By admin 
PHOENIX (AZFamily) — One of Arizona’s newest laws targets people who pay for sex, making it a felony.
Read more Cow seen running away after falling from cliff ledge in northeast Arizona
The Department of Justice has identified Phoenix as one of the top human trafficking jurisdictions in the country in recent years.
Advocates fighting against human trafficking are celebrating the new law, but they say there is still more work to be done.
Sheri Lopez was 15 years old when someone she knew groomed her and turned her into a trafficking victim.
“I was sold 6,000 times in seven years,” Lopez said.
Lopez, now the President of the Arizona Human Trafficking Survivor Coalition, helped advocate for the new law.
“If we don’t learn how to curb demand and actually provide some type of penalty that’s going to make people think twice before they solicit,” Lopez said.
In Arizona, it is now a Class 6 felony to buy sex, a harsher penalty than the previous misdemeanor charge.
Dominique Roe-Sepowitz is the director of the Office of Sex Trafficking Intervention Research at Arizona State University.
“We think it’s a big deal,” Roe-Sepowitz said.
Roe-Sepowitz’s research has found nine out of 10 people in prostitution situations in Arizona are trafficking victims.
Read more ‘This is a crime story’: Putting polarizing politics aside to cover the killing of Charlie Kirk
“There are so many different ways that we can collectively as a community fight sex trafficking,” Roe-Sepowitz said. “One of them is to create penalties that have teeth to them, that feel uncomfortable, that sends a message to the country, don’t come to Arizona.”
The stretch near 27th Avenue and Indian School Road, also called “The Blade,“ is a known hotbed for prostitution. Despite what people think prostitution and human trafficking always looks like, it presents itself in different ways all over.
“The bottom line is no zip code is immune,” Lopez said.
The new law also creates an anti-human trafficking grant fund. Anyone convicted under the new felony law would pay $200 toward the fund.
Advocates say there is more to be done, focusing on education.
“I think some investment in prevention,” Roe-Sepowitz said.
“The main goal with everybody that’s been a survivor is we don’t want somebody to go through what we went through,” Lopez said. “We don’t want that to happen, and so if we can do everything we can to educate what the grooming process is.”
The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office said it has seen a significant increase in sex trafficking case submittals from law enforcement in recent years.
Buying sex isn’t a victimless crime. Demand from buyers makes the sex trade profitable, which in turn draws in traffickers. In addition to the exploitation of women and men, prostitution also leads to increased drugs and other crimes in the area. We are hopeful that this new law will help deter people from soliciting a prostitute, making it a safer place for everyone in Maricopa County.
See a spelling or grammatical error in our story? Please click here to report it.
Do you have a photo or video of a breaking news story? Send it to us here with a brief description.
Read more Pima County deputy cited after crash