On the cusp of winning yet another AFC (American Football Conference) championship game, on the morning of Jan. 20, 2019, Patriots owner Robert Kraft paid a visit to Orchids of Asia Day Spa in Jupiter, Florida. While there, Kraft solicited sexual services both on the 20th and the day before and was caught both times on security camera footage. As part of crackdown on prostitution among massage parlors in Florida, Kraft alongside 24 other men was charged in a police operation helping to fight human trafficking.
Dating back to press conference held in February, 2019, Martin County officials went over details of a nine month-long human trafficking investigation that spans from New York and China back to Florida. All the women were from China, and none of them spoke any English. The assets that were seized are valued at an estimated two to three million dollars. Uncovered in a 16 page affidavit, online accounts and reviews of the Orchids of Asia Day Spa showed to have various terminologies referencing that sexual acts were provided at this spa.
In response to the revelations of Kraft’s solicitations at Asia Day Spa, a spokesperson for Kraft responded that, “We categorically deny that Mr. Kraft engaged in any illegal activity…Because it is a judicial matter, we will not be commenting further.” This ultimately delves into a highly contentious debate on whether or not prostitution should be legal.
In the summer of 2015, Amnesty International passed a resolution on the decriminalization of sex work, “The organization decided that decriminalization is the best way to defend sex workers’ human rights and lessen the risk of abuse they face,” according to reports in The New York Times. The question is, however, whether the legalization of prostitution will only increase its demand without properly protecting prostitutes from exploitation and/or violence/abuse. Those who believe prostitution should be illegal argue that, despite the fact that sex workers voluntarily engage in solicitations, they often come from marginalized communities of low socioeconomic status.
Rachel Moran, the founder of Space International–which advocates the abolition of the sex trade–has stated in interviews with The New York Times that, “I cringe when I hear the words ‘sex work.’ Selling my body wasn’t a livelihood. There was no resemblance to ordinary employment in the ritual degradation of strangers’ using my body to satiate their urges.” Being someone who entered the sex trade business at the age of 15, Moran has gone through and suffered the traumatic experiences associated with being prostituted and speaks heavily against its legalization, “The effort to decriminalize the sex trade worldwide is not a progressive movement. Implementing this policy will simply calcify into law men’s entitlement to buy sex, while decriminalizing pimping will protect no one but the pimps.”
However, despite Moran’s strong stance on sex trade and prostitution, the issue of its legality is still very contentious. Gillian Abel, who is an associate professor and head of the Department of Population Health at the University of Otago in Christchurch, New Zealand, believes that prostitution in fact should be legal. She argues that because prostitution is often a choice that, “to deny that prostitution is work not only infringes on women’s right to choose their work, but also on that of men, transgender and gender-diverse individuals.” Furthemore, by keeping prostitution illegal, prostitutes may lack opportunities to receive proper legal aid. In 2003, for example, New Zealand became the first country to legalize prostitution and thus allowed sex workers the rights and compensations of any other legal worker. These protections ultimately made them less vulnerable and susceptible to being exploited by illegal operations. And if violence does become an issue, “sex workers can now request police assistance if they are exposed to violence, report crimes without fear of being held accountable for involvement in the illegal acts themselves, and seek support services,” according to the New York Times. The success found in New Zealand makes a strong case for the legalization of prostitution as it actually allows for the protection of the workers themselves . They don’t need to fear for seeking help because of the risk of prostitution in the first place.
Based off the case of New Zealand, how should we deal with the issue of Robert Kraft and instances in the future of individuals purchasing sex? Will stigma surrounding prostitution eventually dissipate like marijuana consumption did about ten years ago? We now have presidential candidates openly talking about how they smoked weed in college and nobody bats an eye anymore, even though it would’ve been a suicidal move up until very recently. Is this sort of trajectory going to be the same for prostitution? Only time will tell. •
