Lawmakers in Oregon move forward with the new bill to crackdown on child prostitution and child sex trafficking in the state. The lawmakers unanimously passed a new bill to crackdown on johns buying sex from minors in the state's commercial sexual industry. Under the new bill, Johns will be required to pay a mandatory $10,000 fine upon their conviction of purchasing sex from a minor. What's more, the judges under the new bill are prohibited from waiving or suspending the fine. Instead, the bill allows the judges to lower the amount of the fine if they determine that the convicted john cannot afford to pay the cost.
The lawmakers need to do a little more
The lawmaker's unanimous vote was an obvious sign that years of anti-human trafficking efforts by the nonprofit groups in Oregon has been paid off. In particular, that the bill stipulates that john's ignorance of the minor victim's age is no defense at all demonstrates that the lawmakers finally recognized the significant impact of the consequences that the victims must face after the sexual exploitation. Nonetheless, the amount of the imposed fine $10,000 on a john is a chum change comparing to the cost of the aftercare that the victim or the nonprofit must bear for the victim's rehabilitation.
Rough estimate for a victim's aftercare cost
The cost of the aftercare assistance for a sex trafficking victim almost always necessitates that of drug treatment. In particular, if a victim is a minor, it is more likely that pimps used drug or alcohol to control and manipulate a victim a number of times. Following data gives a rough idea of how much it would cost for a victim to receive an aftercare treatment at minimum. According to one study, the cost of a victim's drug abuse treatment a day costed $62.10 as of 1997 in the United States. Based on the same research data, the average amount of cost that a person spent on the drug abuse treatment was $1888.87 per month that same year. Granted the residential treatment for a victim's drug abuse lasts between 6 and 12 months, a victim needs at least $11,333.00 for six month long drug abuse treatment alone. This does not account the amount of the food, shelter costs, clothes and other needs that a victim or her nonprofit provider must bear during that period. Neither does six month long treatment guarantee a victim's rehabilitation and reintegration to the society. In some cases, the victim comes back after the six month period was over to receive further care and treatment. Therefore, a $10,000 mandatory fine on a John who exploited a minor victim is a chum change comparing to the amount of the aftercare costs that a victim needs for rehabilitation.
Prospective bills
Fortunately, the Oregon lawmakers are planning on imposing the similar penalties on pimps. Pimps make awful a lot of money by exploiting a victim. Assuming a general daily quota that a pimp requires a victim to meet is $500.00 on a weeknight and $1000.00 on a weekend nights, a pimp makes $5000 (($500 x 4[Monday through Thursday]+ ($1000 x 3 [Friday -Sunday]) per week, $20,000 per month, $120,000 per six month, and $240,000 per year. Do you still think that a $10,000 or a $20,000 fine on a john or a pimp is big bucks?
