Everyone seems to overlook the fact that they were also coerced into taking the money. When someone has already shown a willingness to be violent towards you, there is an implicit threat of violence in everything they do. A 14-year-old kid who wasn’t in a position to say no to sex is not in a position to say no to their rapists about anything. If they give the kid nice clothes, take them out for a nice meal, hand them a bunch of money, it doesn’t matter. It’s all a threat.
But of course Dershowitz is brushing aside the real horror of the situation. I imagine it doesn’t occur to Dershowitz that these kids were kids. Saying they are prostitutes and responsible for their choices shows a pretty deep virgin/whore dichotomy at play.
