December 17th, A History

The Sex Workers Outreach Project is a national grassroots social justice network dedicated to the fundamental human rights of sex workers and their communities, focusing on ending violence and stigma through education, community building, and advocacy.

In order to get back to our roots, we want to renew our commitment to focusing on December 17, The International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers. December 17 is a day, where across the globe, sex workers, advocates and allies remember and mourn those that the sex worker community has lost over the last year. A list of names is compiled and read, candles are lit, and communities come together to make sure those we have lost are not forgotten. 

December 17 began in 2003 in response to the sentencing of a murderer Gary Ridgeway, who was convicted of 49 separate murders, although ultimately, he is thought to have taken over 90 lives. When asked about his very specific targeting, he admitted “I picked prostitutes as victims because they were easy to pick up without being noticed. I knew they would not be reported missing right away and might never be reported missing. I picked prostitutes because I thought I could kill as many of them as I wanted without getting caught." 

In response, Robyn Few, founder of the Sex Workers Outreach Project, and Annie Sprinkle were determined to make sure that the women who lost their lives were remembered, and their names said out loud. They organized a speak out in San Francisco, and encouraged people to hold vigils in their local areas. Since 2003, D17 has spread to become a day of global awareness and resilience for the entire sex work community.

The December 17th project is a collaborative effort to continue this mission by maintaining a global resource of memorialized sex workers, a podcast telling the stories of their lives, and a blog with news updates about cases of murdered sex workers as well as information about the fight for sex workers’ rights and safety.

One of our primary goals is to maintain the December 17 memorial list, which not only includes names of sex workers that have passed, but also a compilation of data. Sex workers are an invisible community, and are rarely well-represented in traditional data sources.  The sex work community's experiences and needs are critical to understand in order to ensure that they receive the appropriate support, resources, and attention. 

By gathering contextually relevant data, we aim to provide a clearer picture of sex workers’ challenges and strengths, which will lead us to create better-informed policies, advocacy efforts, and resource allocation.

We acknowledge that crimes against sex workers aren’t always treated seriously by law enforcement and that certain demographics such as BIPOC, transgender, and sex workers who work outdoors are at some of the highest risks of violence. Our goal is to shed light on the struggles these sex workers face to help end the stigma that keeps them unsafe. The stigma and criminalization that makes violence against sex workers acceptable must end. 

There are several contexts and factors that put sex workers at risk for violence. Some examples-

Workplace violence: This may include violence from managers, support staff, clients or co-workers in establishments where sex work takes place (e.g. brothels, bars, hotels). Due the criminalization of sex work, victims of abuse may be reluctant to report violence they experienced out of fear of being arrested or charged with a crime.

Violence from intimate partners and family members: Stigmatization of sex work may lead partners or family members to think it acceptable to use violence to “punish”someone for doing sex work. It may be difficult for sex workers to leave an abusive relationship, particularly when perpetrators threaten them, or have control due to ownership of a home, or the power to harm or refuse access to their children.

Violence by perpetrators at large or in public spaces: In many contexts, the criminalization of sex work creates a climate that results in sex workers being seen as acceptable the targets of violence or of other crimes that may turn violent. Some perpetrators specifically target sex workers to “punish” them in the name of upholding social morals, or to scapegoat them for perceived social problems. Sex workers may also face violence from individuals in a position of power, such as health-care providers, bankers or landlords.

Organized non-state violence: Sex workers may face violence from extortion groups, militias, religious extremists or “rescue” groups. For example, forced rescue and rehabilitation raids in the context of anti-trafficking laws may result in sex workers being evicted from their residences onto the streets, where they may be more exposed to violence.

State violence: Sex workers may face violence from military personnel, border guards and prison guards, and police. Violence by representatives of the state compromises sex workers’ access to justice and police protection, and sends a message that such violence is not only acceptable but socially desirable. Laws and policies, including ones that criminalize sex work, may increase sex workers’ vulnerability to violence. 

Decriminalization of sex work remains one of the primary goals of our work, but we believe that decriminalization is just one step in our fight for justice. Criminalization of sex work is one of many avenues that is used to justify systematic violence against people of color, trans people, indigenous populations, and other historically marginalized groups. We must challenge and interrupt these avenues at every opportunity, and we believe that maintaining an archive that provides data about the violence that sex workers face is a large part of the way to move forward. Through our programming and capacity building we help sex workers to uplift themselves and educate their communities. We intend to arm our community with tools and resources to fight stigma and violence on their own terms. 

How A Conspiracy Theory Almost Killed Justice

Normally, as I compile the December 17th list, I tend to focus on the stories of  sex workers who have passed away, but sometimes adjacent news catches my eye. This happened to me this week. I’d been following the murder of Andrew Sorensen for 3 years, and noticed the case was coming to a close earlier this month. 

The story involves a murder, a lie, and reliance on the general public believing tropes about sex trafficking. It began 4 years ago, near Seattle, Washington. In November of 2020, 19-year-old Andrew Sorensen went missing. It wasn’t until almost a year later, in October of 2021, that he was found. Sorensen had been murdered- beaten, stabbed, and left in the trunk of an abandoned car. It appeared his body had been in the trunk since the day he disappeared. 

Police tracked the car to 55 year old Brenda Kross, who claimed it had been stolen the year prior. Upon further investigation, police began to suspect that 61 year old John Eisenman, Kross’ fiancé had murdered Sorenson and that Kross was an accomplice. Eventually, Eisenman admitted to the crime, but claimed he had a good reason. He said that Sorensen had sold one of his daughters to a sex trafficking ring in Seattle for $1,000. Eisenman claimed he had rescued his daughter from the traffickers and then he kidnapped Sorensen, tied him up, beat him with a cinder block and eventually stabbed the teenager to death.

Once the story made waves, people across the country proclaimed their support of Eisenman in comment sections across social media platforms.  People called for Eisenman’s release, and for potential jurors to engage in jury nullification- when the jury gives a verdict of not guilty even though they think a defendant has broken the law. 

Kross, Eisenman’s fiancée, gave local interviews where she boasted about how brave he was, saying "It was something that a lot of men say they would do for their daughter. He is the best father I could have ever had for my children. she said. "I'm very proud of John.” 

Eisenman’s family was even able to start various crowdfunding campaigns to pay for his defense costs and raise over $70,000 across platforms. His now deleted gofundme read “This father did the unthinkable for some of us to save his little girl from an unspeakable life that causes long term scars and years of emotional damage. He does not belong in jail” 

Eisenman was a hero. 

There was only one problem. 

There was absolutely no evidence that Andrew Sorensen was involved with any type of human trafficking. In an affidavit, investigators said Sorensen and Eisenman’s daughter traveled to Renton together in October 2020. According to Spokane Police Officer Randy Lesser, they smoked meth several times that night. Sorensen eventually dropped Eisenman’s daughter and two others off at a 7-11 and never returned because his car was stolen. The Spokane police department has since added that they are “not involved with any investigation involving Mr. Sorensen.”

Sorensen’s parents also fought back, telling NBC News that Eisenman was demonizing a developmentally disabled young man who was born with autism and cerebral palsy and who had no ties to sex traffickers.

“He was a disabled kid,” Sorensen’s father said. “He didn’t have the capability to sex traffic anybody.”

Last Thursday, the judge read Kross' guilty statement, which explicitly stated “And I further acknowledge that there was no corroborating evidence that [the teen] sex trafficked [my daughter].” Adding even more doubt to the claims about trafficking, police allege Eisenman told investigators he was high on methamphetamine when he killed Sorensen, and had been using the drug on a daily basis at the time.

Eisenman has since pleaded guilty to first degree murder and Kross has  pleaded guilty to manslaughter. The pair will be sentenced in January. Prosecutors will recommend a sentence of 22 years for Eisenman, and eight years for Kross. 

But some damage cannot be undone. Even now, Eisenman is still lauded as a hero, and many have begun using Qanon style conspiracy theories to prop up their worldview. The large accounts that shared the story never shared follow ups or corrections suggesting the victim had never trafficked anyone.  Smaller accounts instantly began engaging conspiracy theories. Maybe the police were covering it up? Maybe the news media was in on it? Maybe someone was bribed to push this new story? Maybe this was a big government cracking down on vigilantes trying to protect girls from being raped?

Many of Eisenman’s supporters were left accusing the criminal justice system of being so corrupt that traffickers went free, while loving fathers were being railroaded. Some speculated that vigilante justice is going to become the norm because we can no longer trust police and other institutions to protect girls from the sex traffickers lurking in the shadows. 

By simply accusing Andrew Sorensen of being a sex trafficker, people across the country were ready to allow John Eisenman and Brenda Kross to brutally murder a teenager and leave his body in a trunk and call it justice. 

But overall, what does this case say about our society? What does that say about how we perceive justice and due process? What does it say about how we consume news and truth? Why did so many news outlets uncritically repeat the lie that Sorensen was a human trafficker?

Despite developments showing trafficking was not the motive, many still view the couple as heroes for “killing a trafficker” because they don’t want to ruin their narrative about vigilante heroes. 

But vigilantism easily leads to abuses of power. Without oversight,  individuals may take matters into their own hands for reasons other than justice- such as personal vendettas or misunderstandings. When justice is determined by individuals and sketchy headlines, there are risks. 

While there certainly are flaws within our criminal justice system, we don’t need to succumb to conspiracy theory style thinking about it.  We need to look at the facts before resorting to murder. Because what if we are wrong? What would have happened if the jury was willing to decide based on headlines and conspiracy theories instead of facts? What happens next time?

The Tragic Lesson of the Emma Caldwell Case

Police officers who 'brought shame on their uniforms' and let Emma Caldwell's killer Iain Packer walk free for 19 years should be jailed if it is found they 'engaged in criminality', her family's lawyer says. 

He was identified by other sex workers as a regular customer who was infatuated with Caldwell and changed his story with police numerous times. These women said he had taken them to woods in South Lanarkshire near where Caldwell's body was discovered. Women working in the sex industry had complained about Packer since 2005, and even added his name to a local “Beware Book” which kept information about potentially dangerous clients. Numerous sex workers identified Packer and complained about rapes that had been perpetrated on them by Packer.

One woman said he usually treated her "like a lady" but on one occasion he became angry when she refused to remove all of her clothes when she was outside. He then apologized to this woman for leaving her "scared". Packer was found to have admitted to the police that he had taken sex workers to woods in South Lanarkshire, but he was ruled out of the initial investigation.

In 2018, Packer was interviewed by journalist Samantha Poling for a documentary on the BBC program Disclosure. Packer denied killing Caldwell and said that he had never been violent towards women. Within days of the documentary being broadcast, one of his former partners went to the police to complain that Packer had pushed her onto a bed, put his hands around her throat, choked her to her injury, and to danger of life. Packer later admitted the charge, as well as a charge of stalking and breaching a court order preventing him from contacting the victim. He was convicted and only sentenced to two years.

Packer, 51, was sentenced to life with a minimum term of 36 years at the High Court in Glasgow this month after being found guilty of murdering the 27-year-old in 2005 Caldwell, as well as 11 rapes and 21 other charges, including sexual assaults, against other women.

Yet 'one of the UK's worst sex offenders' was left to roam the streets for nearly two decades despite officers being repeatedly told Packer 'is the man' and the warped killed taking officers in 2007 to the spot where Emma's body was dumped.