By Melissa Holland

Earlier in the session, the office of the attorney general proposed a piece of legislation to help defend victims of child sex trafficking in Nevada. Senate Bill 7, in its original form, would have increased the penalty for soliciting sex from a minor to a Class B felony — and eliminate the so-called “age defense” such that a sex-buyer would be found guilty even if he/she was, or claimed to be, unaware that the victim was a minor.

Federal law already defines minors under the age of 18 and involved in these kinds of crimes as victims of child sex trafficking. SB7 simply proposed establishing the same framework and prosecution tools, essentially bringing Nevada in line with the federal definition of child rape. If passed, we would have joined 23 other states in approving similar legislation and matching federal law.

The Assembly Judiciary Committee chose instead to protect men who pay to commit sex crimes against children by gutting the bill. The primary argument in opposition of SB7 is that sometimes men “accidentally” solicit paid sex from a minor. In other words, Nevada is serious about the sexual assault of minors — but if you pay cash to do it, you can fall back on a defense of ignorance with a markedly reduced penalty. 

Child sex trafficking is a major problem in Nevada. We rank in the top 10 states in the U.S. for the rate of youth being sold for sex. The problem thrives here because sex buyers have a low risk of being caught or penalized. Additionally, research shows that not only are men often intentionally seeking to buy sex from minors, or women who appear to be minors, but when these same men are told outright that the girls they are soliciting are minors, upwards of half are undeterred by the information and are prepared to follow through.

A survey of survivors of child sex trafficking revealed that fantasy is an inherent component of the sex-buying experience. Sex buyers do not ask for the real age or name of the child they’re purchasing. The exploited girl is simply there to play an acting role in a paid-for fantasy. The girl provides a sexy name, a young body, and as far as he is concerned, she is immediately attracted to him. He has no fear of rejection; he can feel as bold as he likes.

One trafficked girl who I have worked with shared her personal story to illustrate just how purposefully some men “accidentally” solicit sex with minors. She and her 22-year old boyfriend dated for two months. One night he put her up in a motel. He later came into the room and told her he had just lost $500. She was a child so she had no idea how to help. He asked her how much she loved him. She said she loved him. Then he asked her to let some men have sex with her to help him make his money back. She told him no and said she wanted to go back home.

He then beat her into submission. Immediately after beating her, he began to let one sex buyer after another into the room. Six men were lined up that first night. Not a single one of them asked for her name or her age, nor did they express any concern about the bruising and bleeding from the physical abuse that had occurred minutes before they entered the room.

Under current Nevada law, if you were to ask any one of those six men if they knew they had solicited sex from a minor, they would be able to use the “unknowing” defense — even though they willfully chose not to know.

She was just 14.

Unfortunately, even the term “child trafficking” has become so watered down that we do not always understand what’s taking place in that interaction. An under-age girl is put in an exploitative situation with an adult male and his fantasy. He has sex with her. Whether he believes it or not, whether she fought him or not, he raped her — because a child cannot give consent to being purchased for sex. The money he leaves behind represents his ability to pay to rebrand his act of rape as a victimless crime. His payment provides him with the cognitive distortion to believe he did not harm her. He might even think she liked it.

This is not her reality. She is left hurt. She is left violated. She is left raped.

Multiple interviews and surveys of men for a study on sex-buying practices showed that the consequences that would deter them from using prostitution included: imprisonment, public exposure, increased fines and increased criminal penalties. That is exactly what the original version of SB7 would have established. As a result, fewer Nevada children would have been raped.

Most people agree that the punishment should fit the crime. Sadly, Nevada’s penalties for men who solicit sex with minors are the same as if he used a fake ID to buy cigarettes. The punishment aligns with his fantasy, not with the severity of the crime. The rapist gets to believe he didn’t cause any real harm to the child, and the law protects this delusion.

As a state and as a community, we have an obligation to protect our children. The amendments to SB7 allow sex buyers to “accidentally” solicit sex from minors two times before being subject to prosecution for a Class B felony, rather than on a first offense as proposed in the original bill. Sex-buyers themselves have told us what would most deter them. Why on earth would we not pass stronger protections to reduce paid child rape in Nevada? The watered down version of SB7 that came out of the Assembly Judiciary Committee offers an unacceptable escape clause. I ask the Legislature not to give up on SB7 and to do whatever it takes to resurrect and pass SB7 in its original form.

Melissa Holland is the executive director of Awaken, a nonprofit dedicated to ending human sex trafficking.