Category: DSW News

DSW’s Frances Steele is quoted:

“Even well-intended laws can get in the way. Frances Steele, a Wash.U. alum who is now a project coordinator for Decriminalize Sex Work, points out that in many states, possession of a condom counts as evidence in a prostitution charge — a serious disincentive for safe sex. When sex workers band together for safety’s sake, with one person managing or driving them to appointments, that person can be arrested for human trafficking. A 2019 study showed that online sex work sites had decreased the female homicide rate by seventeen percent, but now those sites have been censored, making it impossible to screen clients or compare notes with other sex workers online. Shutting down Craig’s List to thwart the trafficking of minors was a popular political move, Steele says, but ‘there was coded language online that law enforcement could tap into, and now they’ve actually lost a lot of leads.’“

DSW’s Ariela Moscowitz is quoted:

“Human trafficking occurs across all labor sectors and is a horrific crime,” said Ariela Moscowitz, director of communications at Decriminalize Sex Work, an organization that works to improve public attitudes towards sex work. “It is often conflated with consensual adult sex work which leads to the dangerous assumption that all sex workers have been coerced and need to be ’saved.’ We know this is not the case.”