To be or not to be. Sensible.

                Some things just seem counterintuitive to me and while I feel like I try to keep an open mind you won’t find a lot of people accusing me of having one. Open or otherwise.

                I’ve been trying to do a little research on California SB 1322 decriminalizing prostitution among minors because at first glance I was flabbergasted that anyone could even think that was a good idea and I pretty much believe all evil in the world originates in California (not really, c’mon). Turns out 19 other states plus the District of Columbia already have some sort of law on the books decriminalizing to various extents prostitution among minors and my home state of Colorado is considering similar legislation.

                My initial thought (and I hope yours) is that making prostitution legal for minors is just a really bad idea. But it seems the other side is not motivated by evil intentions and what they think they are doing is protecting minors rather than criminalizing them.

                Who can’t get behind that?

                A quick trip to the FAQ page of the Shared Hope website (one of many organizations dedicated to ending human trafficking) reveals that their belief is that decriminalization of juvenile prostitution is principally necessary because “being arrested for prostitution is stigmatizing and re-traumatizing.”

                That’s the reason? Because whatever set of circumstances brought young girls, boys and members of the LGBT community to prostitution were only “traumatizing.” To add stigmatization and “re-traumatizing” to that is just too much to heap on a child? (I know, I thought we were mostly talking about young girls too and I don’t know how being LGBT makes one neither but look what I learned at Shared Hope.) 

                   You can do better than that. And they do elsewhere on the website. I was so fascinated with the idea that the most populated state in the country could think legalizing child prostitution was a good idea that I kept digging and these folks really are well-intentioned. Their fervent desire is to protect these youths rather than prosecute them. But nowhere did I find mention that a felony conviction for prostitution is possible for a minor or would follow them around as part of their permanent record foiling opportunities for gainful employment or subsidized housing. If that is the issue in decriminalization somebody should make that clear. It would change everything.

                Like many good intentions though, the plan seems to run out of ammo (bad word for a discussion of California?) immediately after the mission statement.

                I am pretty sure most thinking people realize the child prostitutes are not the real criminals or the real evil in the equation. We even realize most 13-year-old girls would not pick prostitution as a career choice under any reasonable circumstance.

                I can’t decide who disgusts me more, the johns who are willing to pay for underage sex or the monsters who pimp them or the horrible parents who created them.

                So far I think everybody is on the same side, right?

                Where it begins to not make sense to me (but I am admittedly common) is in preventing law enforcement from interfering with underage prostitutes, thereby allowing uninterrupted commerce for those who are profiting from their exploitation. I don’t know if pimps consciously use business models or not but if I were a pimp I would suddenly have little or no use for prostitutes over the age of 17. Too much risk of cash flow interruption.

                At least if we arrest them we are getting them off the street and giving a dedicated group of people—volunteer groups for the most part—an opportunity to try and help these kids turn their lives around. Were we really sending 13-year-old girls to prison on prostitution charges anyway? I mean, other than the stigmatizing and re-traumatization, wasn’t there really more help than punishment available to those kids? Maybe in future versions of 1322 we should use the word “rescue” instead of “arrest” when talking about juvenile prostitutes.

                The rate of recidivism is sky high, I know. But it’s not 100%. Some kids are being saved and God bless the volunteers who are dedicated to saving them. And maybe there is a better way. I wish I knew for sure. The abuse and neglect and social issues that go into finding oneself homeless as a minor and having to sell one’s body to survive or feed an addiction or get more attention from a pimp than a kid got from their parents is way beyond my pay grade (more than 50K per year but I did vote for Trump).

It makes me cry and I wish I knew the ultimate solution but I don’t think removing law enforcement from the picture is the answer. It’s a matter of perspective. Enforcement of the law shouldn’t be punishing children for being used as cash machines. Enforcement of the law in this case is removing the prize from the sick folks (pretty subtle play on words, yes?) who need to pay for sex with kids and the even sicker animals who profit from it. That’s all.

And that’s all that makes sense to me. I believe the proponents of 1322 are well-intentioned people who want to help. But like parents who think every child deserves a participation trophy their intentions have misfired with a solution that not only makes the initial problem worse, it creates a slew of new ones.

I realize extrapolation is not always fair and it often amounts to putting words in someone else’s mouth but imagine if we decriminalized all crime for juveniles.  Again, I don’t know which criminals actually paid attention in class and know what a business model is, but if we did that it wouldn’t be long until there were armies of juveniles running drugs, guns, thefts, murders, etc. while the dudes over 18 sat back and counted the cash. Obviously a whole lot of that goes on already, but imagine if we pulled cops out of the enforcement of any crime that involved a minor. Oversimplification for sure, but I’m trying to illustrate what a wrong turn I think we take when we make it legal, or to put it the way the do-gooders would, when we make it not illegal for children to sell their bodies for money.

I’m exhausted and my heart is heavy. Being open-minded is hard on me. And I’m still flabbergasted that anyone, let alone a supermajority of even the California Senate, could think decriminalizing child prostitution is a good idea.

What is wrong with this world?