Between August 30, 2022, and September 9, 2022, 160 individuals were arrested as part of Operation Fall Haul 2, an undercover operation to stop human trafficking in Polk County, Florida. The arrested individuals include 65 men who were allegedly attempting to buy sex, 86 individuals who were charged with “offer[ing] to commit prostitution,” and nine individuals who were arrested for other related offenses. Notably, a high school teacher, deputy sheriff, a Walt Disney World bellhop and freelance photographer, were among those accused.
As part of Operation Fall Haul 2, officers arrested people who were selling sex. Each individual charged with selling sex was screened by detectives and social service organizations to determine whether they were victims of human trafficking. According to the Polk County Sheriff’s Department, only two individuals were considered victims of human trafficking. However, each individual who was arrested for selling sex was also offered services by the social service organizations who were present during the arrests.
The CSE Institute commends the efforts of the Polk County Sheriff’s Department for working to end trafficking. It is also important that law enforcement understands it is essential to arrest sex buyers to reduce commercial sexual exploitation. However, the CSE Institute condemns the arrests of the 86 individuals charged with “offer[ing] to commit prostitution.”
It seems the Polk County Sheriff’s Department understands that targeting demand will reduce the sexual exploitation of individuals and that robust exit services need to be in place for individuals wishing to leave “the Life,” or the subculture of prostitution that so often results in exploitation. Frequently, individuals in “the Life” are subject to rape and other forms of physical violence, as well as exploitation. However, it does not appear as if the Department understands that individuals who are bought and sold should not be criminalized for something that is happening to them.
Operation Fall Haul 2 highlights why the CSE Institute stands with survivors and advocates for the adoption of the Equality Model in the United States. This is because commercial sexual exploitation is most effectively stopped by putting an end to demand. After all, the sex trade functions like every other: if the demand for something increases, so does the supply. However, in the sex trade, increasing the supply requires the exploitation of more persons in prostitution. Therefore, by targeting individuals who buy sex – those who increase the demand – the number of exploited individuals decreases. At the same time, it is even more important to decriminalize people in prostitution because no one should not be criminalized for something happening to them.
The Equality Model follows these tenets, and commercial sexual exploitation has decreased in countries where the Equality Model has been implemented. The Equality Model consists of four key elements: (1) decriminalization of the prostituted person, (2) criminalization of sex buyers and facilitators with a commitment to treating buying sex as a serious crime, (3) a public education campaign about the inherent harms of prostitution, and (4) funded, robust, holistic exit services for victims of commercial sexual exploitation. The Equality Model directly targets the demand for buying sex by criminalizing sex buyers and traffickers, while decriminalizing the people who are being bought and sold for commercial sex. The decriminalization of people in prostitution recognizes those who are bought and sold for sex as exploited, not as perpetrators of a crime.
The CSE Institute will continue to provide updates as this matter proceeds.
All views expressed herein are personal to the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law or of Villanova University.