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In the News

Meet the Press: Decriminalizing sex work will create ‘free for all’ for exploitation, says trafficking survivor

Sex trafficking survivor Melanie Thompson and Cook County, Ill. Sheriff Thomas Dart discuss their opposition to the full decriminalization of sex work on Meet the Press Reports.

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In the News

Women’s Rights Organizations Call on Justice Department to Release Names of Sex Buyers in High-End Prostitution Ring

Yesterday, the Department of Justice announced the arrests of three men charged with operating an interstate prostitution ring patronized by high tech and pharmaceutical executives, doctors, professors, lawyers, scientists, accountants, elected officials, military officers, and government contractors with security clearances.

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In the News

Why Some Advocates Are Pushing Back Against Decriminalization in the Sex Trade

There’s an effort underway to fully decriminalize the sex trade in the U.S. It's horrifying many who know that life first hand. "This idea that it's her body, her choice and she has power and autonomy in the sex trade is a fallacy," says Melanie Thompson with the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women.

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In the News

Exclusive NYPD Ride Along Exposes Illicit Sex Trade in NYC, What Officers Are Doing to Stop It

"There's a huge misconception around choice," sex trafficking survivor Melanie Thompson said. "Around the idea that these women are choosing to do this because they woke up one day and decided they wanted to. Cops now view the women as victims of sex traffickers caught in the switches between abusive pimps and the need to meet quotas, and the so-called "sex buyers."

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In the News

What It Means to Call Prostitution ‘Sex Work’

The term “sex work” whitewashes the economic constraints, family ruptures and often sordid circumstances that drive many women to sell themselves. It flips the nature of the transaction in question: It enables sex buyers to justify their role, allowing the purchase of women’s bodies for their own sexual pleasure and violent urges to feel as lightly transactional as the purchase of packaged meat from the supermarket.

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In the News

Trafficking Survivors Call on Mayor Adams to Crack Down on ‘Johns’ Who Pay for Sex

Arrests for prostitution-related offenses have dropped dramatically in New York City in recent years as the movement to decriminalize the sex trade has gained a foothold in local politics. But a coalition of women’s rights and anti-trafficking groups said on Tuesday that the shift away from criminalization had gone too far.

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In the News

Sex Trafficking a Growing Concern in NYC

These leaders say they've seen a dramatic rise in sex trafficking over the last couple of years, and that it affects every demographic group, and carries with it life and death risks.

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In the News

Maine Becomes First State to Decriminalize Selling Sex

Buying sex will remain illegal in the state, as communities nationally reconsider how best to legislate prostitution.

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In the News

New York Times Covers CATW’s Melanie Thompson and Equality Model Advocacy

“We have made strides in empowering affluent, educated women and girls,” writes Nicholas Kristof of the The New York Times. “But some of the most vulnerable girls in America, those in foster care, have benefited much less.” Read about survivor leader and CATW's Outreach & Advocacy Coordinator Melanie Thompson's journey and advocacy for survivors of trafficking and prostitution.

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Media Alerts

A Global Open Letter to the South African Government

Nearly 2,000 sex trade survivors, women’s and human rights advocates, anti-trafficking organizations, frontline service providers, and concerned individuals from over 60 countries signed an open letter urging the South African government to reject a Bill that repeals all criminal offences related to prostitution, effectively decriminalizing the sex trade (the “Jeffery Bill”).

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Press Releases

CATW Publishes Report on Sex Buyers’ Online Reviews in New York State

The Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW) highlights sex buyers’ own published accounts to demonstrate the sexism, racism, sexual violence, among other offenses, that patronizing prostitution entails.

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Press Releases

Belgium Joins Germany in Creating Legal Haven for Sex Trade

Belgium amends its Penal Code to further decriminalize pimping and brothel owning, following the model of Germany's disastrous 2002-2017 prostitution law.

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