Buyer Beware Campaign Moves the State One Step Closer to Being Inhospitable to Traffickers

In 2011, sex buyers tipped their hands and disclosed what they believed would dissuade them from using women involved in prostitution. In the comprehensive study, Comparing Sex Buyers with Men Who Don’t Buy Sex Melissa Farley, PHD, Founding Director of Prostitution Research and Education, and Peter Qualliotine, co-founder of the Organization for Prostitution Survivors (OPS), interviewed over 100 sex buyers in hopes of discovering, among other things, any deterrents that would be effective.

How Celebrity Hacks Reveal Privilege

 How Celebrity Hacks Reveal Privilege

By now, you’ve likely seen headlines about the hacking of more than one hundred celebrities’ iCloud accounts and the subsequent release of their nude photos and intimate videos. These celebrities, as well as the public, were rightly outraged at the massive breach of privacy, saying things like, “If you looked at those pictures, you’re as guilty as the ones posting them.”

Dear Jim Norton, You're Not Funny.

 Dear Jim Norton, You're Not Funny.

Recently, comedian Jim Norton, known for his crude talk and sexist comedy routines, wrote and article in Time called In Defense of Johns, in which he defends his right to pay women for sex acts. As a self-proclaimed expert, Norton writes, “I cannot even fathom a guess as to how much money — let alone time — I’ve spent on paid sex in the past 25 years.”

Heroin is a Bad Boyfriend

“I had no idea this type of help was available.” These were the words that rang in my ears throughout the night and into the early morning, as I counted the hours for the sun to appear. Asmine*, a forty-two year old woman recovered in a coordinated effort between Seattle Police Department’s Vice Squad and Seattle’s anti-trafficking agencies, agreed to go to detox.

Men Who Buy Sex, Part 1: Sin is Trafficked Goodness

I sat with a man named Jeffrey who had been arrested on charges of soliciting prostitution. He is one of the tens of thousands of Seattle’s johns. In our first session together, Jeffrey remarked, “Friday afternoons are always the most difficult for me to control myself. I am not sure why, but it usually turns out to be the day I end up with a prostitute or an escort. ”