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Full-Text Articles in Law

Finding Safe Harbor: Protection, Prosecution, And State Strategies To Address Prostituted Minors, Darren Geist Aug 2012

Finding Safe Harbor: Protection, Prosecution, And State Strategies To Address Prostituted Minors, Darren Geist

Legislation and Policy Brief

The common policy of treating sexually exploited minors as criminals represents a fundamental failing of the justice system. Prostituted minors should not be treated as delinquents requiring discipline but rather as severely traumatized and abused victims requiring specialized services and counseling. Yet, in most states, prostituted minors are re-traumatized through arrest, prosecution, and detention instead of receiving specialized services. Besides being unjust, this policy is counter-productive. Arresting, prosecuting, and detaining minors hinders law enforcement efforts to go after the real criminals – the pimps and the johns, and misses an important opportunity to rescue minors from a system of commercial …


Syringe Confiscation As An Hiv Risk Factor: The Public Health Implications Of Arbitrary Policing In Tijuana And Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, Leo Beletsky, Remedios M. Lozada, Tommi Gaines, Daniela Abramovitz, Hugo Staines, Alicia Vera, Gudelia Rangel, Steffanie Strathdee, Jaime Arredondo Jul 2012

Syringe Confiscation As An Hiv Risk Factor: The Public Health Implications Of Arbitrary Policing In Tijuana And Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, Leo Beletsky, Remedios M. Lozada, Tommi Gaines, Daniela Abramovitz, Hugo Staines, Alicia Vera, Gudelia Rangel, Steffanie Strathdee, Jaime Arredondo

Leo Beletsky

Female sex workers who inject drugs (FSW-IDUs) face elevated risk for HIV/STIs and constitute a key population for public health prevention. Through direct and indirect pathways including human rights violations, policing practices like syringe confiscation can compound FSW-IDU health risk and facilitate the spread of disease. We studied correlates of experiencing syringe confiscation among FSW-IDUs in northern Mexico, where formal policy allows for syringes to be available over-the-counter without a prescription, but police practices are often at odds with the law. FSW-IDUs reporting recent syringe sharing and unprotected sex with clients in Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez were administered surveys and …