Sex trafficking and the sex industry: The need for evidence-based theory and legislation

Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology

Volumn 101, Issue 4, 2011, Pages 1337-1369

  Weitzer, Ronald ^a  

^a GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY   (United States)

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EID: 84857563579     PISSN: 00914169     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (117)

1. Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 § 103(9), 22 U.S.C. § 7102(9) (2006) [hereinafter, TVPA].
2. § 103(8)(A), 22 U.S.C. § 7102(8)(A). Persons convicted of involvement in the trafficking of adults where force, fraud, or coercion is involved or where the victim was under fourteen years of age are subject to a penalty of a fine and/or imprisonment for any term between fifteen years and life. For victims between the ages of fourteen and eighteen, traffickers are subject to a fine and/or imprisonment for a term between ten years to life. 18 U.S.C. §§ 1591(b)(1)-(2) (2006 & Supp. II 2008).
3. Consensual migration with third-party assistance is often called "smuggling" instead of trafficking. For a good discussion of the differences between trafficking and smuggling, see ALEXIS ARONOWITZ, HUMAN TRAFFICKING, HUMAN MISERY 8 (2009).
4. See Ronald Weitzer, Sex Work: Paradigms and Policies, in SEX FOR SALE: PROSTITUTION, PORNOGRAPHY, AND THE SEX INDUSTRY 1, 5 (Ronald Weitzer ed., 2d ed. 2010) [hereinafter Weitzer, Paradigms and Policies]; Ronald Weitzer, Sociology of Sex Work, 35 ANN. REV. SOC. 213, 214 (2009).
5. Published material based on the oppression paradigm will be cited throughout the Article. Key theoretical works include KATHLEEN BARRY, THE PROSTITUTION OF SEXUALITY (1995); ANDREA DWORKIN, PORNOGRAPHY: MEN POSSESSING WOMEN (1981); SHEILA JEFFREYS, THE IDEA OF PROSTITUTION (1997); CAROLE PATEMAN, THE SEXUAL CONTRACT (1988). For a recent defense of the oppression paradigm, see Michelle Madden Dempsey, Sex Trafficking and Criminalization: In Defense of Feminist Abolitionism, 158 U. PA. L. REV. 1729 (2010).
6. Such heterogeneity is amply documented. See, e.g., MINDY S. BRADLEY-ENGEN, NAKED LIVES: INSIDE THE WORLDS OF EXOTIC DANCE (2009); JULIA O'CONNELL DAVIDSON, PROSTITUTION, POWER AND FREEDOM (1998); Feona Attwood, The Paradigm Shift: Pornography Research, Sexualization, and Extreme Images, 5 SOC. COMPASS 13 (2011); C. Harcourt & B. Donovan, The Many Faces of Sex Work, 81 SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED INFECTIONS 201 (2005); Ine Vanwesenbeeck, Another Decade of Social Scientific Work on Sex Work: A Review of Research 1990-2000, 12 ANN. REV. SEX RES. 242 (2001)
7. For other critiques of the oppression literature, see Ronald Weitzer, The Mythology of Prostitution: Advocacy Research and Public Policy, 7 SEXUALITY RES. & SOC. POL'Y 15 (2010) [hereinafter Weitzer, Mythology of Prostitution]; Ronald Weitzer, Pornography's Effects: The Need for Solid Evidence, 17 VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN 666 (2011) [hereinafter Weitzer, Pornography's Effects].
8. Melissa Farley founded Prostitution Research & Education; Janice Raymond and Dorchen Liedholdt were the co-directors of the U.S. branch of the CATW, now headed by Norma Ramos; Gail Dines created Stop Porn Culture; and Norma Hotaling founded SAGE. Some of the key players are affiliated with universities, e.g., Janice Raymond, Donna Hughes, and Gail Dines.
9. See, e.g., Frances M. Shaver, Sex Work Research: Methodological and Ethical Challenges, 20 J. INTERPERSONAL VIOLENCE 296 (2005).
10. See Melissa Farley, Prostitution Harms Women Even if Indoors: Reply to Weitzer, 11 VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN 950 (2005)
11. Janie A. Chuang, Rescuing Trafficking from Ideological Capture: Prostitution Reform and Anti-Trafficking Law and Policy, 158 U. PA. L. REV. 1655, 1721 (2010) (noting that these authors have shown "a deep resistance to acknowledging, much less addressing, adverse data"). An example of this is Raymond's article on prostitutes' clients, where not one academic journal article is cited. Janice G. Raymond, Prostitution on Demand: Legalizing the Buyers as Sexual Consumers, 10 VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN 1156 (2004).
12. For example, Farley claims that prostitutes' regular customers "strongly endorsed rape myths, " citing research by Martin Monto and Norma Hotaling to support this statement. Affidavit of Dr. Melissa Farley at 43, Bedford v. Att'y Gen. of Canada, No. 07-CV-329807PD1 (Can. Ont. Sup. Ct. J. 2008) [hereinafter Farley Affidavit]. Monto and Hotaling reported only that repeat customers were more likely than other customers to accept rape myths, not that either group strongly endorsed them. Martin A. Monto & Norma Hotaling, Predictors of Rape Myth Acceptance Among Male Clients of Female Street Prostitutes, 7 VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN 275, 288 (2001). Moreover, Farley failed to mention the most important finding of this study: clients as a whole were not inclined to endorse rape myths. Monto and Hotaling found "low levels of rape myth acceptance" among the large sample of clients studied. at 275. In trying to make the case that indoor prostitution victimizes women to the same extent as street prostitution, Farley claims that a British study found that workers in indoor venues (e.g., private residences and saunas) reported more attempted rapes than street workers. Melissa Farley, Prostitution, Trafficking, and Cultural Amnesia: What We Must Not Know in Order to Keep the Business of Sexual Exploitation Running Smoothly, 18 YALE J.L. & FEMINISM 109, 121 n.76 (2006) [hereinafter Farley, Prostitution, Trafficking, and Cultural Amnesia] ("[W]omen prostituting in the street more frequently report being slapped, punched, or kicked-while those indoors more frequently report attempted rape. "). In fact, the British study reported the opposite regarding attempted rape: 28% of street workers said they had ever experienced an attempted rape, compared with 17% of indoor workers. Moreover, Farley failed to mention that street prostitutes were eleven times more likely to have actually been raped (vaginally): 22% of the street sample compared with only 2% of the indoor sample had ever been vaginally raped while at work. Stephanie Church et al., Violence by Clients Towards Female Prostitutes in Different Work Settings, 32 BRIT. MED. J. 524, 525 (2001). This is a clear case of both inverting and ignoring findings that contradict one's arguments.
13. An article in Christianity Today, for instance, states: "When sex becomes commerce, the moral fabric of our culture is deeply damaged. " Timothy Morgan, Sex Isn't Work, CHRISTIANITY TODAY, Jan. 2007, at 10, 10
14. "When women's bodies are on sale as commodities in the capitalist market... the law of male sex-right is publicly affirmed, and men gain public acknowledgment as women's sexual masters-that is what is wrong with prostitution. "
15. Melissa Farley et al., Prostitution and Trafficking in Nine Countries: An Update on Violence and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, 2 J. TRAUMA PRAC. 33, 34 (2003) (emphasis added). Camille Paglia offers an intriguing counterpoint to Pateman and Farley: "The feminist analysis of prostitution says that men are using money as power over women. I'd say, yes, that's all that men have. The money is a confession of weakness. They have to buy women's attention. It's not a sign of power; it's a sign of weakness. " WENDY CHAPKIS, LIVE SEX ACTS: WOMEN PERFORMING EROTIC LABOR 22 (1997) (quoting Camille Paglia).
16. See Kathy Miriam, Stopping the Traffic in Women: Power, Agency and Abolition in Feminist Debates over Sex-Trafficking, 36 J. SOC. PHIL. 1, 13 (2005) ("[M]en's right to demand access to women is the central conception of male power at stake for the feminist movement to abolish prostitution. ").
17. Janice G. Raymond, Prostitution Is Rape That's Paid For, L.A. TIMES, Dec. 11, 1995, at B5.
18. An Introduction to CATW, COALITION AGAINST TRAFFICKING IN WOMEN, http://www.catwinternational.org/about/index.php (last visited Sept. 21, 2011).
19. JAN MACLEOD, MELISSA FARLEY, LYNN ANDERSON & JACQUELINE GOLDING, CHALLENGING MEN'S DEMAND FOR PROSTITUTION IN SCOTLAND 27 (2008).
20. Melissa Farley, "Bad for the Body, Bad for the Heart": Prostitution Harms Women Even if Legalized or Decriminalized, 10 VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN 1087, 1101 (2004). It is not clear what Farley means by the highly-charged term "terrorize" in the context of strip clubs; "pimps in business suits" are presumably club owners and managers.
21. See the report funded by CATW and European Women's Lobby, MONICA O'CONNOR & GRAINNE HEALY, THE LINKS BETWEEN PROSTITUTION AND SEX TRAFFICKING: A BRIEFING HANDBOOK (2006), and an article by a CATW leader, Dorchen A. Leidholdt, Prostitution and Trafficking in Women: An Intimate Relationship, 2 J. TRAUMA PRAC. 167 (2004).
22. Donna M. Hughes, Accommodation or Abolition?, NAT'L REV. ONLINE (May 1, 2003), http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/206761/accommodation-or-abolition/donna-m-hughes.
23. Donna M. Hughes, Wolves in Sheep's Clothing: No Way to End Sex-Trafficking, NAT'L REV. ONLINE (Oct. 9, 2002), http://old.nationalreview.com/comment/comment-hughes100902.asp.
24. An exception, dating from the 1970s, was Barry's attempt to link prostitution, trafficking, and sexual slavery. KATHLEEN BARRY, FEMALE SEXUAL SLAVERY (1979). In the late nineteenth to early twentieth century, prostitution and trafficking were linked in the international movement against "white slavery, " but this discourse faded when this movement collapsed. The "white slavery" phenomenon was later found to be largely fictional, and it has been argued that "today's stereotypical 'trafficking victim' bears as little resemblance to women migrating for work in the sex industry as did her historical counterpart, the 'white slave.'" Jo Doezema, Loose Women or Lost Women? The Re-emergence of the Myth of White Slavery in Contemporary Discourses of Trafficking in Women, GENDER ISSUES, Winter 2000, at 23, 24. The turn-of-the-century campaign had humanitarian motives but, according to Limoncelli, was co-opted by the state: "[S]tate officials selectively used reforms as mechanisms to realize their own interests in maintaining and controlling women's mobility and sexual labor. " STEPHANIE A. LIMONCELLI, THE POLITICS OF TRAFFICKING: THE FIRST INTERNATIONAL MOVEMENT TO COMBAT THE SEXUAL EXPLOITATION OF WOMEN 3 (2010). A mid-century example is the 1949 United Nations Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others, opened for signature Mar. 21, 1950, 96 U.N.T.S. 271. The Convention conflates trafficking and prostitution, declares prostitution "incompatible with the dignity and worth of the human person, " and advocates criminalization of all third-party facilitation of prostitution. at 272, 274. The Convention was never widely ratified because its "sweeping conception of prostitution as exploitation would have required states to make such deep legal changes that many felt it was incompatible with their Constitutions and legal codes. " Penelope Saunders & Gretchen Soderlund, Threat or Opportunity? Sexuality, Gender and the Ebb and Flow of Trafficking as Discourse, 22 CAN. WOMAN STUD., nos. 2-3, 2003, at 16, 19.
25. See Melissa Ditmore, Trafficking in Lives: How Ideology Shapes Policy, in TRAFFICKING AND PROSTITUTION RECONSIDERED 107 (Kamala Kempadoo ed., 2005); David A. Feingold, Trafficking in Numbers: The Social Construction of Human Trafficking Data, in SEX, DRUGS, AND BODY COUNTS: THE POLITICS OF NUMBERS IN GLOBAL CRIME AND CONFLICT 46, 51 (Peter Andreas & Kelly M. Greenhill eds., 2010); Ronald Weitzer, The Movement to Criminalize Sex Work in the United States, 37 J.L. & SOC'Y 61 (2010) [hereinafter Weitzer, Movement to Criminalize]; Ronald Weitzer, The Social Construction of Sex Trafficking: Ideology and Institutionalization of a Moral Crusade, 35 POL. & SOC'Y 447 (2007) [hereinafter Weitzer, Social Construction].
26. One form of prostitution, however, is now defined as criminal sex trafficking in U.S. law: that involving minors. Under the 2000 TVPA, anyone under the age of eighteen who is induced to sell sex is categorized as a victim of sex trafficking, irrespective of whether the individual consented or whether third-party facilitation took place. TVPA § 103(8)(A), 22 U.S.C. § 7102(8)(A) (2006).
27. U.S. DEP'T OF STATE, THE LINK BETWEEN PROSTITUTION AND SEX TRAFFICKING (2004), available at http://www.defense.gov/home/features/2008/0608_ctip/docs/Prostitution%20Fact%20Sheet.pdf.
28. Iris Yen, Of Vice and Men: A New Approach to Eradicating Sex Trafficking by Reducing Male Demand Through Educational Programs and Abolitionist Legislation, 98 J. CRIM. L. & CRIMINOLOGY 653, 654 (2008).
29. Julia O'Connell Davidson, Will the Real Sex Slave Please Stand Up?, FEMINIST REV., Aug. 2006, at 4.
30. LAURA MARÍA AGUSTÍN, SEX AT THE MARGINS: MIGRATION, LABOUR MARKETS AND THE RESCUE INDUSTRY 45-46 (2007).
31. Joanna Busza, Sarah Castle & Aisse Diarra, Trafficking and Health, 328 BRIT. MED. J. 1369, 1370 (2004). See also the similar findings in a report for the U.S. Agency for International Development: THOMAS M. STEINFATT, MEASURING THE NUMBER OF TRAFFICKED WOMEN AND CHILDREN IN CAMBODIA: A DIRECT OBSERVATION FIELD STUDY 24 (2003).
32. Christine M. Jacobsen and May-Len Skilbrei, Reproachable Victims? Representations and Self-Representations of Russian Women Involved in Transnational Prostitution, 75 ETHNOS 190, 198-99, 201 (2010).
33. David A. Feingold, Human Trafficking, FOREIGN POL'Y, Sept./Oct. 2005, at 26, 28.
34. Rebecca Surtees, Traffickers and Trafficking in Southern and Eastern Europe: Considering the Other Side of Human Trafficking, 5 EUR. J. CRIMINOLOGY 39, 44, 52 (2008). Surtees documents diversity in other areas as well: "The level of organization and number of criminal groups in trafficking differs substantially from one country to another as well as within countries. " at 47.
35. Judith Vocks & Jan Nijboer, The Promised Land: A Study of Trafficking in Women from Central and Eastern Europe to the Netherlands, 8 EUR. J. CRIM. POL'Y & RES. 379, 384 (2000). Few of the interviewees were coercively trafficked: "[F]or most of the women, economic motives were decisive. The opportunity to earn a considerable amount of money in a short period of time was found to be irresistible. " at 383.
36. Interviews with eighty-five Bulgarian women involved in prostitution in Western Europe found that 75% had experienced no coercion in the process of relocating to the West. Girlfriends were the recruiters of 15% of the women, and other recruiters included relatives (8%) and boyfriends (17%). GEORGI PETRUNOV, SEX TRAFFICKING AND MONEY LAUNDERING: THE CASE OF BULGARIA 20-22 (2010).
37. See Peter Andreas, The Politics of Measuring Illicit Flows and Policy Effectiveness, in SEX, DRUGS, AND BODY COUNTS, at 23.
38. KATHRYN FARR, SEX TRAFFICKING 3 (2005). Farr's sources are activists and certain U.S. government agencies-precisely the sources that critics find highly dubious.
39. Guri Tyldum & Anette Brunovskis, Describing the Unobserved: Methodological Challenges in Empirical Studies on Human Trafficking, INT'L MIGRATION, Jan. 2005, at 17, 18 ("[M]ost of the populations relevant to the study of human trafficking, such as prostitutes, traffickers, victims/survivors, or illegal migrants constitute so-called hidden populations.... [M]embership in hidden populations often involves stigmatized or illegal behavior, leading individuals to refuse to cooperate, or give unreliable answers to protect their privacy. ").
40. For well-documented critiques of popular claims regarding trafficking and the thin evidence in support of these claims, see Sophie Day, The Re-Emergence of 'Trafficking': Sex Work Between Slavery and Freedom, 16 J. ROYAL ANTHROPOLOGICAL INST. 816 (2010); Sheldon X. Zhang, Beyond the "Natasha" Story-A Review and Critique of Current Research on Sex Trafficking, 10 GLOBAL CRIME 178 (2009).
41. The paucity of solid data is discussed in INT'L ORG. FOR MIGRATION, SECOND ANNUAL REPORT ON VICTIMS OF TRAFFICKING IN SOUTH-EASTERN EUROPE 12 (2005); Anette Brunovskis & Rebecca Surtees, Untold Stories: Biases and Selection Effects in Research with Victims of Trafficking for Sexual Exploitation, INT'L MIGRATION, Aug. 2010, at 1; Elzbieta M. Gozdziak & Elizabeth A. Collett, Research on Human Trafficking in North America: A Review of the Literature, INT'L MIGRATION, Jan. 2005, at 99.
42. Galma Jahic & James O. Finckenauer, Representations and Misrepresentations of Human Trafficking, TRENDS IN ORG. CRIME, Mar. 2005, at 24, 32.
43. DEP'T OF STATE, TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS REPORT 1 (2002) [hereinafter DEP'T OF STATE 2002] ("[A]s many as four million men, women, and children worldwide were bought, sold, transported, and held against their will in slave-like conditions. ").
44. DEP'T. OF STATE, TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS REPORT 6 (2004) [hereinafter DEP'T OF STATE 2004]; DEP'T OF STATE, TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS REPORT 7 (2003) [hereinafter DEP'T OF STATE 2003].
45. DEP'T OF STATE, TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS REPORT 7 (2008) [hereinafter DEP'T OF STATE 2008].
46. AMY FARRELL ET AL., REVIEW OF EXISTING ESTIMATES OF VICTIMS OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING IN THE UNITED STATES AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR IMPROVING RESEARCH AND MEASUREMENT OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING, at vi (2010).
47. DEP'T OF JUSTICE, EFFORTS TO COMBAT TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS IN FISCAL YEAR 2004, 5 (2005). Between FY 2001 and FY 2004, the Justice Department prosecuted 131 persons for sex trafficking offenses and obtained 99 convictions. See ATT'Y GEN., REPORT TO CONGRESS ON U.S. GOVERNMENT EFFORTS TO COMBAT TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS IN FISCAL YEAR 2004, at 20 (2005).
48. DUREN BANKS & TRACEY KYCKELHAHN, CHARACTERISTICS OF SUSPECTED HUMAN TRAFFICKING INCIDENTS 2008-2010, at 3 (2011).
49. Nick Davies, Sex, Lies and Trafficking-The Anatomy of a Moral Panic, GUARDIAN, Oct. 20, 2009, at 6. Davies cites a 2005 Daily Mirror article, entitled 25,000 Sex Slaves on the Streets in Britain, a figure repeated in debates in the House of Commons. According to Davies, the headline figure was mythical: the body of the article made no reference to it and instead proffered a much lower figure: 2,000-6,000. Davies's analysis raised major questions about the latter figures as well.
50. For instance, one team of researchers reported in 2003 a figure of 3,812 trafficking victims in the U.K. The researchers warned that this figure should be "regarded as an upper bound, " and noted that their data was "very poor" and their estimate was "very approximate, " subject to "a very large margin of error. " But the government and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) ignored these cautions and inflated the figures. Davies writes: Home Office minister Vernon Coaker ignored the speculative nature of the assumptions behind the figure, stripped out all the caution, headed for the maximum end of the range and then rounded it up, declaring to an inquiry into sex trafficking by the Commons joint committee on human rights: "There are an estimated 4,000 women victims. " The Salvation Army went further, [claiming that] "there were at least 4,000 trafficked women residing in the UK. This figure is believed to be a massive underestimation of the problem. " Anti-Slavery International joined them, converting what the Home Office researchers had described as a "very approximate" estimate into "a very conservative estimate. " In March 2007, [the Home Office] produced the UK Action Plan on Human Trafficking and casually reproduced the figure of 4,000 without any of the researchers' cautions. (emphasis added).
51. GOV'T ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE, GAO-06-825, HUMAN TRAFFICKING: BETTER DATA, STRATEGY, AND REPORTING NEEDED TO ENHANCE U.S. ANTITRAFFICKING EFFORTS ABROAD 2, 10 (2006).
52. at 16 (criticizing the "intermingling of trafficking, smuggling, and illegal migration in official statistics").
53. Gozdziak & Collett, 58, at 103.
54. Liz Kelly, "You Can Find Anything You Want": A Critical Reflection on Research on Trafficking in Persons Within and into Europe, INT'L MIGRATION, Jan. 2005, at 235, 237.
55. Tyldum & Brunovskis, 56, at 24.
56. Gozdziak & Collett, 58, at 108.
57. Trafficking Statistics Project, UNESCO BANGKOK, http://cms2.unescobkk.org/index.php?id=1022 (last visited Sept. 19, 2011). UNESCO's Trafficking Statistics Project is an ongoing effort to assess the scale of the problem. See Feingold, 30, at 51-52.
58. Jahic & Finckenauer, 59, at 31.
59. John I. Kitsuse & Aaron V. Cicourel, A Note on the Uses of Official Statistics, 11 SOC. PROBS. 131, 132 (1963).
60. See, e.g., PETRUNOV, 50, at 18; Jo Goodey, Sex Trafficking in Women from Central and East European Countries: Promoting a 'Victim-Centered' and 'Woman-Centered' Approach to Criminal Justice Intervention, 76 FEMINIST REV. 26 (2004); Louise Shelley, The Trade in People in and from the Former Soviet Union, 40 CRIME L. & SOC. CHANGE 231, 232 (2003).
61. TVPA § 103(8)(A), 22 U.S.C. § 7102(8)(A) (2006).
62. INT'L ORG. FOR MIGRATION, SECOND ANNUAL REPORT ON VICTIMS OF TRAFFICKING IN SOUTH-EASTERN EUROPE 12 (2005).
63. According to one report, the top three countries of origin of migrant sex workers in Western Europe in 2008 were Romania, Russia, and Bulgaria. TAMPEP, SEX WORK IN EUROPE: A MAPPING OF THE PROSTITUTION SCENE IN 25 EUROPEAN COUNTRIES 20 (2009).
64. THOMAS M. STEINFATT & SIMON BAKER, MEASURING THE EXTENT OF SEX TRAFFICKING IN CAMBODIA-2008, at 40 (2011). Trafficked victims were defined as individuals who were underage, indebted, or unable to leave the sex trade.
65. Zhang, 57, at 183 (citing several authors who assert that sex trafficking ranks third behind the drug and arms trades).
66. SIDDHARTH KARA, SEX TRAFFICKING: INSIDE THE BUSINESS OF MODERN SLAVERY 19 (2010).
67. Jahic & Finckenauer, 59, at 29 (pointing out that "the author of the estimate was operating with a number of unknowns" and relied on several "rough guesses").
68. Zhang, 57, at 183 ("The US government estimated that human trafficking generated $9.5 billion annually. [Donna] Hughes claimed that human traffickers around the world made off between $7 and $12 billion annually in profit. "). KARA, 100, at 19, claims that the exploitation of "trafficked sex slaves generated $51.3 billion in revenues in 2007"; after costs, the yield was "$35.7 billion in profits. " His calculations are based on a host of dubious assumptions, which are further undermined by the numerous fallacies elsewhere in his book. For instance, he equates brothel workers with "slaves" and asserts that the "contemporary sex trafficking industry involves the systematic rape, torture, enslavement, and murder of millions of women and children"-offering no sources to support these notions. at 13, 15. Similarly, his attempt to discredit the Netherlands' system of legal prostitution is full of errors. He claims, for instance, that police "rarely" conduct visits to legal brothels in Holland "primarily because of bribes paid to the relevant mayor. " at 104. No evidence, aside from the claim of an unnamed "local expert, " is offered as evidence that such bribery takes place. Moreover, contra Kara, the Dutch police routinely visit legal sex businesses to check each woman's passport and interview them about their working conditions and links to third parties. (During my research in Amsterdam, I accompanied a team of plainclothes police officers as they made their rounds visiting the window-prostitution rooms in the main red-light district, visits that are conducted frequently.) Kara claims that he saw "pimps" loitering in Amsterdam's red-light district but does not say how he knew they were pimps. at 101-03. He equates foreign prostitutes with trafficking victims and claims that trafficking is pervasive in Amsterdam. at 101 (stating that the "majority" of foreign prostitutes are "trafficking victims, " but citing only an unnamed "local trafficking expert"). He then goes on to say that "[d]espite the lack of conclusive data, observations from local experts indicate that, if anything, sex trafficking in Amsterdam increased after brothels were legalized. " at 104. Government agencies with expertise on trafficking have reached quite different conclusions. A report by the Ministry of Justice noted that "it is likely trafficking in human beings has become more difficult, because the enforcement of the regulations has increased" since prostitution was legalized in 2000. A.L. DAALDER, MINISTRY OF JUSTICE, PROSTITUTION IN THE NETHERLANDS SINCE THE LIFTING OF THE BROTHEL BAN 84 (2007), available at http://wodc.nl/images/ob249a_fulltext_tcm44-83466.pdf. And the government's Rapporteur on Trafficking states: "It is often said in the media that the lifting of the general ban on brothels [in 2000] has led to more THB [trafficking in human beings]. This is not a correct conclusion. Before the lifting of the general ban on brothels, THB and other (criminal) abuses were taking place in all sectors of prostitution. Some of these sectors are now under control and can be assumed to have rid themselves of their former criminal excesses, or are doing so.... It is possible that THB is increasing in the illegal, non-regulated or non-controlled sectors. If this were to be the case, it still cannot be assumed that the extent of THB is now at the same or even above the 'old' level it was at before the ban on brothels was lifted. It is in fact likely that this is not the case" ANNA G. KORVINUS ET AL., BUREAU OF THE DUTCH NAT'L RAPPORTEUR ON TRAFFICKING IN HUMAN BEINGS, TRAFFICKING IN HUMAN BEINGS: THIRD REPORT OF THE DUTCH NATIONAL RAPPORTEUR 91 (2005) (emphasis omitted). For a detailed discussion of the Dutch and other legal prostitution systems, see RONALD WEITZER, LEGALIZING PROSTITUTION: FROM ILLICIT VICE TO LAWFUL BUSINESS (2012).
69. DONNA HUGHES, THE DEMAND FOR VICTIMS OF SEX TRAFFICKING 26 (2005).
70. Obscenity Prosecution and the Constitution: Hearing Before the Subcomm. on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Prop. Rights of the Comm. on the Judiciary, 109th Cong. 31 (2005) (statement of Patrick Trueman, Senior Legal Counsel, Family Research Council).
71. at 11. Senator Brownback cited, as evidence, an article in the Los Angeles Times, but that article made no mention of pornography, stating instead that some individuals in the Los Angeles area had been trafficked into prostitution.; Steve Hymon, Probes Link Human Trafficking to Sex, Slave Trade, L.A. TIMES, Mar. 5, 2005, at B4.
72. Farley, Prostitution, Trafficking, and Cultural Amnesia, 13, at 126-27.
73. Catharine A. MacKinnon, Pornography As Trafficking, 26 MICH. J. INT'L L. 993, 999, 1004 (2005).
74. Letter from Robert Peters, Pres. of Morality in Media, et al., to President George W. Bush (Sept. 10, 2007), available at http://www.moralityinmedia.org/full_article.php?article_no=145. The letter was signed by, among others, Donna Hughes, Patrick Trueman, Morality in Media, Family Research Council, Concerned Women for America, Focus on the Family, American Family Association, American Decency Association, and Citizens for Community Values.
75. Julie Kay, U.S. Attorney's Porn Fight Gets Bad Reviews, DAILY BUS. REV., Aug. 30, 2005, at A1, available at http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1125318960389.
76. Press Release, U.S. Dep't of Justice, Obscenity Prosecution Task Force Established to Investigate, Prosecute Purveyors of Obscene Materials (May 5, 2005); see also Richard B. Schmitt, U.S. Plans To Escalate Porn Fight, L.A. TIMES, Feb. 14, 2004, at A1.
77. SHEILA JEFFREYS, THE INDUSTRIAL VAGINA: THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF THE GLOBAL SEX TRADE 93 (2009).
78. HUGHES, 105, at 22. Hughes received a $108,478 grant from the State Department to write this report. ATT'Y GEN., 74, at 33.
79. HUGHES, 105, at 22.
80. In interviews with seventy-two Mexican dancers working at strip clubs in San Diego, only one of them reported that she had been coerced into this work. Two-thirds sought out this work by themselves, while 27% were introduced to it by male or female friends. SHELDON ZHANG, SEX TRAFFICKING IN A BORDER COMMUNITY: A FIELD STUDY OF SEX TRAFFICKING IN TIJUANA, MEXICO 140 (2010).
81. A major study found that crime was more prevalent in the immediate vicinity of bars and gas stations than in the area near strip clubs, most likely because of the security measures taken by the strip clubs. Daniel Linz et al., An Examination of the Assumption that Adult Businesses are Associated with Crime in Surrounding Areas: A Secondary Effects Study in Charlotte, North Carolina, 38 LAW & SOC'Y REV. 69, 99 (2004). See also the related study: Bryant Paul, Daniel Linz & Bradley Shafer, Government Regulation of "Adult" Businesses Through Zoning and Anti-Nudity Ordinances: Debunking the Legal Myth of Negative Secondary Effects, 6 COMM. L. & POL'Y 355 (2001).
82. FARRELL ET AL., 70, at 85 (emphasis added).
83. JODY RAPHAEL & JESSICA ASHLEY, DOMESTIC SEX TRAFFICKING OF CHICAGO WOMEN AND GIRLS 3 (2008).
84. Jody Raphael is a staunch advocate of the oppression paradigm. See my critique of her writings: Weitzer, Flawed Theory, 10, at 939.
85. In Mumbai, India, in 2005 the government banned bar dancing, where women dance seductively but fully clothed at clubs. A survey of 500 dancers found that none had been trafficked, yet the 2005 ban was based in part on the claim that trafficking was rampant. As a result of the ban, 75,000 dancers were thrown out of work. Prabha Kotiswaran, Labors in Vice or Virtue? Neo-Liberalism, Sexual Commerce, and the Case of Indian Bar Dancing, 37 J.L. & SOC'Y 105, 110 (2010).
86. 740 ILL. COMP. STAT. 128/1, /5 (2010).
87. at 128/15(b)(1).
88. at 128/15(b)(3). See the discussion of the statute in Shay-Ann Heiser Singh, The Predator Accountability Act, 56 DEPAUL L. REV. 1035 (2007). To date, no lawsuits have been filed under the act. Meribah Knight, Campaign Against Sex Trafficking is Gaining, N.Y. TIMES, Aug. 13, 2011, at 21A (Chicago ed.).
89. The very title of Hughes's report, The Demand for Victims of Sex Trafficking, seems to imply that customers are intentionally seeking sex with trafficked persons. HUGHES, 105.
90. Annie Brown, Sex Industry in Scotland: Inside the Deluded Minds of the Punters, DAILY REC. (Apr. 28, 2008), http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/2008/04/28/sex-industry-in-scotland-inside-the-deluded-minds-of-the-punters-86908-20397545 (quoting Melissa Farley).
91. MACLEOD ET AL., 23, at 27, 30. The report was funded by the Glasgow City Council, the Scottish Government Equality Unit, and the Glasgow Health Board.
92. The introduction to the report, for example, declares that "misogyny []stimulates and sustains prostitution as a social institution.... Acceptance of prostitution is one of a cluster of harmful attitudes that encourage and justify violence against women. " at 5.
93. Martin A. Monto, Prostitutes' Customers: Motives and Misconceptions, in SEX FOR SALE: PROSTITUTION, PORNOGRAPHY, AND THE SEX INDUSTRY 233, 244-50 (Ronald Weitzer ed., 2d ed. 2010) [hereinafter Monto, Prostitutes' Customers]; TEELA SANDERS, PAYING FOR PLEASURE: MEN WHO BUY SEX 38 (2008); John Lowman & Chris Atchison, Men Who Buy Sex: A Survey in the Greater Vancouver Regional District, 43 CAN. REV. SOC. & ANTHROPOLOGY 281, 288 (2006); Martin A. Monto & Nick McRee, A Comparison of the Male Customers of Female Street Prostitutes with National Samples of Men, 49 INT'L J. OFFENDER THERAPY & COMP. CRIMINOLOGY 505 (2005); Martin A. Monto, Female Prostitution, Customers, and Violence, 10 VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN 160, 171 (2004).
94. See, e.g., Monto, Prostitutes' Customers, 132; Eugene J. Kanin, Date Rapists: Differential Sexual Socialization and Relative Deprivation, 14 ARCHIVES SEXUAL BEHAV. 219 (1985).
95. There is "no evidence to suggest that more than a minority of customers assault prostitutes" and "most clients do not hold views that justify violence against prostitutes. " Monto, Prostitutes' Customers, 132, at 243-44; see also Lowman & Atchison, 132, at 290.
96. BELINDA BROOKS-GORDON, THE PRICE OF SEX: PROSTITUTION, POLICY AND SOCIETY 198 (2006).
97. BRIDGET ANDERSON & JULIA O'CONNELL DAVIDSON, IS TRAFFICKING IN HUMAN BEINGS DEMAND DRIVEN? A MULTI-COUNTRY PILOT STUDY 24-25 (2003); see also SANDERS, 132, at 53-55.
98. Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2005, Pub. L. No. 109-164, § 204(a)(1)(B)-(C), 119 Stat. 3558, 3571 (2005).
99. After the Swedish law (described below) went into effect in January 1999, several other countries enacted similar if not identical measures. Finland in 2006 outlawed the act of buying sex from a trafficked woman, and in 2009 Norway and Iceland passed legislation quite similar to Sweden's. In the same year, England and Wales criminalized the act of buying sex from someone who had been coerced into prostitution by a third party, a strict liability offense. In each country, advocates of the measures invoked the Swedish system as a model, and in some cases Swedish advocates personally lobbied politicians in these other nations. Wallace provides some examples of this cross-fertilization and points out that the "reason that so much is heard about the Swedish model internationally is that the Swedish Government is particularly eager to promote it to other countries as the panacea to prostitution and to urge its adoption. " BOB WALLACE, OFFICE OF THE PROSTITUTION LICENSING AUTH., (Queensland, Austl.); THE BAN ON PURCHASING SEX IN SWEDEN: THE SO-CALLED "SWEDISH MODEL" 3 (undated), available at http://www.pla.qld.gov.au/Resources/PLA/reportsPublications/documents/THE%20BAN%20ON%20PURCHASING%20SEX%20IN%20SWEDEN%20-%20THE%20SWEDISH%20MODEL.pdf.
100. A Swedish government report describes the logic behind the law: [Prostitution] is officially acknowledged as a form of exploitation of women and children and constitutes a significant social problem, which is harmful not only to the individual prostituted woman or child, but also to society at large. [C]ombating prostitution and human trafficking for sexual purposes is central to Sweden's goal of achieving equality between women and men.... [G]ender equality will remain unattainable as long as men buy, sell and exploit women and children by prostituting them.... Prostituted persons are considered the weaker party, exploited by both the procurers and the buyers.... By adopting [the legislation] Sweden has given notice to the world that it regards prostitution as a serious form of oppression of women, and that efforts must be made to combat it. SWED. MINISTRY OF INDUS., EMP'T & COMMC'NS, PROSTITUTION AND TRAFFICKING IN WOMEN 1 (2004), available at http://www.innovations.harvard.edu/cache/documents/1310/131041.pdf.
101. Gunilla Ekberg, The Swedish Law that Prohibits the Purchase of Sexual Services: Best Practices for Prevention of Prostitution and Trafficking in Human Beings, 10 VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN 1187 (2004). Ekberg served as an advisor on prostitution in the Swedish government and is now co-executive director of CATW-International, based in Brussels.
102. See Arthur Gould, The Criminalization of Buying Sex: The Politics of Prostitution in Sweden, 30 J. SOC. POL'Y 437, 445 (2001); Jane Scoular, Criminalising Punters: Evaluating the Swedish Position on Prostitution, 26 J. SOC. WELFARE & FAM. L. 195, 199-200 (2004); Susanne Dodillet & Petra Östergren, The Swedish Sex Purchase Act: Claimed Success and Documented Effects 19 (Mar. 3-4, 2011) (conference paper), available at http://gup.ub.gu.se/records/fulltext/140671.pdf; Victor Clausen, An Assessment of Gunilla Ekberg's Account of Swedish Prostitution Policy (Jan. 2007) (unpublished paper) (on file with author).
103. ANNIKA ERIKSSON & ANNA GAVANAS, SWED. MINISTRY OF HEALTH & SOC. AFFAIRS, NAT'L BD. OF HEALTH & WELFARE, PROSTITUTION IN SWEDEN 2007, at 28 (2008).
104. The Swedish Ministry of Justice reached this conclusion but presented little documentation to support it: "Our assessment shows that the ban on the purchase of sexual services has had the intended effect and is an important instrument in preventing and combating prostitution. " SWED. MINISTRY OF JUSTICE, THE BAN ON THE PURCHASE OF SEXUAL SERVICES: AN EVALUATION 1999-2008, at 40 (2010).
105. Yen, 42, at 679.
106. Karen Leander, Reflections on Sweden's Measures Against Men's Violence Against Women, 5 SOC. POL'Y & SOC'Y 115, 120 (2006); see also Dodillet & Östergren, 143, at 20 (reviewing Swedish public opinion of the law).
107. Helga Kristin Hallgrimsdottir, Rachel Phillips & Cecilia Benoit, Fallen Women and Rescued Girls: Social Stigma and Media Narratives of the Sex Industry in Victoria, B.C. from 1980-2005, 43 CAN. REV. SOC. & ANTHROPOLOGY 265, 269 (2006).
108. Editorial, Name, Shame-and Prosecute, WASH. POST, June 28, 2011, at A14.
109. See Markon, 57.
110. Amy Farrell & Stephanie Fahy, The Problem of Human Trafficking in the U.S.: Public Frames and Policy Responses, 37 J. CRIM. JUST. 617, 621-22 (2009).
111. Girish J. Gulati, Media Representations of Human Trafficking in the United States, Great Britain, and Canada, 10, 16 (2010) (unpublished paper), available at http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1633574.
112. TAKEN (20th Century Fox Home Entertainment 2009).
113. The bill did not become law because the ruling Labor Party lost power in 2008 prior to official proclamation. The current Liberal-National Party coalition government is in the process of drafting a new bill that would legalize certain kinds of prostitution but is more limited than the previous Labor Party bill.
114. WA, Parliamentary Debates, Legislative Assembly, 20 Sept. 2007, 5504 [hereinafter Parliamentary Debates] (John Hyde).
115. Hyde began by refuting claims in an article by Janice Raymond: Raymond also said in 2003 that legalisation and/or decriminalisation of prostitution is allegedly a gift to pimps, traffickers and the sex industry. The reality is that Australia does not have a culture of pimps involved in the sex industry [where it is legal].... Raymond also claims that legalisation and/or decriminalisation of prostitution does not control the sex industry; it expands it. The reality is that the size of the Australian sex industry has not expanded in the states and territories that have decriminalised or legalised the sex industry.... Another claim is that legalisation and/or decriminalisation of prostitution increases clandestine, hidden, illegal and street prostitution.... New Zealand... is the only country that has used the decriminalised model that we are adapting in [Western Australia]-it created a good example of the outcomes of decriminalisation. The only authoritative study of New Zealand has shown that in its early stages there has been no increase in the number of street-based sex workers since the decriminalisation of the sex industry.... Another of Raymond's claims is that legalisation and/or decriminalisation of prostitution increases the demand for prostitution. She says it boosts the motivation of men to buy women for sex in a much wider and more permissible range of socially acceptable settings. Again, that is wrong.... Raymond [also claims] that legalisation and/or decriminalisation of prostitution does not promote women's health. Nothing could be further from the truth. Most studies in Australia have shown that sex workers enjoyed better sexual health than the general community and much lower rates of HIV-AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases. at 5504-05. The article to which Hyde is referring is Janice G. Raymond, Ten Reasons for Not Legalizing Prostitution and a Legal Response to the Demand for Prostitution, 2 J. TRAUMA PRAC. 315 (2003). A government commission reported that "the number of sex workers in New Zealand has not increased as a result of passage of the [2003 Prostitution Reform Act]. " PROSTITUTION LAW REVIEW COMM., REPORT OF THE PROSTITUTION LAW REVIEW COMMITTEE ON THE OPERATION OF THE PROSTITUTION REFORM ACT 2003, at 29, 30-38 (2008); see also Gillian M. Abel, Lisa J. Fitzgerald & Cheryl Brunton, The Impact of Decriminalisation on the Number of Sex Workers in New Zealand, 38 J. SOC. POL'Y 515 (2009) (reporting a carefully conducted study that concurs with the government report). Hyde also challenged claims about the success of Sweden's customer-targeted approach. In response to the opposition Liberal Party's use of Gunilla Ekberg's account of the "success" of Sweden's law (Ekberg, 142), Hyde countered with Victor Clausen's research (Clausen, 143): An examination [by Clausen] of 11 of the specific claims that Ms Ekberg has reported shows that much of the article is a presentation of ideological positions. I have no truck with such people who are putting an ideological or a moral position, because such an argument should have population and health considerations, police support and objective information. The main failure in Ms Ekberg's position is that she is not able to specify any sources for her claims. Parliamentary Debates, 155, at 5505. For further analysis of the Western Australia debate, see Ronald Weitzer, Legalizing Prostitution: Morality Politics in Western Australia, 49 BRIT. J. CRIMINOLOGY 88 (2009).
116. Bedford v. Canada (2010), 102 O.R. 3d 321, paras. 353-57 (Can. Ont. Sup. Ct. J.) (striking down the criminal code sections that outlawed keeping a bawdy house, living on the avails of prostitution, and communicating in a public place for the purpose of engaging in prostitution). The ruling is currently being appealed by the government.
117. PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY, COUNCIL OF EUR., RESOLUTION 1579: PROSTITUTION: WHICH STANCE TO TAKE? (2007).