Traffickers prey on vulnerable people. They transport victims across state lines to isolate them and prevent escape, break them with violence and fear to force compliance, and coerce them into prostitution. Once they’re in, victims face a litany of barriers that make it extremely difficult for them to escape the sex trade, and there is limited support or services available to help them. In a 2008 study that interviewed 854 people currently or recently in prostitution, 89% said they wanted to exit the sex trade, but were unable due to lack of other survival options.
Our current policy approach — criminalization — fails to address the needs of people who, whether through trafficking, coercion, manipulation, or economic desperation, have been forced into the sex trade. People in prostitution are treated as criminals rather than as traumatized victims in need of critical support and services.
