Street prostitution could be on the rise following recent crackdowns on the number of sex-for-hire industry adverts on the internet.
Activists and police have argued that the efforts to ban these types of adverts may land workers back on streets, putting them a dangerous position where they are unable to vet their customers.
Sex workers say that on the internet they were able to screen a client and check lists for ‘bad dates’, but now as they are funnelled back onto the streets, they are at a buyer’s mercy.
Kara Alexander, who lives in Florida, advertised her services on Backpage, Craigslist and other sites before April.
Street prostitution could be on the rise following recent crackdowns on the number of sex-for-hire industry adverts on the internet (pictured volunteers from Safe Night Access Project which aims to support sex workers)
When media companies closed down sections hosting adult services ads she began working on the streets.
In May, she said, a client raped her and poured alcohol in her body in an attempt to destroy evidence.
Alexander, 29, said she had faced violence while working online, but never on this scale, admitting it’s a ‘different kind of danger’.
In a bid to reduce the level of trafficking the federal government seized classified advertising website, Backpage.com, which offered an almost immediate impact.
Activists and police have argued that the efforts to ban these types of adverts may land workers back on streets (pictured Safe Night Access Project founder and former sex-worker Laura LeMoon’s wrists)
On the internet, sex workers say, they were able to screen a client and check lists for ‘bad dates’ but now, as they are funnelled back onto the streets, they are at a buyer’s mercy (pictured Safe Night Access workers hand out supplies to street workers)
The number of sex ads online plummeted by 75 percent, an indication that the law was thwarting human traffickers no longer protected by the anonymity of the internet.
This was also aided by the fact President Donald Trump signed the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act, a law meant to hold internet platforms accountable for facilitating sex trafficking, during the same month.
Since the act was passed sex workers have said that the income of escorts who advertised online, along with the ability to vet their clients, has been affected.
Although it is difficult to establish statistics, police officers have suggested that they are seeing a shift in the ages of the sex workers they encounter.
LeMoon said she has seen far more women on Seattle’s strolls (pictured a common area in north Seattle known for prostitution)
Safe Night Access Project in Seattle volunteers show some of the products they give away to sex workers and other people who ask for as part of providing harm reduction services
Lt. Jimmy Sides, of the San Antonio policee, said: ‘I have seen a group of fresher faces, so that would make me think that they’re new to the street, maybe from the internet.’
Officers in San Antonio arrested 296 people for prostitution between March 21, when the bill was passed, and August 14.
This marked a 58 per cent increase from the same time frame in 2017, when police made 187 arrests, according to public records.
Police in Phoenix said that they have experienced a surge in street prostitution arrests in 2018, but did not provide figures.
In Houston, levels have remained constant, but more teenagers have been on the streets since May, said Police Captain James Dale.
Sacramento police noted that there had been 18 arrests in 2018 compared to the same period the previous year where there had been three.
Police in many big cities, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Seattle, did not grant requests for interviews or data.
In March, there were about 100,000 adult services ads posted per day worldwide, according to researchers at Uncharted Software, which has monitored such ads since 2014.
Although it is difficult to establish statistics, police officers have suggested that they are seeing a shift in the ages of the sex workers they encounter
Officers in San Antonio arrested 296 people for prostitution between March 21, when the bill was passed, and August 14
After the trafficking act passed Congress, that number dropped to around 76,000 ads and then, when Backpage shut down, numbers fell again to 25,000 ads per day.
However the change was not permanent; by July, the numbers had rebounded to more than 50,000 ads per day, researchers said.
Still, a fragmented market with no single replacement for Backpage will likely continue to reduce trafficking, according to counter-trafficking consultant Rob Spectre.
A sex worker who goes by Quinn and didn’t want her real name used because she feared arrest and other repercussions said that in the age of the trafficking act, she hasn’t been able to rack up enough jobs.
Near the end of April, she started selling herself outdoors in Boston for the first time since she was a teenager, she said.
Yvonne Ambrose’s (pictured) 16-year-old daughter Desiree Robinson was trafficked in Chicago on Backpage and was killed by a buyer on Christmas Eve 2016
Ambrose joined Trump at the White House when he signed the legislation, she said the new law is the change her daughter would have wanted
‘There’s no backup plan for people like us,’ said Quinn, who said she was raped and beaten in August but could not afford treatment.
Laura LeMoon, a sex worker and trafficking survivor who co-founded the Safe Night Access Project in Seattle to help protect street sex workers, said she has seen far more women on Seattle’s strolls.
Solicitors have gotten younger, too, she said. She used to primarily serve middle-aged sex workers, she said, but now they often appear 25 or younger.
‘I think definitely there’s a number of girls we’ve seen who look pretty young,’ she said.
Along with the rise in street prostitution has come a resurgence in pimping, which had faded in the internet age, according to sex workers and advocates.
Alexander said a friend of hers was attacked by pimps who were incensed she was working without them, and Quinn said pimps have become much more aggressive now that they see a market.
Still, even activists who acknowledge a trend of more street prostitution believe the trafficking act is better than unchecked online exploitation.
Yvonne Ambrose’s 16-year-old daughter Desiree Robinson was trafficked in Chicago on Backpage and was killed by a buyer on Christmas Eve 2016.
Ambrose joined Trump at the White House when he signed the legislation.
The law, she said, is the change her daughter would have wanted.
‘This law is for the bad actors out there,’ she said, ‘and to prevent them from doing more harm to more people.’