"Realistically, no one's going to get jail time for purchasing sex," Schroeder says, especially in California due to prison over-crowding. "And before the program, they would get a slap on the wrist, the judge would probably sentence them to fines or community service, and nobody would ever know about it."The public shaming is part of a larger program to prosecute sex trafficking, and a dramatic shift in how the DA treats sex workers. California authorities are increasingly seeing them as victims instead of criminals.Part of this paradigm shift comes from Proposition 35, a voter-approved ballot measure that created harsher penalties for sex traffickers including longer prison sentences, requiring sex traffickers to register as sex offenders, law enforcement training on sex trafficking, and requiring sex traffickers to pay criminal fines that would go toward services for their victims.Read More: The Young Woman Who Created a New Way to Bust Sex Trafficking Rings
If the county wanted to get rid of the prostitutes, Schroeder says, they had to stop going after the women, and instead, go after the men—both the men that traffic the women and the ones that buy sex from them.Most prostitutes in Schroeder's experience have a pimp and are trafficked. Very few are working as free agents.A few years ago, the District Attorney's office created a task force to deal with the increasing prostitute problem and the violence that went with it. Now when girls are arrested for prostitution, the DA's office tries to get them to testify against the guys running the operation.Sunlight is a key ingredient. Thus the John photos."People are not going to be able to do this in the dark anymore," Schroeder says. "Everybody ought to know what they're doing so that their wives and loved ones can see."Legally, it's fair game. The men are convicted, their names and photos are public record.Think of it as a modern day stocks, the medieval punishment where offenders were displayed in public for all to see. Today, the internet serves as the proverbial public square.The goal became rescuing women from their pimps and redirecting their lives, reducing prostitution one life at a time.
These are real human being with real lives which can be ruined.
As for whether the shaming could deter others from going to prostitutes, Rowland says, "The word 'deterrent' is frequently invoked as an excuse to justify all kinds of over-broad criminal penalties and policies. And yet there is very little evidence about what kind of government behavior actually does deter crime.Prosecutor Susan Kang Schroeder points out that the Orange County shaming program is a small part of a much larger initiative, so it's difficult to isolate and determine if that one element is having an effect. But the overall approach is.Some traffickers have social media pages, Schroeder says, and they complain to each other, posting, "Don't go to Orange County, they have a task force," she says."We had defendants tell one of our prosecutors that Orange County is 'janky,'" Schroeder says, "which I think is a bad word, but we took it as a compliment."Many advocates for decriminalization argue that making prostitution illegal puts the women in more danger, and that shaming the men who buy sex, can push the industry further underground."When prostitutes' activities are criminalized they cannot report violence committed against them without incriminating themselves" says Gillian Abel, associate professor of public health at the University of Otago, in Christchurch, New Zealand. "The industry then becomes very dangerous because the thugs that get involved know they can get away with it."Read More: Inside the Controversial Trafficking Sting that Seized a Seattle Sex Worker Site
Avery ended up getting convicted and sentenced to 47 years in prison. This sort of outcome is the best possible for scenario for Schroeder and her colleagues.As for the Johns, Schroeder says they deserve it.Some of the girls are as young as 13, Schoreder argues some show up with black eyes, some have been "branded" by the men who traffic them: their names are tattooed on the girls' faces. Schroeder says authorities are often able to send the girls back to their parents, or, if they don't have parents, find resources for them, alternative homes, and get them back into school."When they're purchasing somebody, this is somebody's daughter, this is a runaway, this is someone's kid going through some of the worst situations of their lives, exploited and abused," says Schroeder. "Maybe if wouldn't change your mind, but at the very least, people ought to know—their neighbors, their wives, their friends. I'm glad we're shaming them. They ought to be ashamed."When a prosecutor asked her to point to Avery, she said she didn't want to.
"Do you want to be here today?" the prosecutor asked.
"Nope," the girl said.
"Why not?" the prosecutor responded.
The girl shot back: "Because I don't."