Youth Exposure to Prostitution in Detroit

Emma Carter, Arjun Chadha, Saja Hamad, Bana Odeh, Alaa Shuaib
Honors PS 1010
Dr. Martin

Introduction
When choosing our topic, Youth Exposure to Prostitution, we decided we wanted to
tackle a local problem in Detroit. We came across our problem from watching a news report from
Detroits Local 4 Defenders, which showed that in certain parts of Detroit, students from
kindergarten to twelfth grade are exposed to prostitution as they are picked up and dropped off at
their school bus stops. The issue of prostitution has extended beyond just affecting those directly
participating in the act; the practices that come along with it, such as loitering sidewalks and bus
stops in hope of making a sale, have indirectly affected the youth in Detroit by exposing them to
these sex-offenses.
Our initial approach to this problem was to treat the children as the victims and the
prostitutes as the problem. After attending the Human Trafficking Forum at Wayne State on
February 10, 2015, we came to understand that the prostitutes were victims as well. Most
prostitutes are actually victims of human trafficking, which is a modern form of slavery
involving the illegal trade of people for exploitation or commercial gain (Department of
Homeland Security). The cause of Youth Exposure to Prostitution became a lot more complex. It
included factors like the market (through the supply of traffickers and demand of buyers) as well
as views of society. Since both the youth in Detroit and the prostitutes are victims we realized
that we need to accommodate two types of efforts to solve the problem. We propose a dual
solution that aims to help the students and their parents by restricting prostitutes to access areas
at or near school bus stops, and to also help the prostitutes, who are victims themselves, by
referring them to successful organizations that offer support and resources for these girls to lead
better lives.

Stakeholders
The issue of youth exposure to prostitution is one of multiple layers. At each of these
layers there are different stakeholders for the issue. The presence of prostitutes at school bus
stops is a surface issue, because it is the way in which oppressive trafficking industries manifest.
Trafficked prostitutes must have a certain number of clients in a given period of time, set by their
traffickers, in order to stay profitable and either make money or avoid abuse. This is why street
prostitutes solicit from passerby and in this case even children. The concern that the parents had
in this Local 4 special are still valid, however these problems are considered to be surface-level
because they would not exist if there were not these pressures and burdens on Detroits human
trafficking victims, who represent the lower layer of this issue. We feel the best solution to this
problem would handle the concerns of both of these layers.
The stakeholders in this top layer are families who live in these areas. Parents desire to
have the agency to raise their children in an environment to reflect their morals. In one case
reported by Local 4, children at a bus stop at 6th and John R would be witness to a man receiving
oral sex from a suspected prostitute inside his car. Parents in the suburbs of Detroit generally are
not preoccupied with whether or not their child will see these sorts of behaviors on the way to
school, and these parents deserve the same luxury. They might also find exposure to prostitution
reprehensible because of how constant exposure may change a childs sense of opportunities.
These parents feel their young girls dont deserve to live in a neighborhood in which women are
commonly sold for sexual services.
Children of Detroit are also in danger of becoming trafficking victims themselves.
Parents dont want prostitutes in their area because they will draw their traffickers to the area as
well. In addition, prostitution brings with it other dangerous crimes, such as drug use and gang

activities (Buffalo Prostitution Task Force). In other words, there are many reasons parents dont
want prostitutes in their neighborhoods. As such, parents of Detroit would want a child-centric
solution to the problem of prostitutes at bus stops. However these parents do not prioritize the
safety and livelihood of prostitutes themselves, so this group of stakeholders would support
child-centric solutions even if they further victimized prostitutes. This group represents half of
the beneficiaries of our two-component solution.
Another group of stakeholders is trafficking victims. Human trafficking is an abusive
industry that is set up so that victims are easily entrapped and face great difficulty in trying to
leave. The trafficker systematically gains the trust of the victim, and effectively fosters the
victims dependence on him. Then the threats begin. The victims are abused physically,
psychologically and sexually by either their trafficker or their clients. The victim realizes they
cannot leave by themselves or contact police because they fear for their life. Even if the victim
manages to escape, there is a lack of government funded resources to help them recover from the
trauma, find work and et cetera. It is important to note that some people willingly join the
prostitution industry, but they too are under the threats of abuse from their johns, the threats of
violence from traffickers, and discrimination that also prevents them from advancing in society.
All prostitutes are stakeholders in this issue, and all want better public services and opportunities
to safely leave the industry. They represent the other half of our two-component solution.
Human Trafficking Forum
In order to become more familiar with non-profit organizations that are taking action to
help minimize human trafficking, like Alternatives for Girls and All Worthy of Love, we attended
the Human Trafficking Forum that was held at Wayne state University on February 10, 2015.
This program consisted of five speakers who informed us of important facts that our group may

have never considered before if we had not attended this forum. Not only did the speakers give a
lot information regarding the actions being taken to help with the problem of human trafficking,
but they also gave us a whole new perspective on the issues of sex trafficking and prostitution.
We went to the program with a whole different mindset than the one we left with.
Since we are looking at the problem of youth exposure to prostitution, we started off by
focusing on the young children being the victims in the situation, while the prostitutes were more
of the criminals. Our views all changed when one of the speakers, Kelly Carter, an Assistant
Attorney General at the State of Michigan, told a moving story about a fifteen year old girl who,
at one point in her life, felt broken and worthless. During that time, the girl was confronted by a
man who took interest in her and brainwashed her, taking full control of her life. She was forced
to meet a daily quota or else her trafficker would threaten and beat her. The trafficker got her into
the prostitution business and the girl was left thinking there were no other options for her other
than that life. Like many girls in her situation, she was left feeling vulnerable and alone,
accepting the lifestyle she was forced into, thinking there was no alternative. That is where
groups like Alternatives for Girls comes in. These organizations seek out young girls, like the
one who we heard a story about at the forum, and give them support and resources to make better
choices and lead successful, safe lives. The story really showed us that these girls who are
usually forced into the prostitution business are also victims of the problem we are looking at,
not just the youth who are exposed to prostitution. We also learned how helpful and lifechanging organizations like, All Worthy of Love and Alternatives for Girls, are to the girls forced
into the business by traffickers. They give the victims a chance to get back on their feet from
situations that prostitutes did not ever think they could recover from.

Deena Policicchio, another speaker at the forum, is actually part of the organization,
Alternatives for Girls. She pointed out a very important topic that is part of the reason why
human trafficking, and all problems associated with it, like the prostitute victims, are still big
issues that have not yet been solved, even with the help of organization like Alternatives for
Girls. Policicchio talked about how many things (including songs, new reports, and even the
general public) play a role in helping the traffickers keep young girls in their control and in the
prostitution business. The view that society has of prostitutes being the bad guys and dirty,
non-worthy people, and the lyrics of songs people listen to, all give the traffickers more control
of their victims. The forum speakers taught us that the way prostitutes are perceived in society
gives the victims of human trafficking the impression that they are hated and will never be
accepted because of what they have done. Also, that there is no way out of the situation they are
in. The message that the media sends out confirms the thoughts that traffickers engrave into their
victims minds, and with that comes even more vulnerability on the victims side, making them
feel stuck and helpless.
Before attending the forum, we thought prostitutes use the easy money gained from sex
to support their drug addictions. Deena, from Alternatives for Girls, elaborated on the drug issues
she sees with most victims she talks to, saying that drug addiction is another tool traffickers use
to stay in control of their victims. Once the traffickers get young girls addicted to drugs, it makes
the girls weak and forced to stay in the prostitution business to make money to keep getting a fix
from their traffickers. Another point Deena made was that these girls are in really bad positions
thinking there is no one to help them, so addictions numb their minds of the situation they think
they are forever stuck in. Attending the Human Trafficking Forum greatly contributed to giving
us a deeper, more accurate understanding of our problem, since prostitutes are a big part of it.

Efforts
In order to attain this dual solution that we have presented to both help the students and
their parents who are exposed to prostitution, and help the prostitutes who are victims
themselves, a combination of two efforts must be put in place to ensure success-efforts to move
prostitutes from the areas where children may be exposed to them and efforts to reduce
prostitution as a whole. These two efforts tie into one another because any efforts to reduce
prostitution as a whole would result in a lower chance of children being exposed to them. These
efforts include restricting access of areas, such as bus stops from the participators of these sex
crimes, deterring people from becoming prostitutes, providing aid to girls rescued from
prostitution, and targeting the prostitutes clientele.
Safe Harbor Laws
Though all these efforts provide equal importance to the solution of our case, the Safe
Harbor laws would show to be one of the more important in solving this issue because of their
involvement with higher authority, and their combined efforts of both ending prostitution and
helping the young women involved with it.
The Safe Harbor laws can be classified as a governmental public policy because as seen
in the name they introduce a set of laws that require that children under the age of eighteen who
are involved with sex crimes are classified as victims and should be treated as such. Safe harbor
laws are intended to address the inconsistent treatment of children, raise awareness about
children that have been commercially sexually exploited, and ensure that these victims were
provided with services rather than a criminal conviction(Sex Trafficking of Minors). Overall,
the two main components of Safe Harbor laws are legal protection and provision of services. The
legal protection component provides exemption to children who have committed sexual offenses

because the child was either prompted or forced into committing that crime. Labeling the
children as victims of these sex crimes is a form of law regulation because it enforces the idea
that they cannot be held responsible for these sexual acts, and therefore cannot be criminally
convicted, under governmental standards (Kraft and Furlong 135). The second service
component requires that specialized services, which aid in the recovery process for those
survivors, be provided (Sex Trafficking of Minors). Some of the programs offered to help
fulfill the second part of the laws include medical and psychological treatment, emergency and
long-term housing, education assistance, job training, language assistance, and legal services.
These programs are a form of tax and spend, and the educate aspects of governmental power
(Kraft and Furlong 135). Although these programs are said to be government provided, they are
actually citizen funded through tax money, which provides the government leisure for spending
money on these preferred programs. It can also be classified as a government form of educating
because through these programs different types of aid are provided to help these survivors
reshape themselves, so they are taking tax money to be able give these beneficial programs.
Safe Harbor laws, when looking at the overview, sound very effective in the sense that
they tackle both sides of the issue that are associated with the removal of the prostitutes
permanently; however, the limitation this law enacts contributes to prostitution at the same level
it dissociates from it. There are only 18 states, Michigan being one, who have enacted some
measure of the Safe Harbor laws in protection of minors who are victims to sexual exploitation
(Safe Harbor Protecting Minors). Each of these states have adapted this law in their own
way, meaning that there is no specific standard on how to provide the two components as long as
some version of them is being provided. For instance, in Louisiana this law is endorsed and
presumes that a child under the age of 18 who has engage in commercial sex acts is a victim in

need of appropriate care and services(Safe Harbor Protecting Minors). In difference,

Michigan has no Safe Harbor labeled law, instead there is just a state regulation that states that a
person who solicits prostitution must be 16 years of age or older to be guilty of a crime (Safe
Harbor Protecting Minors). Both these efforts have major setbacks, although, Michigan being
at a greater setback than say Louisiana in terms of age requirements and services provided
because its cutoff age is 16 while Louisiana provides two more years and service benefits. Safe
Harbor laws biggest shortcoming is the fact that they provide an age requirement to the victims
who can receive their aid. 51% of the sexual assault cases studied in the Womens Safety
Project survey were committed against young women between 16 and 21 years old(Sexual
Assault Statistics), and judging by Michigans standards, the care stops at age 16, excluding that
whole 51%. When the cutoff age is met a women can no longer receive immunity for these sex
crimes, even if she has been involved with them as a child, as soon as she becomes 17 in
Michigan she is on her own and can only receive immunity through pleading her case in a court
and thoroughly proving that she was forced into it, which as learned from a victim of sextrafficking who spoke at the Human-Trafficking Forum, where she informed the audience that
she was going through this process herself and the fact that she was over eighteen put her at a
disadvantage at being able to get full custody of her daughter and increased the chance of her
offender being let back out in society as a free man. This would not only hurt the girl by
providing a chance for her to lose her daughter, but it would also hurt society itself because if she
is unable to convince the jury of this mans sexual assault towards her, this criminal will be let
out into society as a free man allowing him to continue his business and pose as a threat to the
girl in that area.

There is also a general moral judgment to poverty and homelessness that is given off by
the public, and that tends to lead them away from seeing them as equal individuals and more
often as individuals of lesser value/purpose (Wright). This view or social judgment that comes
along with poverty is often causes a decreased likeliness for the public to have an urge to help
them (Safe Harbor Protecting Minors). This value structure is another reason the Safe Harbor
laws have fell short in solving the issue. Because people do not value this issue as a priority,
funding for the services of the second component of the Safe Harbor laws has lagged because
they have indirectly negatively affected the economic structure that is needed in order to make
sure the laws are being put in place and used to their optimum beneficial levels. These lagged
effects have been clear in Michigan, where about 21 anti-trafficking bills were passed in favor of
this effort, but although they all provided means of helping these victims and deterring the crime,
they contained virtually no funding and lack of support services and specialized housing for
these victims (Funding Lags for Victims). Without these services, sex-trafficking victims
would receive no support or rehabilitation training and would re-enter society as vulnerable as
they left it and will most likely be lured back into their previous sex-trafficking ways (Funding
Lags for Victims). In order to allow the officials and the public in general to be able to identify
prostitutes as victims instead of criminals, awareness should be provided of the motives that
cause these women to do what they do and the lives they live; educating the public through
seminars like the one we attended or simply providing higher coverage on the arrests through the
media, such as news reports on TV or the internet. This will bring attention to the issue and will
produce positive action by the people and the government because it puts pressure on them to
contain the issue as quickly and efficiently as possible before it reaches unsolvable levels and

worries the public, and the public will more likely be willing to provide fund is they see the
changes their money will make (Graham 185-195).
The idea of a John School has also been developed in the states of California and New
York, which are programs that are offered as a voluntary alternative to court for first offenders
(Buffalo Prostitution Task Force). These schools attempt to revise the mens attitudes towards
women, power and sex through an eight hour classroom lecture on morals, health risks, legal
ramifications, and punishments in the case of future arrests, which will in turn help reinvent the
way women are seen in society and resolve the social barrier that surrounds them by educating
these offenders of the effects of their actions on these women (Buffalo Prostitution Task Force).
The combination of all these workable solutions that have proven to be successful in
other states along with the one previously mentioned in dealing with the age restriction, will
allow the Safe Harbor laws to provide a greater amount of impact and progress by resolving the
flaws that come out of the law itself; therefore, reducing prostitution in cities like Detroit.
Alternatives For Girls/ All Worthy of Love
Non-profit organizations take the approach of empowering young girls to not become
victims of the prostitution industry and to help those who are already victims get out.
Alternatives for Girls is a successful, local non-profit organization in Detroit that provides
support and resources for victims of human trafficking and prostitution. This organization
revolved around three main programs including the Alternative for Girls Prevention Program,
Shelter Program, and Outreach Program. Their Prevention Program seeks out at-risk girls
between the ages of four and eighteen. This program has services like after-school activities and
summer camps, where they mentor the girls and give them the attention and care needed to
prevent them from getting involved in drugs and prostitution. The organizations Shelter Program

gives young women from fifteen to twenty-one years of age safe, stable homes and provides
counseling and training to empower the girls. Finally, the Outreach Program helps girls who are
already involved in high-risk activities, like prostitution. The program helps teach the girls the
danger involved in the choices they are making and helps them move on to making safer and
healthier choices.
Alternatives for Girls has achieved great success over the past twenty-five years, having
served over 105,000 at-risk girls and women. For the thirteenth year in a row, ninety-nine percent
of the young girls in the Prevention Program old enough to graduate from high school not only
graduated, but they also went on to college. But even with the growth and success alternatives
for Girls has achieved thus far, the organization and organizations similar to it still face barriers
and limits. There are two main barriers that Alternatives for Girls, and other similar
organizations face. A big one is societal views. Society has their view of prostitutes being the
criminals in situations like the one we are looking at, and them willingly making the decisions
that are really forced upon them by traffickers. The many things seen in the media, including
song lyrics that people listen to on a daily basis, put human-trafficking victims down and glorify
the traffickers, or pimps. It leaves prostitutes feeling helpless, seeing no other lifestyle for
themselves, making them not want to seek out help from organizations like Alternatives for
Girls. The other limit to this organization is the age for the programs. They dont serve anyone
over the age of twenty-one, or even eighteen for some of their programs, and this leaves the older
women involved in human trafficking with less opportunities. They are not qualified to receive
help from organizations like Alternatives for Girls solely because of their age.
Similar to Alternatives for Girls is the organization, All Worthy of Love. The two
organizations have similar goals and programs; although, All Worthy of Love does have one

difference that makes it unique. It is a smaller organization with not a lot of members, and aims
to stay that way because of the connection they create with only a few people running the
organization. All Worthy of Love conducts weekly outreach runs, where they pass out fifty to
one hundred hygiene kits and meals to individuals currently engaged in street prostitution, and
make prayers with the people they are helping. Religion and prayer is a big part of the
organization, and it helps the members of All Worthy of Love build relationships and bond with
the victims they help. This is the organization we chose to volunteer for. We bought supplies and
prepared a total of eighty meals to donate to All Worthy of Love. We also wrote encouraging
notes which we included with every meal. Even though this is not a direct effort to help with the
problem of youth exposure to prostitution, it is an indirect method that helps the victims of
human trafficking. We provided the organization with meals, and the members of the
organization passed them out, making the individuals they helped feel worthy and loved. The
more that victims learn about organizations like All Worthy of Love and Alternatives for Girls
through these types of outreach programs, the more the victims will reach out and try to get help
instead of accepting the situations they were forced in. Not many human trafficking victims are
aware of the programs and services that are available to them; something we learned from the
Human Trafficking Forum we attended. So volunteering for an organization like All Worthy of
Love, where the members personally go out and try to connect with victims and give them a
sense of hope for the future, taught us the difference these non-profit organizations make in the
lives of the victims of human trafficking. We learned how important volunteering and donating
are for these organizations, because that is what they depend on to continue to help young girls
involved in prostitution in Detroit.

Both Alternatives of Girls and All Worthy of Love can be categorized as civic
associations. They are non-profit organizations that have no ties to the government. They are
classified by the IRS as 5013 organizations, or charitable organizations, meaning that none of
the earnings may inure to any private shareholder or individual and that they may not attempt
to influence legislation as a substantial part of its activities or participate in any campaign
activity for or against political candidates (Exemption Requirements). Another aspect of the
organizations that classifies them as civic associations is that they are voluntary. On the
Alternatives for Girls website, it is mentioned that more than 300 volunteers give approximately
20,000 hours of their time and talents to Alternatives for Girls each year. Alternatives for Girls,
which started in 1987, and All Worthy of Love, continue to impact the community largely
through the help of volunteers and members.
Brothers On Patrol
While the previous solutions are considerably more indirect and prostitute-centric,
Brothers on Patrol has a more direct and child-centric goal to keep dangers away from children.
Brothers on Patrol is a nonprofit civic organization that safeguards school age children in the
Cody school district while on their way to or from school. Retiree Calvin Colbert lived in Cody
Rouge for decades and watched as families moved away and blight move in. These abandoned
houses attract criminal activity, but families with young children still occupy the streets of Cody
Rouge. Colbert noticed that these kids seemed to feel as though they were more protected than
they actually were, as police patrols remained infrequent as blight increased steadily, and the kids
had simply grown used to the sights. "I see [elementary school age] girls walking in places I
wouldn't even walk," Colbert said to the Detroit Free Press in 2013. Acting as a social
entrepreneur, he began organizing patrols with his neighbors during the hours of 7:00-9:00 am

and 2:00-4:00 as to watch over school age children when they are not protected by either their
school or their families at home. The organization grew, and Detroit Public Schools now
manages the operations and provides direct contact for volunteers to the DPS police through CB
radios. The purpose of Brothers on Patrol is to both observe and report any suspected criminal
activity to the police and to cultivate an atmosphere in which children feel safe and protected and
criminals do not.
Several other school districts have similar patrol programs developed their own
community patrol organizations. Most notably are the Denby and Osborn districts, which, along
with Cody, have been identified by Detroits Safe Routes program as having the highest rates of
neighborhood crime in Detroit Public Schools. These three neighborhoods now have
coordinating patrol efforts. In 2012, the Detroit Free Press reported a 13% drop in neighborhood
crime in DPS, which DPS Police Chief Robert Grimes attributed in part to volunteer patrols.
Grimes has said he considers volunteers to be Detroits greatest weapon against crime, citing
Angels Night volunteers as an example.
The biggest problem that Brothers on Patrol faces is its dependence on volunteers. Patrols
require time, training and willingness to be in potentially dangerous situations. However patrols
are effective at keeping traffickers away from children. As stated, traffickers often employ
stalking techniques to find children that are easy to manipulate. At the Wayne State University
Human Trafficking Forum, David Manville of the Eastern Michigan University Social Work
Department spoke on the process in which a trafficker finds victims, usually by watching young
girls in social situations. The trafficker will introduce himself to a particularly insecure looking
child and act as her boyfriend before the victim is then coerced into selling herself to others.
Adults are better at identifying predatory behaviors than children are, so having patrols means an

adult can intervene in these beginning steps to trafficking children. Brothers on Patrol are also
affiliated with schools, so it would make sense for them to adopt a policy that prioritizes keeping
prostitutes away from school bus stops. Based on Brothers on Patrols past successes, this could
be an effective measure.
Solutions
The three efforts mentioned above work to prevent youth exposure to prostitution.
However, each effort is thwarted by a specific barrier. In order to provide relief to the issue at
hand, we plan on introducing two components to Michigan. Both of these aspects utilize the
government sphere of action. However, they differ in the perspective they fight the issue with.
Vacating Conviction Laws use an indirect approach while Temporary Restraining Orders directly
move prostitution acts away from bus stops. Both of these features have barriers themselves, but
when joined with the other properties, they formulate a mechanism that solves youth exposure to
prostitution.
Vacating Convictions
Although both the direct and indirect efforts to solve youth exposure to prostitution have
fixed some problems, there are still many barriers that prevent them from being completely
successful. One such barrier is the age of victims who receive protection under safe harbor laws.
As was stated before, the state of Michigan protects children under 16 from being charged with
prostitution; anyone 16 or over is treated as a criminal of sex trafficking (Annitto 31-32; "2013
Analysis of State Human Trafficking Laws). Survivors of human trafficking who are too old to
be protected under the law are labeled with criminal charges for the rest of their lives. Even if
these victims get sentenced to prison for a certain period of time then get released, their

criminal record remains and prevents them from accessing things like jobs and educational
opportunities.
One policy we recommend for solving the age problem presented by safe harbor laws is
vacating convictions. When vacating conviction laws are applied, survivors of human trafficking,
regardless of their age, are able to have their convictions removed if evidence of human
trafficking is shown. Depending on the evidence presented to them, states can choose to clear the
victims criminal convictions; this means the victim is no longer considered guilty of the crime
under the law. However, states do not have to completely remove convictions in order to help
victims. They have the option to just remove the victims charges from the record but keep the
conviction as it is. This means that the victims would still be considered guilty of their crimes,
but their criminal record would be cleared, which would remove the challenges that are faced
with having a criminal record. The victims criminal status would still exist but it would not be
accessible to the general public. Regardless of which option the state chooses, victims would
have access to opportunities they were once denied.
Although these laws are extremely beneficial to victims, very few states have applied
them. As of 2013, 14 states had vacating conviction statutes under state law and 9 others were
making the efforts to enact these statutes; unfortunately, Michigan is one of the 27 remaining
states that have not yet enacted these statutes (Vacating Convictions). There are two main
reasons for this. One is that the politicians who are involved in passing laws are not exposed to
prostitution nor do they have children in places like Detroit where they may be exposed to it.
This means that, unless they attend some awareness events like we did, they are not aware of the
scope of the problem or the reasons behind it. Due to this, many are still left believing that
prostitution is an act between two adults who are in control of their actions. Since they believe it

is between consenting adults, they do not seen as their problem. Another factor is funding and
resources. The state and local governments have so many other problems that are in need of
solutions. Convincing them to use up their time, money, and resources to help prostitutes is
difficult seeing as many people do not view prostitutes as victims in the first place.
Temporary Restraining Orders (TROs)
The goal of the Vacating Conviction Laws is to lessen the problem of prostitution in
Michigan, leading to less prostitution acts in bus stop area. Along with an indirect perspective to
prevent prostitution as a whole in Detroit, it is necessary to incorporate a component to our
solution that directly removes the prostitutes from the area. To do so, the Detroit Police
Department should enforce Temporary Restraining Orders.
Temporary Restraining Orders are legal documents that allow police officers to put
individuals under custody for engaging in unwanted behaviors inside a 100 yard radius from a
plaintiff. These unwanted behaviors are both legal and illegal activities outlined in the
individuals specific Temporary Restraining Order. These individuals are capable of traversing
in the indicated radius as long as they act in an acceptable manner (Jaus 4-5).
In order to remove prostitutes from the bus stops in the area, we must specify the
Temporary Restraining Order to the problem. The individuals these restraining orders must
target are prostitutes commonly found at the bus stops polluting the atmosphere for K-12
students going or coming back from school. The plaintiffs in these cases are residents who live
less than 100 yards from the bus stop. In order to establish these plaintiffs, signatures from these
residents are required. The unwanted behaviors include committing sexual acts in public,
committing sexual acts in automobiles, soliciting clients and loitering around bus stops (Jaus 4-

5). As long as the prostitutes with Temporary Restraining Orders filed against them do not
commit these acts, they can pass through the area without facing legal repercussions.
Temporary Restraining Orders were first detailed to fight prostitution in a given area by
the San Diego Police Department. It was encouraged in Glitter Track, a strip in Midtown San
Diego renown by procurers nationwide for its high demand for prostitution services. The San
Diego Police Department decided to take this initiative to encourage business growth, which was
stunted from the prostitution problem (Jaus 1).
The introduction of this plan behooves San Diego instantaneously. Prior to the
introduction of Temporary Restraining Orders, Glitter Track averaged eight to 25 prostitutes
every single night. For a month after this plan was enacted, no prostitutes were detected.
Afterwards, no more than two prostitutes were found a given night. The news of police
enforcement preventing prostitution spread across the nation and procurers stopped providing
services at Glitter Track (6). Similar results will arise by incorporating this plan in the bus stops
of Detroit.
In order to initiate this policy, we must convince the government that youth exposure to
prostitution as an issue. According to Kraft and Furlong, there are 11 actions the government can
partake in; one of these is regulation (Kraft 135). The government is able to initiate Temporary
Restraining Orders and regulate the commerce of prostitutes around bus stops since they pose a
threat to minors. However, overcoming this challenge becomes problematic.
The lack of initiative to regulate prostitutes around bus stops is not simply a reflection of
politicians views (Graham 86). In fact, many politicians believe prostitution should be fought
using the governmental sphere. In Michigan, Attorney General Bill Schuette, Rep. Eileen
Kowall (R-White Lake Township), Rep. Kurt Heise (R-Plymouth) and Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-

Detroit) approved of spending money to instigate Safe Harbor services (Yearout). However,
most of the representatives voted not to allocate money to the Safe Harbor Law services. On a
federal scale, Secretary of State John F Kerry and Ambassador of Monitor and Combat
Trafficking in Persons Luis CdeBaca suggested funding shelter and education services to human
trafficking victims (United States of America 3). However, neither took adequate action to
compel states into allocating funds.
The politicians are limiting the power of their intrinsic beliefs to uphold democratic
theory. One of the core requirements of a perfect democracy is its political representatives vote
for the option that embodies the beliefs of the majority of its population (Lenz 163). That being
said, this requirement has a core fault in it of itself; every individual in a population does not
have equal political power. The majority decision is skewed by the beliefs of those with
greater political power.
According to Bartel, the individuals with greater political power tend to be wealthier
individuals. He points to two different reasons. First, he claims that increasing ones power to
influence others political perspectives increases ones own political power. Furthermore, the
media plays a large part in individuals political socialization. Because the wealth population has
greater access to influencing what is broadcasted on the media, these individuals have more
political power. Secondly, statistics show financially unstable individuals forgo their voting
right. This depreciates their ideals and overemphasizes those of richer people. Due to these
reasons, financially elite persons have more than 15 times more political power than the typical
citizen (Bartel).
With greater power, the governments agenda is biased towards the ideals of the richer
population. This population is typically ignorant of the effects of this problem because

prostitution normally occurs in urban, financially unstable areas. Therefore, prostitution is not
commonly included in the government agenda and solutions to this issue, such as Temporary
Restraining Orders and Vacating Conviction Laws, have a difficult time crystallizing into
policies. In order to vanquish this troublesome phenomenon in Detroit, Wayne State students are
asked to help.
Plan of Action For Wayne State Students
In order to get the public and politicians to adopt these policies, awareness must be
raised. The more support there is, the more likely a problem will be noticed by politicians.
Depending on the issue at hand, there may be institutions that have already established ways to
raise awareness to the public and some politicians. If there are no established organizations for
the problem being addressed, people can go out and start their own organizations to raise
awareness. In the case of youth exposure to prostitution, many organizations have already found
effective ways to raise awareness. Wayne State students and other people can get involved by
volunteering at these organizations.
There are two main organizations in Detroit that aim to solve the problem of prostitution.
One organization is All Worthy of Love and the other is Alternatives for Girls. Both these
organizations offer many ways that students can help out. For example, All Worthy of Love
makes fliers and information packets for students who wish to host their own event nights.
Students can work with the organization to raise awareness at the location they want. Students
would have the freedom of picking a convenient location and time that they could hand out fliers
to the public and raise awareness. Alternatives for Girls raises awareness in a slightly different
way. Instead of creating fliers and letting students do the work, they offer to host information
events at different locations. Instead of having to raise awareness themselves, schools and

organizations would only have to set up a day that they would like the organization to arrive. A
direct example of this was the Human Trafficking Forum hosted by Wayne State. At this forum, a
speaker from Alternatives for Girls was present, and she helped raise awareness of sex
trafficking. Although All Worthy of Love and Alternatives for Girls have different methods of
reaching out to the public, both organizations raise awareness effectively.
Wayne State students can also get involved through social media. Today, a huge amount
of information is accessed by people through social media. Students use these forms of
communication on a day to day basis. All Worthy of Love and Alternatives for Girls connect with
their volunteers and raise awareness through social media. Both All Worthy of Love and
Alternatives for Girls have Facebook pages and Twitter accounts. Students can easily help the
organizations out by visiting their social media pages; they can add these organizations on
Facebook and follow them on Twitter. Alternatives for Girls takes an additional step by also
posting YouTube videos and encouraging its volunteers to post videos of their experiences on
YouTube. Wayne State students can post their own videos after volunteering or they can put up
links to other awareness videos on their social media sites. When students do this, anyone who
follows these students on social media will see the videos and perhaps post them onto their own
pages, which would spread even more awareness. Regardless of which form of social media a
student may choose to use, awareness can be raised.
Another way students can help these organizations is through donations. Both All Worthy
of Love and Alternatives for Girls are nonprofit organizations; any donations students may make
will go towards their cause. Both organizations have links on their websites for people who want
to donate money. This is a more hands off way of supporting these organizations. Students

who do not have much time to give up can still help Alternatives for Girls and All Worthy of
Love by donating money to them, no matter how small the sum.
Students can also get involved by boycotting media that portrays prostitutes in a
derogatory way. Music, especially rap and hip hop, greatly influences how society views
prostitutes. Students from Wayne State can start to pay more attention to the lyrics of the songs
they listen to and make sure not to support artists that portray prostitutes negatively. Although
this may not directly affect the singer or rapper who is creating the music, it makes a statement to
the students friends and family. If a student who is against the negative portrayal of prostitutes
hears their friend listening to a song that sends the wrong message about prostitutes, that student
can inform their friend about the real problem of sex trafficking and how the media affects this.
This gives students a way to raise awareness among their friends, family, and others they
encounter.
Wayne State students can also show their support of these causes through voting.
Students often do not take advantage of their right to vote, even though it is one of the biggest
ways they can showing the government what they believe. Many college students do not vote on
issues and, as a result, are left out of major decisions. If issues like vacating convictions or safe
harbor laws are going to be voted on in the future, students need to make sure to keep track of
local and state politics so that, when the time comes to vote, they are able to have a say in the
decision making process.
Conclusion
Our solution intends to aid as many parties impacted from minors exposure to
prostitution at bus stops. These parties include the children at the bus stops, the parents of the
children, and the prostitutes. To encourage a holistic remedy to the issue, we plan on

incorporating two new components. Optimally, these two elements will work alongside the
current efforts to create a mechanism that solves the issue. Brotherhood on Patrol allows an
immediate response youth exposure. Whereas other components require time to aid the issue,
this plan instantaneously stops school children from seeing prostitution by directing the children
away. However, this effort will never completely solve the problem since the prostitutes will
proceed to market at the bus stops. Once there is not a member of the organization at the bus
stop, the children in the area are fully exposed to the illegal actions. In order to solve the issue,
we must remove prostitutes from the area. Temporary Restraining Orders uses negative legal
reinforcement to directly solve the issue. It has been proven successful by its application at
Glitter Track, a boulevard where prostitution is infamous nationwide.
However, these two fragments alone pose risks on prostitutes. After attending the Human
Trafficking Forum at Wayne State University, we understood that the majority of prostitutes,
contrary to medias belief, are forced into this lifestyle. Therefore, we utilize indirect
components alongside the direct approach of the first two pieces. Once under the custody of the
law, victims of human trafficking under 16 are legally protected by Safe Harbor Laws. This is a
current effort that is in effect in Michigan. However, those older than 16, the majority of victims
caught by human trafficking, are currently unprotected. To aid these individuals, we suggest
Michigan adopt Vacating Conviction Laws. These laws can either drop charges given to a victim
of human trafficking or hide these charges from public records. Both Safe Harbor Laws and
Vacating Conviction Laws prevent victims being forced into a lifestyle of prostitution by
allowing them to find employment and not be looked down upon by future employers for legal
prostitution charges. To help these individuals out of this lifestyle, we acknowledge two existing
efforts: Alternatives for Girls and All Worthy of Love. Both of these civic-sphere efforts provide

services to prevent prostitution amongst women in Detroit. They rely on volunteers, so we

encourage Wayne State students to become involved with these efforts. Furthermore, we suggest
Wayne State students boycott media that glorifies pimp culture and politically support
government solutions to prostitution. In doing so, youth exposure to prostitution will end at bus
stops in Detroit.

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