Vote YES on Proposition 35

By: Jen Cecil and Julia Speck

As Maxine Doogan made her case for “no” on proposition 35 in the LA Times and in speaking to the California Joint Senate and Assembly Public Safety hearing, she claimed that she was advocating for the decriminalization of prostitution where in fact she is arguing for the legalization of prostitution, two very different agendas. Legalizing prostitution is not the answer, Melissa Farley, author of Prostitution and Trafficking in Nevada, spent 13 years studying legal prostitution in 10 different countries. She says, “Women in legal prostitution from Australia, New Zealand, Germany and the Netherlands experience the same physical and emotional violence as other women do in countries where prostitution is illegal. Whether prostitution is legal or illegal, women in prostitution want to get out of that life and have a safe home, a job that pays enough to live, and receive adequate medical care.” (Farley, 2007).

Maxine Doogan who works as a prostitute by choice and Represents the Exotic Service Providers Legal, Education and Research Project is a very rare minority in this industry who fails to consider the realities that victims of trafficking face. Men and women who are trafficked are NOT prostitutes, they are prostituted by their perpetrators. Farley in her book Prostitution, Trafficking, and Traumatic Stress puts it well when she says “In Prostitution, the conditions which make genuine consent possible are absent: physical safety, equal power with customers, and real alternatives. Until it is understood that prostitution and trafficking can appear voluntary but are not in reality a free choice made from a range of options, it will be difficult to garner adequate support to assist the women and children in prostitution who wish to escape but have no other economic choices.” (Farley, 2003). The reality is that human trafficking is taking place in your backyard, the women and men on the streets of Los Angeles, San Diego,San Francisco and other California cities are primarily American citizens who have not been protected by our legal system.

The City of Citrus Heights summarizes what this measure is achieving well: “This measure makes several changes to state law related to human trafficking. Specifically, it (1) expands the definition of human trafficking to include sexual trafficking, (2) increases the punishment for human trafficking, (3) imposes new fines to fund services for human trafficking victims, (4) changes how evidence can be used against human trafficking victims, and (5) requires additional law enforcement training on handling human trafficking cases. The measure also places additional requirements on sex offender registrants.”

Doogan omits one of those very important aspects of Proposition 35 in her arguments against it, that of mandatory education for law enforcement. As supporters of the proposition and those who fight on the front lines for victims of sex trafficking in California, we can tell you that this is one of the most important steps we can take as a state to protect victims of trafficking. Many victims are still being treated as criminals because of a lack of education, Proposition 35 will change this. What we need to work towards is abolishing, not legalizing prostitution. While Doogan may have made the choice of prostitution herself, she is in the minority.

Another argument made by Doogan is that longer prison sentences won’t keep perpetrators from committing the crimes in the first place. Although there currently may be no correlation between life imprisonment and a drop in sex trafficking crimes, we would argue that giving them softer punishment is not the answer. And we are not even sure that is what Doogan is arguing for. If harsher prison time and fines do not work - what does she want to implement?  Raise the punishment to the death penalty? Castration? What is the “data and evidence-based policy” sentencing she is referring to?

But more importantly, she has again missed the purpose of the proposition on this point. Proposition 35 demands longer sentences for traffickers to protect the victims from retaliation. As it stands today, if the trafficker is convicted at all they are usually back on the streets in just a few short years (or less) and the victim is at risk once again.

Doogan states in her second point that “it expands the sex offender registry and, in so doing, converts it from a useful tool to help police and residents track the whereabouts of potentially dangerous sexual predators into a list that includes non-sex criminals, including traffickers who extort money." I am not sure how she gets away with calling human traffickers "non-sex criminals," I would like to know where the data is to prove that these traffickers have not been sexually involved with the victims in some form along the way. And I absolutely would want to know where each and every man and women that has bought, sold and abused a child or adult sexually for profit is located. How does this not make sense? How is this cluttering a system rather than making it more useful?

She goes on to argue that if she were to give money to her son for his college tuition, he could be charged as a sex criminal and be put in the database for life, this is not true. According to Sharmin Bock in a piece regarding the CASE Act he said, “Prop 35 is narrowly tailored and specifically states that there must be criminal intent to violate the law...Human trafficking is a brutal and clearly delineated crime that involves and requires proof the criminal intent (called mens rea) to exploit another human being for profit. PROP 35 is not something that could ever be triggered by mistake. Prop 35 does not impact prostitution involving consensual adults. There are laws on the books against prostitution, but Prop 35 only covers cases where traffickers profit from the sexual exploitation of a child or the forced exploitation of an adult.”

What is important about this piece of legislation is that it focuses heavily on California State law. Federal law in this area is quite strong (as some opposed to this proposition have pointed out!) But as the CASE Act would let you know, “The federal law against human trafficking, called the ‘Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000’ (TVPA), applies only to federal cases, which are required to be tried in federal courts, by federal prosecutors. Each state is responsible for enacting its own legislation to handle cases within the state.” California is responsible to have legislation for the crimes that happen in our state, and Proposition 35 is taking a step in the right direction to make this happen.

When compared with current state laws (see chart below found on the CASE Act website) you can see that California has drastic improvements to make to be at the federal level.  Not to mention the great leaps that need to be taken to protect minors who are trafficked without force (I think we can all agree that a 14 year old is not able to legally, certainly not emotionally, consent to prostitution) and to appropriately prosecute and sentence repeat offenders of trafficking.

This proposition also seeks to create laws to help in the tracking of internet use. It would require sex offenders to provide information regarding internet access and identities they use in online activities. As someone on the front lines of this fight, we can tell you that a high percentage of sex trafficking is moving off the streets and boarders and onto our computers. Making criminals disclose their internet information is a move in the right direction.

We think it is a no brainer to vote YES on Proposition 35, but you obviously have to weigh the arguments for yourself to decide what you think is best. We hope we have answered some of the questions you might have and explained some of the more difficult parts to understand about the legislation. Please feel free to leave a comment if you have more questions.

YES! on Prop 35. Together we can make a difference in the lives of trafficked victims.

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Jen Cecil and Julia Speck work with After Hours Ministry, a street outreach to men and women who are prostituted. Their work with these individuals makes them passionate about the upcoming election and especially the opportunity that is before us as a state with Proposition 35. This article was written to give you their perspective regarding the proposition and some of the opposition towards it.

Castration of Czech sex offenders: Deterrent or torture?

This news story is CRAZY...and I don't even know how to sort out my thoughts yet. I will post reflections later. For now - read it for yourself so we can have a dialogue about it later.
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By Dan Bilefsky

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

PRAGUE: Pavel remembers the violent night sweats two days before the murder. He went to see a family doctor, who said they would go away. But after viewing a Bruce Lee martial arts film, he said, he felt uncontrollable sexual desires. He invited a 12-year-old neighbor home. Then he stabbed the boy repeatedly.

His psychiatrist says Pavel derived sexual pleasure from the violence.

More than 20 years have passed. Pavel, then 18, spent seven years in prison and five years in a psychiatric institution. During his last year in prison, he asked to be surgically castrated. Having his testicles removed, he said, was like draining the gasoline from a car hard-wired to crash. A large, dough-faced man, he is sterile and has forsaken marriage, romantic relationships and sex, he said. His life revolves around a Catholic charity, where he is a gardener.

"I can finally live knowing that I am no harm to anybody," he said during an interview at a McDonald's here, as children played loudly nearby. "I am living a productive life. I want to tell people that there is help."

He would not give his last name for fear of being hounded.

Whether castration can help rehabilitate violent sex offenders has come under new scrutiny after the Council of Europe's anti-torture committee last month called surgical castration "invasive, irreversible and mutilating" and demanded the Czech Republic stop offering the procedure to violent sex offenders. Other critics said that castration threatened to lead society down a dangerous road toward eugenics.

The Czech Republic has allowed at least 94 prisoners to be surgically castrated over the past decade. It is the only country in Europe that uses the procedure for sex offenders. Czech psychiatrists supervising the treatment - a one-hour operation that involves removal of the tissue that produces testosterone - insist that it is the most foolproof way to tame sexual urges in dangerous predators.

Surgical castration has been a means of social control for centuries. In ancient China, eunuchs were trusted to serve the imperial family inside the palace grounds; in Italy several centuries ago, youthful male choir members were castrated to preserve their high singing voices.

These days it can also be used to treat testicular cancer and some advanced cases of prostate cancer.

Now, more countries in Europe are considering mandating or allowing chemical castration for violent sex offenders. There is intense debate over whose rights take precedence: those of violent sex offenders, who could be subjected to a punishment that many consider cruel, or those of society, which expects protection from sexual predators.

Poland is expected to become the first nation of the European Union to give judges the right to impose chemical castration on at least some convicted pedophiles, using hormonal drugs to curb sexual appetite; the impetus for the change was the arrest of a 45-year-old man in September who had fathered two children by his young daughter.

Spain is considering plans to offer chemical castration after a convicted pedophile killed a child.

Last year, the governor of Louisiana, Bobby Jindal, signed legislation requiring courts to order chemical castration for offenders convicted a second time of certain sex crimes against children.

In the Czech Republic, the issue was brought home last month when Antonin Novak, 43, was sentenced to life in prison for raping and killing Jakub Simanek, a 9-year-old boy who disappeared last May.

Novak, who had served four and a half years in prison for sexual offenses in Slovakia, had been undergoing outpatient treatment but had failed to show up several months before the killing. Advocates of surgical castration argued that had he been castrated, the tragedy could have been prevented.

Hynek Blasko, Jakub's father, expressed indignation that human rights groups were putting the rights of criminals ahead of those of victims. "My personal tragedy is that my son is in heaven, and he is never coming back, and all I have left of him is 1.5 kilograms of ashes," he said in an interview. "No one wants to touch the rights of the pedophiles, but what about the rights of a 9-year-old boy with his life ahead of him?"

Ales Butala, a Slovenian human rights lawyer who led the Council of Europe's delegation to the Czech Republic, argued that surgical castration was unethical, since it was not medically necessary and deprived castrated men of the right to reproduce. He also challenged its effectiveness, saying that the council's committee had discovered three cases of castrated Czech sex offenders who had gone on to commit violent crimes, including pedophilia and attempted murder.

In its report, the committee also said that it had found cases of first-time, nonviolent offenders who had been surgically castrated, including mentally retarded men and exhibitionists. Although the procedure is voluntary, Butala said that he believed some offenders feel they have no choice.

"Sex offenders are requesting castration in hope of getting released from a life of incarceration," he said. "Is that really free and informed consent?"

But government health officials and some Czech psychiatrists counter that castration can be effective and argue that, by seeking to outlaw the practice, the council is putting potential victims at risk.

Dr. Martin Holly, a leading sexologist and psychiatrist who is director of the Psychiatric Hospital Bohnice in Prague, said none of the nearly 100 sex offenders who had been physically castrated had committed further offenses.

A Danish study of 900 castrated sex offenders in the 1960s suggested the rate of repeat offenses dropped after surgical castration to 2.3 percent from 80 percent.

But human rights groups counter that such studies are inconclusive since they rely on self-reporting by sex offenders. Other psychiatric experts argue that sexual pathology is in the brain and cannot be cured by surgery.

Holly, who has counseled convicted sex offenders for four decades, stressed that the procedure was being allowed only for repeat violent offenders who suffered from severe sexual disorders. Moreover, he said, the procedure is undertaken only with the informed consent of the patient and with the approval of an independent committee of psychiatric and legal experts.

Jaroslav Novak, chief of urology at the Faculty Hospital Na Bulovce in Prague, said: "This is not a very common procedure. We carry it out maybe once every one to two years at most."

In the United States, the Supreme Court ruled in 1985 that involuntary surgical castration constituted cruel and unusual punishment. Several states, including Texas, Florida and California, now allow or mandate chemical castration for certain convicted sex offenders.

Dr. Fred Berlin, founder of the Sexual Disorders Clinic at Johns Hopkins University, argued that chemical castration was less physically harmful than surgery and that it provided a safeguard, because a psychiatrist could inform the courts or the police if the patient ordered to undergo treatment failed to show up. A surgically castrated patient, Berlin said, could order testosterone over the Internet.

For Hynek Blasko, the murdered boy's father, neither form of castration is the answer. "These people must be under permanent detention where they can be monitored," he said. "There has to be a difference between the rights of the victim and the perpetrator."

Dating cafes

[7 October 2008 - CRIN Reports] - Cases of child prostitution involving dating-service cafes have been increasing sharply, prompting some local governments to take measures such as banning people under 18 from entering such establishments.

Inside the cafes, men choose women from among the female clientèle and try to secure dates with them. The system has triggered many cases of prostitution involving minors.

In a sizable number of such cases, minors who entered the cafes purely out of curiosity have been targeted.

The local governments, including the Kanagawa and Kyoto prefectural governments, revised their local ordinances to ban under 18s from entering such cafes.

One such facility near JR Yokohama Station displays a sign saying, "Coffee shop with manga library--no entrance fee for women." The floor is separated into two areas by a one-way mirror with the height of the floor in the men's area about 50 centimeters lower than that of the women's.

Male customers, some wearing business suits, gaze at young women sitting on sofas through the one-way mirror.

Female customers cannot see the men.

The cafe displays a notice saying girls aged 16 or older are welcome. The women included girls in school uniforms. Clerks tell the male customers, "If you see a girl you like, feel free to name her."

The cafe is open from 9 a.m. to midnight and about 200 people--both male and female--visit each day.

If a female customer is chosen, she chats with the man for about 10 minutes. If she agrees to a date outside the cafe, the man pays her "transportation expenses."

The man also pays the cafe an admission fee, a naming fee and a fee if he manages to arrange a date, totaling about 8,000 yen.

Women do not have to pay for anything.

According to the National Police Agency, the number of such dating-service cafes began increasing around 2006. As of the end of 2007, there were 77 such facilities in Tokyo and 14 other prefectures.

With 27, Tokyo has the highest number of such establishments, followed by 11 in Aichi Prefecture, nine in Osaka Prefecture, and seven each in Kanagawa and Saitama prefectures. The cafes tend to be concentrated in big cities.

Though 22 of the 77 cafes display signs banning under 18s, an NPA official said, "It's impossible to confirm whether the cafes are actually checking customers' ages."

Some cafes display signs saying that under 18s are welcome.

According to the NPA's data, the first cases of child prostitution and sexual abuse involving the dating-service cafes surfaced in 2007, with 26 such incidents reported.

This year, there had been 22 such cases as of the end of August, including incidents involving two middle school students. This reflects a trend in which the ages of female customers is dropping.

A 15-year-old third year middle school student said she was initially invited by a friend to visit a dating-service cafe in Yokohama. She said she was plied with alcohol outside the cafe and sexually abused.

Investigators of the Kanagawa prefectural police quoted her as saying: "I treated it all very lightly as I thought I'd be able to dine for free. I never thought I'd be taken to a hotel. I regret it now."

A senior official of the prefectural police said: "Many girls hear rumors that they'll be able to dine at a man's expense, and visit such cafes just for curiosity or in the hope of getting money. Though this is no different from brokering child prostitution, the current laws can't cover these cases."

A law for regulating entertainment businesses prohibits people under 18 from entering or working in certain businesses, such as telephone-dating establishments and cabaret clubs.

But the law cannot cover the dating-service cafes and similar cases as the females involved are not employed by the business operators.

The manager of one such cafe involved in a prostitution case said: "I just offer opportunities for people to meet. I can't be held responsible for what happens outside my cafe."

In January, the NPA instructed prefectural police headquarters across the nation to check potentially unlawful acts conducted by dating-service cafe operators. But so far, only one cafe has been investigated over child prostitution.

In that case, the Metropolitan Police Department applied a clause of an ordinance regulating dating clubs that prohibits minors from entering the premises and limits areas where such facilities can operate, against a manager and employees of a dating-service cafe in the Ikebukuro district of Tokyo on suspicion that they allowed a 16-year-old high school girl, who later became involved in prostitution, to enter the cafe.

The MPD regarded the operators of the cafe as brokers in paid sexual services. However, only Tokyo has such a local ordinance.

On Sunday, the Saitama prefectural police detained the manager and employees of a dating-service cafe on suspicion of brokering prostitution services involving adult women.

In the case, the manager paid "waiting fees" to female customers. The prefectural police thus regarded they had an employer-employee relationship.

But in cases in which dating-service cafe operators do not pay or offer other benefits to women, finding ways of cracking down on them is difficult.

Kanagawa prefectural police and some other police forces investigated several such cafes on suspicion of brokering child prostitution services, but no arrests were made.

Police have had to use other techniques, such as applying the Trademark Law, to investigate the cafes.

Yukio Akatsuka, a social affairs commentator, said, "Girls are using these cafes in the same way they use manga or Internet cafes."

"Such cafes are more risky than telephone dating clubs in that the girls could be caught up in child prostitution while they think they are just having fun. The business operators are irresponsible," he added.
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Traffickers are getting more and more creative. And the lines are getting "gray."

Agressive Advertisement Campaign in UK

Tracy Clark-Flory of Salon.com came out with a recent article on a rather aggressive advertising campaign that has just started in the UK when it comes to the trafficking of women and children and the use of brothels. Read the article below and then some of my thoughts:
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In Britain's latest attempt at fighting sex trafficking, it's simply calling johns rapists. Men visiting the loo at their local pub may soon start to notice posters showing an open door -- along what seems a wall smeared with blood or other bodily fluids -- leading to an illegal sex den. (Note that prostitution isn't illegal in Britain, but brothels are.) The advertisement reads: "Walk in a punter. Walk out a rapist." Then, in smaller text, the ad throws out a dare to any man who comes across a sex worker he suspects was trafficked: "If you're man enough, call Crimestoppers."

Not all johns are rapists, of course; and, I'm uncomfortable calling anyone who sleeps with a trafficked girl a rapist, even though she is being forced to have sex against her will. Certainly, johns who know they are having sex with a trafficked girl are rapists, and it could be argued that there are many more cases of involuntary rape caused by willful blindness -- but I don't think all men who unwittingly sleep with trafficked girls are guilty of rape.

The ad is clearly aiming to draw a line between willful and forced prostitution, but it's a matter of perspective whether the ad is applying the rapist label to all clients of trafficked prostitutes. If it is, it raises a host of questions. For instance: If a man has sex with a drug-addicted sex worker, or a prostitute who has an abusive pimp, is he a rapist?

All that being said, I salute the advertisement for pushing any man considering sex-for-pay to consider that he very well could end up unwittingly having sex with a trafficked woman.
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I disagree wholeheartedly with Tracy in her statement: “Not all johns are rapists, of course; and, I'm uncomfortable calling anyone who sleeps with a trafficked girl a rapist, even though she is being forced to have sex against her will.” I am wondering what exactly a rapist would be then. What makes this scenario different? Is it because the johns are paying? Because the girls have been purchased? It seems to be we are grabbing at some pretty thin straws here. Why are we trying so hard to protect the rights of these johns that are abusing every imaginable right these women and children are supposed to have?

And why does she mean by willful blindness? Sure…some of them are CHOOSING to be there? Right? Yes, yes…let’s argue that. Although research will show that more johns then you could imagine do actually believe that the women and children they have sexual encounters with are actually “getting off” or having an enjoyable experience when with them. This is simply not true. This might be the willful blindness Tracy speaks of.

I applaud the UK for this aggressive ad campaign and hope it will scare a few people, make them think a little more before walking into a punter and perhaps save a few lives.

Here is the ad:

Legalizing Prostitution in Las Vegas

To continue our discussion from a previous post (a bit) about Legalization vs. Decriminalization I wanted to share this article with you. Especially since I often times focus on the sexual issues happening overseas and this issue is happening right here in the USA. In my previous article I argued for the decriminalization of prostitution - I still stand by this. This article, I hope, will help you understand that a bit more.

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Legalising prostitution in Las Vegas

Nevada is the only state in the US that allows legal prostitution, but in its largest city, Las Vegas, prostitution is illegal. When the mayor suggested changing the law, it sparked a huge debate.

Mayor Oscar Goodman grabs the headlines whatever he says or does - and he relishes it. He is proud of Las Vegas' image as "Sin City" and happily calls it "an adult playground".

He boasts about his love of gin, cigars and pretty women and calls himself "the happiest mayor in the universe".

Before he became mayor, he was the top criminal lawyer to the Las Vegas mafia.

But when he suggested legalising prostitution and creating a red-light district and a string of "magnificent brothels" in downtown Vegas, the mayor got his most dramatic headlines yet.

He had opened up a debate on a taboo subject: Las Vegas' illegal prostitution.

Everybody knows it goes on, many businesses profit from it, but in-keeping with the city's slogan "What happens here, stays here", it is rarely discussed.

"It's disingenuous when people say they don't want to legalise it," says Mr Goodman. "Right now it's uncontrolled and unregulated. There's no check and balance as far as the women's health is concerned and legal brothels could be an important revenue-raising device for the city," says Mr Goodman.

"When you speak about it intellectually, not morally, it makes sense," he says. "If we had a referendum or ballot on legal brothels, it would probably pass."

Not without a fight, though. The vested interests in this city are legion.

Spectrum of workers

It is estimated that there are as many as 10,000 prostitutes operating illegally in Las Vegas, in an industry that may be worth as much as $6 billion a year.

Over 150 pages in the Las Vegas phone book advertise "escorts" and "massage", and leaflets promising to deliver "hot babes direct to your room in 20 minutes" are handed out to tourists openly on Las Vegas Boulevard, usually called "The Strip".

"Lucy" [name has been changed to protect her identity] is a top-end "companion" selling her time with men at $4000 a night. She explains how the sex trade functions in Las Vegas.

"There are women who get propositioned in the casinos, bars and hotels," she says.

"There are women who do 'extras' out of strip clubs and who 'give pleasure' in massage parlours. Women who do what we term 'outcall' - going to specific apartments to spend erotic time with gentlemen.

"There are women who work by print ads or on-line. And every casino host has a bevy of girls to call at a moment's notice to satisfy their high-rollers."

At the other end of the spectrum - in the seedier parts of downtown Las Vegas, among the cheap motels and ganglands - there are women who sell their bodies to pay for their drugs. They might charge as little as $20.

Robert Clymer, a former FBI agent in the city working in organised crime, says human trafficking adds to the industry.

"The number one problem, according to the FBI, is Asian prostitution," he says. "That means Asian organised crime and human trafficking into the US, straight into Las Vegas. And it's all fuelled by money."

Strange vacuum

With 600,000 people, Las Vegas is the largest city in Nevada.

Its illegal sex trade operates in a strange vacuum because in most of the rest of the state prostitution has been legalised.

In fact, Nevada is the only state in the US to allow legal brothels, which stems from a 1970 state law allowing Nevada's individual counties to licence their brothels. But this only applies to counties with populations under 400,000, which excludes Las Vegas and Reno.

The question today is - is what is good for Nevada, good for Las Vegas?

There are nearly 30 state-sanctioned brothels in Nevada.

With names like "Mustang Ranch" and "Moonlite Bunny Ranch", their owners say they contribute to the local economies and provide safe, clean sex.

Brothels are so much part of the Nevada culture that Home Box Office (HBO) even films a reality TV show inside the Bunny Ranch called "Cathouse".

George Flint is the chief lobbyist of the Nevada Brothel Association.

"Legal brothels could work anywhere," he says. "They could be huge in Las Vegas. It would be great for the women and for our industry which is today fragile because it remains a teeny business in a big state."

'Sexual slavery'

But some religious groups, academics and campaigners say that all prostitution is wrong and legalising it does not stop sex trafficking or the abuse of women.

"I see it as sexual slavery," says Candice Trummell, director of the Nevada Coalition Against Sex Trafficking. "I think it's morally and ethically wrong for governments to say it's OK to sell humans in that way. The government should not pimp the girls."

When asked if she was calling the government a pimp, Ms Trummell answered: "Yes, absolutely".

Kate Hausbeck, a sociology professor at the University of Las Vegas, has spent nearly 10 years researching both the legal and illegal sex trade in Nevada.

She concludes that the best model for Nevada - and any country in the world - is the decriminalisation of prostitution.

"Empower the women who do the work. Give them labour protection and the rights given other workers. Because it's a job and a choice for many women," she says.

But, when asked about Mr Goodman's idea of legal brothels for Las Vegas, she says she doesn't think prostitution will ever be legal here.

"There's too much money to be made from the illegal sex trade. The casinos and convention industry fear it would be a step too far," she says.

The Google Police

I came across a really interesting news story today - I thought I would share it with you all. Good for Google. I am glad that something so brilliant can be put to good use. I hope that as this program continues to develop it can really help both in tracking child sex-predators as well as providing us with useful data about those putting this information out on the internet and how to go about better protecting it.

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Google tackles child pornography

By Maggie Shiels BBC News, San Francisco

The technology is a by-product of anti-piracy software

Google engineers have adapted a software programme to help track child sex predators and search for patterns in images of abuse on the web.

Google created the technology for the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC).

It was originally developed to block copyrighted videos on the company's YouTube division.

The programme uses pattern recognition to enable analysts to sort and identify files containing child sex abuse.

Google says its aim in teaming up with the centre's Technology Coalition Against Child Pornography is to develop solutions that would make it harder for people to use the web to exploit children or traffic in child pornography.

"You always hope that your work will eventually be used to do some good in the world, and this was an amazing chance to make that hope real," said Google research scientist Shumeet Baluja.

Overwhelming task

Mr Baluja, who was also the technical leader of the project, said that as more and more predators use the web to ensnare children, "analysts were getting overwhelmed by all of the data they had to sift through".

Since 2002 the NCMEC has pored over 13 million child sex abuse images and videos in an effort to help police identify and rescue children from harm.

In the last year they have looked at five million pictures.

Google says the new tools will enable the centre's analysts to search their systems more quickly and easily as they try to sort and identify files that contain images of child sex abuse victims.

"The programme uses pattern recognition and will work even if the pattern has been modified," explained technology analyst Larry Magid.

"So if police can identify a pattern such as a calendar on the wall or a t-shirt logo, they have a much better chance of finding the exploited child and catching the suspect."

Hi-tech solutions

The technology is an outgrowth of the anti-piracy software Google developed to helps its YouTube division ferret out videos of suspected of being posted without the agreement of copyright holders.

"Criminals are using cutting edge technology to commit their crimes of child sexual exploitation, and in fighting to solve those crimes and keep children safe, we must do the same," said NCMEC President and CEO Ernie Allen.

Google engineers and scientists were able to work on the project on what the company calls "20% time", which allows all employees to dedicate that amount of time to projects they initiate.

Some of those projects benefit stockholders or end users, but in this case the benefit could be to thousands of children.

Decriminalize vs. Legalize

I was able to go to the Soularize Conference in the Bahamas this last October. One of the speakers was Rita Nakashima Brock. She was co-author of a great book I read for one of my courses “Casting Stones”. I contacted her after the conference to get some resources. She said to me that after working with prostitutes and doing her research overseas she strongly believes that prostitution should not be legalized but SHOULD be decriminalized.
I have to say that the more I study here at Fuller, the more I work with the After Hours Ministry and the more I research prostitution I agree with Dr. Brock. This is still something I am very much thinking through and processing…but travel with me a bit.

Legalization: to make legal; authorize

Those that legalize prostitution (and yes, there are some places that do) “do so by giving the state control over the lives and businesses of those who work as prostitutes. Legalization often includes special taxes for prostitutes, restricting prostitutes to working in brothels or in certain zones, licenses, registration of prostitutes and government records of individual prostitutes, and health checks, which often means punitive quarantine. The term legalization does not necessarily have to refer to the above sorts of regulations. In fact, in one commonly accepted definition of legalization, legal can simply mean that prostitution is not against the law.” [quoted from this website] And this is not what we want. Prostitution should still be against the law – it just should not be a criminal act.

Decriminalize: to eliminate criminal penalties for or remove legal restrictions against (typically referring to consenting adult sexual activity)

While there are many reasons one gets into prostitution and many reasons one stays, I don’t think that putting these men and women in jail is ever really the answer. The times I have spoken with my girls after they have been in jail for a couple of weeks for getting picked up for prostitution I see no real effect the jailing had on them (other than pissing them off and making them annoyed). And to be real frank, I think it is the John’s that need to be put in jail if we are going to send anyone there. The laws that are currently in place for prostitution are reaching the “branch” problems – and we need to get to the root. Our laws are affecting the women involved while the men who are customers reap no consequences.

The criminalization of prostitution also makes it very difficult for these women to seek help or report violent actions against themselves to the police. If they report anything they can be charged or put in jail because of the actions that caused the crime against them. Several women I work with would be fearful of loosing custody of their child or losing status with the family and friends.

There is a website that makes a compelling argument “why prostitution should not ever be legalized” but you will notice that they use the two words legalization and decriminalization interchangeably. I think that is where the confusion and danger comes in. Legalization is not the same as decriminalization and until we have a clear understanding of what we mean by the word and what we are truly trying to accomplish – we’ll only get frustrated and step on each other’s toes.

And lastly, here is an article that I think is really compelling (which is for decriminalization) written by Wendy McElroy.

Israel's Sex Trafficking Crisis

The BBC researches a story about a young girl "Marina." Marina rarely leaves her two-room home in northern Israel these days.

She is in hiding - wanted by the Israeli authorities for being an illegal immigrant, and by the criminal gangs who brought her here to sell her into prostitution.

Marina - not her real name - was lured to Israel by human traffickers.

During the height of the phenomenon, from the beginning of the 1990s to the early years of 2000, an estimated 3,000 women a year were brought to Israel on the false promise of jobs and a better way of life.

"When I was in the Ukraine, I had a difficult life," said Marina, who came to Israel in 1999 at the age of 33 after answering a newspaper advertisement offering the opportunity to study abroad.

"I was taken to an apartment in Ashkelon, and other women there told me I was now in prostitution. I became hysterical, but a guy starting hitting me and then others there raped me.

"I was then taken to a place where they sold me - just sold me!" she said, recalling how she was locked in a windowless basement for a month, drank water from a toilet and was deprived of food.

That part of her ordeal only ended when she managed to escape, but the physical and mental scars remain.

Last year, the United Nations named Israel as one of the main destinations in the world for trafficked women; it has also consistently appeared as an offender in the annual US State Department's Trafficking in Persons (Tip) report.

While this year's report said Israel was making "significant efforts" to eliminate trafficking, it said it still does not "fully comply with the minimum standards" to do so.

Like Marina, some trafficked women are brought into the country legally, while others are smuggled by Bedouins across the border from Egypt.

In all cases, the traffickers - as many as 20 in the chain from recruitment to sale - take away the women's passports before selling them on to pimps.

Sometimes the women are subjected to degrading human auctions, where they are stripped, examined and sold for $8,000-$10,000.

Sanctions threat

Prostitution in Israel is legal, but pimping and maintaining a brothel are not.

The law however is not widely enforced and few brothels are closed down.

In Tel Aviv's Neve Shaanan district for instance, just a short walk from the city's five-star tourist hotels, brothels masquerading as massage parlors, saunas and even internet cafes, fill the streets.

One such place even operates opposite the local police station.

There are bars on windows and heavily-built men guard the doors, which are only opened to let customers in and out.

Inside, groups of sullen-looking women sit in dimly-lit rooms, waiting for their next client.

Foreign women fetch the highest prices, with trafficked women forced to work up to 18 hours a day.

For years, the absence of anti-trafficking laws in Israel meant such activity - less risky and often more profitable than trafficking drugs or arms - went unchecked.

"During the first 10 years of trafficking, Israel did absolutely nothing," said Nomi Levenkron, of the Migrant Workers' Hotline, an NGO which helps trafficked women and puts pressure on the state to act.

"Women were trafficked into Israel - the first case we uncovered was in 1992 - and not much really happened," she said.

"Occasionally traffickers were brought to trial, but the victims were arrested as well, they were forced to testify, and then they were deported."

In 2000, trafficking for sexual exploitation was made a crime but the punishments were light and its implementation was poor, NGOs say.

It was only after repeated criticism of Israel by the United States - and the threat of sanctions - that authorities began to act.

Investigations into suspected traffickers increased, stiff jail terms were handed down and Israel's borders were tightened against people smuggling.

Changing tactics

Campaigners say things began to change for the better in 2004, when the government opened a shelter in north Tel Aviv for women who had been trafficked for sex.

It marked a change in the way the state perceived them - as victims of a crime rather than accomplices.

There are some 30 women at the Maggan shelter - most from former Soviet states, but also five from China.

"When they come here they are in a bad condition," said Rinat Davidovich, the shelter's director.

"Most have sexual diseases and some have hepatitis and even tuberculosis. They also have problems going to sleep because they remember what used to happen to them at night," she said.

"It's very hard and it's a long procedure to start to help and treat them."

Police say their actions have led to a significant drop in the number of women now being trafficked into Israel for sex - hundreds, rather than thousands, a year - and they say the women's working environment has improved too.

"There is a significant change in the conditions that the women are being held in," said anti-trafficking police chief Raanan Caspi.

"In 2003 we used to find women who were being raped, incarcerated and suffering violence. In 2007, the situation is completely different - they get paid in most cases and the conditions that they're in are much more humane."

But the true picture might not be so clear-cut.

Campaigners say increased police activity has also had an adverse effect. Instead of operating openly in brothels, traffickers have become more discreet, playing their trade in private apartments and escort agencies, making the practice more difficult to detect.

"We've been keeping tabs on trends, in terms of, for instance, prices of exploitative services," said Yedida Wolfe, of the Task Force on Human Trafficking.

"Those prices have not gone up, which leads us to believe that the supply of victims has gone down."

"While government officials are saying that their efforts have drastically cut the number of victims in the country, the NGOs on the scene really don't feel that's true."

Israel might well have turned a corner in its fight against the traffickers, but the battle is far from won.

An investigation into a Europe-wide child pornography network has led to 92 arrests across eight countries, prosecutors say

This was a report from a BBC article that came out today.
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The network made videos of children being abused and sold them to 2,500 customers in 19 countries, says the European police force, Europol.

The films were mainly produced in Ukraine, Belgium and the Netherlands, and most of the victims were Ukrainian.

More than 40 of the arrests were made in Britain, European prosecutors say.

Police have seized thousands of computers, videos and photographs in their investigation - code named Operation Koala.

The investigation began in July 2006, when police in Australia found a video on the internet showing an adult abusing two young girls.

The girls were identified by police in Belgium and the offender, their father, was arrested.

He in turn led investigators to the producer of the video, an Italian man who operated in Belgium and the Netherlands but also owned a studio in Ukraine.

'Tailor made'

The names of 2,500 customers were recovered from his computer.

An analyst for Europol, Menno Hagemeijer, said the customers came from many different countries and all walks of life.

"We have identified schoolteachers, swimming instructors, lawyers, IT specialists," he said.

Mr Hagemeijer said the videos had been "tailor made", with customers ordering specific acts to be performed by specific children.

Twenty-three children aged between nine and 16 who were shown being abused have been identified. Twenty-one are from Ukraine and two from Belgium.

European prosecutors have stressed that the operation is continuing and there are likely to be further arrests.

Thais arrest pedophile suspect

[19 October 2007] A Canadian pedophile suspect who was the subject of a global manhunt has been arrested in Thailand.

Police tracked down 32-year-old teacher Christopher Paul Neil in north-east Thailand. They suspect him of appearing in 200 online images of child abuse.

Mr Neil, who faces 20 years in jail if convicted, was brought to a news briefing, but did not answer questions.

Mr Neil was picked up by officers on Friday morning in the city of Nakhon Ratchasima, 250 km (150 miles) north-east of the capital, Bangkok.

He was driven to the Thai capital where he was paraded in handcuffs in front of gathered journalists at a police station.

The BBC's Chris Hogg, in Bangkok, said there were chaotic scenes as Mr Neil was led into the building, with police having to fend off a scrum of reporters and photographers.

Police chiefs said he was suspected of abusing at least 12 youngsters - at least one said to be under 10 years old.

The arrest follows lengthy efforts to identify a man seen in more than 200 online images of alleged sexual abuse involving young boys.

Officers now believe the Canadian might have abused boys in Thailand as well as in Vietnam and Cambodia - and he could face charges in any of those countries.

He could also be charged in Canada, which has laws allowing for the prosecution of its nationals for child-sex crimes committed abroad.

Thai police have appealed for more victims to come forward and indicated he would be charged in Thailand, but they did not rule out the possibility of extradition.

Possessing child porn becomes a criminal offense

[PRAGUE, 18 October 2007] - Czech President Vaclav Klaus has signed a bill that makes possession of child pornography a felony punishable by up to two years in prison, the president's spokesman Petr Hajek said in a statement.

The lower house first approved the bill last June outlawing possession of child pornography. The bill was struck down by the upper house in August. The lower house then overruled the Senate vote in September.

While producing and selling child pornography is a crime in the Czech Republic, possessing such images was not.

That became evident earlier this year after Austrian authorities caught a ring that had provided pedophiles worldwide with child porn online.

The ring's clients in the Czech Republic could not be prosecuted since possession of child pornography was not illegal.

Adults scared to work with children

Although the issue of human trafficking is a hugely significant one - it is terribly tragic that such an issue would cause individuals to fear interaction with and care for children because of the accusations that could possibly be placed upon them. As the following article shows - research in Scotland has shown adults fear interaction with children because of the labels or accusation that could be falsely put upon them.

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[16 October 2007] - Adults are often too scared to work with young people for fear of being branded a pedophile, according to a new report.

A survey by Scotland's Commissioner for Children and Young People revealed that the fear of being accused of harming young people was the main deterrent.

Kathleen Marshall's study found a shortage of adults prepared to take work roles and volunteering posts.

More than 1,100 people took part in the detailed survey.

Some 48 percent of adults surveyed said fear of being falsely accused of causing harm was a barrier to contact with children and young people.

This same fear also made adults much less likely to help when they saw a young person in danger or distress.

The report also revealed that adults who work with young people in structured environments tend to have positive attitudes towards them, and enjoy seeing children and young people develop through their involvement.

However, people reported much more negative attitudes to meeting young people in informal groups, especially in large groups on the street.

According to the report, fear was largely fueled by media reporting rather than people's personal knowledge of young people.

Other concerns included fear of young people themselves, and concerns about bureaucracy and the culture of litigation.

'Social behavior'

Women are almost twice as likely to have formal contact with children and young people, either as a volunteer or through work, the survey showed.

Men in particular reported being afraid of being falsely accused of being a pedophile which they described as "the worst thing imaginable".

Men are also disproportionately less likely to approach a lost child and try to help.

Ms Marshall said: "Young people consistently tell us they want safe and fun things to do and that anti-social behavior is a result of a shortage of opportunities for 'social behavior'.

"The activities they want to take part in need adults to volunteer and support them and this report shows exactly why that isn't happening.

Potential volunteers

"We need to help bridge the divide between the generations and establish a framework for attractive activities that are stimulating, safe and fun for all involved.

"I hope this report will start a full public debate about how that should be done, and everyone who has ever worked with young people or considered doing so has something to contribute to that debate, as do Scotland's young people themselves."

George Thomson, chief executive of Volunteer Development Scotland, said that potential volunteers needed greater support.

He added: "We must now have the conviction and courage to overcome the challenges and find ways to take up the offer of voluntary help from adults in a way that benefits everyone."

John Loughton, chair of Scottish Youth Parliament, said that both adults and young people should feel safe, without "wrapping either of them in cotton wool".
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So what do you think can be done? How can we effectively utilize adults in our communities while still keeping our children safe and not alienating those who step into the gap of loving those in our world who need love the most?

USA: Court says just viewing child porn is not a crime

What is our world coming to? Why do we make such excuses for appalling behavior? Too many people are getting off the hook for behavior they know is unacceptable. We make the laws too light and give loopholes that are too easy for people to jump through.

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[2 July 2007] - A US court has said the existence of child pornography images in the cache of a man's computer did not mean that man had committed a crime under state law. The Court of Appeals in Georgia has reversed the man's conviction.

A forensic computer analyst for the US Secret Service had testified in court that Edward Ray Barton's laptop computer had been used to view 106 images of child pornography on the internet.

Barton was convicted on 106 counts of the sexual exploitation of children and jailed. Under appeal, though, three judges in the state of Georgia ruled that Barton did not break the law, which says that a person must have knowing possession of the images.

The images were stored on the hard drive of the computer, but only in the cache, a local store of files accessed on the internet designed to speed up browsing. Those images are not readily accessible without special software which he did not have, said the Secret Service expert.

Knowing possession

The court said this could not count as a knowing possession of the files and that there was no evidence that Barton had consciously saved the files for later use.

Judge Yvette Miller said other cases had debated whether or not files had to be consciously saved in order for a crime to be committed.

"None of those decisions, however, found that a defendant may be convicted of possessing child pornography stored in his computer's temporary internet file folders, also known as cache files, absent some evidence that the defendant was aware those files existed," said Judge Miller in the court's opinion. She said in order to convict, the state had to show that a defendant took some action to save or download images, or that the defendant knew that the computer automatically saved files.

"There was no way that Barton could have learned of the cache files in the normal course of using his computer," said Judge Miller. "Nor did the state present any circumstantial evidence that would have allowed the jury to infer Barton's knowledge of these files, i.e. they did not show that Barton was an experienced or sophisticated computer user who would have been aware of this automatic storage process."

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To read the whole article go here.

Laws Not Enough...

The CRIN put out an article on Greece's current situation in the protection and rights of those sexually trafficked and exploited.

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[13 June 2007] - Despite the enormous scale of trafficking of women and girls for forced prostitution in Greece, the government has failed to guarantee them protection and justice, said Amnesty International in a new report.

Many women and girls are denied protection in Greece because help is conditional upon them agreeing to testify against their traffickers, which they are often too terrified to do - meaning their traffickers escape justice. Thousands more are never identified as trafficked, are simply treated as 'illegals' and are even deported.

Trafficking for forced prostitution in Greece is believed to have increased tenfold from 1990 to 1997. According to non-governmental organisations (NGOs), in 2000 alone, up to 90,000 people are believed to have been trafficked into Greece from central and eastern Europe, a large number of whom were women trafficked for prostitution.

The new Amnesty International report, 'Greece: Uphold the rights of women and girls trafficked for sexual exploitation', looks at the scale of trafficking into Greece for forced prostitution, and points to gaps in Greek law and practice on trafficking that undermine the efforts to help trafficked women and girls.

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To read the rest of the article which includes a case study of a woman seeking justice and protection, go HERE.

This is all too often the case. Many girls seeking to get out of prostitution are fearful of the ramifications of such decisions. Governmental laws are not sufficient enough to protect these women from those who seek to bring them back into CSET. Greece has implemented some new laws - which are not helping - and this is the case in many areas of the world.

The House of Representatives meet every couple of years to discuss the current situation and actions being taken. I was quite frustrated when reading through the notes taken at these meetings - although good things were said and suggested, we still have difficulty implementing any of the laws or suggestions that are made. In reading the report from 2002 and then the report from 2005 - very little changed and the ramifications that were set forth for those who did not implement such laws were not carried out.
The 2002 report said:
"The Trafficking Victims Protection Act contemplates that the United States will withdraw non-humanitarian aid from governments which remain on the ''Tier Three'' list after the next year's report. The ''Tier Three'' governments are those that not only fail to meet minimum international standards for combating human trafficking, but who are not even making serious efforts to bring themselves into compliance with these standards."
I have not heard of anything such thing being done...
To understand the tiers and see what little has been done to the effect of implementing change based on this standard check out the 2005 report pg.'s 37-39.

You can check out the minutes from both committee meetings here: 2002 and 2005