This AP report about an alleged sex slavery operation in the Northeast corridor sets off my bullshit detector.

I suppose it’s possible that someone could run an international sex slave ring up and down the East Coast, where the slaves were kept and worked on a grand scale, complete with advertising and operating under the guise of legitimate businesses, but I have my doubts. Perhaps it’s the tendency of activists and government officials to exaggerate this issue that’s driving my skepticism. Or perhaps it’s their penchant for conflating sex slavery with the sex trade (similar to the way anti-obscenity crusaders lump consenting-adults pornography in with child pornography).

Don’t get me wrong. I’m sure it exists to some extent. And I’m sure it’s not the most appetizing of businesses. And if there are slave masters smuggling underage girls into this country for prostitution, certainly, throw the book at them. I just have my doubts that the problem is as extensive as authorities say, and that every woman working in a handjob parlor is there involuntarily. Also, what’s our definition of “slavery,” here? Let’s say I pay for a Korean woman to come to the U.S. on the agreement that she’ll work in my massage parlor brothel. Once she’s here, she’s free to leave at any time. But I know she won’t, because she’s financially dependent on me. Granted, in this scenario I’m a rather sordid, sleazy character. But am I a slave master?

My guess is that federal prosecutors will have no problem making their case, though — regardless of whether or not it’s legit. Note that the article says “it could take weeks” to get the women to cooperate. Take a frightened young immigrant woman, keep her in police custody for several weeks, and soon enough, I’d imagine she’ll tell you anything you want to hear.

Obligatory libertarian dogma: These problems would be vastly diminished if the government would simply allow consenting adults to exchange sex for money. It’d all be above ground, and regulated by both market forces and the government. Which would put a rather significant dent in the sex slave business.

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 20th, 2006 at 2:49 pm by Radley Balko and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.