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OREGON CITY, Or. -- Clackamas County Deputy District Attorneys Rachel Erickson and Aisha Amiri recently addressed the challenges faced by prosecutors in combating illicit massage businesses (IMBs) in a recent interview with television station KPTV.
There are hundreds of IMBs offering sexual services and operating openly throughout Oregon. They are essentially brothels in plain sight and often run by criminal organizations engaged in sex trafficking. The IMBs typically go unnoticed by the public. And once criminal charges are filed, the cases are challenging to prosecute.
Erickson and Amiri (pictured above from left to right) currently are prosecuting cases involving IMBs, including one involving an individual engaged in managing the businesses and charged with promoting prostitution.
“Illicit massage businesses exploit vulnerable individuals, promote human trafficking, and undermine legitimate businesses in our community,” Amiri said.
Many of the women who are forced to work at IMBs are Chinese and speak little or no English.
“People are not calling 911 saying, ‘I’m being sex trafficked,’” Erickson said. “Law enforcement really has to go seek it out — have an interest, have the budget, have the people and manpower to look into these issues. It is extremely resource intensive.”
“If we show these criminal organizations that you cannot operate here with impunity — you cannot operate in the shadows and have no one do anything about it — that has an effect,” Erickson said. “Whether we’re going to dismantle an entire criminal organization? Probably not. But we will deter this conduct and hopefully make a few more victims safe because of it.”
The Clackamas County District Attorney’s Office is committed to combating illicit massage businesses.
“We will continue to hold these offenders accountable, empower victims, and protect the public,” Amiri said.