A Killer Cop and International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers
Andrew Mitchell's story illustrates why criminalizing prostitution makes it so dangerous.
Around the world, sex workers and activists commemorate December 17 as the International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers (IDEVASW). Each year on this day, there are protests, articles, art installations, and a lot of social media posts that memorialize and honor sex workers who have died because of violence, detail the dangerous conditions that people face under criminalization, and push for policies that could make sex work more safe. IDEVASW was started by Annie Sprinkle in 2003.
I’m a day late, but I’m still going to round up some IDEVASW resources. First, however, I want to tell a story that illustrates exactly why (or at least one of the reasons why) criminalizing prostitution makes sex work so dangerous.
Andrew Mitchell was a cop in Columbus, Ohio, for 30 years. Most recently, he was working on the city’s vice squad. (This is the same crew that made a politically motivated arrest of Stormy Daniels in 2018 and one so blatantly corrupt and dysfunctional that the police force itself temporarily disbanded it in 2019). This month, Mitchell pleaded guilty on federal charges related to kidnapping sex workers.
"While under the guise of an arrest,” Mitchell "picked up a woman, transported her to another location, and then offered her freedom in exchange for oral sex,” said U.S. Attorney General for the Southern District of Ohio Ben C. Glassman at a 2019 press conference. Mitchell was also accused of doing similarly with another woman—twice, forcing her into vaginal and anal sex—as well as trying to intimidate witnesses, lying to the FBI, and destroying evidence. In his plea deal, Mitchell did not explicitly cop to the sexual assaults, but he did admit to abusing his position and abducting these women (“deprivation of rights under color of law) and to the destroying evidence charge.
Mitchell’s state prosecution went much differently. This time, the former cop was accused of murder and voluntary manslaughter, after firing a gun six times at a woman—23-year-old Donna Dalton Castleberry—whom he had trapped in his (unmarked) police car. Mitchell, who was in plainclothes at the time, said he picked her up as part of an undercover prostitution sting but admitted that he could not produce his badge to show her when she asked.
Castleberry screamed for help and asked passersby to call 911 before taking out a pocket knife and cutting Mitchell’s hand. Thus, Mitchell claimed, he killed her in self defense.
Let’s pretend for now that we buy Mitchell’s story (emphasis on pretend). Even if everything that he said is true, the story still points to problems with criminalizing prostitution. When we do, we routinely put people—largely women—into terrifying sting situations, which can be traumatizing on their own and also give leeway to abusers posing as cops. We also routinely put women into unnecessary contact with police. And as we see in the Castleberry case—as we’ve seen with so many other forms of unnecessary police contact—this can end all too often in tragedy.
But Mitchell’s situation—with the victims in the federal case, and likely with Castleberry too—highlights another reality: criminalizing sex workers allows police to prey on them.
Mitchell’s story is certainly not an isolated or rare situation. All too often, there are news stories about cops abusing sex workers. And yet, in another sense, these stories appear in the news all too rarely, given how frequently sex workers say they are subject to such abuse.
In short: Criminalizing prostitution makes sex workers vulnerable to predator cops.
Of course, that’s only one way that criminalization makes sex workers vulnerable. Under criminalization, it is harder for sex workers to take measures (like working together, screening clients, employing body guards, etc) to keep them safe from all sorts of abuse.
Under criminalization, it is harder for sex workers to report crimes when they do happen, since going to police poses a likelihood that they’ll be arrested, too (and since being a sex worker also means police are less likely to take them and crimes against them seriously).
And under criminalization, third parties—including “traffickers” and other violent predators, as well as less sinister “pimps” and “madams”—have more power, which makes sex workers more vulnerable to both physical abuse and labor exploitation.
For all of these reasons, sex workers—in the U.S. and around the world—and survivors of sexual violence can be found calling for prostitution decrim.
If you’re looking for some good sex-worker rights and sex-worker aid organizations to follow and support:
Butterfly: Asian and Migrant Sex Workers Support Network
Urban Justice Center Sex Workers Project
If you’re looking for arguments against criminalization (and against the “Nordic Model” or “equality model” that’s being tried in Maine and has a growing political fanbase in the U.S.):
Is Sex Work Decriminalization the Answer? What the Research Tells Us (ACLU)
Rape Rates Go Down as Countries Legalize Prostitution, Rise With Sex Work Prohibition (Reason)
Sex Workers Alliance of Ireland says stigma facing industry must be broken down (Highland Radio)
Landmark UN Report Calls for Sex Work Decriminalization (Human Rights Watch)
Experts back decriminalization as the best means to enhance the rights of sex workers (Amnesty International)
Time to Decriminalize—and Destigmatize!—Sex Work (Kaytlin Bailey, Reason podcast)
Science-Based Policy Means Decriminalizing Sex Work, Say Hundreds of Researchers (Reason)
How Criminalization, Stigma, and Discrimination Continue to Harm Sex Workers (Lamda Legal)
Supporters of the Nordic Model have blood on their hands (Sex Workers Alliance Ireland)