On July 7, another woman from Flushing, New York was arrested for prostitution in the raid of Relaxa Spa, located in Bald Eagle Township of Clinton County. Pennsylvania State Police (PSP) charged the woman in prostitution with felony counts of promotion of prostitution, corrupt organizations, and dealing in proceeds of unlawful activities. She is also being held on an immigration detainer issued by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
According to the Clinton County District Attorney’s Office, PSP’s Troop F Vice-Narcotics Unit conducted weeks of surveillance on Relaxa Spa and conducted numerous interviews within its investigation, ultimately leading to the woman’s arrest. The Clinton County DA’s Office noted that the investigation into the business and employees is ongoing. PSP announced that they expect to charge multiple men in the coming weeks who allegedly solicited commercial sex acts at Relaxa Spa.
The raid on Relaxa Spa is the latest in a series of investigations targeting illicit massage businesses across Pennsylvania.Illicit massage businesses are common throughout Pennsylvania and provide a legal facade for commercial sexual exploitation. The women who are trafficked in illicit massage businesses are typically promised work opportunities and a better quality of life but are then trapped in a cycle of cultural manipulation, fraud, and coercion. The complex vulnerabilities associated with race, ethnicity, immigration, and class often prevent victims of exploitation from immediately self-identifying as trafficking victims to law enforcement or service providers.
The CSE Institute is disappointed by the pattern of arrests in these illicit massage business raids. Rather than arresting the women in prostitution, we encourage Clinton County law enforcement to focus their investigation on the buyers soliciting commercial sex from these illicit massage businesses. The Equality Model targets the demand for buying sex by decriminalizing those who are bought and sold for sex and criminalizing sex buyers. The Equality Model includes four key tenets: (1) decriminalization of people in prostitution, (2) criminalization of sex buyers and facilitators, (3) public education about the inherent harms of prostitution, and (4) holistic exit services for victims of commercial sexual exploitation.
Additionally, the CSE Institute encourages Clintin County law enforcement to conduct careful investigation into the potential victimization of the woman arrested in this case. The line between victim and offender is often blurred in sex trafficking situations. The victim-offender overlap is rooted in coercion, survival, and trauma, not voluntary criminality. Understanding the complexity of forced criminality is important because criminalization perpetuates harm and can act as a barrier to a victim’s recovery. Ultimately, we hope that in combating illicit massage businesses, law enforcement will aim their efforts at sex buyers, while protecting and supporting victims.
The CSE Institute will continue to provide updates on this matter.
All views expressed herein are personal to the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law or of Villanova University.