Chicagoans Sound Off on Tom Dart’s Craigslist Lawsuit
On March 5, Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart announced that he was suing Craigslist to recoup the $100,000 he spent arresting prostitutes off the website in the past year in an effort to shut down the website’s “erotic services” section. Red Wednesday asks Chicagoans what they think of Dart’s lawsuit and if this is an effective way to stop prostitution and child sex trafficking.
Filed under: Craigslist, Prostitution, Sex Work4 Comments »
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August 27th, 2009 at 10:01 pm
I agree that Mr. Dart’s initiative is a waste of tax-payer dollar. Furthermore, it’s a waste of tax-payer dollar to prosecute and incarcerate prostitutes and their “Johns.” Maybe it would be easier to legalize and regulate the World’s Oldest Profession in Cook County, then law enforcement would be able to differentiate child prostitution and human trafficking from otherwise consensual sex. Your organization should consider launching some sort of petition campaign to have the issue of legalized prostitution added to the ballot.
August 28th, 2009 at 11:04 pm
Most of us sex work activists don’t really advocate for legalized prostitution, but to have it decriminalized. We are getting word from very good sources here in Chicago that Dart and others are going to push for the Swedish model of prostitution (called “End Demand” here in the US) where the act of prostitution is decriminalized while patronizing a prostitute is criminalized, thus putting all the focus on the clients. It’s not a solution and there’s been some harsh criticism of this model coming from Swedish prostitutes for a variety of reasons. Check out Swedish activist Pye Jacobsson’s criticism of the Swedish model/End Demand here- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7D7nOh57-I8&feature=player_embedded
August 31st, 2009 at 3:52 pm
Decriminalization initially sounds like a good idea, given that minimal government intervention in the lives of citizens is a principle most Libertarians advocate for. However, you’ll have critics animality oppose decriminalization due to health concerns among other plausible reasons. Legalization could facilitate heavy regulation, but at least sex workers would have legal recourse that otherwise would remain very limited if prostitution remains illegal. Lastly, Mr. Dart’s proposed “End Demand” initiative, if successfully implemented, is merely another legally endless revolving door. It’s doomed to failure because we live in a society where sex is heavily embedded in mainstream culture and broadcasted in the mass media, thus demand will never cease to exist so long as the current cultural paradigm is sustained.
September 30th, 2009 at 10:38 am
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