Bill would fight sex slavery

Re “Slavery’s staying power,” Opinion, March 23

As a psychiatrist who has studied prostitution around the world, I am writing to observe that E. Benjamin Skinner’s definition of slavery, “forced to work, under threat of violence, for no pay beyond subsistence,” applies to most women in prostitution worldwide. Although the situation of a woman with Down syndrome, suicidal and sold into prostitution is the stuff of nightmares, so are the psychological and physical suffering and exploitation of those he dismisses because their situations are slightly less egregious. Being pimped -- what the bill he attacks covers -- is being bought and sold, the core of the slave relation. This bill would enable a comprehensive attack on domestic and international sex slavery for the first time.

Wendy Freed MD

Associate Clinical

Professor of

Psychiatry, USC

Los Angeles