Legislative war on johns unlikely in Nevada
CARSON CITY — In the so-called War on Drugs, authorities go after the users as well as the suppliers. Cut the demand enough, and the war is won.
But in the war on prostitution contemplated by the Nevada Legislature over the past two weeks, there has been little talk about the “johns,” the customers who pay for sex acts.
If there were no customers, then logic dictates the pimps and prostitutes would vanish.
During a Feb. 20 hearing on state Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto’s human-trafficking bill, witnesses said what really happens in Nevada is a john who is caught pays a $300 fine for the misdemeanor crime of soliciting a prostitute.
As long as the prostitute is an adult, that’s it.
No name in the newspaper, no jail time, no spouse finding out.
If his criminal record is clean, then he is “OR’ed” — released on his own recognizance.
This fact about prostitution isn’t likely to change during the current legislative session.
The average john who avoids young people and doesn’t harm any adult prostitutes will shell out a couple of hundred-dollar bills and fly home free.
The reason?
“Given the nature of Nevada, we don’t want to embarrass people, particularly tourists,” said Senate Judiciary Chairman Tick Segerblom, D-Las Vegas. “It is illegal, but we live in a town where what happens here, stays here.”
HUMILIATION WON’T FLY IN NEVADA
Assemblyman John Hambrick, R-Las Vegas, agrees with Segerblom.
Hambrick said several of his colleagues have told him that prostitution is a victimless crime and they will not support increased penalties against any nonviolent customer, even those who visit child prostitutes.
There is no move toward using humiliation and shame — popular techniques in some other states — to embarrass johns by posting names and photos in newspapers, on billboards and on websites.
“I want to do something this session about people who prey on children ; next session I will go after the buyers,” Hambrick said.
He would not object if someone amended one of his bills by adding provisions to humiliate johns. But he doubts it would pass.
Hambrick suspects that many male visitors to Las Vegas keep about $500 in their travel budgets for a visit with a prostitute and that some hotels take a “wink and a nod” outlook about the prostitutes who visit their guests.
While hotels want to get rid of pimps and underage prostitutes as much as he does, Hambrick suspects they are tolerant about hookups between their guests and adult prostitutes.
“So many of these people are from out of state,” Hambrick said. “If we move toward shame and humiliation, I would make sure it goes back in their local media, whether it is Duluth, Minn., or Portland, Maine. Something needs to be done.”
Two years ago, Hambrick could not even pass Assembly Bill 106 to require harsher sentences for customers of young girls.
He contends that having sex with “12-, 13-, 14-year-old girls is rape, even if their pimp is 20 miles away,” and a violent crime even if no threats are made and the juvenile consents.
Officials from the Nevada Resort Association could not be reached for comment Friday on whether hotels and casinos quietly allow prostitution on their premises.
But the Nevada Gaming Control Board fined the parent company of the Palms $1 million in January for failure to stop illegal activities, including prostitution, at nightclubs .
A check of the Internet shows websites even tell prospective johns that the best place to find a prostitute is at a Las Vegas casino video poker bar.
Michon Martin, a deputy state attorney general, said customers who threaten, force or coerce prostitutes would be subject to the same penalties as pimps under Cortez Masto’s human-trafficking bill, Assembly Bill 67.
If force is used on an adult prostitute, the sentence could be as long as 20 years.
If the violence is on an underage prostitute, then the sentence could be as much as life in prison.
STAY AWAY FROM YOUNG PROSTITUTES
Police testified that more than 2,229 juvenile prostitutes have been arrested in Clark County since 1994. But at this point Nevada has no rehabilitation center for the young girls to get care and psychological help.
“If the customer is trying to buy sex with children, we feel it is very different,” Martin said.
“We want to look at the demand side, as well as the supply side. If you are a customer, don’t use force. If you engage a pimp (to procure a prostitute), you are in the world of human trafficking.”
The attorney general’s bill, however, would not change the misdemeanor law for people who merely solicit the services of adult prostitutes without threats or harm.
About 3,700 people in Nevada were arrested on prostitution charges in 2010, down from 5,400 in 2007. On a per capita basis, Nevada’s prostitution arrest rate is four times that of the second highest state, California.
STRIP DEATHS BRING ATTENTION
The legislative hearings on human trafficking are being held in the wake of the three Feb. 21 violent deaths on the Strip that involved a pimp and an aspiring rapper who police suspect of being a pimp.
Murder suspect and alleged pimp Ammar Harris was arrested in Los Angles on Thursday.
Martin said the Harris case is a good example of the problem with pimps and prostitutes in Nevada, and she hoped the publicity would lead to passage of the anti-human-trafficking bills.
All people booked into the Clark County Detention Center are photographed and the information they give is public record, said Jose Hernandez, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Police Department.
“But we don’t put out who were the folks who were arrested last night for soliciting,” he said.
In many communities, authorities have quelled the passion of customers for prostitutes through public humiliation. Fresno, Calif., sponsors an Operation Reveal website with mug shots of johns. Oklahoma City offers John TV. Arlington, Texas, puts up highway billboards with photos of johns.
The Oklahoma Legislature wants to make the fine for a first-time convicted customer of a prostitute $3,000.
The whole idea is to put fear into would-be customers that their spouses, children and acquaintances might find out what they really are doing on their business trips.
bad news, good news
One well-publicized example of someone being humiliated is former New York Gov. Elliott Spitzer, who resigned in 2008 after being revealed as a regular customer of a $1,000-an-hour prostitute. He has remained married, but the case embarrassed his spouse and children, as well as him.
Spitzer never faced any criminal charges. He has since tried a career as a news commentator, but his shows have been canceled.
English actor Hugh Grant, a bachelor who paid $50 in 1995 to a street prostitute, suffered ridicule, but his career soared after his arrest. He paid a $1,180 fine and didn’t even lose his girlfriend, actress Elizabeth Hurley.
Records show about half of the countries around the world have legal prostitution, including Canada, the United Kingdom and most of Europe. Except for eight rural counties in Nevada, prostitution is illegal in the United States.
Nevada Brothel Association lobbyist George Flint argued in a Feb. 27 legislative hearing that the problems associated with pimps and prostitutes in Nevada would disappear if prostitution were legalized and regulated statewide.
Flint noted Las Vegas cabs carry signs like “Straight to your room” and telephone books are full of suggestive entertainer advertisements. He said tourists are led to believe prostitution is legal in Las Vegas.
“If it isn’t legal, it is tolerated,” said Flint, later adding that illegal prostitution is a $5 billion-a-year industry in Las Vegas.
No legislators made any response to his suggestion.
Contact Capital Bureau Chief Ed Vogel at evogel@reviewjournal.com or 775-687-3901.
