(DISRN) – Manhattan's district attorney announced this week that his office will no longer be prosecuting prostitution and unlicensed massage.
Cyrus Vance Jr. said Wednesday that those laws disproportionately impacted LGBT individuals and other vulnerable populations. He called for the dismissal of more than 900 related cases that date back over half a century.
"Over the last decade we've learned from those with lived experience, and from our own experience on the ground: criminally prosecuting prostitution does not make us safer, and too often, achieves the opposite result by further marginalizing vulnerable New Yorkers," Vance said. He argued that dismissing cases against sex workers, as well as expunging the criminal records of others, would secure "a paradigm shift in our approach."
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