One way to decrease demand is to prosecute Americans who travel abroad to
purchase sex, particularly with minors, said Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., at a
recent House subcommittee hearing.
"We need to do more to focus on the demand side of the equation," Maloney said.
"The buyers of sex and the pimps are the perpetrators."
Humanitarian groups and six members of Congress are attempting to stop
international sex trade and human trafficking by supporting legislation that
would clarify the law to allow prosecutors to bring charges against those who
visit prostitutes abroad and sex tour travel agencies.
The House bill would amend the Mann Act, which prohibits transporting a person
across state lines for prostitution. Although some say the law's language could
be interpreted to apply to purchasers of sex, it has never been used that way.
Overt travel operations such as G&F Tours function as only a small part of
a much larger sex tourism industry, said Ken Franzblau, an attorney with
Equality Now, a nonprofit women's rights organization in New York.
"It's a bunch of guys who have no regard for the situation that these women are
in," Franzblau said in a phone interview. "They don't really care where these
women came from, how they end up the in the situation, how much money they get
to keep."
A disclaimer at the bottom of G&F Tours' Web page warns against men looking
for sex with minors, but Jessica Neuwirth, Equality Now president, said even
traveling abroad for the purpose of adult sex should be stopped because it
helps fuel the larger sex trade and trafficking.
"We actually know that there are children involved, but we can't prove it,"
Neuwirth said.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation reported that human trafficking generates
$9.5 billion annually. Human trafficking helps fuel organized crime and is
closely related to money laundering, document forging and drug trafficking,
according to the 2005 State Department report on human trafficking.
"It's enormous, and it's just getting bigger as people can communicate easier
and travel easier," Franzblau said.
Prosecuting prostitutes has been the traditional approach to sex trade, but a
2003 study published in the Journal of Trauma Practice, which specializes in
psychology, found that 89 percent of 854 prostitutes in nine countries wanted
out of the industry.
A recent study by University of Rhode Island Professor Donna M. Hughes said law
enforcement must focus on those demanding sex acts.
Few men are ever prosecuted or shunned for buying sex. And while the English
language has a number of slang synonyms for prostitute, Neuwirth said, the only
slang word to describe purchasers of sex is "john."
"In the English language, there's not even a word for 'johns,'" Neuwirth said.
"It shows the invisibility of those people."
Another group, the Polaris Project, also focuses on human trafficking and the
silence surrounding it.
Sex traders "are able to build up this mystery of what's going on," said
Katherine Chon, Polaris Project co-director.
Equality Now has been investigating cases of international sex tourism for
years, Franzblau said.
New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer brought civil charges against owners of
a sex tour company in his state, which yielded a restraining order prohibiting
advertising and promotion and effectively led to the company's closure.
However, no action has been taken in Louisiana against G&F Tours. But the
proposed sex tourism legislation would allow U.S. attorneys to prosecute tour
company owners and travelers. Convicting one of the big companies might
discourage tourists across the country from signing up for trips, Franzblau
said.
