Juvenal451--Prostitution IS slavery. It is the selling of human beings.
1
Selling sex is also linked in my experience of cases to illegal drugs and to mental illness.
It is also a place where one finds victims of domestic violence, running in the only way they know how.
It is also a place truckers will find some very ugly disease. It is not safe. The truckers too are at risk, medically and from crime.
This is ugly, a thing swirling in victims of all kinds. It is a common cesspool of ugliness.
23
@Mark Thomason, good points. A lot of these women are also victims of sexual abuse in their younger years. Makes it much easier to be re-victimized by pimps and other low-life.
8
You are mostly correct , but plenty of educated normal people selling and buying sex
3
I agree that all human trafficking should be stopped, and especially sex trafficking. However all work is somewhat exploitative, because your boss is always going to pay you less than you earn them. (ie. the Walton Family owners makes more in a minute than their Wal-Mart employees will make all year)
The 'good jobs' aren't coming back, and in so many places there are only gas stations, diners, and Wal-Mart to exploit labor at wages so low many employees still qualify for food stamps.
Maybe we can join the civilized world, enforce our existing labor laws, put some teeth back into the NLRB to support union rights, card check to allow for the formation of new unions, raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, and make sex work a safe, legal, and regulated enterprise.
So hopefully the police and prosecutors will focus on the 'human trafficking' exploiters that sit in corporate boardrooms, and the dark edges of a truck stop.
14
Time to make the profession legal. Use the ranch system that they have in Nevada, these women remain safe and have healthcare. They are not exploited, and make a lot more than $15/hr with greater job security. We might be the only country left that believes this profession can be ended, that's wishful thinking. Time to face reality, pilgrims.
5
Janitorial, construction, etc. services are legal, taxed, and regulated. Doesn't seem to stop traffickers from enslaving fellow human beings in those fields. So your point is?
9
Very well said.
1
Where are the voices of the sex workers? Why do we not value their opinions? Sex work is work and should be regulated and legalized to better prevent trafficking and empower those who choose sex work.
To label sex work or all prostitution as slavery is sex-negative and anti feminist.
17
@Anonymous, how many people do you know that dreamed of being a sex worker when they grew up? It's generally a field for people who have few other options, not a career choice.
23
The author did not do that. Did you actually read the article?
4
How many people dream of being a janitor when they grow up? That's simply not in any way a valid point.
4
What a great program! I appreciate that it tries to change assumptions and moral judgments surrounding sex trafficking, and to fight against its normalization. Only a misguided and patriarchal society imagines that a girl, boy, or woman is in a parking lot at night having sex with strangers out of choice! And buying the body of a poor person for your own sexual gratification is NOT normal, it's shameful.
This program is a positive step in the right direction! Kudos to the truck-drivers and the organizers.
172
It's disturbing and a disgrace that this is still happening in such large numbers throughout the world.
19
To be fair, if I were a fulltime truck driver in that lonely cab hauling buncha stuff up and down the highways in awful traffic, I, too would welcome a "pleasure respite" at a truck stop, to make my trucker life endurable. But of course no sexual prostitution is acceptable, for it risks VD, unwanted pregnancy which leads to abortion, reducing females to objects to be used for male enjoyment and not valued as human beings. I have 4 daughters whom I do not wish to sell their bodies in sex slavery.
20
Do you know any long haul truckers? They're not animals. It's a decent job that comes with good pay. The guys I knew who were truckers are nothing like the stereotype. Plenty of them are family guys who would be horrified at the idea of bringing a disease home to their wives from a truck stop prostitute. They don't need a respite in order to be able endure their work life on the road. That's insulting.
31
@Todd Fox Yes, those I know are nice guys. My post was sympathetic for doing what I consider a tough job. It was not at all insulting. I think you really are arguing with Tina Rosenberg. I accept your apology to me for your misunderstanding.
4
The truckers don’t get VD from the girls. That’s a chicken or the egg dilemma. They all get diseases from each other.
Truckers are a large group of hard-working men who likely enjoy their time alone and also enjoy providing for and returning to their families.
People who are trafficked are likely victims of child abuse and now victims of someone who controls them with beatings and drugs.
7
How about training Uber, Lyft and other rides-for-hire contractors and working with the companies themselves to develop tactics to spot likely trafficking?
How about working with truck stop and other highway/freeway rest stops and gas stations to place anti-trafficking education and resource info on menus, gas pumps, the inside of bathroom stalls and above urinals, on Fast-food places' take out cups, on Home Depot and similar shops' bags, on shipping packaging for products commonly used in jobs known to have lots of trafficking (janitorial, agriculture, construction, etc)? Public service announcements along the lines of missing children information on milk cartons.
10
One more thought:
Since the article reports that many pimps are or were boyfriends or intimate partners of the trafficked sex slaves, how about including contact info for the National Domestic Violence Hotline, and perhaps basic information about DV along with human trafficking hotline?
5
Many groups are in place, and could really use your help. TraffickCam and the Polly Klaas Foundation are just two nationwide groups. I am sure that there is an organization in your town that can use some help. Please consider looking into providing $ or a few hours a month to these organizations near you. That’s all it takes.
4
I am not usually a fan of the "slippery slope" argument; that if you make one compromise, then it will lead to another and eventually to allowing things that we once despised.
But in the case of prostitution the argument is a good one. Progressives want to call prostitution "sex work" now and make the profession respectable; women just expressing their right to control their destinies.
But as we've seen recently, for every "high class" escort that uses their body as a form of empowerment, we have more women that use it because they have no other option, and more that are lured to America never intending to sell themselves at all but are kept as slaves, and of course the worst of all, children who are kidnapped and made to do the same.
And for anyone thinks that it is a far stretch from the Pretty Woman type escorts to kids as sex slaves, we only need look as far as Robert Kraft and Jeffery Epstein, billionaires who could have had a life full of discrete "empowered" $1,000 an hour women, but knowingly chose abused sex slaves and children instead.
The article should not gloss over the effects of prostitution at all levels, which ultimately contributes to the awful circumstances it describes at truck stops.
100
@Evan Reis
I agree, Sex is not a profession. And I regret very much that Amnesty International and some feminist organizations have jumped on that train. I have stopped to support Amnesty but Radisson and Delta will be on top of my list when booking my next holiday.
33
@Evan Reis
Great comment! Like Marie, I also stopped donating to Amnesty International once they started arguing for the ideological concept of 'sex work.'
19
@Evan Reis
Not all, and probably not even most, Progressives think that prostitution is unproblematic or a form of female or queer empowerment. Although I suspect that a good many Libertarians do.
12
"Most pimps are not strangers but intimate partners."
Another reason Congress should immediately reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act (see recent NYT article) and other protections for people abused by intimate partners, whether or not they officially co-habituate.
74
@Her "Most pimps are not strangers, but are U.S. Family Court judges and attorneys."
Here's what U.S. Family Court is: U.S. Family Court is the arbitrator of the most extensive AND expensive child trafficking and prostitution trade in United States history - dwarfing that of the African Slave trade in family and societal destruction.
@Her-You mean the reauthorization act that Congress just allowed to lapse? ...The one the NRA is against?
"The National Rifle Association is preparing to punish lawmakers for voting to protect women from their stalkers and domestic abusers. The gun lobby announced this week that it will dock its grades for politicians who vote to renew the Violence Against Women Act....NRA spokesperson Jennifer Baker told the National Journal that this “red-flag” provision — intended to protect women against gun violence from men who are exhibiting violent or dangerous behaviors — is an unacceptable encroachment on individual gun ownership rights."
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/nra-violence-against-women-act-814295/
6
Thinking outside the box a bit, it occurs to me that legalizing prostitution would do more toward eliminating sex trafficking than any other measure I can think of. At least until android prostitutes are in mass production, and once they get anywhere near sentient it's a whole new philosophical problem.
3
@Dan Stackhouse You aren't thinking outside the box by arguing for legalizing prostitution. You are locked inside it. Many countries have legalized or decriminalized prostitution, and every one of them still has human trafficking. There just aren't enough Dutch, Danish, Italian, Spanish, and German women who are willing to have sex with multiple men a day for money. Third World sex slaves fill the gap. The Swedes have come to recognize this and are fighting human trafficking by trying to reduce demand. They decriminalized selling sex, but buying it is still a crime.
43
@Dan Stackhouse
Hogwash. Amsterdam has legalized prostitution, and its prostitution district has become a center for sex trafficking, drug trafficking and gun running. Legalizing the buying of women's bodies does not eliminate sex trafficking, it provides a cover for it, to the point that in Amsterdam only 5% of the prostituted women in that city are not sex trafficked. Who do you think are all the East European and Russian men in sunglasses and vulpine slumps hanging around the district? They are sex traffickers keeping an eye on their "property"? Amsterdam has become such a center of sex trafficking and crime that the city recently banned the sex tours through the prostitution district.
The way to eliminate sex trafficking is the Nordic model, in which prostituted women and children are offered rehabilitation and civil treatment, while the sex buyer are treated as criminals. This approach has reduced prostitution and sex trafficking by 60=80% in the Nordic countries so far.
8
Ah thanks for schooling me with such contempt Kaleberg. I accept your conclusion then, there is no way to stop sex trafficking. Making it illegal does nothing, because it has always been illegal.
1
The plight of people defrauded of pay for construction work is simply not equivalent to sex trafficking.
Victims of both are definitely worthy of compassion. But tell me which is likely to inflict life long trauma. Doing a month of house cleaning or farm work for pay that never materializes, or having to sleep with 10 truckers a day till your eyes go glassy like a doll, as the article describes.
As the march to legitimize “sex work” barrels forward, the progressive left is somehow ignoring the impact this will have on the marginalized communities they say they care most about— black and brown women and boys, the poor, the LGBTQ. Their bodies will be the ones that are used to meet the expanding marketplace demand. There eyes will be the ones going glassy. Not the young professional femenist who feels empowered by occasionally stripping for a webcam or spending a paid night with a high price lawyer.
The left’s policy response to sex trafficking will reveal who it really cares about. The marginalized victims, or the feminists of fashion.
There’s another way called the Nordic model. Stop arresting the victims, but go after the buyers.
35
@Frank
You're throwing around a lot of negative stereotypes about the left, progressives, and feminists.
While opinion on the left about prostitution is not unanimous, there are many on the left (especially feminists) who see the exploitation of these women and girls and are working to oppose that.
The difference between the left and right on this issue is less than you think.
7
@Frank, many feminists are utterly opposed to prostitution, as the article notes. As are many on the left.
5
@Frank
If she is stripping for a webcam, she is not a feminist. She is rather perpetuating the notion that women's only value is that of sex objects for the male gaze and exploitation.
7
In America, exploiting humans is par for the course for many. We don't value other humans as equals; we devalue those who are older, of a different colour, younger, addicted, and with any number of characteristics which render them in the eyes of the exploiter as not worthy of being treated of value. We have more human trafficking now than ever but I applaud those who offer comfort and don't exploit but attempt to break this terrible pattern. As a surgeon, I am on the front-lines of treating those who suffer the trauma of sex-trafficking in the form of physical abuse, mental trauma with death more often than is reported.
41
I have never paid for sex, but back when I was young and living in San Francisco I knew quite a few sex workers, male and female, all of whom were their own bosses and made quite a bit of money. In the mid-nineteenth century, when prostitution was legal in NYC, it was controlled by women, either as proprietors of brothels or as independent contractors. It was only with the advent of Victorian morality and concomitant laws outlawing the trade, that it became a degraded and degrading business (interested parties might seek out historian Patricia Cline Cohen). This is a complex issue, but the current anti-sex league crowd have seized on the "trafficking" tag to implement their own neo-Victorian agenda. Have we not learned anything from our dismal and completely failed "war of drugs"?
6
@Glenn Baldwin
You are missing the point. The article is about involuntary sex work by minors in dire conditions, not about raking it in SF as an empowered professional.
45
Actually the article is about trucker’s efforts to STOP sex trafficking of victims of all ages. The article focuses less on the actual trafficking and more on efforts to combat it. Legalization and more importantly regulation have proved successful in reducing trafficking in several countries. Legalizing sex work between consenting individuals would free police agencies up to devote more resources towards arresting traffickers and rescuing victims.
6
Sex work is an entirely different issue, and you know that. Please don’t ignore trafficked people.
1
This is wonderful news.
Thank you guys!
16
I find it interesting that many articles about prostitution, pimping, and sex trafficking are quick to say that no one knows the extent of the problem or a whole lot of details about how the business works, yet the authors are very sure that the women involved only do it because of coercion.
6
@DKB, I find it interesting that you seem to want to divert attention from the aspect of coercion.
6
Thank you Tina for another of your incredibly insightful and informative columns. And thank you to the truckers who have become watchful for signs of this practice.
This is slavery, 21st century-style, and as we have learned in the Robert Kraft scandal, it exists in almost every community in America where there is a strip mall (or a truck stop).
However, as others have noted, until we as a society dispense with our moral hang-ups about sex, this sort of exploitation will continue. We have to deal with reality and legalize & regulate the sex industry, just like any other business, if we are to stand a chance of ending the sexual exploitation of the most vulnerable in our society.
7
Trafficking any human for any reason is the most heinous crime one can imagine. Trafficked humans aren’t just sex workers either. There’s a lucrative market around the world for in home domestic help, restaurant workers, farm workers, casual day labor, and myriad other ways to take advantage of persons ensnared in the industry of smuggling desperate people. These persons are often enslaved by the debt incurred to get them out of their home country. A debt from which few can escape.
This is a big problem hiding in plain sight.
16
Bravo! To T.A.T. and Mr. Smith, and for NYT for publishing the articles!
Mr. Smith and TAT are true heroes.
11
have worked there.Having been in the trucking industry for many years ,the article is true in some respect but very misleading in others.Where to begin. The two truck stop /travel centers in Ontario Ca. have for many years now been gated and have 24 /7 armed patrol guards and pretty much eliminated the trafficking in women , once existed there ,over ten years ago. Across the board ,truck stops nationwide have been subject to prostitution stings in recent years and almost stopped the women who have worked there.Travel center /truck stops are also frequented by the public equally and patrolled frequently by police.Drivers still contend with people begging for money and scams and many drivers are generous and will give people money,though generally I would report them to security.I ,myself have ,a few times refused to allow a soaking wet young woman into the truck in a rain storm ,simply because it's a dangerous and basically illegal situation for a driver today.
5
@Alan Einstoss-These are good safety measures that should be instituted nationwide, yes?
Awareness and education. Always.
4
Great article on an important subject. This piece should be repeated every single day.
6
Mr. Taylor saved a life and probably the well-being of an entire circle around that person's life. Well done.
49
This is a great idea, but what do 'authorities' do with the victims once they are turned over? Are they prosecuted for prostitution? Are there programs to get them back into communities and off the streets? Are there ways to help them remove the stigma of being attached to the 'profession'?
There may be women and girls (and boys) forced into this by, frankly, force. They may be there out of desperation. And some may even be there by choice (although I doubt that that's true of anyone that might be called a 'lot lizard').
It makes sense to me to decriminalize prostitution and to develop programs that help its victims. As to customers, I'm not sure. But traffickers and pimps, I think, deserve much harsher sentences--this trade amounts to rape, grand theft, and enslavement.
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@Justin
Decriminalze prostitution will not stop human trafficking in a business where this much money goes around (99 billion in 2014). Germany is an example of how NOT to do it. Since decriminalization it has become the biggest brothel in Europe and human trafficking takes place. You will not find enough volontary women to satisfy demand if men are told that it is just fine to buy a woman’s body for sexual gratification. The Swedish Model is the only model to go: help the victims, punish the pimps and the customers who encourage the trafficking.
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@Marie Fair enough--decriminalization won't stop trafficking--nothing will stop it completely. Prohibition clearly hasn't worked.
But I think decriminalization will make it easier for victims to seek help from authorities.
And I have no reason to believe that prostitution won't function like every other market--when supply is reduced, prices go up. So 'professional' prostitutes (if they exist) should be happy to police the market to keep trafficked people out of it (I certainly don't want to compete against anyone trafficked in my profession). But they can only do that if they don't fear prosecution themselves.
The Netherlands and most of Europe has gone against expectations, however (trafficking has increased despite legalization), I think, because they've been overwhelmed by Russian, African and Middle Eastern immigrants with few options.
The way to help trafficking victims is not to oppress them further.
Thanks, Ms. Rosenberg, a bunch for your fine service, the Solutions Journalism Network!!
We will link to it from our social sites.
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So now truckers are not only responsible to haul freight from one end of the country to the other; now they are 'deputized' to be social workers/therapists/ and nurse practitioners. What we need are rules for legal sex workers so that truckers and anyone else who wishes can participate in their pursuit in a legal, safe, and socially mature fashion.
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@boji3 At the least, all that is being asked of the trucker is to call the hotline, which will then call the police. What if it was your son or daughter that was being trafficked? I bet you would probably want someone to pick up the phone. No one is asking a truck driver to be a social worker.
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@boji3
Really, truckers need to keep their minds on the road and let the police, social workers and busy bodies in general worry about sex workers.
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@james Haynes truckers are apparently a lot of the demand so we need to address them too.
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A small truck stop near Austin Indiana (Scott County) was part of the community tapestry in which approximately 215 people became HIV positive. Prior to 2014, Scott County typically averaged less than 1 new HIV case annually. Reports among public health authorities indicated that truckers seeking sex with prostitutes were routinely shuttled to houses in Austin with rampant drug use via private cars. The human grief associated with contracting HIV is enormous, let alone the financial cost of treating and preventing further HIV cases.
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@MadamimadaM
You neglect to mention that that outbreak of HIV was exacerbated by Mike Pence, then the Governor of that sate.. by his delaying any actions like needle exchange, and urging prayer in place of screening
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/08/us/politics/mike-pence-needle-exchanges-indiana.html
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One of my female cousins was trafficked once, all the way from Delhi to Mumbai. Thankfully a Mumbai pedestrian saw her looking disoriented and listless in front of a movie theatre, suspected something is awry, and called the police, who returned her home safely. She went on to have a good education, successful career and two beautiful children. I know another family whose older daughter was trafficked by her then-boyfriend, never to heard of again; her father was brutally murdered when he tried to do some investigation of his own (local police were not helpful).
The power of kindness and community lookout, harnessed by law enforcement, can go a long way.
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So here's a thought. The demand will never go away completely. So offer legitimate, regulated, and taxed services.
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@NavyDoc Don't forget the threshold occupational health and safety needs for such positions, which need to be part and parcel of the compensation: vaccines, STD testing, birth control, contraception, and regular physicals.
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@NavyDoc, the answer to everything is not legalization and taxation. As a society, we have to draw a line somewhere.
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@NavyDoc
This is a commonly voiced solution, but the problem is the demand would exceed the women who are willing to work such jobs, and the price they would charge for their own dignity would be beyond most truck drivers.
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A brilliant idea, going right to the source. The increased numbers of truckers calling into the national hotline in speaks volumes to the success of this program. Thank you to the truckers who are partaking in Truckers Against Trafficking.
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Finally. Some good news. Thanks, to all the people working on this.
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Bless these efforts and all those working to change hearts, minds and behaviors that abet these human rights violations. This is what Jesus would do. What Harriet Tubman did. I say this as an agnostic non-church going Lefty. It’s just what came to mind.
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Truckers can play such an important role is stopping human trafficking. I applaud this organized approach and the individual truckers who have the courage to make a difference!
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" .. And just how do you bring up the subject in truck stop conversation?"
Hmm .. look adults in the eye, remind them that the trucks they drive have loads that are worth $$$$, and getting caught "wrong" for anything is a one-way trip to unemployment and the Gray Bar Hotel. And that most parking lots are under 24x7 video monitoring .. because the trucks are worth $$$$.
Simple is beautiful, IMHO.
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