This year the Community United for Safety and Protection (CUSP) is asking legislators to disallow the “but your honor, she’s a whore,” defense and to make it an aggravator – a sentence increaser – if a crime is committed against a person engaged in sex work, if the crime involves a sex work transaction, or if a perpetrator pays the victim.
CUSP has a petition to make these legislative changes here:
https://donorbox.org/safety-for-people-in-alaska-s-sex-trade
“The Bad Girl Box, It’s time to put an end to the ‘but your honor, she’s a whore’ defense.”
When we first talked about creating the aggravator language, we were only thinking of sex workers and of non-sex workers who are easily discredited as crime victims when they can be discredited as whore-ish. Hipp’s case pointed to the need for an aggravator bill to also include perpetrators who pay their victims. “A child molester who sexually abuses a child and then pays them is an insidious manipulation,” said Pam Karalunas, a consultant, trainer, the recently retired chapter coordinator of the Alaska Children’s Alliance, and founding manager of RCPC Stevie’s Place Child Advocacy Center. “It is meant to focus responsibility on the child, both in the child’s mind and in the minds of adults who may learn of the abuse.”
CUSP is seeking donations of $632 in order to afford to the continuation to educate Alaska legislators about the conditions for sex workers and sex trafficking victims. There are two of us going to Juneau (myself being one) and housing and airfare has been donated.
https://donorbox.org/safety-for-people-in-alaska-s-sex-trade
Even if you are unable to donate, please SHARE and SIGN the petition!
This Is How We Rise 
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