Survivors Want More Than Awareness. They Want Action This World Cup
By Robin Levasseur
As the world’s eyes turn to New England for the World Cup, the entire region is experiencing an influx of tourism, short-term rentals, rideshares, and a whole lot of fun. However, along with the joy comes a surge in the commercial sex market.
While sex buying happens every single day in big cities and small towns all across America, major events concentrate the demand, making exploitation easier and more profitable. We know that where demand spikes, sex traffickers follow. Local law enforcement has told us there is already an increase in movement with people flooding Boston and the surrounding region for the World Cup.
Because Rhode Island’s current penalties for buying sex are often minimal or inconsistently enforced, the Ocean State is effectively rolling out the red carpet for buyers. Traffickers know this, and buyers know this. Online forums reveal the unsettling reality of this indifference.
A sex buyer in Providence explains in his own words how easy it is to objectify, fetishize, and abuse women: “I still go to Asian massage parlors (AMPs). Hell, I went today and had a very good massage with a fairly cookie-cutter AMP experience. But it still scratched an itch because I do love a table shower, massage, and seeing a new supply of pretty Asian women, and the ease of just deciding to walk in and have a good time whenever needed is always nice.”
Adding to the demand and vulnerabilities, trafficking networks exploit the proximity of states, with traffickers and pimps recruiting victims in Massachusetts and transporting them to Rhode Island for prostitution. And men simply drive down to places like Providence and Newport to buy sex.
A decade ago, experts warned that Rhode Island’s lenient approach to sex buyers made it a regional destination for exploitation. Ten years later, with the World Cup on our doorstep, Rhode Island is still not ready to curb sex trafficking, protect survivors and victims, or hold exploiters accountable for the harm they cause. But it’s not too late because there is a current bill – HB 7201 – in the Rhode Island legislature that would help fund survivor services and hold sex buyers accountable.
And we’re so close to getting it passed. For the past two years, survivors have poured their hearts out by coming to Providence to testify in support of this worthy legislation. Just this spring, more than a dozen survivors testified at the Senate and House in support of this bill. It even passed the Senate with an overwhelming majority!
As a Rhode Islander, advocate, and sex trade survivor, I’ve shared my experience with state officials to make clear the harms of this dangerous industry:
“I was prostituted just three blocks away from the Statehouse during my first year in college. I came from a loving Christian home without any abuse or addiction. Because I grew up so sheltered, I was vulnerable. What I know is real and local. It’s also current: I currently do street outreach three times a week on the track. The young ladies that I speak to tell me how bad it is. Pimps know that they can get away with putting girls on the streets to sell their bodies because they rarely get arrested or face consequences for the violence and abuse they cause. Prostitution is not harmless. It is violent, and it thrives on those who drive the demand.”
Our current laws simply don’t work. For too long, the criminal justice system has disproportionately penalized the victims of the sex trade – disadvantaged women, youth, and survivors who face the crushing weight of legal records and trauma. All the while, the sex buyers enjoy total anonymity and impunity.
True prevention requires demand reduction. Trafficking is a market-driven crime. Without the buyer’s cash, the business model fails. HB 7201 would help change this by ensuring that buyers are not only held accountable but also by incentivizing law enforcement to make arrests. That’s the way to help prevent exploitation and trafficking.
Local law enforcement is ready to implement this bill. And it’s up to House Speaker Christopher Blazejewski to bring it to a vote so it can become law. We wholeheartedly hope he does the right thing here at the beginning of his tenure.
By passing HB 7201, the General Assembly can reduce human trafficking, hold exploiters accountable, close the border-hopping loophole, and fund critical survivor services…all at absolutely zero cost to the taxpayer. It is time to block demand, penalize the buyers, and make it clear that Rhode Island is closed to exploitation.
The World Cup is a celebration of global unity; it shouldn’t be a catalyst for local exploitation. Instead, let’s hope these games can be the spark that ignites real, meaningful change. We cannot allow Rhode Island to be the weak link in New England’s defense against human trafficking. The legislative session ends in just days. We still have a chance to hold a red card up to sex buying and pass this law before it’s too late.