Cambridge Brothel Case: What’s the Point?
Massachusetts is in the midst of prosecuting people who patronized a fancy sex business near Harvard University. It’s been big news in certain corners, spawning salacious stories about the doctors, politicians, and tech executives who were on the club’s client list. But the most novel thing about this prosecution is what it’s missing: a wild yarn about sex slaves.
The framing of this story is refreshing, after more than a decade of similar stories getting starkly different treatment. Despite many of the sex workers involved being Asian—a fact that greatly increases the odds of a prostitution bust being called a “human trafficking sting”—news reports have largely refrained from trying to portray the women involved as hapless victims of sexual servitude.
Yet the absence of a trafficking narrative lays bare the hollowness of such prosecutions. Why are we doing this? Who’s being served?
Who Benefits?Â
So far, the people who ran the business—including a 42-year-old woman named Han Lee—are the only ones who have been sentenced. Lee pleaded guilty to federal charges of conspiracy to induce women into prostitution and money laundering and was sentenced in March to four years in prison. The main charge here is part of the Mann Act, a 1910 law (then referred to as the “White Slave Traffic Act”) passed in response to last century’s moral panic about immigration, urbanization, and women’s independence.
“Born into poverty in South Korea, she was a sex worker for years before becoming a madam,” reports The Wall Street Journal. She thoroughly screened clients of her business, and “she allowed women to keep more than half the proceeds and decline to perform services if they chose, wrote Scott Lauer, her federal public defender.”
Lee is obviously harmed by this, and it seems like those she employed may be harmed, too.
If the sex workers’ identities are known and they are immigrants, they could be deported. Even if they escape authorities, they’re out of jobs—and may be forced to turn to more dangerous or exploitative forms of sex work.
Lee’s prosecution does benefit one group here: federal authorities. She had to forfeit around $5.5 millio
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