Comments on: Q: What do Jeep, Gloria Steinem, and horrible, untold suffering have in common?

By: PhDork

PhDork — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 19:47:16 +0000

FW, I don't understand your "anti-trafficking scam" comment. Are you implying that asking questions of minors who may have been trafficked is a problem? How? Who is being scammed? Who is benefitting from the scam?

By: FW

FW — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 18:33:59 +0000

(sorry bout that, first got cut off)

1. Tell me about your boyfriend…..

Have you met his family?

How old is he?

Did he promise to take care of you and does he give you nice things?

Does he share much about himself? What do you know about him, his job, his
friends?

Has he asked you a lot of questions about your life, your family?

2. Do you know anyone who has exchanged sex for something that they needed or wanted,
for money, drugs, shelter, clothes or food? When was the last time you did?

3. Have you ever stripped, danced or worked in an escort service?

4. What’s your school attendance like? Do you go to school? How many days do you miss
in a week?

5. Do you have frequent Sexually Transmitted Infections? Multiple sexual partners?

Interviewing questions developed by the Prostitution Roundtable in Toledo, Ohio.

By: FW

FW — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 18:32:56 +0000

This is from the last page of the report linked in the post above. These are standard suggested screening questions, and are a big clue as to why anyone with a lick of sense should be opposing these anti-trafficking scams.

“”Appendix 1: Interviewing Questions for Suspected Victims of Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking

Questions are most helpful during a comprehensive assessment process and/or when the interviewer has an ongoing relationship with the child/youth. The child may not answer the questions directly and may display uneasiness, fearful behaviors or aggressive resistance to
answering the questions. This may indicate a need for further investigation by child protection and/or law enforcement.

1. Tell me about your boyfriend…..

By: Spark

Spark — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 16:21:57 +0000

I saw an ad campaign on New Jersey Transit not long ago advising riders to “look out” for trafficking victims (people who appear to be under duress). I think there was a hotline.
I’ve heard that we also can credit trafficking for the super cheap mani-pedis now available on the east coast.

By: Cimorene

Cimorene — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 02:26:18 +0000

I’m always worried about how much trafficking goes on in my city. My partner’s from Atlanta, and he tells me that compared to there, there are practically no highly visible prostitutes visible here. He’s been approached by several women, but compared to a bigger city there’s not a lot of sex work here. Most people even go across the border into Ontario for strip clubs, so we don’t have very many of those here either. The laws there are apparently more lenient about nakedness on stage, or something. But once my partner ended up in a strip club in Niagara Falls, Ontario, and he said that there were lots of women who were obviously prostitutes there, and his description was basically one of hell on earth (that’s actually the phrase he used), so I’m assuming that they aren’t the happy-go-lucky-craigslist-prostitute of legend. Living so close to the border, and having a large number of immigrants and refugees in the refugee or immigration limbo (either for US or Canadian citizenship/refugee status) has always seemed like a prime zone for trafficking.

Though, several months ago a chain of massage parlors that were a front for some people who had trafficked women in from China got busted by the cops and immigration. I was shocked that the Buffalo news quoted the cops as saying that they were concerned that it was more than just prostitution, and everyone involved made a point that they were concerned about the “girls” (don’t know how old they were) that were working at the brothel and were making sure that they were getting help, talking to people and trying to make sure that they were taken care of and not just arrested immediately for being “illegal immigrants” or prostitutes.

By: sarah.of.a.lesser.god

sarah.of.a.lesser.god — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 01:57:14 +0000

thanks to opposition from the state’s Prosecuting Attorneys Association (why, WHY?), it doesn’t treat trafficking as a crime on its own, merely as a way to tack on penalties for those charged with “real” crimes, like selling drugs or producing child pornography.

*……….*

Okay, now that I’ve picked up the fragments of my exploded brain, I can…

*………*

Sorry, it exploded again. Honestly, I read this post earlier today and have been trying to come up with some incisive comment. But I have nothing to offer other than to echo your righteously angry WHY?!

By: Ocean_breeze

Ocean_breeze — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 01:15:40 +0000

All the terror, abuse, beatings…all that is NOT A CRIME? What sick fuck thinks that this is ok? Because they are women and children? Is it that sick mantra of “oh they will have sex eventually anyway?”

Fuck that. And because it’s gay men and people who are immigrants it’s not our problem? Excuse me? This is a terrifying world we live in.

By: mischiefmanager

mischiefmanager — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 23:11:05 +0000

On its surface, I can’t imagine why they’d be so hostile to it. I’d have to read the text.

Middle America is a scary, scary place.

I have no idea what Seattle’s problem is.

By: PhDork

PhDork — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 21:15:22 +0000

I don’t know, Odonata. I was hoping some of our great legal minds could weigh in. This is definitely outside of my area of expertise.

By: Odonata

Odonata — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 19:01:01 +0000

Is there some sort of jurisdictional reason why the Prosecuting Attorneys Association would oppose an anti-trafficking bill? Is there something weird about the bill? I echo you: “Why? WHY?”