Citation

Levy AF. Anti-Traffick. Rev. 2016; 6: 130-133.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2016, Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women (GAATW))

DOI

10.14197/atr.201216613

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Response to ATR Debate Proposition: 'Prosecuting trafficking deflects attention from much more important responses and is anyway a waste of time and money'

In January 2013, two 14-year-old girls reported to police that Derrick Hayes and Keosha Joneswere forcing them to sell sex.1 Jones was in charge of most of the logistics: she advertised the victims' services on www.backpage.com, coordinated meetings between the victims andcustomers, and collected the $100 to $200 per day that the victims earned. She was also instrumental in keeping the girls compliant. One victim told the police that she believed, quite simply, that Jones would kill her if she stopped making money.

Hayes and Jones were both charged with human trafficking in federal court, and both pleaded guilty. However, there was a significant difference between their sentences: while Hayes got 30 years in prison, Jones was put onsupervised release. The judge noted that although Jones was, by her own admission, a human trafficker--although she had, in stark terms, facilitated the rape of children for money--she was also a victim. Indeed, her initiation into the sex industry had taken place when she was just one year older thanher own victims and, furthermore, it had occurred at the hands of Hayes, her co-conspirator (he beat her, drugged her, and forced her to have sex for money). The clear and direct link between Jones's crime and Hayes's brutality--along with her willingness to testify against Hayes, and her overall commitment to self-reform andrehabilitation--convinced the court to be lenient...

Language: en

Keywords

crime; human rights; journal; gender; women; immigration; review; migration; trafficking; anti-trafficking; anti-trafficking review; human trafficking; human trafficking journal; labour rights; prostitution; rights; sex work; trafficked persons; trafficking in persons; transnational crime