By Sawan Vaden | Special to The OBSERVER
As part of my job, I do street outreach to victims of sex trafficking. Places like Stockton Boulevard and Watt Avenue are known hotspots. If you’ve ever been out there, you know what I see: women — often girls — standing outside in the cold in almost nothing while a line of men circles the block to buy them. That’s not a choice. That’s trafficking.
I run Community Against Sexual Harm (CASH) Sacramento, which provides vital services and resources to those being exploited. I’m also a survivor of trafficking myself. I know how dangerous it is out there.
That’s why I worked with my long-time ally, Assemblywoman Maggy Krell, and a group of survivor-leaders and anti-trafficking organizations to write Assembly Bill 379, a bill that targets the sleazy men who are fueling the sex trafficking industry and supports the victims who need help getting out.
When I walk up to a woman on the street, I know someone is usually watching her. A trafficker. He’s hiding in the shadows, keeping tabs, making sure she makes her quota. Her life, every moment of it, is being controlled.
The buyers are unmistakable. They’ll circle the block or line up by the dozen in their cars, waiting to buy sex like it’s a fast food drive-through line. They are invariably men. Often, they are affluent professionals – doctors, lawyers, dentists, with families at home.
Appearances deceive. Most survivors have suffered horrific violence at the hands of buyers. Beatings, rapes and robberies are regular occurrences. A buyer or pimp murdering a girl is not uncommon.
Buyers fuel the sex trafficking industry yet California has not made a concerted effort to crack down on demand. The 2022 repeal of laws against loitering for the purposes of prostitution made things worse by prohibiting officers from arresting buyers, even when it’s obvious what they are doing out there.
That exacerbated what was already a massive problem. In Sacramento County alone, more than 13,000 people were sex trafficked between 2015 and 2020. Imagine all of Sutter Health Park’s seating filled, with 2500 additional victims on the lawn. As long as there is money to be made, there will be traffickers willing to risk arrest. We must target demand.
If we don’t, the most vulnerable among us will continue suffering the devastating and life-long consequences. The sex trade is concentrated in low-income communities, making it easier for people to ignore. But the victims need and deserve our full support. The average age of entry into sex trafficking is just 16 years old. Foster youth, LGBTQ kids and girls and women of color are over-represented in the victim population.
We owe it to the girls who are being sold — or who will be — to do much more to give them a fighting chance.
AB 379 does just that. It takes a new approach by targeting predatory buyers while protecting the people being sold for sex, who deserve to be treated as victims. It would make loitering with the intent to purchase commercial sex a misdemeanor, punishable by a $1,000 fine and potential jail time.
Law enforcement would be able to intervene and disrupt blatant attempts to buy sex. This would prevent further harm to victims. Sacramento police already partner with groups like CASH when they do trafficking operations in order to connect survivors to resources. AB 379 would greatly enhance those efforts.
Crucially, the bill would direct fines collected from buyers into a new Survivor Support Fund, which would make grants to nonprofits like CASH that provide critical services to survivors.
AB 379 also ensures that grown men who purchase 16 and 17 year olds for sex can be charged with a felony, an overdue recognition that the harm to the victims is worth more than a slap on the wrist.
It’s time we do more to curb sex trafficking and support survivors. Time to pass AB 379.
If you are a victim of human trafficking, know of somebody who may be a victim of human trafficking, or have information about a potential trafficking situation, please call the National Human Trafficking Hotline: (888) 373-7888.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Sawan Vaden is the Executive Director of Community Against Sexual Harm (CASH) Sacramento. CASH provides comprehensive, trauma-informed services and support to survivors of human trafficking, including medical care, housing support, career coaching, referrals and access to basic care.