West York Borough Police used a website well-known for selling sex in order to arrest two women on separate prostitution charges in May, according to The York Daily Record. The advertisement allegedly posted by one of the prostituted persons on that website read that she “could really use money for a Mother’s Day gift” and was accompanied with photos of her posed in revealing clothing. Police set up a date, time, and location to meet with the prostituted person who had agreed to engage in an hour of sexual intercourse in exchange for $180 from the officer she thought to be a sex-buyer. At the time of her arrest, police noticed she was bleeding from her hand and wrist area. The woman admitted to authorities that she had recently injected heroin, and that she frequently sold sex as a way to keep up with her severe heroin addiction.
The York Daily Record piece goes on to report that more than an hour later, police met another prostituted woman in the same complex where they had made the aforementioned arrest. This woman’s online advertisement stated that she was “fetish friendly” and upon a search of the woman’s vehicle, police found a suitcase full of sex toys and condoms. The woman allegedly responded to police questioning regarding the purpose of the suitcase by stating, “I’m a freak.” Those words have now been used as the headline for multiple USA Today Network national news pieces covering this story, imposing a sense levity to a likely very desperate set of circumstances that landed both women to post ads on that website.
Not only are the names and addresses of these prostituted persons toted within the lines of The York Daily Record’s article, but the women’s mugshots are also depicted to add further insult to injury. Even more shocking, the woman police found bleeding from the arm appears nearly unconscious in the photograph approved for publication by York Daily Report editors.
Simply arresting these women on charges of prostitution instead of providing the social and rehabilitative services necessary to actually help them from resorting to selling sex is entirely contrary to what The CSE Institute implores authorities to do. Unfortunately, this mindset is still gaining traction in most parts of the country. In the meantime, journalists should appreciate the position they are in to frame situations involving the already marginalized positions of prostituted persons in a more forward-thinking light. One that does not border on poking fun at a situation they have only investigated one side of.
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.