Online prostitution and trafficking
2013; Albany Law School; Volume: 77; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
0002-4678
AutoresMelissa Farley, Kenneth Franzblau, Margaret Kennedy,
Tópico(s)Sharing Economy and Platforms
ResumoB. Message Boards There is seamless communication between pimps and sex buyers, ensuring delivery of women to the men who want to buy them. Increasing numbers of online sex buyer communities support predatory behaviors and exchange information regarding where and how women can be bought. (181) The Internet facilitates communication between sellers (pimps and traffickers) and sex buyers (johns), enabling pimps and traffickers to respond rapidly to men's demand for purchased sex. By enabling men to evade arrest for soliciting prostitution since they can remain hidden, indoors, and anonymous, the Internet is sex buyer-friendly. (182) Its anonymity has created a private environment in which it is possible to engage in prostitution with a lower risk of arrest, fewer legal penalties, and less public exposure. With private messaging, warnings about police undercover agents and stings can be broadcast to brother johns. (183) Atlanta sex buyers for example discussed their awareness of law enforcement's infiltration of online conversations in their forum: GreekFan: We have always known LE looks at this Board and others. But as indicated, talk is not illegal. Only trusted mongers and PM [private messaging] gets the job done. Watch your back people, always. There is no substitute for that. Blazer: for all you newbies, elly (184) monitors and POSTS to this board so watch yo' six. They usually ask dumbass questions that make it obvious that they are elly in the first place, like, can you tell me where to go to monger in Cobb, I mean names and numbers please, or **** like that. The danger is ever present, however, and we must stay aware. (185) Sex trafficking industry businesses such as Room Service provide background checks that help sex buyers avoid arrest for prostitution. (186) A customer can pay a fee to have a background check run. (187) Then when the sex buyer contacts a prostituting woman, he can provide access to his background check that is now anonymous. This arrangement allows women in prostitution to screen out undercover police officers while enabling sex buyers to avoid blackmail that might be possible if a woman had his personal information. (188) Two cases illustrate sex buyers' use of the Internet to locate women and evade Southwest Companions, a members-only website and chatboard, had 1400 members including many professors and a former University of New Mexico president who served as leader of the site's Hunt Club. (189) His job, in effect online pimping, was to recruit women in prostitution to travel to the Albuquerque/Santa Fe area. (190) According to reports, the website featured the ability to share information with other johns about police stings, to provide physical descriptions and cell phone numbers of undercover police to help members avoid arrest. (191) The Southwest Companions website provided training videos on what to do if arrested for prostitution and posted sex buyers' evaluations of women's prostitution performances, including prices and rankings of the women. (192) Several of the arrested men were charged with promoting prostitution, conspiracy, and tampering with evidence. (193) Charges against the men running the Southwest Companions online prostitution ring were dismissed by a judge who ruled that the website was not physically a brothel, (194) illustrating the challenge of applying laws that were written before the Internet was invented. 'Sometimes states' laws are too specific and were written years ago, long before the Internet,' said Scott Cunningham, a Baylor University economics professor who has written about technology and prostitution. 'That's why we are seeing some successful challenges to laws when websites are involved.' (195) The Minnesota Nice Guys, a self-named sex buyer group, was organized by a pimp who was a former assistant county attorney. (196) The pimp received high ratings on Theeroticreview (TER), a sex buyers' message board, for providing attractive and compliant women to sex buyers, often trafficking undocumented immigrants. …
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