Today the Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) held that a man did not violate Massachusetts’ sex trafficking statute when he allegedly attempted to engage the services of a prostitute via the internet.
According to the SJC
This case presents the question whether an individual who responds to an advertisement for commercial sexual services ostensibly from an adult sex worker purporting to be acting independently, selects from among the types of sexual services offered by the sex worker, agrees to pay the price set by the sex worker for the selected services, and goes to a location determined by the sex worker has engaged in “the crime of trafficking of persons for sexual servitude” in violation of G. L. c. 265, § 50 (sex trafficking statute or statute). We conclude that such an individual has not.
After reviewing the statute’s legislative history the justices concluded that
the Legislature intended the sex trafficking statute to target the conduct of suppliers and purchasers who perpetrate the operation of trafficking of persons for sexual servitude, rather than the responsive conduct of the subset of purchasers of commercial sexual activity who answer advertisements by an independent adult sex worker.
The full text of the slip opinion is attached below.