WUNRN
http://www.combathumantrafficking.org/whopays
USA - CITY/COUNTY OF DENVER,
COLORADO - PROSTITUTION, TRAFFICKING, LAWS,& DENVER'S CRIMINAL JUSTICE
SYSTEM - STUDY
Who Pays Full Report (917 KB)
Who
Pays Press Release 050812 (104 KB)
Who Pays Facts & Results Sheet (572 KB)
Prostitution and
The goal of the
study was to highlight potential points of intersection between prostitution
and sex trafficking, in addition to the role of the criminal justice system in
investigating and prosecuting buyers of commercial sex.
Research Goal and
Questions: The
study investigated the various factors involved in responding to
prostitution-related offenses within the City and
An Overview
Prostitution and Denver’s Criminal Justice System: Who Pays?, gathered
data to better understand attitudes, perceptions and actions regarding
prostitution enforcement broadly by using surveys and interviews with various
law enforcement actors. The study also included an analysis of archival data in
order to create a comprehensive picture of the systems involved in prostitution
enforcement efforts. Our motivation for this study was to examine the
enforcement of current prostitution laws in the City and
While interest in the demand for
commercial sex provoked this study, early in the process it became clear that
laws surrounding prostitution violations in
Prostitution enforcement is
becoming a vehicle for combating sex trafficking at national, state, and
municipal levels. However, it is possible that within this initiative, one that
may be derived from the best intentions, there are unintended consequences for
various populations. The primary findings of this study demonstrate gender
disparities in arrests and sentencing in prostitution-related offenses. Women
charged with prostitution-related offenses were disproportionately criminalized
compared to men. The assumptions of who a john is compared to who a prostitute
is were corroborated with data collected from this study. Dichotomies emerged
from the data: johns are "everyday men" and prostitutes are either
"drug-addicted criminals" or "victims in need of
assistance."
The present study helps to
illuminate how the criminal justice system itself may create and exacerbate
vulnerabilities that can lead to trafficking and exploitation. For example,
unintended consequences may occur as a result of concentrated efforts to focus
on johns, wherein the system risks may miss individuals who are trafficked. Additionally,
if a victim or survivor of trafficking is characterized as being a minor the
system may miss or miss-categorize potential victims of human trafficking.
Therefore, in many ways this study serves as a caution to utilizing an historic
criminal justice response to prostitution activity to achieve new ends.
Who Pays helps provide baseline context that
surrounds prostitution enforcement, and will help inform actions to support
victims and survivors of human trafficking. When it comes to the question of Who
Pays, clearly it is the vulnerable, those susceptible to harm. As the
inquiries into the crime of sex trafficking and sexual exploitation evolve, so
too must our conversations around our communities’ responses to prostitution.