When we're constantly conflating sex work and trafficking—I can say that many of the witnesses who have appeared before the committee have definitely been doing that—we miss out on actual violence and exploitation that happens in the sex industry but that does not rise to the level of trafficking. That's part of the negative work conditions that are caused by criminalization.
Criminalization really forces the sex industry into dark shadows and the underground. It really facilitates the violence and exploitation that happen. Calling them one and the same thing really does a disservice both to sex workers and the work they do, and to trafficking victims.