Consent requires both parties to have an understanding of the situation. This is true whether the sex act in question is romantic, recreational or transactional.
If I tricked my twin brother’s lover into having sex with me by pretending I was him, that wouldn’t be a consensual act. If I tricked a woman into letting me insert things into her body by impersonating an OB/GYN, that wouldn’t be a consensual act. You can’t agree to something proposed under false pretenses.
Consider two scenarios…
A policeman has sex for money with a prostitute, then leaves without arresting her. Was she raped?
A policeman has sex for money with a prostitute, but after the act, he arrested her. Suddenly she’s retroactively raped because of an action that happened the past? Sorry, that’s just not going to hold water.
The sex worker agrees to exchange sexual services for money. The cop knowingly has sex with the worker with no intent to ever pay them, and, in fact, the intent to arrest and incarcerate them, at great personal and financial cost.
While my gut reaction reading the headline was “Is that rape?” Even a cursory examination of the way this works leads me to conclude, “Yes, this is rape.”
Again, consider this scenario:
A woman allows a man to examine her body because he is impersonating an OB/GYN. Afterward she learns that he’s just a perv in a white lab coat who was pretending to be an OB/GYN. “Suddenly she’s been retroactively sexually assaulted because of an action that happened in the past?”
Using that insane logic, someone could claim they were raped because their partner didn’t reveal they were a Capricorn, and would never have sex with someone with an incompatible sign.
Using your insane logic I could legally commit sexual assault using either of the scenarios I just described, among others.
I don’t know what the bright line is, but this really is a thing. There have been women raped by a man who snuck in at night and pretended to be their existing husband or boyfriend. That there is un-ambiguous rape in my book, yet the women “consented”, but only because they were deceived.
A policeman having sex for money with a prostitute is solicitation and illegal (and even worse when on duty). Whether it’s rape or not doesn’t seem relevant unless the prostitute didn’t know the cop was a cop and wants to press charges.
A policeman having sex for money with a prostitute and then arresting her is solicitation, rape by deception, a violation of codes of conduct in some jurisdictions (having sex while on duty at all regardless of consent is a violation by itself), and then the arrest is entrapment.
The exchange of money is pretty much required in order to prove prostitution.
We’re talking about something unimportant, like being a capricorn, we’re talking about a cop using his undercover work as an excuse to sleep with a prostitute.
The cops have no intent of letting the worker keep that money, so the exchange is in bad faith. Good enough to convict, but deceptive in terms of consent.
Sex isn’t an illegal substance. Sex workers are not objects. Rules that apply to buying illegal guns or what not, where it is fine to play with the goods do not, or damn well should not, apply to people and sex.
This isn’t just cops out getting sex. This is in reference to organized, undercover operations. It’s not illegal if it’s in the line of duty, just like speeding is not illegal if it’s in the line of duty.
The wife or girlfriend has no reason to expect it would be anyone else, and they (the women) are not conducting a criminal act. Prostitutes know that any John may be a cop. There is no expectation of truthfulness, but they consent to the act anyway.
Cops are exempt from certain laws, not all laws. Speeding can be justified (sometimes) as a necessary trade off needed to catch up to criminals on the move or get to emergency situations in time. Having sex with prostitutes? Not so much - actually, not at all. This is cops taking advantage of sex workers for no reason other than that they can. Sex is not necessary to prove solicitation - and if there are any states where it is, then those laws need to be changed to conform with the laws of other states in the US. Screwing sex workers to arrest them is a violation of their Civil Rights.
That’s exactly the insane problem this petition aims to solve.
If you think prostitution is inherently evil then you should be angry that cops are having sex with prostitutes in exchange for (the promise of) money.
If you think sex workers should have the right to do what they want with their own bodies then you should be angry that police are targeting them at all, let alone robbing those sex workers of their agency by engaging them in sex work under false pretenses.
Either way there’s no excuse for these tactics.
Speeding in the line of duty is a victimless act (usually) because cops are supposed to be trained to drive fast safely. They slow down at intersections. They have flashing lights and sirens to make sure potential accidents are avoided. And it’s not done to induce a person to break the law so that you can arrest them.
At least in Oregon, it’s a significant ethics violation to have any kind of sex while on duty as a law enforcement officer. Other jurisdictions may have similar policies. If the sex is for the purpose of law enforcement, then it would be state-sanctioned rape by deception. In the least, it’s an ethical violation in the form of unjust enrichment. It’s akin to a cop getting high and then arresting the drug dealer (except for the added rape part). A cop is getting paid for their work. They’re not supposed to get extra bonuses in forms that deprive others of their rights or property.
Fine, but calling it rape is stretching things a bit too far, and it does a disservice to dilute the term.
Not “legitimate rape” then?
We do a disservice by limiting the concept of rape to a giant knife wielding rapist using the threat of death. There are rape victims out there who are traumatized but don’t even know, in so many words, they are victims of rape because their situation didn’t match the cinematic depiction of rape.
As I stated in my first post, I don’t think prostitution should be illegal. Remove the law, and this whole discussion is moot.
Rape comes in many forms. One crime might involve a guy fingering his date while she’s passed out drunk on the couch, another might leave a rape survivor beaten behind a dumpster and physically disfigured for life.
I would wager that many—possibly all—of the sex workers involved in this campaign have been raped at some point in our lives. It’s not our place to tell them what words to use in describing the crimes committed against them.
