How does my activity affect others?

When you buy sex, we all pay.

Women pay with their lives:  Since 1983 in the Edmonton area, more than 40 women have been murdered and or missing. Many of the women are vulnerable because of addictions and sexual exploitation.

Their families and communities grieve their loss. Boys and girls, women, men and transgendered are exploited daily and are frequently the victims of violence.

Residents pay through the degradation and social disorder caused by men cruising communities trolling for vulnerable children and women and harassing children on their way to school, or women waiting at bus stops.

Taxpayers pay through increased costs for policing, courts, and jails.

Who else pays?

Families of men who are sex buyers pay. Trust is broken, relationships are harmed. Some women find out the hard way when they seek medical help and find they have been infected by their husbands. The shadow of hurt, anger and shame creeps into the home. Children whether young or older are impacted by their father’s behaviour and see their mother’s hurt. Many families break under the strain and the costs of divorce and family maintenance are high, both emotionally and financially.

Health costs increase when there are outbreaks of sexually transmitted infections, such as the syphilis outbreak in Alberta since 2002. Babies have died, families have suffered.

These are only some of the costs of sexual exploitation in Edmonton.