4 ms·

Uh, how is this “overly broad”? I’m not against prosecuting anything like this: > knew that its website was being used to post ads for illegal prostitution and

• Bartweiss 9y ago
  In the past, 'facilitation' charges have frequently been used to bypass guidelines of "prosecute johns and pimps, not prostitutes". Basic actions to make prostitution less dangerous, like "one prostitute rents an apartment and security guard, then splits the cost with a second prostitute" suddenly bring down facilitation charges on someone who would otherwise have been viewed as a victim. Similarly, there are a number of prostitutes who argue that Backpage has actually made them safer; they were going to work regardless but online arrangements have made it easier to screen clients. (The child trafficking issue is very different, and I'm not really up to speed on Backpage's role in it.) Reason has a good series on this whole mess; the short version is that good-looking laws end up incentivizing the most dangerous forms of prostitution like trafficking and streetwalking by punishing attempts at security, privacy, or client selection. Obviously that's not the whole story; I'm also worried that 'facilitation' won't stay at the Backpage level and will eventually erode things like safe harbor laws. But even within the narrow domain of "helping prostitutes carry out their work", this sort of legislation has a history of harming innocents.