Post by: Kelsey Yates
My name is Kelsey Yates and I am a 3L at Regent University School of Law and a student staff member for the Center for Global Justice. This semester I am working on a project for the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, also known as NCOSE. The National Center on Sexual Exploitation is a non-profit organization that focuses on defending human dignity and opposing sexual exploitation in all forms. NCOSE focuses on attacking a variety of sexual exploitation issues including human trafficking, pornography, child sexual abuse, and violence against women. This semester I am working on a State Prostitution Law survey project for NCOSE.
The purpose of this project is to provide a better understanding of the different state laws that deal with prostitution and how each state addresses prostitution as a whole in order to work towards reducing the demand for sexual exploitation. Human trafficking and prostitution go hand in hand and many states fail to appropriately address the issue of prostitution in order to effectively reduce the demand for this sexual exploitation.
Some states punish prostitutes harshly while giving more grace to buyers and pimps. One of the issues with states that address prostitution in this way is that often times those that are labeled as “prostitutes” are actually victims of human trafficking and sexual exploitation. These victims can be met with harsh penalties rather than the help that they need and deserve. One of the major problems with allowing buyers and pimps to receive “easier” punishments is that the buyers are what drives this exploitation and pimps continuously filter through women and children with a seemingly unlimited supply.
Gathering more information for this State Prostitution Law survey project will hopefully provide NCOSE with the information they need to help effectively reduce the overall demand for sexual exploitation.
This post was written by a Center for Global Justice Student Staff member. The views expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect those of Regent University, Regent Law School, or the Center for Global Justice.