Child Prostitution Decriminalized in California

This is just another example of the road to hell is paved with good intentions.  The State of California decriminalized child prostitution on January 1^st of this year.

Why you are probably asking, because they believe and I would agree, that most of the child prostitutes are victims of human trafficking.  The bill, SB 1322, was passed by democrats who control the State’s government by holding more than 2/3rds of the elected seats.

At first glance I can see many fair minded people believing that this may be the right way to go, but that my friends is only at first glance.  Again this is a case in my opinion of only looking at the positive effects of a bill and not the negative consequences that comes from this very same bill.

Let us sit back and think about what I believe are very predictable consequence of this bill, and believe me it only takes an ounce of common sense to figure this one out.  How do you think the pimps will react to the law?  My thought is that it will only make the scourge of child trafficking much worse.  Think about it if the pimp can have his adult women arrested and thrown in jail that means less money for him or her.  If you think of it like a business, and these pimps do, his inventory is sitting on a shelf in the back room and not up front making him or her money.  Also these women can cut deals with the police to get out of spending time in jail if they give up their pimps.

Now on the flip side if the pimp can find enough teenage girls and I acknowledge it would be hard for younger ones but certainly not, let’s say 17 year old girls, then he or she has no worries at all.  You see the police cannot arrest the children or teenagers for prostitution and can only say have a nice day.  Now the pimp has his inventory working for him all the time and he or she is making more money.  Again with the added benefit that these children or teenage girls will not turn on him or her and rat them out.

Now ask yourself how did the Democrats in California not think of this?

In a Washington Examiner opinion piece written by Travis Allen, a Republican, represents the 72nd Assembly District in the California legislature the Alameda California County District Attorney, a national leader on human trafficking issues, was quoted saying:

"It just opens up the door for traffickers to use these kids to commit crimes and exploit them even worse."

I am not attempting to impugn the intentions of the California Democrats for their reasons for decriminalizing child prostitution but I am bringing into question their intelligence.

If you take away the police’s ability to arrest or bring this children in then how are you as a state supposed to get them away from their human traffickers and get them they help they so obviously need.  If they arrest them in order to get them away from their traffickers and get them the help they so desperately need the prosecutors do not have to charge them thus they would have no criminal record for prostitution.

Am I missing something here?

UPDATE:  According to the Sacramento Bee:  Commercially sexually exploited children, based on the bill’s analysis, may be taken into temporary custody “if the minor has an immediate need for medical care, or … is in immediate danger of physical or sexual abuse, or the physical environment” or the child’s unattended status “poses an immediate threat to the child’s health or safety.

Sounds to me that they need to close the loop holes and say every one of these children caught soliciting sex for money must be taken into custody and taken ito social services.

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