Indiana plans tougher penalties for those caught buying sex

“We need something that sends the message, 'If caught, you will spend the night in jail, so don’t risk your family, your wife, your children’s respect or your job,” said Attorney General Greg Zoeller.

Zoeller has asked a legislative committee to consider tougher penalties for those who patronize prostitutes.

Scheduled to meet this month, the committee will also look at ways to allow prosecutors and judges to vacate convictions of prostitutes who show they've been forced into the trade.

Lawmakers have already moved to toughen penalties for those caught buying sex from minors, and they have identified funds for counseling for teenage sex workers.

Zoeller's initiative targets buyers of sex, regardless of whether the seller is a minor or an adult. He has noted the arrest of former Subway pitchman Jared Fogle as an illustration of the fact that sex buyers aren't typical criminals.

Fogle admitted in a plea deal last month that he solicited teenage girls for sex and paid two underage girls to have sex with him in a New York City hotel. The plea agreement in federal court included counts of receiving and distributing child pornography from Fogle's Zionsville home.

“Buying sex is harmful, it's not a victimless crime,” said Sen. Randy Head, R-Logansport, who supports Zoeller’s aggressive approach.

Like Zoeller, Head points to federal studies that show sex traffickers recruit girls through violence and manipulation; the average lifespan of a person involved in prostitution is 34; and the most common cause of death for prostitutes is homicide.

“Prostitution involves the buying and selling of human being,” Head said. “People who say there’s nothing wrong with it are just wrong.”

Soliciting sex from a prostitute is now a class-A misdemeanor, punishable by up to one year in jail and a fine of up to $5,000.

Those penalties are often waived, said Zoeller, who adds that mandatory "jail time should be understood" for those arrested for solicitation.

Zoeller’s push for tougher penalties reflects a national trend.

In 2011, the National Association of Attorneys General began a targeted attack on human trafficking and sexual exploitation. The group, which Zoeller has served in a leadership capacity, lobbied for tougher laws targeting the demand side of the sex trade while advocating for more intervention to help prostitutes.

Florida lawmakers this year toughened penalties for people soliciting prostitutes.

A second offense now requires a minimum of 10 days in jail. Those convicted must also attend a "john's school," where they receive counseling on sex addiction and learn the dangers of sex trafficking.

In Illinois, the Cook County Sheriff has taken an aggressive approach that Zoeller thinks may be worth modeling. The department conducts routine sting operations aimed at sex buyers. In addition to heavy financial penalties, those caught can also have their cars impounded.

Such tactics have gotten mixed reviews. In August, the human rights group Amnesty International called for decriminalizing all aspects of the sex trade. Criminal laws against consensual adult sex, it argued, violate the rights of sex workers.

But others involved in combating sex trafficking see it differently.

Polaris, a global, anti-trafficking advocacy group, has called for a more aggressive approach toward sex buyers.

Lynn Johnson, policy director for the Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation, also endorses that approach.

Tough penalties need to be part of a larger effort to combat what she called the "common mythology” that the buying and selling of sex causes no harm.

“There wouldn’t be human trafficking, there wouldn’t be prostitution, if we didn’t have so many people in our communities willing to buy sex,” she said.