On October 29, a Murrysville massage parlor employee pled guilty to a misdemeanor prostitution charge. Now facing a sentence of up to six months in jail, she has since been paroled and released into federal custody, where she faces deportation due to her immigration status.
As we previously reported, the Westmoreland County District Attorney’s Office and police launched an investigation in May into “Asian Massage” and “Asian Garden Spa” after receiving complaints and online reviews about commercial sex acts occurring within the businesses. At both massage parlors, employees offered to perform sex acts upon the undercover officers for an extra cost. The undercover officers refused the services and terminated the massages. A subsequent search warrant executed upon both businesses led to the arrest of two women charged with promoting prostitution.
With human trafficking being the fastest growing organized crime and the third-largest criminal enterprise in the world, the continuous criminalization of victims only exacerbates the issue rather than resolving it. Given that most people in prostitution are not there by choice and instead are forced into the sex trade due to vulnerabilities, they tend to have no other choice but to appease their traffickers and commit offenses on their behalf. Many state and federal laws continue to criminalize victims for these offenses despite the victims’ sole intention of surviving their situation. As a result, victims find themselves being re-traumatized as they are left with a criminal record that severely hinders their enrollment in higher education, limits their ability to purchase a home, and restricts their access to work opportunities. While their criminal record may primarily contain offenses related to prostitution, many offenses on a victim’s record may also contain misdemeanors and felonies. Therefore, punishing victims is not only counterproductive as it contributes to their victimization, but it also inhibits any opportunity to leave the sex trade.
The illicit massage industry is one of the largest sex trafficking markets in the United States. To prevent illicit massage businesses from becoming the norm, law enforcement must focus its efforts on criminalizing exploiters and buyers of sex. Sexual exploiters play a central role in trafficking as they are responsible for creating and sustaining the demand for paid sex. Through the use of force, fraud, and coercion, exploiters traffic vulnerable individuals into the heinous business of the sex trade. In 2023 alone, the National Human Trafficking Hotline received reports of 9,619 potential human trafficking cases referencing 16,999 potential victims. Unless law enforcement shifts its focus on criminalizing the demand side of the sex trade, the cycle of abuse and victimization will continue, without holding exploiters and sex buyers accountable for their actions.
The CSE Institute supports the Equality Model to combat commercial sexual exploitation. The Equality Model focuses on criminalizing buyers of sex acts while decriminalizing individuals who are bought and sold for sex acts. The Equality Model includes four key tenets: (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. To combat commercial sexual exploitation, the Equality Model focuses on decriminalizing the prostituted individual while also targeting the exploiters and sex buyers. By criminalizing the exploiters and sex buyers, the market for buying sex is significantly reduced, which assists in the overall goal of terminating sexual exploitation.
The CSE Institute commends the Murrysville Police Department, Lower Burrell Police Department, U.S. Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the Westmoreland County District Attorney’s Office for their continuous investigations into these massage parlors. However, the CSE Institute believes that law enforcement should focus its efforts on arresting and prosecuting the buyers of sex, rather than criminalizing victims who were forced into the sex trade. As the sex trade relies on supply and demand, vulnerable individuals are coerced into the sex trade to meet the demand for paid sex. Therefore, by targeting the individuals involved in the demand side of the sex trade, law enforcement can effectively weaken trafficking networks and aid in the overall goal of terminating sexual exploitation.
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 Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law or of Villanova University.