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UK – DEBATE FOR DECADES ON PROSTITUTION. SHOULD IT BE LEGALISED? SHOULD IT BE PUNISHED? WHO SHOULD BE TARGETED?

 

By Julie Bindel – November 9, 2014

Currently, the law in England & Wales is piecemeal and unclear, with policing focusing on street-prostitution, spurred on by complaints from residents. "What is the point of arresting women who are unfortunate enough to be involved in prostitution, when we should be putting everything in place to asset them out of this vile industry," says Heather Harvey, research and campaigns manager at Eaves, a charity that supports women trafficked into prostitution in the UK.

A recent article entitled, ‘Why It's Time to Legalize Prostitution' made the claim that, ‘Evidence shows that [legalisation] would protect sex workers, reduce violence, cut down on sex trafficking, and more. There's no good reason not to'.

The author argued that, "As with the drug trade, much of the violence associated with sex work is exacerbated by its illegality. Violent people are more likely to prey on sex workers, confident that they won't be reported to police." But the women in prostitution are not, like drugs, inanimate objects, and there is no evidence that buying sex is addictive.

The reality is that there are a minimum of one thousand working brothels in London. That's according to the Metropolitan Police, and most are left to operate with impunity, with many licenced as ‘saunas' or ‘massage parlours'.

There are two ways in which law and policy could shift in the UK. One is to go the route of Netherlands and Germany and legalise the entire trade, including pimping and brothel owning. The second is to see prostitution as a human rights violation, and to seek to abolish the trade.  One way to reduce supply, and to re-educate the general public about the reality of the sex trade is to aim criminal sanctions towards the buyers and not the women.

In 1999, Sweden took the brave step of being the first country to introduce a law that criminalised demand.  A number of countries later followed suit, including France, Northern Ireland, Norway, and Iceland.

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© Photo: Chartsbin.com

The Legal Status of Prostitution by Country

"We should be implementing laws where the men who buy or attempt to buy sex are targeted," says Ruth, a former prostitute who now trains police officers in how to best deal with street-based women, "because to challenge demand for prostitution would bring about a whole change in attitude about why men pay for sex."

Fiona Mactaggart MP, is currently pushing for the government to undertake a review of the links between prostitution and trafficking, as an amendment to the Modern Slavery Bill. Shadow Minister for Preventing Violence against Women and Girls, Seema Malhotra MP, supports the campaign to criminalise the demand. In the UK there are currently an estimated sixty to eighty thousand people, mainly women, involved in the sex trade. A number of studies show that a large majority are abused into prostitution when they are below the age of 18. Between 1990 and 2000, for example, the number of men paying for sex in the UK almost doubled. The trade itself is worth at least £130 million, according to the Home Office.

"It is high time the men who pay for sex take the blame for this vile trade, rather than prostituted women," says Amy, who left prostitution over a decade ago and works with vulnerable young women, "There are a handful of women who happily choose prostitution, and who make money from it. But the majority of those in the sex industry are there through a lack of choice, and their life stories commonly feature sexual abuse, neglect, domestic violence, and, in many cases, periods in local authority care."

Many in the UK are persuaded by the case for legalisation. Supporters, such as the lobby group, the English Collective of Prostitutes, argue that illegal prostitution drives the sex trade underground, resulting in the women becoming more vulnerable, both to arrest and to violence from buyers. Those in favour of legalisation argue that removing all laws would help to de-stigmatise people in prostitution, and would, in turn, help the victims of violence from pimps and customers to report crimes to the police. Trafficking and other forms of forced prostitution, underage victims, and coercion from pimps and other third party exploiters would be tackled under legalisation, goes the reasoning, and the women can pay tax and operate as independent businesswomen rather than relying on pimps.

But a number of countries with legalised regimes have found that repealing all laws have created a new set of problems. The Netherlands, which legalised its brothel scene in 2000, is already backtracking, with its politicians admitting that legalisation has failed to deliver on its promises.

In Amsterdam criminal gangs rather than individual entrepreneurs, control the red-light area. In recent years the local council has attempted to transform the reputation of the city. More than half of the window brothels have been replaced by museums, restaurants and art galleries.

Many of those controlling the window scene and facilitating the trafficking of thousands of women into Amsterdam are so-called "loverboys", young Dutchmen of Moroccan, Turkish or Surinamese descent, who look for vulnerable young Dutch women. They pose as boyfriends, eventually forcing their "girlfriends" into prostitution.

The brothels are largely populated by vulnerable women from Eastern Europe, Africa and south-east Asia to work in the legal zones. Many will have been trafficked by criminal gangs or individual entrepreneurs. The number of women being trafficked into the Netherlands has increased, whereas in countries where demand is criminalised, such as Sweden, numbers are dwindling.

"There is little good to be said for legalisation," says Roger Matthews, a Professor of Criminology at Kent University. "Research has shown that the majority of women in prostitution actually want to get out, and many are badly damaged by it."

A 2008 evaluation of the Swedish law, shows that legislation criminalising demand has been a resounding success. The evaluation concludes that, since the law came in to force in 1999, the number of women involved in street prostitution has halved, whereas neighbouring countries such as Denmark and Norway have seen a sharp rise.  There is also no evidence of a rise in the off-street trade in Sweden.

The advertising of prostitution through the internet has increased in Sweden, as it has in other countries. This is not due to the law, the evaluation concludes, but to the development of online technology generally.

The evaluators also found that the law functioned as a barrier against the establishment of traffickers and pimps in Sweden, and had led to a reduction in organised crime.

Legalisation offers little benefit to the women, as most do not wish to register as prostitutes, and often they are controlled by men with whom they live. This means they don't benefit from the freedom that being a ‘sole trader' is supposed to bring. But it does benefit the pimps, who, under legalisation, become ‘managers'. As a result, the men who buy and sell women are de-stigmatised, and by claiming that prostitution is a legitimate career choice, many more women will be coerced into this abusive industry. Surely the UK can take a brave step towards ending the sex trade, rather than continuing to view it as an inevitable part of the landscape?

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