California Loitering Law Causes Havoc in Sex Work Debate - Crime Report
Sex workers are at the center of a heated fight in California over people criminalized for standing on street corners, furthering a debate over how to best help those forced into prostitution without stigmatizing and harming those who choose sex work, reports the Los Angeles Times. Bill 357, which would repeal loitering laws around prostitution, including those that target pimps and buyers, was passed by legislators in September 2021, but Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office has requested it be held for his consideration until early 2022, prompting some advocates to suggest that the move is a first step in decriminalizing sex work in California by leaving it illegal but repealing or not enforcing laws meant to stop it.
While removing legal penalties could make sex work safer and provide more opportunities for those who practice it, who often find that being arrested impedes things like finding work, obtaining credit, or asylum and citizenship applications, critics say it could increase exploitation and tie law enforcement’s hands when it comes to finding victims and stopping traffickers. The California Department of Justice reports that, statewide, there were more than 4,000 arrests for prostitution in 2020, a 45 percent decline since 2015 that hints at changing attitudes on prostitution. Supporters of loitering laws contest that they provide a way to reach women on the streets who are not there of their own free will, an arrest sometimes gaining time with a sex trafficking victim away from her exploiter and providing a crack in finding trafficking rings. But many on both sides of the debate worry that Bill 357 simply removes a flawed system, bereft of social services and overly dependent on unreliable policing, without replacing it.
source: https://thecrimereport.org/2022/01/04/california-loitering-law-causes-havoc-in-sex-work-debate/
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