The Attorney General’s Office on Friday called on lawmakers to broaden the definition of sexual acts under the state’s human trafficking law so prosecutors can crack down on prostitution.
As part of a Senate Judiciary Committee discussion of the state’s prostitution laws, Assistant Attorney General John Treadwell explained the narrow scope of the 2011 human trafficking statute and the prostitution law, written in 1919.
Committee Chairman Dick Sears, D-Bennington, said he arranged the discussion to get an update on whether the current statutes are deficient.
After the testimony, Sears said he asked those who testified to suggest changes in the law. A bill should be ready in about two weeks, he said.
“This is something that I’m glad we uncovered but I don’t know what the solution is other than trying to keep in mind who the victim is,” Sears said.
Lawmakers made it clear that they want to protect sex trafficking victims and punish traffickers or the people who buy sex.
Treadwell said the trafficking law addresses several types of forced labor but the definition of “sex act” is limited to sexual intercourse, whether it is oral, anal or vaginal.
“Our suggestion here is to ensure that all varieties of sexual conduct are covered,” Treadwell said, so it will be easier to prosecute those who force women, or men, into prostitution.
He suggested the law’s definition of “commercial sex act” be expanded to include masturbation and other so-called “happy endings.”
Sen. Tim Ashe, D/P-Chittenden, pointed out that under Vermont law it is legal to sell sexual acts that aren’t intercourse.
Survival sex
Officials squirmed a bit as they tiptoed gingerly around the explicit description of the types of acts covered, or not covered, under the law.
A youth advocate who helps victims of prostitution told the committee that the limited scope of the law often dissuades victims from coming forward. She also told lawmakers the state needs to start collecting data about trafficking in Vermont.
Courtney Gabaree, of H.O.P.E. Works, an anti-sexual-violence organization in Chittenden County, said while massage parlor-type prostitution is a concern, what she sees most often is domestic sex trafficking, so-called pimp-controlled prostitution of adults and minors.
In those situations, a man typically persuades a young girl that he is her boyfriend, showers her with gifts, then forces her to have sex with his friends, who pay him, Gabaree said.
“Those are the situations we’re hearing about all of the time, and it’s particularly happening with minors and young adults,” she said.
She said she works with six to 12 victims every six months.
The women are often controlled with drugs, alcohol or gifts, she said. And they are often scared to come forward, especially because laws are vague about what is a crime.
She also hears about cases of “survival sex,” a gray area that some states consider human trafficking, Gabaree said.
In that type of situation, desperate minors or adult women exchange sex for a place to stay, food, protection or transportation, she said, and the trafficker and the “john” are the same person.
“They’re taking advantage of these youths, they’re enticing them and they’re forcing them into commercial sex acts,” Gabaree said.
Sen. Jeanette White, D-Windham, said those situations can get murky if it involves two adults.
“That could be called marriage,” White said.
Obstacles to prosecution
Bennington County State’s Attorney Christina Rainville used a recent Bennington massage parlor investigation as an example of how current laws stymied her office’s attempt to halt what appeared to be a trafficking operation, she said.
Rainville described her office’s fruitless 2013 human trafficking investigation into two massage parlors.
Rainville’s office got a call from the FBI that they were investigating spas in Bennington in connection with prostitution in New York City.
Her office secured warrants and raided the Green Spa and Cozy Spa, but the Korean women they found denied being prostitutes and had proper living quarters, food and passports.
Investigators found no records, client lists or cash, or other evidence of human trafficking.
“They’re incredibly sophisticated, the people running these spas in Vermont,” Rainville said.
Owners told police they only give “hand jobs” and in Vermont that’s legal, Rainville said.
“I went and looked at the statute and I was shocked to see that in fact our definition of prostitution did not cover this so we couldn’t charge them,” she said.
Meanwhile it is a risk to allow the spas to continue operating, Rainville said, because they could be trafficking the women who work there. And people in Bennington don’t like them, she said.
She said there are about 13 or 14 such spas that offer “happy endings” in Vermont, especially on the New York border because that state broadened its definition of prostitution.
“Right now, it’s inadvertently legal and I think that the committee probably should make it illegal,” she said.
