Anti-sex trafficking mov't must shift focus to targeting businesses profiting off sex: victim advocate
WASHINGTON — An anti-sexual exploitation advocate is urging the movement to shift its focus by targeting those who drive demand, asserting that the problem will persist if no effort is made to address the businesses that fuel demand for purchasing sex.
On Thursday, the National Center on Sexual Exploitation held an event titled, "Demand Reduction Symposium on Primary Prevention of Sex Trafficking: Moving the Needle on Demand Reduction." During the symposium, sex trafficking survivors, along with a Cook County, Illinois, sheriff and multiple anti-sexual exploitation advocates discussed practical solutions to reduce the demand for and ultimately eliminate sex trafficking.
NCOSE CEO Dawn Hawkins called for a “significant shift” in the movement to combat sex trafficking. She suggested an approach that involves targeting those who drive the demand for sexual exploitation and consumers of the sex trade.
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“The global reality is that prevention efforts that center around raising awareness on how to identify, report or prevent victimization are having little impact in the grand scheme of things,” Hawkins said, acknowledging that while these efforts are important, these solutions alone cannot solve the problem.
“We can't keep putting Band-Aids on this gaping wound,” she stressed. “We must take an approach that’s radically different. … We have to correct the policies that allow those who cause harm to continue doing so with impunity. We have to challenge the institutional and corporate interests that facilitate and profit from this abuse.”
Hawkins also called for changing the culture so that people no longer view sex as a “commodity” that one can buy and sell, citing pornography as an example of what is likely fueling this mindset. She added that the movement cannot work to eliminate sex trafficking while ignoring pornography and other exploitative practices like prostitution.
“We can't just seek to alleviate the pain of the exploited,” the NCOSE CEO said. “We have to prevent that pain from occurring in the first place.”
"I would argue that it includes targeting those who drive the demand for sexual exploitation and consumers of the sex trade. We have to correct the policies that allow those who cause harm to continue doing so with impunity. We have to challenge the institutional and corporate interests that facilitate and profit from this abuse. I would say right now we've got X, we've got Reddit, we've got Meta, we've got Visa, we've got hotel chains."
During the event’s panel discussion, Hawkins called the Department of Health and Human Services’ February report “disappointing.” The anti-sexual exploitation advocate believes the report, titled "A Public Health Approach to Preventing Human Trafficking," talked more about addressing vulnerabilities that increase the risk of trafficking instead of focusing on predation.
In an interview with The Christian Post, Hawkins expanded on some of her organization’s efforts to combat the demand for buying sex, which includes presenting research to lawmakers. The organization is also working with a sex trafficking survivor to sue Nevada government officials and brothel owners in the state for enabling the practice.
The suit argues that what the Jane Doe in the lawsuit endured at the brothels violated the 13th Amendment, claiming that this was slavery in the form of sex trafficking.
NCOSE released a study in January funded by the National Institute of Justice that analyzed various studies and outlined multiple strategies believed to be effective in reducing the demands driving sex trafficking markets.
Attendees at last week's event also received a handout titled “A Call to Embrace the Abolition of Prostitution.” The handout cited a study published in 2013 that analyzed 116 countries, finding that legalizing prostitution led to its expansion and an increase in human trafficking overflows.
Another 2018 study cited in the handout found that legalized prostitution in Nevada led to an increase in the state’s sex trade. According to the study, when adjusted for population, Nevada’s sex market is the largest of any state. The research also found that Nevada’s number of sex providers per capita is 63% higher than New York and nearly double that of Florida.
The handout also cited the policy recommendations found in Demand Abolition’s report, “Who Buys? Understanding and Disrupting Illicit Market Demand,” for abolishing sexual exploitation.
The policy recommendations cited in the report included moving law enforcement’s resources away from prosecuting individuals prostituting themselves to prosecuting the buyers instead. In addition, the report recommended mandatory minimum fines for convicted buyers to offset the costs of services for survivors, and law enforcement agencies are working to stop the demand.
