Policy and Advocacy

CAASE works with elected officials, public-opinion shapers and allies to improve our community’s response to sexual exploitation. We promote policy and advocacy reforms that will hold perpetrators of sexual harm accountable and create resources for survivors of prostitution, sex trafficking and sexual assault. Questions? Contact Lynne Johnson, Policy and Advocacy Director: lynne@caase.org.

End Demand Illinois: A Local Campaign with National Influence

CAASE is the lead agency for End Demand Illinois (EDI), a multi-year statewide campaign that seeks to transform our community's response to prostitution. EDI is working to end the routine arrest and re-arrest of women and girls in prostitution and instead proposes a statewide system of supportive services for survivors of the sex trade. In addition, EDI advocates for new tools and resources to allow law enforcement to begin arresting, charging, and prosecuting pimps, traffickers, and customers who create the demand for the sex trade. Illinois is receiving national attention for these innovative approaches.

The goals of End Demand Illinois are:

• Holding traffickers, pimps, and the people who buy commercial sex accountable for their crimes and deterring them from future trafficking and prostitution offenses.  
• Creating a network of support so prostituted and trafficked women and girls receive comprehensive, specialized supportive services to address their complex needs and provide meaningful alternatives to prostitution.
• Educating Illinois residents, elected officials, policy makers, and opinion leaders about the realities of prostitution and trafficking so they are moved to take action against demand.

Recent campaign successes include:

• Led an advocacy initiative to pass the Justice for Victims of Sex Trafficking Act in Illinois. Read the bill summary here.
• Partnering with the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless to defeat proposed “prostitution-free zones” in Chicago. Listen to the story on WBEZ and read a fact sheet about the issue here.
• Welcoming Rockford, Illinois as an End Demand community. Learn more here.  
• The release of our partners’ research: "From Victims to Victimizers: Interviews with 25 Ex-Pimps in Chicago” by Jody Raphael and Brenda Myers-Powell.

Want to spread the word? Get informed!

• Read our campaign fact sheet, as well as Myths about Women in Prostitution and Myths about Men who Buy Sex.

To learn more about the campaign, our partners
and steering committee members, visit www.enddemandillinois.org

Improving Local Government's Response to Sexual Assault

Rape crisis centers are vitally important to our community, but local government has not historically offered financial support to ensure that these services are available. In recent years, CAASE has led efforts to change this and secure new funding:

CAASE leads effort to secure rape crisis funding from Cook County Board
In November 2009, we led an organizing and policy effort to encourage Cook County to provide financial resources to support area rape crisis centers. Want to know where services are located within county districts? View a map of rape crisis services in Cook County here.

In May 2010, the County approved our request for $275,000 in grants to support Rape Victim Advocates, Pillars, YWCA of Metropolitan Chicago, Northwest CASA, and Mujeres Latinas en Acción. Again in 2011, CAASE was successful in leading a campaign to ask Cook County to renew this funding. Survivors and advocates described how CAASE’s leadership helped the effort: 

"Without the Cook County funding this year, rape crisis centers would have been forced to make devastating cuts to services to victims. CAASE’s leadership was essential to securing this funding."
-Polly Poskin, Executive Director, Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault.

Read more stories from advocates and survivors who benefited from this funding here.

What's Next: Asking the City of Chicago to Support Rape Crisis Services
Currently, CAASE and local rape crisis centers are advocating that the City of Chicago begin supporting rape crisis services. We have created several resources for this effort:

• Why should the City offer modest funding for rape crisis services? Read the fact sheet here.
• Where are rape crisis services in the City of Chicago? View a map here.
• Want to get involved? Sign up for our action alerts.

Legislative Resources Regarding Trafficking, Prostitution and Sexual Assault

Justice for Victims of Sex Trafficking Crimes: In 2011, Illinois was the third state in the nation to pass a law to enable victims of sex trafficking to vacate their prostitution convictions. Want to learn more? Read the bill summary here.

Illinois Safe Children Act: End Demand Illinois' first legislative initiative, created in partnership with Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez, this law ended the practice of charging young people who have been prostituted, and instead requires the child welfare system to investigate the case as human trafficking. You can download a summary of the bill here.

• Predator Accountability Act: Allows survivors of the sex trade to seek civil damages and remedies from individuals and businesses that recruited, harmed, profited from, or maintained them in the sex trade.
• Cook County Public Morals Nuisance Ordinance: Deters the demand for prostitution by increasing fines on people who buy sex.
• First Offender Probation Act: Offers people charged with their first prostitution offense an option for probation and services.
• A complete listing of Illinois’ Trafficking Laws can be found here. (Scroll down to 720 ILCS 5/10 – 9)
• A complete listing of Illinois’ Prostitution Laws can be found here. (720 ILCS Article 11 Subdivision 15)

Cook County Human Trafficking Taskforce
CAASE is a member of this local taskforce, which works to “Combat human trafficking through seamless collaboration between federal and state law enforcement and social service providers.”

• Read an overview of the taskforce here.
• Steps for agencies who encounter trafficking in Cook County.