Jayne Bigelsen, Gabrielle Fonrouge, and Melanie Thompson, featured speakers at our Fall 2021 Now & Next Speakers Series kick off.
How would decriminalization of the sex trade impact your community? A real-world case study provides answers.
A recent New York Post investigation into a Brooklyn neighborhood that has effectively become a weekend, open-air sex market has taken the guesswork out of what decriminalization or legalization of the sex trade might look like in other neighborhoods. What we’re learning from this real-world case study is telling – and troubling.
In the necessary push for criminal justice reform, Brooklyn city authorities have rightly declined to prosecute prostituted persons, a position World Without Exploitation strongly supports. But those same authorities have gone a misguided step further in declining to hold neighborhood pimps, traffickers and buyers legally accountable for the harms that they cause. The end result? Vulnerable persons are being bought and sold with impunity in the region, as overall demand has increased.
This situation has serious implications for those who are bought and sold in the local sex trade. And it has much to teach all of us about how misguided legalization or decriminalization policies can negatively impact the broader community.
Join us on Tuesday, September 14th from 12-1 pm eastern for Crime and Consequences: The real-world costs of New York City’s failure to prosecute exploiters, World Without Exploitation’s inaugural Fall 2021 Now & Next Speakers Series webinar. This panel discussion will feature Gabrielle Fonrouge, the New York Post reporter who helped to break this story, in conversation with Jayne Bigelsen of Covenant House NY and Melanie Thompson of Coalition Against Trafficking in Women.