“Pimps go home–leave our girls alone!”
More than 100 impassioned voices pierced the warm Phoenix night on Saturday, calling out against a practice often not discussed.
The 9th Annual DIGNITY Candlelight Awareness Walk led city activists, families, girl scouts and former prostitutes through one of the most heavily-trafficked intersections in Phoenix, rallying calls against prostitution and the pimps working in the area.
At the corner of West Indian School Road and North 27th Street, walkers marched and wielded signs displaying messages like “I am not for sale,” illuminated by the lights of gas stations, thrift stores, motels and heavy traffic.
Crowds gathered outside apartment complexes. Cars stopped to find out more.
Held by Catholic Charities DIGNITY in conjunction with the City of Phoenix and Girl Scouts Arizona Cactus-Pine, the event coincided with the International Day of No Prostitution.
Many in Phoenix, particularly ASU students who have heard rumors of Van Buren’s reputation but never seen evidence, believe the practice is no longer a problem in the city.
“I haven’t seen anything,” said Jessica Rush, a print journalism senior. “I think they’ve kind of cleaned it up. I haven’t heard any stories about it. I haven’t seen any.”
But many of those involved in prostitution-related advocacy and legal positions believe this is not the case.
Prostitution is simply moving throughout Phoenix, rather than being eliminated, said Martha Perez Loubert, diversions programs administrator for the city of Phoenix prosecutor’s office. “It goes from place to place. It used to be Van Buren, and police came down really hard and cleaned it up. Then it moved.”
Arizona is part of a corridor of trafficking, according to Dianne Post, one of the event’s original founders and an attorney.
During the walk, residents at complexes shouted out comments such as “Get those prostitutes out of here!” adding several derogatory terms for ‘prostitute.’ The stigma displayed in this reaction is part of the reason why the walk was being held, said Rachel Irby, residential programs supervisor for Catholic Charities DIGNITY. “Prostitution has such a stigma behind it. What most people don’t understand is that this is not a life of choice … It’s not somebody’s first career choice.”
Irby added that between 85 to 92 percent of prostitutes have been victims of sexual abuse and molestation in their primary years.
The average age of entrance into prostitution is 13, a statistic cited by many walk participants and visible on bold red t-shirts.
“You can’t drive at 13, you can’t quit school at 13, you can’t get married, you can’t sign a contract, but somehow you can make a decision to become a prostitute. How is that? That makes no sense,” Post said, adding that pimps and ‘johns’ should be arrested for prostitution, not the minors who are victims of the system.
“Anyone under 17 under Arizona law cannot consent to sex, and if a person over 18 is having sex with them this is child abuse. The minor should not be arrested–the adult should. And we’re doing just the opposite.”
Walkers made their presence known, chanting to pimps and johns to let young women out of the cycle of prostitution.
“On this day, no woman or child will be bought or sold for sex,” Irby said.
Jasmine, a recovering prostitute living in the Catholic Charities DIGNITY home, said the event was very powerful to her. A victim of molestation, she had turned to prostitution for acceptance and as a means of survival.
“It was very powerful for me that people in the community … care about women like me.”
Programs such as Catholic Charities DIGNITY seek to offer prostitutes a way to leave the job and recover. Police have been working in partnership with such organizations more and more in recent years, organization employees said.
Carolyn Jones, a former prostitute who walked in the event in honor of her sister, Janice, and several friends who were murdered when a serial killer attacked several prostitutes, said she entered ‘the life’ due to pain stemming from molestation and a lack of acceptance from peers as a child. She soon fell into drugs and the prostitution became a way to sustain her habit.
In her time as a working prostitute, she experienced extreme violence such as shootings and stabbings but felt trapped. Through recovery programs, she left the sex industry.
Jones now speaks out on the issue and works to educate young women about how to break free from the life. She held a candle Saturday night, alongside around 120 other people, in honor of those who have lost their lives to the job she escaped.
“You have younger and younger girls who … are being manipulated,” Jones said. “They are being forced into a life of prostitution … You have this vicious cycle.”
“I don’t believe any girl wakes up as a child and says, ‘I want to be a prostitute when I grow up.’ It all comes from a broken little child, a hurt little girl.”
Contact the reporter at vpelham@asu.edu
