Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

With the nation watching, a college student, a professor and a legislator team up to top indoor prostitution in Rhode Island

Landlords who rent space to spa-brothels were the target of a protest on Atwells Avenue on Federal Hill in Providence on the evening of March 28th. About two dozen neighbors, friends, and anti-trafficking activists gathered to condemn landlords who rent to spa-brothels.

Wednesday night, I gave a talk at Brown University, as part of the Human Trafficking Awareness Week. After the talk, I stopped for a coffee on Atwells Avenue on the way home. One Spa, an illegal spa-brothel, is next door to the coffee shop and just above the office of the Federal Hill Gazette. From the time I got out of my car and returned with my coffee, I saw three men go into the brothel—one white man in his late thirties dressed in carpenter pants, a flannel shirt, and baseball cap, one older balding white man with glasses, …