Ticketed for Prostitution: Understanding the Impact on the Lives of Immigrant Asian Women Who Work in Massage Parlors in Los Angeles

Background & Purpose: Recent efforts to address sex work and sex trafficking in Los Angeles have led to an increase in police raids of massage parlors, ticketing, and arrests of immigrant Asian women. Los Angeles City officials contend that policing the sex trade is one of the best methods for rescuing trafficking victims and giving sex workers a way out, if they want one (Gilbertson, Mendelson & Caputo, 2019). However, the increase in arrests of immigrant Asian women working in massage parlors through the collaboration of the non-profit organization the Asian Pacific Aids Intervention Team and the Los Angeles Police Department results in mandatory prostitution diversion programs that neither improve their well-being nor address the underlying structural issues that negatively impact their lives.

Methods: This qualitative research study highlights the impact of ticketing for prostitution on 25 immigrant Asian women working in massage parlors in Los Angeles. Specifically, it aims to amplify the voices of the participants and to shed light on the impact of criminalization in terms of the following aspects of their lives: 1) their physical health and mental health; 2) their citizenship status and their economic security; 3) their personal and professional relationships; and 4) their experience with navigating various systems (such as the courts, jails, immigration centers, mandatory prostitution diverse program, and so forth). A thematic analysis is conducted within each case (interview) and then a cross-case analysis is implemented among all of the interviews in order to identify overarching themes among all of the interview data.

Results: Data analysis suggests that the ticketing, arrest and consequent system-involvement through these anti-trafficking interventions and the criminalization of sex work and migration results in negative impacts on sex workers, migrants, and people with trafficking experience. The effects of anti-trafficking interventions include policing, ticketing, arrest, court-involvement, court-mandated social services and prostitution diversion programs, incarceration, and immigration detention. This cycle of arrest and loss of income, and access to employment can further lead women to engage in the sex trade again in order to earn income and provide for basic needs and survival; a cycle that is intrinsic to the criminalization process. This results in some connection to the legal system, whether it is inside jail or prison walls or detention centers, through legal system mandate to prostitution diversion, or surveillance through probation, child welfare, or other services.

Conclusion & Implications: An anti-carceral feminist framework highlights the problems of criminalizing individuals working in the sex trades and the ways disenfranchised immigrant Asian women working in massage parlors have been made vulnerable to violence from law enforcement (through ticketing for prostitution) and social services (through mandatory prostitution diversion programs). Instead of focusing on rescue and criminalization through the use of undercover police stings, an anti-carceral feminist lens values alternatives to the criminal legal system, like mutual aid, community accountability, a focus on systemic change, decriminalization of illegal sex trades and drugs, harm reduction tools, and linkage to the self-identified needs and resources of people in the sex trades.