This presentation was given at the 2018 Coalition to End Sexual Exploitation Global Summit hosted by the National Center on Sexual Exploitation. (EndExploitationSummit.com)
VALIANT RICHEY
Senior Deputy Prosecuting Attorney, King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office
Sex trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation are driven by sex buying. If there were no buyers there would be no business. And yet, even as the volume of sex buying across the country balloons, the harmful practice has traditionally been neglected in efforts to address exploitation. Val will talk about a project in Seattle dedicated to ending commercial sexual exploitation by reducing sex buying. The initiative, “The Ending Exploitation Collaborative” is a unique coalition of organizations including prosecutors, social services, advocacy organizations and law enforcement. Val will discuss some of their innovative tactics including high volume online deterrence, social media, community education, business engagement, media engagement, high school education, and creative law enforcement.
Valiant Richey is a King County Senior Deputy Prosecuting Attorney. For the last eight years, he has worked in the Special Assault Unit, which handles cases involving the sexual abuse of children and adults and the physical abuse of children. Currently, Val is a senior trial attorney in the unit and is responsible for prosecuting cases involving sex traffickers and the purchase of children for sex. He is also one of two coordinators for the “Ending Exploitation Collaborative,” a multi-sector partnership in King County to end commercial sexual exploitation. Val has conducted numerous trainings and briefings on sex trafficking and exploitation for law enforcement, service providers, policy makers and the general public. He also serves on the Washington State Commercially Sexually Exploited Children and Trafficking in Persons Coordinating Committees. He has a BA and MA in Political Science from Boston University and a JD from the University of Washington.
