sds71
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Incredulously, for 20 years, when it was clear that the commonality between the murdered and missing Gilgo victims was their experiences in prostitution, the police still failed to thoroughly investigate the men who'd been buying them. This was ignored — even though survivors consistently say violence from sex buyers is the norm, not the exception...
The sex trade is a system predicated on an obvious power imbalance. Those bought and sold are overwhelmingly among society’s most vulnerabilities. This includes women and girls of color, LBTQ+ youth and those in foster care or who survived sexual abuse. While the gruesome violence committed by serial killers — like the one on Gilgo Beach — is extreme it is extraordinarily rare that someone in prostitution has never experienced some form of violence inflicted by a buyer.
On the flip side of the equation, sex buyers are often men just like Heuermann, with families and disposable income. Regularly, they hold down good jobs, where they spend their lunch hour or train commute buying people for sex online. When money changes hands, many buyers often believe this affords them immunity to do whatever they desire — violating, abusing or even torturing their victims. They bank on the fact that law enforcement — and society — erroneously views sex buying as harmless and low-level. This couldn’t be further from reality.
Here in the tri-state New York-New Jersey-Connecticut region, we’ve seen coverage of the grotesque and upsetting Gilgo Beach murders in our local news. There are so many lessons to be learned on this one-year anniversary of Heuermann’s arrest. Among the most important and long-lasting is to target the people perpetuating the harm, rather than an archaic focus on those being harmed.
The sex trade is a system predicated on an obvious power imbalance. Those bought and sold are overwhelmingly among society’s most vulnerabilities. This includes women and girls of color, LBTQ+ youth and those in foster care or who survived sexual abuse. While the gruesome violence committed by serial killers — like the one on Gilgo Beach — is extreme it is extraordinarily rare that someone in prostitution has never experienced some form of violence inflicted by a buyer.
On the flip side of the equation, sex buyers are often men just like Heuermann, with families and disposable income. Regularly, they hold down good jobs, where they spend their lunch hour or train commute buying people for sex online. When money changes hands, many buyers often believe this affords them immunity to do whatever they desire — violating, abusing or even torturing their victims. They bank on the fact that law enforcement — and society — erroneously views sex buying as harmless and low-level. This couldn’t be further from reality.
Here in the tri-state New York-New Jersey-Connecticut region, we’ve seen coverage of the grotesque and upsetting Gilgo Beach murders in our local news. There are so many lessons to be learned on this one-year anniversary of Heuermann’s arrest. Among the most important and long-lasting is to target the people perpetuating the harm, rather than an archaic focus on those being harmed.
Gilgo Beach arrest anniversary: We're still not moving fast enough to protect sex workers
Opinion: People sold in the sex trade deserve exit services, not arrest, and that sex buying is anything but harmless.
www.northjersey.com
