Is Craigslist the world's biggest bordello?
Update 7 p.m. on Friday: Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster issued a statement. You can read the story here.
Catherine is a 35-year-old sex worker in San Francisco who relies on Craigslist to reduce the physical risks often faced by a woman in her line of work.
Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart discusses during a press conference Thursday why he considers Craigslist a marketing tool for pimps and prostitutes.
(Credit: YouTube)"Craigslist is important to helping us avoid violence," says the woman, who is originally from Europe. "Craigslist is a way to filter out that kind of person...and with Craigslist there is no need for pimps."
For people in her trade, she adds in a thick accent, "Craigslist is vital."
It is also why Chicago Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart on Thursday sued the popular Internet classified service, accusing Craigslist of being one of the largest sources of prostitution in the country.
In an interview with CNET News, Dart said that the kind of sex services being advertised on Craigslist frequently involves minors as well as people forced into prostitution against their will. The federal lawsuit filed by Dart's office claims that Craigslist's erotic section is a powerful marketing tool for pimps and prostitutes and makes it easier for criminals to elude police.
"This (lawsuit) was my act of last resort," Dart said. "We're seeing some outrageous stuff here that we hadn't seen before. Our people on the street have seen the volume increase. It's become much more complicated for us. We can debate the whole 'Pretty Woman' thing. If a woman decides that this is a viable choice for employment, but that isn't the ones we're focused on."
He detailed how women were performing sex acts while their children were unattended in the next room. Dart described the many juveniles arrested when police followed up on suspicious Craigslist ads.
"We arrested numerous juveniles over the last two years," Dart said. "What we found is that they weren't advertised as juveniles in most of them. We walk in to hear: 'You want a juvenile? We got a juvenile. You'll have to pay more but we have her for you.'"
At the same time, however, this is a story that underscores how one of the world's newest technologies has become a vital part of one of the world's oldest occupations. For the majority of Craigslist users--the millions who sell sofas, rent rooms, or find Spanish tutors every day--a steamy online brothel juxtaposed with Craigslist's plain-wrap classified pages may seem unlikely. But with the emergence of the Internet as a vital communications medium, it was only a matter of time before sex for hire infiltrated the listings on Craigslist as well.
A Craigslist spokeswoman said Thursday that criminal acts are rare at the site compared with the overwhelming amount of legal activity. She added that Craigslist helps law enforcement track down criminals every day. (In response to the sheriff's lawsuit, Craigslist can claim to be immune from liability thanks to Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act.)
Catherine, who has lived in the United States for 10 years, spoke with CNET News on the condition that she would remain anonymous. She asked to be identified in the article as "Catherine," after the actress, Catherine Deneuve, who played the role of a young housewife moonlighting as a prostitute in the film "Belle de Jour."
Taking issue with Dart's portrayal, Catherine argued that Craigslist provided a safety net for her and other sex workers who use the service to screen out prospective clients who may be violent. Craigslist and the Internet give her a chance to communicate with a client to weed out those she senses may not be acceptable.
If access to Craigslist's bulletin board listings was shut off, Catherine says that many sex workers would be walking the streets.
Craigslist and the police
Over the years, police have found that Craigslist's erotic services ads can actually be useful when pursuing criminal investigations.
A 2007 article in the New York Times reported that a covert police ad on Craigslist in November by Seattle police led to the arrests of 71 men, including a bank officer, a construction worker and a surgeon. Police in Jacksonville, Fla. posted a single ad that drew 33 responses.
In July 2006, Detective Brad Conners of the Santa Rosa, Calif., police department posted multiple messages on the local Craigslist site posing as women offering erotic services. One ad Conners posted as "Emily" offered oral sex for $100.
An ad he posted from a woman named "Summer" drew a response from a 39-year-old man named Christopher Scarberry, who used the e-mail address wolfnursehunter@yahoo.com. Even after learning that "Summer" was 13 years old, he agreed to meet her at a parking garage and said he would be driving a white Chevrolet Corsica.
Santa Rosa police arrested Scarberry, and discovered $145 in cash on his person. He admitted to responding to the ad, but during the subsequent trial objected to the detective's claim that the encounter clearly involved sex for money. (He was sentenced to probation and was required to register as a sex offender.)
Det. Conners nabbed another respondent the same month. Again using the name "Summer," Conners posted an ad saying: "i talked 2 sum of u last week but I wuznt able 2 meet w/ some of u. i made some last week and it wuznt so bad, so im tryin to make a little more, can u help me out? i dont have pics, but im yung, cute, and blond bjs 100."
This time Michael Harris, a 45-year old welfare investigator for the Department of Social Services in nearby Mendocino County replied. Using the name "hardbody_hercules," Harris typed: "I must have missed your ad last week, sounds pretty interesting. I'd love to know what's up. Want to fill me in on the details. I'm off work all day and need to get into something special, might that be you. Hit me up."
"Summer" replied by saying she was 13 and the two agreed to meet. Santa Rosa detectives posing as skateboarders arrested Harris at the parking garage, where they found $100 and four flavored condoms in his pockets. Harris was convicted of one felony count of attempting to commit a lewd and lascivious act on a child under 14.
In New York City, an FBI agent had the same idea, posting an ad on Craigslist that offered the "freshest, youngest girls."
Timothy McDarrah, the 43-year-old former "Hot Stuff" editor at US Weekly magazine, replied. He asked "what it'll cost for the cutest white 14 year old girl with a pony tail in the whole 8 grade." McDarrah agreed to pay $200 for oral sex on July 7, 2005, but never showed up to the rendez-vous.
He did continue to chat online with an undercover FBI agent posing as 13-year-old "Julie," and was eventually arrested, convicted of using a computer to entice a minor into having sex, and sentenced to 6 years in prison.
Police have also used Craigslist to identify--and arrest--sex workers.
Detective John Harrigan on the vice squad of the Long Beach Police Department replied to a Craigslist ad by "Katie," who offered $200 for "a nude rubdown," or $250 for "full service with protection," apparently meaning intercourse with a condom. The woman, Sandra Kole, and her pimp, Robert Pimental, were arrested. (Pimental was sentenced to three years in prison for pimping.)
A Craiglist investigation by the San Francisco Police Department zeroed in on advertisements for a 19-year old woman named "Stacy.' Police discovered that she was really 14 years old and staying with her pimp in a Quality Inn in South San Francisco.
As previously reported by CNET News, police began closely monitoring Craiglist's casual encounters section for evidence of human trafficking during the Republican and Democratic conventions. (Sex ads on Craigslist spiked during the Democratic National Convention in Denver.)
Neither the police nor advocacy groups interested in the topic found any evidence of human trafficking--meaning the involvement of people under 18 years old, or situations involving coercion--at either event. Nor was there evidence of additional prostitution, at least measured by the number of arrests.
Craigslist has pledged to implement new measures designed to discourage people from using the site's erotic services section for prostitution. The privately held company responded in November to complaints from state attorneys general that the site's administrators were allowing users to post ads for prostitution in violation of its own terms of service.
Craigslist managers said they would adopt new measures, such as requiring anyone who posted an ad in the exotic services section to provide a valid credit card and phone number. The idea is that anyone planning to break the law will be reluctant to identify themselves.
From what Catherine says, the measures are easily circumvented.
Dart said he might have filed suit earlier against Craigslist but was waiting to see what impact the preventive measures had.
He said: "They've made absolutely none."
Prostitution has been around since the beginning of time. They've been trying to stamp it out for just as long. The cops blame Craigslist for making no progress. What about the cops? What progress have they made over the last 5,000 years? None. Absolutely zero.
They supposedly busted Eliot Spitzer because he was alledgedly "client #9". How's the investigation into clients 1-8 going? Gimme a break...
It stalled there... #9 #9 #9 #9
0PROP1PROP2PROP3PROP4PROP5PROP6PROP7PROP8.
As Craigslist points out, they help law enforcement to catch the child prostitution providers in ways that were nearly impossible before Craigslist. But they don't mention that. Instead, they just mention the case of child prostitution, when in reality they're trying to stop adult prostitution because they don't make any money for it.
It would be safer for all as well.
As for making bordellos legal, where do you put them? They are legal in many countries and there is endless argument about their location. Unless you build them in impractical places there is always a school or playground within half a mile or so. It's nearly impossible to get local authorities to approve them. And when people find out about the ones already operating in their neighbourhoods, they demand that they be closed, even if they've operated for decades without trouble.
Prostitution might be safer when it's legal and regulated, but it is, by it's very nature, an industry that prefers to remain underground.
Prostitution should be legal.
just how do you think someone becomes a sex slave ?
the person trafficking them threatens to turn them into the law.
if it was legal, they wouldnt become enslaved.
When is this clown going to go after the Yellow Pages and the newspapers? Lots of "escort" ads in them, and they're making a profit from posting them (thereby contributing to prostitution, which they CAN be held liable for) unlike Craigslist, who's legally untouchable.
You have to keep in mind that most, if not all, sheriffs are elected officials. Thus, one of their "jobs", as with all politicians, is to pimp themselves to the public so that they can get reelected and keep their job.
So, is anyone still unclear as to why our country is in the mess that it is in?
Watch "Sex Slaves: The Teen Trade" or "Undercover: Sex Slaves in America". Your eyes will be opened. Most johns don't know the circumstances involved when they are buying women. Prostitutes rarely choose that life--they are more often blackmailed, beaten into submission or drugged into the sex trade.
Just think--if your daughter or sister is pretty enough it may be her that's dragged into 'the life' next time.
Women work in the sex trade for money, not to "have a good time" and poverty is the draw. Any one of them could work a 9 to 5 or as a 7-11 clerk, but choose to live above mere survival level. For one reason or another each chose to support herself and distance herself from the patriarchal system that we live in. Education had little to do with it either - some were college grads and some were not, but none could be considered ignorant. They choose to charge a price for what many women give away for free.
Not one woman that I encountered in close to a decade was an escort because she wanted to "have a good time." Not one was a sex trafficking victim, or any other type of victim. It's all about the money, for one reason or another. Please consider enlightenment and wake up!
I know married women who feel obligated to put out for their husbands because they work hard, they are prostitutes, but just not honest ones.
80-90% of all girls who want to escort are NOT forced into it. In fact because society (only talking the States here since almost every other country does NOT treat escorts or prostitutes in the same manner as the US does) has "tried" to shove escorting underground for soooo many years, often times this is where the problem lies.
The girls who want to be escorts have no place to go to educate themselves on how to escort properly. Thank god for my book on "How to Become an Escort".
The government for so long has been trying to control people's minds, bodies & spirits & for the weak ones, they let them.
The only person who controls me is MEEEEE. You can't tell me what to do with my life, only I can tell me what to do with my life, & that includes my body. No one owns my body but me.
As for laws, this is one of the reasons there is so much negativity, is because of all the laws. Human beings are free spirits. The minute you try to cage them & control them with every aspect of their lives, they try to revolt or they become very depressed or disillusioned. This is when their actions lean towards hurting other people because they are in pain. (I'm not talking about logical laws like stopping at a red light, etc.)
As Abraham from Abraham-Hicks says, "if you just let people be themselves, most times they will do the right thing. The minute you try to control them, they act out in negative ways." (I'm paraphrasing btw & I only use the word "right" because most humans don't understand that "right" is relative. What is right for me now may not have been right for me years ago & vice versa. That's why other people can't tell you what is right & wrong because the only question that matters is, "how does it make you feel?").
So NO, there is nothing wrong with being an escort if the person respects their decision to become one (hate the word prostitution), what is wrong is the police & government who try to control people because they are seeking companionship & love without judgment. Americans are really some of the most sexually dysfunctional people & I feel this is moreso because of the right wing religious people (even the ones who aren't religious, but were raised that way & have been conditioned to believe deep down that sex is wrong.)
To educate even further, escorts don't just provide sex, they provide so much more than that & yes there are hookerish types who become escorts.
On a positive note, it's nice to actually read that most people who read this article were offended by the actions of the police & government.
And to make it totally clear, I'm TOTALLY 1000% against underage girls becoming escorts or anyone forcing anyone into being an escort.
Thank you for listening.
Michelle
Exotic Publishing
These are the people who Tom Dart is trying to help, and dismissing him as ignorant just because you like your job is absolutely wrong.
Enough with the euphemisms... She's a HOOKER.
The next thing you know, CNET will be saying, meet Jack, he's a mobile pharmaceutical worker (drug dealer). Or meet Michael, he's a proactive undertaker (hitman).
Please...
Catherine is a PROSTITUTE.
By your definition, a sex worker could be an ObGyn...
My previous post stands.
Keep in mind that these technologies are also being used by law enforcement to catch offenders who prey on children and other violent criminals.
Call it what it is, prostitution.
Oh, and I laugh at your suggestion that sex therapists have to use Craig's list. If you're paying someone to wank your weiner, it's prostitution.
And as for the idea that we should maintain Craig's list as-is to enable law enforcement to conduct stings, that's a stupid argument. Stings catch perhaps 1% of what's going on. Craig's is enabling this market to grow, and thus it should be shut down.
http://academic.cuesta.edu/access/AS/502.HTM
in point of fact, for a while car thieves, identity thieves etc made reallly prodictive use of craigslist, even as they do newspapers.
from a cnet standpoint, the interesting thing is websites guarenteing not to be entrapment mechanisms advertising on craoglsit personals, gernating new business models for etrepreneurs who are then using law enforcement agencies as part of their marketing sales, perceived value model.
TOM DART IS THE WORLD'S BIGGEST PUBLICITY HOUND
The text of the story should be more like this:
Tom Dart, Cook County Sheriff needing publicity for re-election, hit upon the incredibly novel idea of using sex to get headlines as a crusader of some type. Dart stated, "Ya know, solving murders, robberies, and arsons is an okay sideline, but having press conferences where SEX is the topic really improves my brand name recognition and convinces voters that I'm doing something important."
Asked for details about the relationship between time wasted on Craigslist and protecting public safety, Dart replied "What, are you against America? Which side are you on in the war on crime? By the way, this is about SEX!"
Several serious journalists would have contributed to this story, but they were all busy trying to do something important.
yo zeke i didn't know you were a disco legend lol.
"We are such a puritanical society. If an adult woman wants to sell her sex services and an adult man wants to pay for such services what is wrong with that? You have two consenting adults engaged in a private business matter."
I agree....
This suit is like suing AT&T and Sprint because prostitutes use telephones.
- by man_w_balls March 6, 2009 7:30 AM PST
- Seems like everything that comes out of that county is a joke. Like one little sheriff could stop all the ******, lol. There are thousands of available venues they could easily move to, at least. They could even go to AdultFriendFinder and post nude pictures of themselves with thinly veiled language in the profile about their business. Craigslist is just quicker to get onto and post something easily.
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