Investigative reporter Michael Tracey looks at the anti-trafficking industry. In the wake of the moral panic and conspiracy theories surrounding the late financier Jeffrey Epstein, about whom much still remains unknown, politicians on both the right and left as well as NGOs have exploited the ever-expanding concept of “sex trafficking” to characterize virtually all commercial sex transactions, no matter how voluntary. Opportunistic attorneys and professional fundraisers have made millions off this scam, and even some former sex workers who recruited others into commercial sex are now cashing in by re-classifying themselves as “victims” of trafficking.
In a related story, federal prosecutors were so eager to misapply “sex trafficking” charges to an Arkansas man who offered $100 to a teenager for sex that the man went completely free after the federal appeals court found there was no interstate commerce or transportation at issue. He could have easily been prosecuted under state law, but the over-hasty federal pre-emption caused the state charges to be dropped.
