The Equality Model

Survivors

The complex factors that lead people to engage in the sex trade range in nature but are rooted in systems oppression: poverty, lack of human rights, lack of social or economic opportunity, dangers from conflict or instability, and similar conditions³.

The Organization for Prostitution Survivors has facilitated intakes with 314 survivors of CSE between 2014 and May 2021, offering case management, support groups, employment, and therapeutic services. OPS serves female and female-identified people; of those 314 survivors provided with services:

• Ages ranged from 11 – 84 years old and 47% identify as BIPOC. 

• At the time they first encounter OPS, 52% are unemployed while only 9% report being employed full time

• 31% are experiencing homelessness

• 48% have already experienced the criminal justice system

• 21% experienced or are experiencing systems as a child (eg. foster care, group homes, etc.), 

• 67% have been the victim of gender-based violence. 

These factors require supportive care and a reduced involvement with the criminal justice system to adequately address the societal harms surrounding the sex trade and elevate individuals’ ability to make choices based on their own unique wants and needs and not rooted in the need to survive.

Sex Buyers

The root cause of the commercial sex trade in both illicit and legal forms is the demand for commercial sex. When the criminal justice systems prioritize reducing the demand for paid sex, a larger culture shift can take place to continue reducing gender-based violence.

In a 2018 report by Demand Abolition, “Who Buy’s Sex: Understanding and Disrupting Illicit Market Demand,” over 8,000 men across the US were interviewed on the sex buying habits, and the findings included:

• The majority of ‘active high-frequency sex buyers’, those who reported purchasing weekly or monthly, make over $100,000 annually. 

• These men are more likely to say that prostitution is a “mostly victimless” crime, and

• That those engaging in the sex trade “enjoy the act of prostitution” and “choose it as a profession.” ⁴

The EEC provides education about the harms of the sex trade that are often misunderstood and also provides technical assistance to implement innovative tactics to reduce demand for paid sex across Washington State. These combined efforts ensure that our community's focus on commercial sexual exploitation stays on the buyers driving demand rather than those engaging in the sex trade themselves.