Time: Nationwide Sex Stings Net 500 Johns

LOS ANGELES—Analogous to the war on drugs, the war on sex work is evolving its strategy to begin focusing law enforcement efforts on the demand part of the sexual transaction—i.e., the john. To that end, Time magazine reports that a recent nationwide crackdown on individuals who pay money to have sex has resulted in the arrest of almost 500 men. "The police crackdown," reports Charlotte Alter, "part of an annual 'National Day of Johns Arrests,' led to more arrests than any previous sex sting of its kind, officials said. Law enforcement agencies in 14 different states collaborated on the sting, which is part of an ongoing national pivot toward fighting the sex trade by punishing johns instead of prostitutes." The series of raids took place between July 17 and August 3. Among those arrested were 91 men from the Greater Phoenix area, who "were trying to buy sex off the website Backpage.com." Time was given the scoop a day ahead of the official announcement of the raids and arrests, which were headed by the Cook County Sheriff's Department. Explaining the rationale for the new strategy, Sheriff Tom Dart told Alter, "If there was no demand, there would be no prostitution. It makes them understand that there are some consequences here. The public still perceives prostitution as a victimless crime, so we’re going about it this way to address the problem and raise awareness.” As a part of that awareness, Dart said that 53 percent of the arrested johns were married and 47 percent were college graduates, adding, “The idea that these are a bunch of ne’er-do-wells could not be further from the truth." There is nothing new about that, of course. The idea that johns are "ne’er-do-wells" is about as accurate as the ancient stereotype about all porn consumers wearing raincoats, or that all or even most sex workers are victims of sex trafficking, a perspective that was evident in the article itself, which stated that "111 prostitutes were recovered during the operation." [Italics added] It will be interesting to see how this new strategy works out. Who knows, maybe, as the government's war on drug users winds down, we'll see millions of pot smokers and dealers released from prison, with millions of white-collar men taking their place.