Prostitution, trafficking in Michigan 'a widespread phenomenon'

[FrodosPet]

http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2016/03/18/prostitution-trafficking-dunnings-michigan/81955972/

Matt Mencarini and Justin A. Hinkley, Lansing State Journal
10:43 a.m. EDT March 18, 2016

LANSING — For all the shock in seeing Ingham County Prosecutor Stuart Dunnings III in cuffs, the prostitution-related crimes he's been accused of are all too common, advocates say.

Dunnings, the 63-year-old lawyer who’s been Ingham County’s elected prosecutor for the past 19 years, was charged Monday with one felony and 14 misdemeanors after a yearlong investigation found he’d paid for sex hundreds of times with multiple women in three counties, Attorney General Bill Schuette said.

~ snip ~

The sensationalism of such charges against a leading law enforcement official garnered national headlines. Yet thousands of women and girls are quietly, sometimes violently, manipulated and abused into selling their bodies for sex every year, advocates said. And men and women from all kinds of occupations take advantage of these women or coerce them into prostitution.

~ snip ~

“I assure you, it’s not a victimless crime,” said Dr. LaClaire Bouknight, a Lansing physician and chairwoman of the Capital Area Anti-Trafficking Alliance. “Many of the pimps are very violent. They’re controlling the women with drugs, threats, threats to harm their families, and I don’t consider that victimless at all.

~ snip ~

[Nichevo11]

1. It's heartbreaking.

I would hope that everyone on DU already knows that plenty of prostitutes are nothing but slaves. It's bad in the US but way worse elsewhere.

Those who want to know more can google "human trafficking" or "child prostitution worldwide" and cry over the vicious abuse of the weak by the strong.

Pf course, some women - a much smaller number worldwide - are free women doing what they want and able to stop anytime. Many dont like being labeled victims, and insist on their right to sell sex for a living. It's a desired commodity, after all.

But the bottom line is: males have controlled females for as far back as written history goes. And if you can beat and enslave a woman (or a girl or boy), why not kick back and make money off their degradation?

I like to think we are making progress toward a world where females have more choices, stronger protections, more sympathetic governments, and where fewer of us are slaves. I think that would improve a lot of the world's problems: from disease to political instability.

Everyone is invited to fight along with me.

[FrodosPet]

2. It is horrible, but some people don't want to see it

They buy into the myth that prostitution is a harmless personal choice between two consenting adults, and any action against it, or any criticism against it, is an attack on freedom.

This may be true in some cases. But many more times, it is NOT a free will choice.

Going after human traffickers - kidnappers, recruiters, pimps, and customers - needs to be one of the top priorities of law enforcement. And if the Ayn Rand fans don't like it...oh freaking well. The life and dignity of the victims of sexual exploitation and modern slavery are FAR AND ABOVE the desires of sick assholes to pop their cork.

[Nichevo11]

3. Any problem affecting mostly women is generally belittled,

It took me a long time to figure out why.

Most males don't care (or care in a low-priority way, or are actively scornful)

Thus many women keep their opinions to themselves to avoid being boring or irksome to men...

And many other women really do swallow the male-led cultural narratives like, in this case, "it's victimless" or "Only a prude would criticize it" or "these sluts like it" or, "it serves an important role for men who need sex."