On January 12 and 13, 2023, forty-six men were arrested for solicitation of prostitution following a “commercial sex sting” in North Texas. Among those arrested include a youth pastor, a professional hockey player, a healthcare director, and a high school teacher, and a high school football coach. The suspects’ names, dates of birth, and mugshots have all been released.
Undercover agents posted online advertisements. Officers then waited for these men in hotels in Frisco and Southlake. The CSE Institute commends the hotel staff and administration for their cooperation and for supporting this operation.
The US Department of Homeland Security organized the undercover operation as part of its Blue Campaign, “a national public awareness campaign designed to educate the public, law enforcement, and other industry partners to recognize the indicators of human trafficking, and how to appropriately respond to possible cases.”
Several law enforcement agencies were involved in the investigation as well, including the Arlington Police Department, Colleyville Police Department, Collin County Sheriff’s Department, Dallas Police Department, Dallas County Sheriff’s Department, Flower Mound Department, Frisco Police Department, Irving Police Department, Midlothian Police Department, the Tarrant County Human Trafficking Task Force, and the Dallas County District Attorney ‘s Office.
The CSE Institute commends the above law enforcement agencies for targeting the demand for sex rather than the individuals selling sex. The CSE Institute supports the Equality Model to combat commercial sexual exploitation. 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. Furthermore, the decriminalization of people in prostitution recognizes those who are bought and sold for sex as exploited, not as perpetrators of a crime.
Both law enforcement and the media have labeled this operation as a “commercial sex sting,” a “prostitution sting,” and an operation “targeting sex traffickers.” Words matter and this was an operation targeting sex buyers.
Here, the crime committed was promoting prostitution, not human trafficking. A person commits the crime of promoting prostitution when they “solicit[s] another to engage in sexual conduct with another person for compensation.” In contrast, a person commits the crime of sex trafficking when they “traffic[s] another person and, through force, fraud, or coercion, causes the trafficked person to engage in conduct prohibited” otherwise prohibited under the state’s various prostitution charges.
Mislabeling or misrepresenting investigations and the crimes committed creates confusion and uncertainty. If an investigation was a trafficking operation, it is important for law enforcement to appropriately charge trafficking. However, if, like here, the investigation is actually an operation targeting sex buyers, law enforcement and the media must identify it appropriately. In sum, words matter and using the wrong terminology or misappropriating terminology spreads misinformation and leads to misunderstanding.
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 the Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law or of Villanova University.