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WHAT'S HOT ARIANA GRANDE’S ‘WICKED’ POSTER GETS ROASTED AFTER FAN MAKES 1 HILARIOUS OBSERVATION ADELE HAS 4 SIMPLE WORDS FOR ANYONE SICK OF SEEING TAYLOR SWIFT AT NFL GAMES SWIZZ BEATZ REACTS TO WIFE ALICIA KEYS' FLIRTY SUPER BOWL DUET WITH USHER DOLLY PARTON BREAKS SILENCE ON ELLE KING'S SEEMINGLY DRUNK TRIBUTE TAYLOR SWIFT AND TRAVIS KELCE LOOK ADORBS AT SUPER BOWL AFTER-PARTY JON STEWART ROASTS HIMSELF AS HE EXPLAINS RETURN TO 'THE DAILY SHOW' KANSAS CITY MOM ALLEGEDLY KILLED BABY DAUGHTER BY PUTTING HER IN THE OVEN BOY SHOT IN HEAD AT JOEL OSTEEN'S CHURCH IS SLAIN SHOOTER'S SON: POLICE STEPHEN COLBERT TAKES A SERIOUS SWIPE AT THE NFL ON ITS BIGGEST NIGHT THIS OFFBEAT THRILLER IS THE TOP SHOW ON NETFLIX RIGHT NOW THIS TWISTED TRUE CRIME DOCUMENTARY IS THE TOP MOVIE ON NETFLIX DAVOS-AREA SKI SHOP ACCUSED OF 'NEW LEVEL OF AUDACITY' IN ANTISEMITISM Skip to Main Content × MAIN MENU U.S. Edition NEWS U.S. NewsWorld NewsBusinessEnvironmentHealthSocial JusticeCrime POLITICS Joe BidenCongressExtremism OPINION ENTERTAINMENT Culture & ArtsMediaCelebrityTV & FilmBooks LIFE Style & BeautyFood & DrinkParentingTravelWellnessRelationshipsMoneyHome & LivingWork/LifeShopping VOICES Black VoicesQueer VoicesLatino VoicesIndigenous VoicesAsian VoicesWomen's Voices HUFFPOST PERSONAL VIDEO FOR OUR PARTNERS Moving The Dream Forward HOROSCOPES NEWSLETTERS PYRAMID SCHEME (WORD GAME) INTERNATIONAL U.S.U.K.EspañaFranceΕλλάδα (Greece)Italia日本 (Japan)한국 (Korea) FOLLOW US Terms | Privacy Policy Part of HuffPost News. ©2024 BuzzFeed, Inc. All rights reserved. Support UsLog In NEWSPOLITICSENTERTAINMENTLIFEPERSONALVOICESSHOPPING🏆 PLAY PYRAMID SCHEME 🏆 Support UsU.S. EditionOpen editions submenu × Contributor WHY POLICE ERRONEOUSLY LABEL NATIONWIDE PROSTITUTION ARRESTS AS TRAFFICKING STINGS Police mislabel nationwide prostitution arrests as trafficking stings By Alison Bass, Contributor Award-winning author and journalist Award-winning author and journalist Aug 26, 2017, 11:04 AM EDT |Updated Aug 26, 2017 This post was published on the now-closed HuffPost Contributor platform. Contributors control their own work and posted freely to our site. If you need to flag this entry as abusive, send us an email. LEAVE A COMMENT “1,020 charged in national sex trafficking sting” blared the headline in the Chicago Sun Times earlier this month. The news story was essentially a rewrite of a press release issued by the Cook County Sheriff’s office with a very similar headline trumpeting arrests in the sex trafficking sting. There’s just one problem: most of the people arrested in this month-long operation spearheaded by Cook County were not traffickers or trafficking victims. They were people attempting to engage in adult consensual prostitution. The way police involved in this nationwide sting chose to spin their costly efforts to entrap the buyers and sellers of sex is just one more example of how law enforcement and others routinely conflate consensual prostitution with far rarer instances of actual sex trafficking. According to federal law, trafficking victims are defined as women and men who have been forced or coerced into selling sex. In addition, anyone under the age of 18 who is selling sex is automatically considered a trafficking victim since they have not reached the age of consent. But in this national sting operation, which cost taxpayers millions of dollars, only six underage prostitutes were found out of a total 85 prostitutes. And as the Cook County release itself acknowledges, only 14 “pimps” were arrested and there is no evidence that any of them actually engaged in trafficking according to the legal definition. Advertisement It’s not just law enforcement that makes the mistake of conflating victimless sex work with trafficking. Many politicians do it as well. Just recently, U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota) was quoted in a Minnesota paper as saying that the trucking industry is uniquely positioned to prevent human trafficking. Yet while some underage prostitutes are no doubt trafficked at truck stops across the nation, most of what goes at these rest areas involve consensual arrangements between adult women and truckers, not trafficking. Yet Klobuchar and others persist in conflating the two for their own political benefit. At least in this year’s sting operation, law enforcement agencies made a point of saying they did not charge any sex workers detained with a crime as long as they agreed to go into rehabilitation. (If they didn’t avail themselves of “recovery” services they did face arrest.) Instead, the police in 37 agencies across the country, ranging from California to Maryland, arrested the buyers of sex, 1,020 men. Most of these arrests occurred after police placed an ad for sex online and then set up liaisons with callers at hotels around town. When the men showed up and offered the undercover female officers in the hotel room money for sex, they were arrested. Police also raided brothels and massage parlors as part of the operation. All of the men arrested were only charged with a misdemeanor (solicitation of sex) and slapped with a fine. And that’s the crux of it. These annual stings have become a lucrative money-making operation for law enforcement agencies. Last year, Cook County collected $132,000 in fines from men who were busted for soliciting sex, according to Sam Randall, director of communications for the Sheriff’s office there. Now you may have no problem with law enforcement making money off of men who are desperate for sex. But the problem here is that police are diverting a number of their best officers from pursuing more violent crimes to entrapping people who are mostly engaged in what many (including the sex workers themselves) say is a victimless crime. So instead of solving armed robberies or homicides or burglaries — crimes that the public really does care about — law enforcement agencies are spending their public dollars (which often includes overtime) arresting mostly adult sex workers and their hapless clients. Advertisement And this is not just a waste of taxpayer dollars, as I showed in much greater detail in my book, Getting Screwed: Sex Workers and the Law. It’s also an enormous drain on the state and district attorney’s offices who have to prosecute these men, especially since many of them are not even convicted in the end. I’m all in favor of law enforcement throwing the book at true traffickers — men and women who prey on underage youth, most of whom have run away from homes where they have been abused and are selling sex for survival. But that’s not what’s happening here. Most of the buyers arrested in these stings are arrested for soliciting adult undercover officers or adult women who are selling sex by choice. As the head of an outreach center for sex workers in Washington, D.C. told me when I interviewed her for my book: “It’s a massive waste of resources,” said Cyndee Clay, executive director of Helping Individual Prostitutes Survive (HIPS). “I would rather use that money stopping violent crime and arresting people who actually hurt others.” The unfortunate truth is that it’s easier for law enforcement to place an ad online and sit back and wait for the phones to ring than it is to go after real traffickers who operate in the shadows. Or try to crack an unsolved homicide. These stings bring in money and makes the police look good. What’s not for them to like? Advertisement SUPPORT HUFFPOST OUR 2024 COVERAGE NEEDS YOU At HuffPost, we believe that everyone needs high-quality journalism, but we understand that not everyone can afford to pay for expensive news subscriptions. That is why we are committed to providing deeply reported, carefully fact-checked news that is freely accessible to everyone. Whether you come to HuffPost for updates on the 2024 presidential race, hard-hitting investigations into critical issues facing our country today, or trending stories that make you laugh, we appreciate you. The truth is, news costs money to produce, and we are proud that we have never put our stories behind an expensive paywall. Would you join us to help keep our stories free for all? Your contribution of as little as $2 will go a long way. As Americans head to the polls in 2024, the very future of our country is at stake. At HuffPost, we believe that a free press is critical to having well-informed voters. That's why our journalism is free for everyone, even though other newsrooms retreat behind expensive paywalls. We cannot do this without your help. Support our newsroom by contributing as little as $2 to keep our news free for all. As Americans head to the polls in 2024, the very future of our country is at stake. At HuffPost, we believe that a free press is critical to creating well-informed voters. That's why our journalism is free for everyone, even though other newsrooms retreat behind expensive paywalls. Our journalists will continue to cover the twists and turns during this historic presidential election. With your help, we'll bring you hard-hitting investigations, well-researched analysis and timely takes you can't find elsewhere. Reporting in this current political climate is a responsibility we do not take lightly, and we thank you for your support. Contribute as little as $2 to keep our news free for all. Support HuffPost RELATED LEAVE A COMMENT ALISON BASS, CONTRIBUTOR Award-winning author and journalist Suggest a correction Do you have info to share with HuffPost reporters? Here’s how. 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