Craigslist and Prostitution
Scapegoating Craigslist Is Not Going to Solve the Problem of Underage Prostitution:
Our cities and communities are armed to the teeth to bust pot and cocaine dealers, and be prepared for the extraordinarily unlikely chance that they will be involved with terrorism. Meanwhile, a huge number of vulnerable kids are being violated and abused every day. Might we also consider what would happen if some of police departments’ firepower were aimed at pimps? If cops broke down doors of pimps that abuse kids with AK 47s in the dark of night in full combat gear? Might that not help slow down sex trafficking (not that I think it is a good idea to use that kind of police tactics in general)? But where are our priorities?
Drugs cause some serious problems in our society. But in terms of destroying lives and disrupting the coherency of neighborhoods, I wonder what is worse: drug kingpins or pimps of unwilling teenage prostitutes:
Here is what veteran reporter Dan Rather has to say: “In covering news for more than 60 years, I’d like to think that few stories shock me anymore. But this is one of them. We ran across it late last year and the more we dug, the more disturbing it became. Eighty-year-old men paying a premium to violate teenage girls, sometimes supplied by former drug gangs now into child sex trafficking big time? You’ve got to be kidding. Nope. That’s happening and a lot more along the same lines.”
I think the article makes a valid argument: eliminating the trafficking on craigslist gives politicians something to brag about, but it doesn’t address the actual problem. Far too few resources are allocated to fight this awful problem, and pushing it off craigslist means it ends up on other websites, which are not likely to cooperate with the government.