Police and prosecutors in Vermont's most populous county are discussing prostitution, and the serious crimes that come with it. The issue emerged in mid-June when seven men, six of them from five Vermont communities and one from New Hampshire, were arrested for prohibited acts in South Burlington.
Police said the men, who were in their 40s, 50s, and 60s, came to a hotel one by one, looking to meet a prostitute for sex. The accused Johns had communicated with the prostitute through an online ad, but it was a sting: there was no actual prostitute, and an undercover officer was waiting to arrest the men.
"What we have to do is raise awareness," Chittenden County State's Attorney T.J. Donovan said of prostitution. "It's putting women at risk."
Donovan announced last week he declined to prosecute the men, saying they had been shamed enough and the media attention on the arrests likely will have served as a deterrent. Donovan said in this case, he preferred instead to educate the men about the often sad realities of prostitution, in a class they took Tuesday morning at the criminal courthouse in Burlington. Police, an advocate for sex trafficking victims, and Donovan spoke with the group of seven, the state’s attorney said.
Donovan said many prostitutes are drug addicts desperate to feed their habits. "We can't separate the issue of prostitution from the heroin epidemic that's happening in this state," he told New England Cable News.
Donovan and many others in Vermont law enforcement remember the case of Christal Jones. The 16-year-old from Burlington was a chronic runaway in foster care who was found murdered in New York City in 2001.
Investigators at the time said Jones had been roped into a life of selling sex by traffickers who exploited her desire for money to buy heroin. "These are tragedies we can avoid," Donovan said. "But it's going to take all of us raising awareness and understanding that the issue of prostitution is not about sex. This is about heroin, this is about violence against women, and it's, in many cases, about human trafficking."
South Burlington is a busy city of more than 18,000 people, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau. It's right on Interstate 89 and is home to many hotels and motels. Police here have a philosophy about prostitution: when they encounter a suspected prostitute, they treat the sex worker as a victim. The investigators' end game is catching the pimp, explained Officer Chris Bataille of the South Burlington Police Dept. "Our goal is to keep people safe," Bataille said.
Bataille acknowledged it is hard to tell how much prostitution is really going on, because most people involved don't come forward. He told NECN several recent calls for assaults and robberies have involved prostitutes, often with heroin paraphernalia at the scenes.
Bataille said officers ask suspected prostitutes if they have been assaulted or fear injury by the hands of someone who has kept them ensnared in a world of sex for sale. "The way that we became aware of the problem in the first place was the drugs and the assaults and the robberies that surround the women who are stuck in this trade," Bataille noted.
NECN asked Bataille if officers supply people they suspect of selling sex with information on drug treatment. "We always try to. We always try to," he replied. "We've had different levels of receptiveness."
Edith Klimoski, who educates police, medical personnel, victim’s advocates, and others about the impacts of human trafficking through the Vermont-based non-profit Give Way to Freedom, said drugs and prostitution definitely overlap. However, Klimoski noted that exploiting heroin addiction is just one of many, many ways women, and men too, are used or threatened via coercion or force.
"Human trafficking is the second-largest criminal enterprise in the world," Klimoski said, adding that the illegal enterprise is estimated at a $32-billion a year underworld. "It is a global issue."
Klimoski said a new education campaign in Vermont is letting people know help is available. They may report suspected human trafficking, or seek assistance if they are a victim of human trafficking, through calling 211 or 1-888-98-HUMAN, Klimoski said. She noted that Vermont has what is known as a "safe harbor" provision which means that people under the age of 18 cannot be arrested for prostitution. The state is one of a handful that has that policy, she added.
Bataille and Donovan said that officers in South Burlington recently responded to a case where a 15-year-old girl was engaged in prostitution. That teen was referred to Vermont's Department for Children and Families, South Burlington Police said.
Elle Petcavage, a program director with the Burlington-based non-profit H.O.P.E. Works, said in the last year, the organization worked with 18 sex trafficking victims in Chittenden County. The group, whose mission statement says it aims to end sexual violence through healing, outreach, prevention, and empowerment, noted that the number may not be representational of the total number of victims served. Other victims may not have disclosed assaults were part of a trafficking experience, and still more may not have come forward at all due to embarrassment and shame, Petcavage noted.
Donovan said he believes reminding the public that prostitution goes hand-in-hand with drugs and violence may be a first step toward turning the tide and making for safer communities.
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