The Mann Act: Anatomy of a Law

By Lisa Riordan Seville

The Crime Report and the Lloyd Sealy Library at John Jay College of Criminal Justice launch a collaboration examining the history of crime and punishment. 

Oregon Trial Shows High Profits, Internet Role in Prostitution

In eye-opening testimony presented in a trial of a Portland man accused of forcing a 17-year-old girl into prostitution, reports The Oregonian, one stunning economic fact emerged: the 21-year-old defendant was making more money than anyone else in the courtroom: as much as $2,000 to $3,000 in a single day. The girl he prostituted said Gus Wayne Rouse Jr. was sending her out on 10 tricks a day, forcing her to turn over everything she made. Once, when she tried to hide some of the money in the bathroom vent of a motel room, he choked her and warned her if she did it again, she'd get worse.

The week-long trial exposed a rarely told story of an underage prostitute, the johns who flocked to her, and the pimp who ruled so absolutely. It shined a light on the seedy underbelly of the Internet, where call girls in every corner of the state are pictured scantily clad or nude, blatantly offering sex acts for money. The trial featured a string of adults who exploited the 17-year-old, or turned a blind eye to what was really going on -- from the taxi driver who made $40 driving her to johns' homes, to the motel owners who didn't ask questions, to the emergency-room doctor who lived in a swank condo and became her No. 1 client.

MA's Coakley Hails Crackdown on Johns; Hookers Object

Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley is pressing for huge fines and even jail time for johns under a sweeping new human-trafficking law — but some online hookers tell the Boston Herald they aren’t victims and don’t need the government doing them any favors. The law, effective Sunday, is largely aimed at protecting child prostitutes but also hits adult hookers’ clients with fines of up to $5,000 and up to 21⁄2 years behind bars, as part of a broad crackdown aimed at snuffing out prostitution by turning up the heat on both pimps and end-users of the illicit trade.

Women of the night are treated as victims of human trafficking, still facing the same misdemeanor charges but with new rights to sue those who exploited them. “The penalties we’ve had have been far too low,” Coakley told the Herald. “All we’ve done by the increase is make them appropriate for the kinds of offenses we’re talking about.” One high-priced online hooker said she’s no victim — and she doesn’t know any women who are. “If you are an escort, you go into it of your own free will,” she said. “Absolutely no one is forced into doing this. You don’t have to be affiliated with any agency. I’m not forced to do anything I don’t want.” The new law calls for at least five years in prison and a fine of up to $25,000 for the new state crime of human trafficking for sexual servitude.

Rich, Smart and Female? Try Prostitution

More affluent and educated women are entering the prostitution field by choice, found a new study by economics researchers at the University of Arkansas.

Nashville Program Called Model For Getting Women Out of Prostitution

Nashville is trying to break the cycle of prostitutiton, NPR reports in a three-part series. More than 1,100 people were arrested in the city last year for prostitution and solicitation. Some of t hem go to a program called Magdalene that was founded in 1997 by Becca Stevens, an Episcopal priest who grew up in Nashville and who had been abused as a child. Magdalene is a two-year private residential rehab center for women with criminal histories of prostitution and drug addiction.

Magdalene has graduated more than 150 women and has raised $12 million in private funds. It offers an intensified program of housing, counseling and training, based on a 12-step model. Women stay free for the two years they're there. It is becoming a national model for others trying to help women trapped by prostitution. Therapy occurs in Magdalene's six group homes, where the women live unsupervised. The women also make bath and body oils and candles at a workshop called Thistle Farms — products that Stevens says promote healing. Magdalene also helps run "john schools," aimed at educating male clients who are arrested for hiring prostitutes about various aspects of prostitution. Only first-time offenders may enroll.

Prostitutes turn to Facebook as the new tool of the trade

Technology has changed the prostitution trade drastically, but nothing has effected the business like the introduction of Facebook, says Columbia sociologist Sudhir Venkatesh, in a study for Wired magazine.

Of the 290 women he followed for a year, 83 percent of the women had a Facebook page, and Venkatesh predicts that by the end of 2011 Facebook will be the leading recruitment tool over traditional escort agencies.

Read the study here.