On September 1, 2022, Pennsylvania State Police conducted an investigation in Plains Township, which resulted in the arrest of seven men. According to Pennsylvania State Police, the seven men were arrested after they allegedly arranged to meet up with someone who they believed they were paying for sex acts. However, they were communicating with an undercover trooper.
Pennsylvania State Police have not released the names of the seven men who were arrested. Several news outlets claim they will publish the names men who were accused of purchasing sex once formal charges have been filed against them. The following demographic information was made available regarding the arrested men: a 22-year-old from Scranton, 39-year-old from Dallas, 40-year-old from Hughestown, 33-year-old from Scranton, 55-year-old from Ashley, 46-year-old from Dunmore, and a 26-year-old from Wilkes-Barre.
All seven men are facing charges of patronizing prostitutes. Although this case involved an undercover officer pretending to sell sex, the men will be charged with patronizing prostitutes, which in Pennsylvania crimes code is under 18 Pa. C.S. 5902(e). Someone commits the offense of patronizing a prostitute if “that person hires a prostitute or any other person to engage in sexual activity with him or her.” Here, it is alleged the men attempted to hire another person to engage in sex acts.
The CSE Institute applauds the Pennsylvania State Police in its efforts to reduce the sex trade by focusing on those who purchase sex. By targeting individuals who buy sex, law enforcement officials, such as the state police in this undercover operation, are targeting the root cause of sexual exploitation.
The CSE Institute’s policy advocacy focuses on the Equality Model, which criminalizes the buying of sex to decrease demand, and thus decrease the number of victims in commercial sexual exploitation. 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 provide updates on this matter when the names of those arrested become available.
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.