A Chicago Sun-Times editorial board member made the inflammatory and false suggestion that sex workers cannot be victims of rape.

In a September 12 column, the Sun-Times' Mary Mitchell wrote about criminal charges against an Illinois man who is accused of raping a sex worker at gunpoint, claiming that the case “is making a mockery of rape victims” and arguing that “it's tough to see this unidentified prostitute as a victim.”

Mitchell contended that the case is “actually more like theft of services” rather than sexual assault to push the false suggestion that sex workers cannot be raped.

There is no legal loophole that exempts rapists from criminal charges if their victim was a sex worker.

Furthermore, sex workers have a dramatically higher-than-average chance (45 to 75 percent) of experiencing sexual violence at some point during their careers, and the homicide rate for female prostitutes “constitutes a higher occupational mortality rate than any other group of women ever studied,” according to a 2012 report from anti-human trafficking group Fondation Scelles.

In her column, Mitchell also engaged in victim blaming, writing that “when you agree to meet a strange man in a strange place for the purpose of having strange sex for money, you are putting yourself at risk for harm.” Mitchell even asserted that she is “grateful” that the man charged with aggravated criminal sexual assault in the case “isn't being accused of snatching an innocent woman off the street,” absurdly implying the victim had a hand in bringing on her own assault. From Mitchell's column (emphasis added):

A recent case involving a prostitute and a john is making a mockery of rape victims. Authorities say Roy Akins went to Backpage.com and agreed to pay a prostitute $180 for sex. When the unidentified woman showed up at his Austin home for the transaction, Akins allegedly took her to the bedroom and, instead of handing over the cash, pulled a gun. [...] I don't have one iota of sympathy for Akins' plight. But I'm grateful he isn't being accused of snatching an innocent woman off the street. [...] But when you agree to meet a strange man in a strange place for the purpose of having strange sex for money, you are putting yourself at risk for harm. It's tough to see this unidentified prostitute as a victim. And because this incident is being charged as a criminal sexual assault -- when it's actually more like theft of services -- it minimizes the act of rape. Earlier this month, we saw what a rape victim looks like. Melissa Schuster, 26, of Willowbrook, was stabbed 17 times and suffered a fractured nose, broken bones and eye injuries when she was raped by a man who broke into her home after demanding cash.

As Jezebel's Stassa Edwards accurately noted, Mitchell's assertion that “real rape victims ... are women who have been beaten, bruised and assaulted despite doing 'nothing to bring about this terrible, terrible ordeal'” implies that sex workers are less than human, and consequently suggests -- incomprehensibly -- that “being raped at gunpoint is hardly a crime.”