SEATTLE — The Seattle City Council was unanimous
Monday in changing the name of the crime of "patronizing a prostitute"
to "sexual exploitation." Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes
asked for the name change to reflect "our more modern understanding that
prostitution has a lot of unwilling participants."
The Seattle Times reports the crime remains a simple
misdemeanor but the Washington
Legislature is being asked to make it a gross misdemeanor. That would increase
the maximum penalty from 90 days to a year in jail.
The name change is “one more step in the City’s efforts to rewrite the
prostitution narrative to target sex buyers more and prostituted persons less,”
(Associated Press, January 13, 2015)
