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Saturday, March 07, 2009

'Victimless Crime' of Prostitution Has Many Casualties

By Diane Dimond

          How many times have you heard that prostitution is a "victimless" crime?
        As the argument usually goes: So what if people choose to engage in sex for money? It's between two consenting adults. The woman volunteers, the man pays. No one gets hurt.
        Really?
        Tell that to the families of the young women being unearthed from the Southwest Mesa. As I write this, the remains of 12 women and one unborn child have been discovered. All the dead women are believed to have been prostitutes and/or addicted to drugs.
        Because the bodies seem to have been discarded years ago Albuquerque Police Chief Ray Schultz, seeking to calm the public's fear, says everyone "Can be reassured that there's not an active serial killer ... killing and preying on people." I'm not so sure.
        In Kansas, Wichita's BT Killer, Dennis Rader, was active from 1974 to 1991, killing 10 people, sending the police taunting letters about his crimes. After years of inactivity, suddenly in 2004, Rader wanted to play with police again and began sending more notes. Thankfully, before he could kill again he was caught. My point is, serial killers are diabolical and no one knows for sure if the New Mexico killer is dead or alive and contemplating more murders.
        But back to my point about prostitution and its status as a "victimless" crime. It depends on what your definition of victimhood is. Is it what a person has endured in life that makes them a victim, or what they are currently going through?
        Studies show that most prostitutes report they were victims of childhood sexual abuse, violent rape or assault with weapons. Many say they turned to the sex trade because they were victims of hunger and homelessness. Most have little formal education, lots of them are fighting drug or alcohol addictions. They believe they are victims of their circumstances, and I'm not sure I have a good argument to convince them they are not. I'm the first one to advocate people pulling themselves up by the bootstraps, but overcoming multiple handicaps in life is a very tough business.
        Authorities have been able to offer a positive ID on only two of the bodies pulled from the West Side graveyard. Preliminary information on Victoria Chavez and Gina Valdez, both mothers in their 20s, reveals their lives were full of the challenges listed above — plus Valdez was pregnant with her third child when she died. Simply put, these women lived lives of poverty and desperation. They made bad choices. They paid the ultimate price.
        Now the focus needs to stay on who carried out this evil and tried to bury it, even if the killer or killers are dead. Someone got away with murder, and we need to know who and if he's still out there.
        We may never know exactly what happened to New Mexico's unlucky 13. Reportedly, there were no visible signs of attack on any of the bodies, no bullet holes or knife marks. Tissue decomposition surely destroyed evidence of strangulation or poisoning. Perhaps they were buried alive.
        I suppose at this point the death of a group of prostitutes shouldn't shock us. It's been going on since the days of Jack the Ripper (suspected in the deaths of as many as 18 women). Historically, "ladies of the evening" have been murdered at a much higher rate than those who work in other risky professions. Since Jack's day, others with names like The Skid Row Killer, The Hillside Stranger and The Green River Killer have admitted to murdering multiple dozens of prostitutes. They looked at women as disposable, and they chose targets no one would miss, people who authorities wouldn't bother spending much time looking for. And consider this — the FBI figures there are between 30 and 50 active serial killers roaming America right now.
        As handicapped by life as they might be, prostitutes learn early how dangerous their lifestyle is, yet they continue. While I have genuine sympathy for their plight, let's remember they and their clients engage in criminal activity every time they sell themselves for sex. That's why everywhere in America, except in parts of Nevada, prostitution is illegal. Laws are made to keep people safe, like laws against drunken driving. If an adult makes a conscious decision to break a law, are we then responsible for what happens to them? Of course not. The saddest part is that neither families nor society can help them discover a better way to live.
        Still I, for one, will never refer to prostitution as a "victimless" crime. The weight of the evidence tells us that just isn't so.
        www.DianeDimond.net — e-mail to Diane@DianeDimond.net