If I know my sources at all, I should acknowledge that Andrea pointed me in this direction. Thanks.
I cannot post a direct link to the article in question, as it names a provider's name (though with her full permission), but after some discussion the mods have informed me that I can tell you it is on the Chicago Reporter and titled Escorted to Jail. PM me if you cannot find it.
A few highlights.
The new, anti-trafficking law is almost exclusively being used to charge providers with felonies when it is their second, or any subsequent, time. Clients are just about all being charged with midemeanors under municipal statutes, which means a misdemeanor and no escalation if caught more than once. Public shame may still be viewed by LE as the main deterrent for clients. So the result of the law is the opposite of the End Demand intention - guys are getting prosecuted as lightly, or even less, than before, while the ladies are being further stigmatized (a felony conviction making it that much harder to get into any other sort of job).
Some mild suggestions in the article that End Demand might be a little unhappy with this state of affairs, but I am not certain I am properly reading between the lines.
No real surprises - the primary focus in the world of the vice squad is always going to be on numbers, lots of convictions in each year, for a reasonable price. And they will always go for the maximum, legal penalty they can secure. What that means in practice is that they will do cheap, indiscriminate stings using as wide a net as possible, and when they actually have a pimp, trafficker or underage provider who falls into the net they will promote the hell out of it. But they will not actually launch investigations specifically targeting trafficking or under-age providers because that would take too long, cost too much for a small number of busts (in some cases, zero), and require a lot of cross-jurisdictional cooperation and coordination.
Which is terribly unfortunate in almost every way, but somewhat understandable given the system. What is truly disappointing is that the net result of this is that they are coming down harder on adult providers. And it is more than a little ironic that everyone involved (End Demand, providers and clients) except LE agrees with that.
I admit to being a numbers guy, and the fact that the article provides hard numbers is what I found most interesting.
With other, similar laws, I expect the result would be the same, no matter the intention. The law will be used as a harsher penalty for the same people they have been arresting all along. The key to reducing trafficking and under-age providers is not new laws, for, as MF said, such activities are very much against the law now. The key is to find the resolve to focus on enforcing the laws and target the specific people, and not paid, consensual sex between two adults. New laws will not change the situation in any way, except that there will be more happy press releases from LE and legislators.
That is how I see it anyway.
zig