October 19, 2019

Catholic Law Professor Mary Graw Leary and Louise Shelley, professor and director of the Terrorism, Transnational Crime, and Corruption Center at George Mason University, wrote an op-ed published in the Washington Examiner on what it would mean if prostitution were legalized in Washington, D.C.

What would really happen if DC legalized prostitution?
Washington Examiner
by Louise Shelley and Mary G. Leary
Date: October 18, 2019

On Thursday, the D.C. City Council held a committee hearing to consider passing a bill that would turn the national’s capital into a mecca for sex tourism.

The benign-sounding proposed law, the Community Safety and Health Amendment Act of 2019 will deliver neither community safety nor improved health.

As professors of public policy and law and longtime students of the problem of human trafficking, organized crime, and the sale of sexual services, our research suggests that passage of this law threatens our community. Organized crime will rise, the exploitation of the most vulnerable in our community will grow, and the health and well-being of residents will be undermined.
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