Ads placed in “Erotic Services” section of craigslist in Portland, Oregon
“I expose slavery in this country, because to expose it is to kill it. Slavery is one of those monsters of darkness to whom the light of truth is death.” – Frederick Douglass
Human traffickers are motivated by profit, and they know that human trafficking is a business, driven by the economic principles of supply and demand. Like other businesses, traffickers need to engage in effective marketing in order to reach potential customers. What most people don’t realize, however, is the degree to which traffickers are using legitimate sources to advertise.
This need to advertise is particularly pressing for sex traffickers who force, deceive, or threaten victims into the commercial sex trade. They make their money from “johns” who pay for sex, and they want to reach as many buyers as possible to maximize profits.
Bold-faced sex traffickers will advertise in the largest possible news sources where they can get away with it. For example, in our work since 2002, we can confirm with certainty that human trafficking operations are using craigslist, The Washington Post, and many other prominent news sources across the country to advertise their operations. The burden then turns on legitimate businesses to not let them.
When presented with these truths, these reputable businesses face a choice: they can either turn a blind eye, continue to allow the ads, and knowingly become what Sonia Ossorio of the New York chapter of NOW calls “the marketing arm of human trafficking,” or they can have a bit of courage, stand in solidarity with our collective movement against human trafficking, and disallow the ads.
Polaris Project and other partner anti-trafficking organizations are reaching out to these reputable businesses to invite their collaboration and engage in a dialogue about the ads.
We’ve recently requested a meeting with executives from The Washington Post to discuss how sex trafficking operations are paying for daily advertising in the Sports pages, and how some of the businesses that they have advertised have actually been busted by the FBI and local law enforcement for human trafficking.
We also sent a letter to Jim Buckmaster, CEO of craigslist, inviting him and his colleagues to meet with us to discuss opportunities to fight the presence of sex trafficking in the erotic services of the site. For many years, we’ve worked with victims of human trafficking in our direct service efforts who told us about the violent, threatening, and deceitful tactics of their trafficker, and how that same trafficker was putting up advertisements of them on craigslist each day. This week, with the surge of attention about the “craigslist killer,” both The Boston Globe and The New York Times ran prominent articles where Polaris Project’s Executive Director, Ambassador Mark Lagon, was quoted about craigslist’s “erotic services” section.
And we have ideas for how you can look in your local paper to learn how sex traffickers are advertising there too. Stay tuned!
Some will say that if these businesses discontinue the ads, the ads will just migrate somewhere else. They are likely correct, but having prestigious news sources and local papers across the country discontinue the ads would not only send a clear message to traffickers and to society, they would also immediately cut off large-scale advertising channels that these traffickers use to reach the highest volumes of johns.
Others may argue that it’s good to keep the ads on craigslist because craigslist cooperates with law enforcement to facilitate criminal investigations of traffickers. Although craigslist’s cooperation is laudable, the sheer volume of “erotic services” ads posted each day far outweighs the number of times that law enforcement can intervene. Put another way, sex traffickers and johns are benefiting more than law enforcement is, and the ads do more harm than good.
The battle against human trafficking needs to be fought on many fronts, and marketing and advertising sources have an important role to play. I’m confident that when enough people learn the truth about what abuse is actually happening behind these ads, we’ll see a day when the Sports pages of The Washington Post are free from these ads, and the craigslist “erotic services” haven for sex traffickers is done and gone.
Its great that you are willing to talk to these business but if talks fail than there should be some type of recource for their aid in human trafficking. If they don’t stop then they should be sued or prosicuted for aiding in the sex slave industry. We must stop this it could be our children or someone close to us that becomes a victim. Thank you for your work.
Echoing Isaiah’s thoughts and feelings and agreeing 100%. The media that agree to advertise these peddlers of misery should either discontinue doing so, or we should boycott them en masse and bombard them with email, snailmail, calls, etc., letting them know we are putting them on notice and will not patronize their sites unless/until they clean up their act. This goes for human trafficking, animal trafficking, and peddlers of violence. NO MORE!!!
This is a cause which the GOP should take up. After all, they are the Party of real values and this is an important value to protect. Women are not cattle. Nor are young boys and girls. Any pol who protects abusers, pornographers, sadists, for any reason, is worth dis-repecting.
Following up on Isaiah’s idea – perhaps an alliance with the Southern Poverty Law Center would be appropriate since they are experienced with taking folks to court and winning.
Similar to http://www.NotForSaleCampaign.org, who enlist college students. They rescue children used in the sex trade in several countries, build orphanages and group homes for them, schools and hospitals. Its a miracle in every life.
I’m so glad to there are others also rescuing people from slavery.
Bradley, I strongly support your efforts in this matter as well as anyone who will stand up to slavery and the slave trade anywhere in the world. I recently saw “Amazing Grace” the movie about William Wilberforce the 18th century English MP who fought for the abolition of the slave trade in Britain and her Colonies and later slavery as well. I see your work from a Christian perspective as “the Lord’s work” in that it is humane and moral.
Even though the “sex trade” in the US has been taken over for the most part by the Russian Mafia, there are tools at our disposal to help end this nonviolently. I think if straight talks and negotiations fail, boycotts should be called for. There is nothing more scary to a business owner than a threat to his money. Petition us here and elsewhere and take the signatures to the businesses and ask them to reconsider…That is if your primary efforts fail.
Oh, and don’t forget the internet sex sites. Most of the “girls” on those cam sites are Russians who have been brought here by the Russian Mob to work this way. The Catholic Church has a helped sponsor a film, I think it is called “What if it was YOUR daughter”…Check for it. This film and “Amazing Grace” would be great inspirations for these people who take these ads.
Please keep up the Good work!
I read most of your posts and stay up to date on human trafficking issues and a have a couple of questions.
- In my experience every newspaper has an ad section that include ads that say something leading anyone to assume that the ad is about prostitution, ie. “for a good time call—”. How would anyone know which of these are consenting adults v. an non-consenting sex-slaves?
I’ve also noticed that the bulk of your focus is on sex slaves. Do you claim that all prosititues are sex slaves? Is this a campaign against prostitution as an immoral or otherwise offensive industry? What about all of the trafficked human whom are not sex slaves but are working in other industries such as nail salons, in the fields, in restaurants and sweatshops? Why does this site dedicate so much to prostitution and so little to other forms of trafficking?
Campaigns like this, which conflate sex work with trafficking, do much to oppress sex workers and actively play into the hands of criminals by driving the sex industry further underground. This endangers and marginalises women who sell sex.
Measures which improve the situation of migrant workers in other industries will improve the situation of migrant workers in the sex industry. Trafficked persons are not found in sectors where workers are organised and where labour standards regarding working hours, health and safety, wages and employment contracts are well established, and routinely monitored and enforced.
Decriminalising sex work and the creation of laws which target violence, coercion, exploitation and abuse rather than indiscrimate prosecution of consensual adult sexual activity is an essential step to locating trafficked women.
The international sex workers’ rights movement campaigns for everyone in the sex industry – migrant and native – to have the same human rights and protection of the law as other citizens. However, it is customary for our voices to be ignored or dismissed.
Despite this a global movement of sex workers campaigning for human rights and decriminalisation does exist. For example, SWOP and PONY in the US, the ICRSE in Europe, the IUSW in the UK, Ziteng in Hong Kong, Amar in Argentina, DSMC in India, Scarlet Alliance in Australia, NZPC in New Zealand, Empower in Thailand, SWAN in Eastern Europe.
We live with the consequences of the way simplistic depictions of “sex trafficking” are used to further erode our rights, safety and freedom to choose, whether we are working in countries to which we are native or as part of global migration.
I completely agree! Craigslist and many other sources of advertisers is responsible for the content that is being advertised. In my opinion, they are just as much a part of the problem as the trafficker, john and pimp, especially since they refuse to stop allowing pimps to sell children and women in the first place! They deserve their business’ to be confiscated for child sex trafficking and sold to the highest bidder! We need to send the message that we will NOT tolerate sexual abuse or slavery of any kind on our soil and a business chooses to participate in it should be punished just like a pimp should be! Essentially these businesses’ are acting like pimps by allowing all of this to go on. Maybe they don’t want to stop because they ARE apart of it and making money from it.
Craigslist just dropped their erotic section. Maybe this can be used to convince the Post (and other papers) to drop the ads.
Well done and applaud to The Polaris Project for their mission.
In Singapore, our neighborhoods are seeing more foreign street prostitutes being watched over by pimps. For instance, you can see video of the pimps at the following url:-
We do not understand why some of the pimps are able to operate since 2005.
Kindly see photos at :-
http://safeneighbourhood.blogspot.com/2009/05/is-there-sri-lankan-syndicate-operating.html
This is a case of syndicate of human trafficking or just plain prostitution ?
Thanks for your enlightenment.
God Bless All.
Jessy Koh