Michael Kimmel has published an important essay regarding the intersection of college athletics and sex trafficking, in which he criticizes Louisville Cardinal’s basketball program for allegedly using “paid sex…to help recruit the high school players…”
The CSE Institute shares Professor Kimmel’s concern that these “activities normalize the buying of sex, as if it’s nothing more than a party.”
As Kimmel notes, some will “yawn in bemused resignation” upon hearing of Louisville’s recruitment tactics:
“Everyone does it,” some will say. But that is simply not true. The vast majority of men do not buy sex. And the vast majority don’t think it’s right to buy or rent women’s bodies.
The CSE Institute applauds Professor Kimmel for his insightful essay and encourages college athletic programs to adopt more stringent measures to ensure that their recruitment practices are not promoting commercial sexual exploitation.
Update: The CSE Institute and the Jeffrey S. Moorad Center for the Study of Sports Law look forward to supporting a “Shut Out Trafficking” event in March 2016 – a joint effort of UNICEF and the NCAS (National Consortium for Academics and Sports) that will educate and inspire activism to address human trafficking.