Would Regulating Massage Parlors Reduce Violence Against Women, Immigrants?
Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. announced in late April that he’d no longer prosecute prostitution and unregulated massage parlors, a move applauded by organizations fighting sex trafficking and labor coercion.
Among them is the Polaris Project, a group that aims to end sex and labor trafficking. CEO Catherine Chen says marginalized women and immigrants suffer violence, discrimination and racism in unregulated situations where trafficking, coercion and desperation leave them few options.
The deaths of six Asian women and two others in three legal Atlanta-area spas in March brought the issue to light, though it’s unknown whether those killed performed sexual services.
But other women in massage parlors across the country are sex workers. Boston Globe gender issues reporter Stephanie Ebbert writes how many people lamenting the shootings averted their eyes from the truth of the situation.
“Willful blindness to the sexual exploitation of women in this industry reigns in
