In some countries, the criminal justice system punishes those who buy and sell sex from a juvenile. Once a girl becomes a woman, she is the one who is punished by the same system. Surely, the question is not why women are in prostitution, but why so many men buy women and children in prostitution. The Coalition Against Trafficking in Women, works internationally to combat sexual exploitation in all its forms, especially prostitution and trafficking in women. We believe that prostitution is a human rights violation, and that governments have a responsibility to decriminalize the victims and punish the pimps, traffickers and customers.
Prostitution is sexual abuse.
The Navy's stated policy of zero tolerance for sexual abuse, however, doesn't seem to apply to the Navy's tolerance of prostitution. Janice G. Raymond, an author and professor of women's studies and medical ethics at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, is co-executive director of the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women.