Opinion | The Potential Pitfalls of Legalizing Pimping

Over a decade ago, I encountered a frightened 15-year-old girl who was trying to rebuild her life after enduring the horrors of being kidnapped by a pimp and forced into the sex trade.

Melanie Thompson shared her story of how her life took a devastating turn: she and two other girls in New York City were lured by older boys to hang out. They were provided with alcohol, and Melanie’s memory went blank from there. She woke up to find herself in the midst of a sexual assault. Subsequently, a pimp confined her with another girl in an abandoned house, and she was forced into non-consensual encounters with strangers.

All of this unfolded when Melanie was only 13 years old.

When we reconnected two years later, she was residing in a residential program for previously trafficked girls. Despite her ordeal, Melanie exhibited thoughtfulness, charm, and a love for poetry. However, I questioned whether she would be able to rebuild her life. Eventually, I lost touch with her, until I received a message from her this spring. When we met again, she updated me on her challenging journey and her fight against what she perceives as misguided liberalism that advocates for the legalization of pimping.

After our initial encounter, Melanie spent years in foster care. While exceptional foster parents do exist, America’s foster care system as a whole is disgraceful. Statistics reveal that only around half of foster children graduate from high school, and perhaps a mere 4 percent obtain a B.A. Furthermore, numerous estimates suggest that a majority of trafficked girls have spent time in foster care or some other part of the child welfare system.

This was the world Melanie inhabited. She recounts being trafficked once again, with her teenage years filled with traumatic experiences. The sex trade left an indelible mark on her, making it difficult for her to relate to her peers in high school.

“You feel like damaged goods,” she recalls. “You also internalize the shame people put on you.”

Finally, after attending five different high schools, Melanie obtained her diploma at the age of 19. An opportunity presented itself when she interned at the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women, a nonprofit organization in New York. Taina Bien-Aimé, the executive director of the coalition, was profoundly moved by her. “She’s an exceptional human being, driven, ambitious, intelligent, and focused,” Bien-Aimé shared with me. As a result, Melanie was hired and is now serving as the outreach and advocacy coordinator for the coalition.

Meanwhile, Melanie pursued her B.A. in gender studies. In college, she often found herself at odds with her affluent classmates and professors when discussions of the sex trade arose. They saw sex work for consenting adults as empowering, a sentiment that did not resonate with Melanie’s experiences as a trafficked child. She firmly believed that the lines were blurred, even among adults, and that exploitation rather than empowerment prevailed. Her involvement in the commercial sex industry reinforced this belief.

This disconnect has become her primary focus. Some blue states, such as New York, are advocating for the complete decriminalization of the sex trade. This would essentially give a green light to pimping and operating brothels. Melanie argues for a model closer to that of Sweden and Norway, where prostitutes are not arrested but instead offered social services, while pimps and johns are prosecuted. Although no legal approach is foolproof, Sweden has promoted its model internationally as a means to combat trafficking. Maine recently became the first state in America to adopt the Nordic approach.

Now 27, Melanie warns that full decriminalization, including the legalization of pimps and brothels, would result in an increase in trafficking victims, particularly among marginalized groups such as Black and brown individuals, those from foster care backgrounds, LGBTQ youth, and others. A comprehensive global study has shown that legalization is associated with higher levels of trafficking.

Clearly, there are different aspects within the commercial sex trade – some consensual, some nonconsensual, and others that fall into a gray area. In situations where there is a significant power imbalance and vulnerability, we tend to enact bans to protect against potential exploitation. It is therefore perplexing that there is a growing push to legalize pimping, especially considering that we liberals are usually vigilant about preventing exploitation. We prohibit work among consenting adults if it falls below minimum wage standards and impose regulations on high-risk jobs like window-washing platforms.

Engaging in commercial sex is far more dangerous than window-washing or almost any other occupation. Melanie dismisses the notion that pimps are merely business partners to women engaged in sex work. “I never touched the money,” she asserts. “And if you were caught trying to stash anything, it was detrimental to you.”

In recent years, we have made significant strides in empowering affluent and educated women and girls, with initiatives like Title IX and the #MeToo movement. However, vulnerable girls in America’s foster care system have reaped far fewer benefits.

I am deeply concerned that if the well-intentioned push for full decriminalization continues, the winners will be the pimps, while some of America’s most vulnerable young people will be the ones left behind. Countless other individuals like Melanie are in need of assistance, and we risk abandoning them to the mercy of predators.