Dividing line between sex trade and sex work

March 14, 2022 – There is widespread agreement about the need to avoid criminalizing victims of sex trafficking, but how should New York handle the other players involved in the sex trade, including adults who aren’t coerced into sex work or the New Yorkers who pay for sex? For answers we turned to Melanie Thompson of the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women and Alexi Meyers of Sanctuary for Families, who are pushing legislation that would decriminalize sex work, while still preventing it from becoming a legal profession.