GUEST OPINION: Lobbyists advocate for prostitution in Rhode Island

By DONNA M. HUGHES

Last Tuesday, June 4, the RI House Judiciary Committee unanimously adopted a bill (H 7165A) which constitutes a step towards the decriminalization of prostitution.

Prostitution decriminalization lobbyists have targeted Rhode Island to overturn the hard-won 2009 victory that criminalized human trafficking and prostitution and gave law enforcement the laws needed to end the endemic sex trafficking.

There is a lot of money to be made by exploiting women, girls and other vulnerable people. When pimps, brothel operators and prostitution ad publishers were forced out of business, they lost a lot of money. They want to go back to the good old days.

In 2018, Robert Kampia, a noted purchaser of sex, announced he was leading a state-by-state lobbying campaign to decriminalize prostitution. In 2019, the Washington Examiner said that decriminalizing sex work raised $1 million. However, Kampia is so well known for his predatory and sexist behavior that sex worker rights groups condemn him. Following a campaign to decriminalize prostitution in Washington, D.C. in 2019 (which failed), a Washington-based coalition of sex worker advocates released a statement saying they refused to work with the campaign. Kampia to decriminalize sex work.

The bills presented during this session are part of a strategy that spans several years. Pro-prostitution lobbyists know that bold bills to completely decriminalize prostitution continually fail. So they have adopted a strategy of introducing friendly-sounding bills containing language that they can later use to weaken law enforcement.

The bill in question is called the “immunity bill” to prevent “witnesses” from being prosecuted if they say they witnessed a crime. Are people who report prostitution or sex trafficking crimes arrested? The 2009 law already contains legal language that prevents victims from being prosecuted. However, the bill passed by the House of Representatives does not limit immunity to “victims”, but covers “witnesses”. Can the perpetrators of crimes themselves be “witnesses” to the crimes of other perpetrators… and avoid accountability?

COYOTE RI, the advocacy group for Rhode Island sex workers, came out against the bill because it does not explicitly grant immunity to its clients. They want complete decriminalization.

Former state Rep. Joanne Giannini, who sponsored bills to end sex trafficking and prostitution in 2009, said, “The bill has more loopholes than Swiss cheese. » And that's the point. Decriminalization lobbyists have introduced a bill that, on the surface, seems like a good bill that will help victims, but it also contains a lot of confusing language that will allow for legal action later to help victims. attackers to slip through the justice system.

The National Center on Sexual Exploitation, a leading organization that fights all forms of sexual exploitation, warns that the bill contains a loophole that could be used to protect pimps, sex traffickers and buyers of sex.

In a June 4 statement, the center's general counsel, Benjamin Bull, explained that the confusing language of H 7165A “would allow a pimp or trafficker to claim that he or she became aware that a prostituted person was the victim of a crime — and to get away with it for good. engage in trafficking,” Bull wrote. “In short,” he said, this language “gives bad actors a ‘get out of jail free card’ for no good purpose.”

Immunity from prosecution for victims already exists in the 2009 law. Bull said this new bill would grant immunity “from prosecution to smart or lawyerly traffickers.”

There are wolves in sheep's clothing hiding behind this positive-sounding immunity bill. Lawmakers should exercise wisdom and citizens should contact their representatives and senators; tell them they don't want new laws promoted by the country's most aggressive lobbyists for the decriminalization of prostitution.

EDITOR’S NOTE: South Kingstown resident Donna M Hughes, PhD, is a retired University of Rhode Island professor.