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May 09, 2019

Florida Breaks New Ground With Prostitution Solicitation Database

TALLAHASSEE, Fla.—Last week, both houses of the Florida legislature passed a new anti-crime bill targeting human trafficking, and while for the most part it makes no distinction between labor trafficking and sexual trafficking, the bill does several things: It establishes a framework for a "Statewide Council on Human Trafficking" to be run by a private nonprofit corporation; enacts tough new rules for anyone wishing to obtain a license to run a massage parlor, including mandatory education/training courses regarding "human trafficking awareness"; requires similar courses for hotel/motel owners and strip club owners (which clubs have been rebranded in the legislation as "adult theaters"); and in a move found nowhere else in the country, establishes a "Soliciting for Prostitution Public Database" which would list the names of anyone convicted of, or pleading guilty to, "soliciting, inducing, enticing, or procuring another to commit prostitution, lewdness, or assignation." The database will include the offender's legal name, last known address, a color photograph of the offender, and the section of the Penal Code under which he or she was convicted. The person's name may be expunged from the database after five years if he/she hasn't committed an intervening prostitution-related offense, but if a second offense is committed within that five-year period, the person's name cannot be removed—ever. The rationale for the new law is based in part on statistics from the anti-prostitution Polaris Project, whose web page states, "Polaris is a leader in the global fight to eradicate modern slavery. Named after the North Star that guided slaves to freedom in the U.S., Polaris systemically disrupts the human trafficking networks that rob human beings of their lives and their freedom." The Senate version of the new bill, SB 540, includes a Bill Analysis And Fiscal Impact Statement, which quotes organizations such as Polaris, DoSomething.org and Sharedhope International that in 2017, there were 8,759 human trafficking cases in the U.S., with "sex trafficking" accounting for 6,244 of those cases. Moreover, it quotes the National Human Trafficking Hotline that "the state of Florida is ranked third nationally in human trafficking abuses" and that "From January through June of 2018, the Hotline had 367 human trafficking cases reported in Florida"—again with no distinction between labor and sexual trafficking. "The number of human trafficking cases listed in reports may not accurately reflect the number of actual cases of human trafficking due to the fact that many traffickers are prosecuted for other crimes," the Bill Analysis states, though it might have added that in cases such as the one involving New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, after an extensive police investigation, no sexually trafficked individuals were found at the several massage parlors targeted. In fact, the bust that swept up Kraft seems to have galvanized the push for this legislation, since although it was introduced in January, Kraft was busted in late February, and the bill was being primarily discussed throughout March. As with nearly all such anti-prostitution measures, the actual result is to make sex work less safe for its practitioners, making it more difficult for them to screen clients and find safe places in which to practice their trade. Or as Sessi Kuwabara Blanchard of Filtermag.org put it, "While the legislation’s bipartisan authors consider it to be a step toward ending human trafficking, critics call it a means to publicly shame clients and others associated with people who do consensual sex work." And since the new law makes no distinction between ordinary johns and ones who target sex workers for violence, anyone who gets caught up in its net may face dire and unwarranted consequences. "Putting them on a registry and imposing a mandatory sentence of five days for a first offense could result in lost wages and lost jobs," wrote SWOP Behind Bars organizer Alex Andrews. "Public shaming of a consensual act could result in the breaking up of a family. A lost job could result in losing health insurance benefits. A lost job might mean they can’t pay the rent or the mortgage or buy food. They may not be able to get another job because they are on this registry. It perpetuates poverty." And it's not as if the database won't face some problems once it goes into effect on July 1. For instance, if the state decides to include on its rolls people who were busted for prostitution before the law took effect, such individuals would have a likely winning court challenge that the law was applied to them retroactively—a constitutional no-no. Also, if inclusion on the database is deemed to be a form of punishment rather than simply being a civil matter, that too could run afoul of existing laws against double jeopardy, as did the federal Sex Offender Registry in Colorado. But "the odds of the Florida Supreme Court striking down the Database are not in sex work activists’ favor," wrote Blanchard, quoting attorney Rory Fleming, who observed, "The Florida Supreme Court is extremely conservative on criminal justice matters. It is nearly impossible FSC would rule this new registry unconstitutional on its face, and almost certain that it would uphold it as applied to basically anyone the statute applies to." But that doesn't mean sex worker rights activists won't keep trying: "We will regroup and try to figure out the best way to educate the public, which drives these policies," said Andrews, "and hope some of those uninformed folks find it in their heart to take up bodily autonomy and right to privacy." Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

 
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