Research behind Craigslist Adult Services shutdown debunked [Updated]
"Yesterday, the Village Voice City Pages published an article debunking the Women’s Funding Network (WFN) sex trafficking study that played such a pivotal role in the shutdown of Craigslist’s Adult Services section last fall and was cited by some of the biggest newspapers in the country.
The article exposed the WFN study as bogus and faulty, lending credence to something that sex workers and sex worker advocates have been saying for years: oft-cited stats about unrealistically high numbers of women and children being trafficked into the sex industry tend to have serious flaws. At best they paint an inadequate and victim-focused picture of the industry, and at worst they manufacture shame, fear, and sensationalism for private gain. Both of which seem to have happened in this case...................."
Women's Funding Network sex trafficking study is junk science
ATTORNEYS REPRESENTING CRAIGSLIST told Congress on September 15 that the ubiquitous web classifieds site was closing its adult section.
Under intense scrutiny from the government and crusading advocacy groups, as well as state attorneys general, owner Craig Newmark memorably applied the label "Censored" in his classifieds where adult advertising once appeared.
During the same September hearing of a subcommittee of the House Judiciary, members of Congress listened to vivid and chilling accounts regarding underage prostitution.
The congressmen heard testimony from half a dozen nonprofit executives and law enforcement officials. But the most alarming words of the day came from Deborah Richardson, the chief program officer of the Women's Funding Network. She told legislators that juvenile prostitution is exploding at an astronomical rate.
"Yesterday, the Village Voice City Pages published an article debunking the Women’s Funding Network (WFN) sex trafficking study that played such a pivotal role in the shutdown of Craigslist’s Adult Services section last fall and was cited by some of the biggest newspapers in the country.
The article exposed the WFN study as bogus and faulty, lending credence to something that sex workers and sex worker advocates have been saying for years: oft-cited stats about unrealistically high numbers of women and children being trafficked into the sex industry tend to have serious flaws. At best they paint an inadequate and victim-focused picture of the industry, and at worst they manufacture shame, fear, and sensationalism for private gain. Both of which seem to have happened in this case...................."
Women's Funding Network sex trafficking study is junk science
ATTORNEYS REPRESENTING CRAIGSLIST told Congress on September 15 that the ubiquitous web classifieds site was closing its adult section.
Under intense scrutiny from the government and crusading advocacy groups, as well as state attorneys general, owner Craig Newmark memorably applied the label "Censored" in his classifieds where adult advertising once appeared.
During the same September hearing of a subcommittee of the House Judiciary, members of Congress listened to vivid and chilling accounts regarding underage prostitution.
The congressmen heard testimony from half a dozen nonprofit executives and law enforcement officials. But the most alarming words of the day came from Deborah Richardson, the chief program officer of the Women's Funding Network. She told legislators that juvenile prostitution is exploding at an astronomical rate.
