Yet a question often persists: Who is really a victim? But we haven't seen them again."Įlsewhere, a law passed in New York state in 2010 allows women who can prove they were coerced to have prostitution convictions wiped from their records - a move that advocates say allows them more options for housing and employment.Īnd in California, voters recently passed Proposition 35, which increases prison terms for human traffickers, as well as fines, which also are to be used to pay for services for victims. "I'm not saying we've stopped it," he says. The money funds a rehabilitation program for prostitutes, and Anton says his vice unit officers have never arrested the same customer twice. "Dear John," read billboards the department has posted near various tracks: "If You're Here To Solicit Sex, It Could Cost You $2,150. Meanwhile, prosecutors in Cook County, which includes Chicago, have set up a human trafficking unit and, in recent years, have been using new state laws to put more traffickers in jail.Ĭook County Sheriff's police also run regular sting operations to ticket customers who proposition undercover female police officers, or who use popular escort websites. It's also one of a growing number where a minor cannot be charged with prostitution, even as a misdemeanor. "A lot of (people) say, 'Well, they can just get out.'Īs of this year, Illinois became one of several states where prostitution is no longer a felony. "It's almost similar to a domestic violence issue," says Michael Anton, commander of the Cook County Sheriff's vice unit, based in the Chicago. Increasingly, they are focusing on arresting traffickers and customers (pimps and johns, as it were) and on getting help for prostitutes.įrom ‘Yellowstone’ to ‘The Chosen,’ boom times for small Texas towns And now more lawmakers, police and prosecutors across the country are starting to shift their view on this, too. They may call it a victimless crime, seeing domestic prostitution as something very different from human sex trafficking - with its cross-border abductions and brutal coercion - a scourge that's come to the forefront of news in recent years.īut are they so different, after all? Increasingly, experts in the field are saying no, and applying the label human trafficking to homegrown prostitution. Some might see these interludes as exchanges between consenting adults, or at the very least, consenting criminals, if the prostitute is, indeed, an adult and seemingly free to come and go as she pleases. Customers, usually men, slow their cars and roll down a window. Women in tight, scant clothing stand in high heels on street corners along an industrial strip in suburban Cicero. Cops in the Chicago area call it a "track," a stretch of street known for its steady sex trade.
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