Posted Aug. 21, 2013, at 12:29 p.m.
Everyone knows sex sells. Sometimes it sells products. Sometimes, as the Mark Strong and Alexis Wright case in Kennebunk makes clear, it’s just the sex that’s being sold. So far, 59 people have pleaded guilty or no contest to paying Wright for her services as a prostitute.
But in other cases, people aren’t buying sex from a willing person who gets to keep the money.
Sex trafficking exists because of demand. People — mostly women and children — are forced into the commercial sex trade against their will because traffickers or pimps can profit from it.
Police will continue to fight the crime of sex trafficking. Maine government will continue to pass laws to address the problem as it evolves. Social service agencies will develop better ways to identify and help victims. These efforts are good and right.
But what about those who buy sex? “Johns” might not be aware that they aren’t just committing a misdemeanor crime but, instead, propping up what could be a larger sex trafficking ring. At the very least, they are contributing to a culture that makes sex trafficking possible.
Where there’s a demand, there’s a product. Unfortunately, the product is often a human being who has been coerced or threatened into selling sex.
The national Polaris Project recently released its annual ratings of state human trafficking laws. While Maine has improved, it still remains in the bottom half of states in terms of its legal efforts to combat the crime.
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