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Article #7: Legalizing prostitution

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The following arguments apply to all 2 major studies on sex trafficking and
state-sponsored forms of prostitution, prostitution, interviewing almost 200
including but not limited to full-scale victims of commercial sexual
legalization of brothels and pimping, exploitation. In these studies, women in
decriminalization of the sex industry, prostitution indicated that prostitution
regulating prostitution by laws such as establishments did little to protect
registering or mandating health checks them, regardless of whether they were in
for women in prostitution, or any system legal or illegal establishments. The only
in which prostitution is recognized as time they protect anyone is to protect
sex work or advocated as an employment the customers.
choice. In a CATW 5-country study that
As countries are considering legalizing interviewed 146 victims of international
and decriminalizing the sex industry, we trafficking and local prostitution, 80%
urge you to consider the ways in which of all women interviewed suffered
legitimating prostitution as work does physical violence from pimps and buyers)
not empower the women in prostitution but and endured similar and multiple health
does everything to strengthen the sex effects from the violence and sexual
industry. exploitation (Raymond et al: 2002).
ARGUMENTS: 1.Legalization The violence that women were subjected to
decriminalization of prostitution is a was an intrinsic part of the prostitution
gift to pimps, traffickers and the sex and sexual exploitation.
industry. Pimps used violence for many different
What does legalization of prostitution or reasons and purposes. Violence was used
decriminalization of the sex industry to initiate some women into prostitution
mean? In the Netherlands, legalization and to break them down so that they would
amounts to sanctioning all aspects of the do the sexual acts. After initiation, at
sex industry: the women themselves, the every step of the way, violence was used
so-called clients and the pimps who, for sexual gratification of the pimps, as
under the regime of legalization, are a form of punishment, to threaten and
transformed into third party businessmen intimidate women, to exert the pimp's
and legitimate sexual entrepreneurs. dominance, to exact compliance, to punish
Legalization/decriminalization of the sex women for alleged violations, to
industry also converts brothels, sex humiliate women, and to isolate and
clubs, massage parlors and other sites of confine women.
prostitution activities into legitimate Of the women who did report that sex
venues where commercial sexual acts are establishments gave some protection, they
allowed to flourish legally with few qualified it by pointing out that no
restraints. protector was ever in the room with them,
Ordinary people believe that, in calling where anything could occur. One woman who
for legalization or decriminalization of was in out-call prostitution stated: The
prostitution, they are dignifying and driver functioned as a bodyguard.
professionalizing the women in You're supposed to call when you get in,
prostitution. But dignifying prostitution to ascertain that everything was OK. But
as work doesn't dignify the women, it they are not standing outside the door
simply dignifies the sex industry. People while you're in there, so anything could
often don't realize that happen. CATW's studies found that even
decriminalization, for example, means surveillance cameras in prostitution
decriminalization of the whole sex establishments are used to protect the
industry not just the women. And they establishment. Protection of the women
haven't thought through the consequences from abuse is of secondary or no
of legalizing pimps as legitimate sex importance.
entrepreneurs or third party businessmen, 7.Legalization/decriminalization of
or the fact that men who buy women for prostitution increases the demand for
sexual activity are now accepted as prostitution. It boosts the motivation of
legitimate consumers of sex. men to buy women for sex in a much wider
CATW favors decriminalization of the and more permissible range of socially
women in prostitution. No woman should be acceptable settings.
punished for her own exploitation. But With the advent of legalization in
States should never decriminalize pimps, countries that have decriminalized the
buyers, procurers, brothels or other sex sex industry, many men who would not risk
establishments. buying women for sex now see prostitution
2.Legalization/decriminalization of as acceptable. When the legal barriers
prostitution and the sex industry disappear, so too do the social and
promotes sex trafficking. ethical barriers to treating women as
Legalized or decriminalized prostitution sexual commodities.
industries are one of the root causes of Legalization of prostitution sends the
sex trafficking. One argument for message to new generations of men and
legalizing prostitution in the boys that women are sexual commodities
Netherlands was that legalization would and that prostitution is harmless fun.
help end the exploitation of desperate As men have an excess of sexual services
immigrant women trafficked for that are offered to them, women must
prostitution. A report done for the compete to provide services by engaging
governmental Budapest Group* stated that in anal sex, sex without condoms, bondage
80% of women in the brothels in the and domination and other proclivities
Netherlands are trafficked from other demanded by the clients. Once
countries (Budapest Group, 1999: 11). As prostitution is legalized, all holds are
early as 1994, the International barred. Women's reproductive capacities
Organization of Migration (IOM) stated are sellable products, for example. A
that in the Netherlands alone, nearly 70 whole new group of clients find pregnancy
per cent of trafficked women were from a sexual turn-on and demand breast milk
CEEC [Central and Eastern European in their sexual encounters with pregnant
Countries] (IOM, 1995: 4). women. Specialty brothels are provided
The government of the Netherlands for disabled men, and State-employed
promotes itself as the champion of caretakers who are mostly women must take
anti-trafficking policies and programs, these men to the brothels if they wish to
yet cynically has removed every legal go (Sullivan and Jeffreys: 2001).
impediment to pimping, procurement and Advertisements line the highways of
brothels. In the year 2000, the Dutch Victoria offering women as objects for
Ministry of Justice argued for a legal sexual use and teaching new generations
quota of foreign sex workers, because the of men and boys to treat women as
Dutch prostitution market demands a subordinates. Businessmen are encouraged
variety of bodies (Dutting, 2001: 16). to hold their corporate meetings in these
Also in the year 2000, the Dutch clubs where owners supply naked women on
government sought and received a judgment the table at tea breaks and lunchtime.
from the European Court recognizing A Melbourne brothel owner stated that the
prostitution as an economic activity, client base was well educated
thus enabling women from the EU and professional men, who visit during the
former Soviet bloc countries to obtain day and then go home to their families.
working permits as sex workers in the Women who desire more egalitarian
Dutch sex industry if they can prove that relationships with men find that often
they are self employed. NGOs in the the men in their lives are visiting the
Netherlands have stated that traffickers brothels and sex clubs. They have the
are taking advantage of this ruling to choice to accept that their male partners
bring foreign women into the Dutch are buying women in commercial sexual
prostitution industry by masking the fact transactions, avoid recognizing what
that women have been trafficked, and by their partners are doing, or leave the
coaching the women how to prove that they relationship (Sullivan and Jeffreys:
are self-employed migrant sex workers. 2001).
In the one year since lifting the ban on Sweden's Violence Against Women,
brothels in the Netherlands, NGOs report Government Bill 1997/98:55 prohibits and
that there has been an increase of penalizes the purchase of sexual
victims of trafficking or, at best, that services. It is an innovative approach
the number of victims from other that targets the demand for prostitution.
countries has remained the same (Bureau Sweden believes that by prohibiting the
NRM, 2002: 75). Forty-three purchase of sexual services, prostitution
municipalities in the Netherlands want to and its damaging effects can be
follow a no-brothel policy, but the counteracted more effectively than
Minister of Justice has indicated that hitherto. Importantly, this law clearly
the complete banning of prostitution states that: Prostitution is not a
within any municipality could conflict desirable social phenomenon and is an
with the right to free choice of work obstacle to the ongoing development
(Bureau NRM: 2002) as guaranteed in the towards equality between women and men.**
federal Grondwet or Constitution. 8.Legalization/decriminalization of
In January, 2002, prostitution in Germany prostitution does not promote women's
was fully established as a legitimate job health.
after years of being legalized in A legalized system of prostitution that
so-called eros or tolerance zones. mandates health checks and certification
Promotion of prostitution, pimping and only for women and not for clients is
brothels are now legal in Germany. blatantly discriminatory to women. Women
As early as 1993, after the first steps only health checks make no public health
towards legalization had been taken, it sense because monitoring prostituted
was recognized (even by pro-prostitution women does not protect them from HIV/AIDS
advocates) that 75 per cent of the women or STDs, since male clients can and do
in Germany's prostitution industry were originally transmit disease to the women.
foreigners from Uruguay, Argentina, It is argued that legalized brothels or
Paraguay and other countries in South other controlled prostitution
America (Altink, 1993: 33). After the establishments protect women through
fall of the Berlin wall, brothel owners enforceable condom policies. In one of
reported that 9 out of every 10 women in CATW's studies, U.S. women in
the German sex industry were from eastern prostitution interviewed reported the
Europe (Altink, 1993: 43) and other following: 47% stated that men expected
former Soviet countries. sex without a condom; 73% reported that
The sheer volume of foreign women who are men offered to pay more for sex without a
in the prostitution industry in Germany, condom; 45% of women said they were
by some NGO estimates now up to 85 per abused if they insisted that men use
cent, casts further doubt on the fact condoms. Some women said that certain
that these numbers of women could have establishments may have rules that men
entered Germany without facilitation. As wear condoms but, in reality, men still
in the Netherlands, NGOs report that most try to have sex without them. One woman
of the foreign women have been trafficked stated:It's regulation to wear a condom
into the country since it is almost at the sauna, but negotiable between
impossible for poor women to facilitate parties on the side. Most guys expected
their own migration, underwrite the costs blow jobs without a condom (Raymond and
of travel and travel documents, and set Hughes: 2001).
themselves up in business without outside In reality, the enforcement of condom
help. policy was left to the individual women
The link between legalization of in prostitution, and the offer of extra
prostitution and trafficking in Australia money was an insistent pressure. One
was recognized in the U.S. State woman stated: ;I'd be one of those liars
Department's 1999 Country Report on Human if I said "Oh I always used a condom." If
Rights Practices, released by the Bureau there was extra money coming in, then the
of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. In condom would be out the window. I was
the country report on Australia, it was looking for the extra money. Many factors
noted that in the State of Victoria which militate against condom use: the need of
legalized prostitution in the 1980s, women to make money; older women's
trafficking in East Asian women for the decline in attractiveness to men;
sex trade is a growing problem in competition from places that do not
Australia. Lax laws, including legalized require condoms; pimp pressure on women
prostitution in parts of the country, to have sex with no condom for more
make [anti-trafficking] enforcement money; money needed for a drug habit or
difficult at the working level. to pay off the pimp; and the general lack
3.Legalization/decriminalization of of control that prostituted women have
prostitution does not control the sex over their bodies in prostitution venues.
industry. It expands it. So called "safety policies" in brothels
Contrary to claims that legalization and did not protect women from harm. Even
decriminalization would regulate the where brothels supposedly monitored the
expansion of the sex industry and bring "customers" and utilized "bouncers,"
it under control, the sex industry now women stated that they were injured by
accounts for 5 percent of the Netherlands buyers and, at times, by brothel owners
economy (Daley, 2001: 4). Over the last and their friends. Even when someone
decade, as pimping became legalized and intervened to control buyers' abuse,
then brothels decriminalized in the women lived in a climate of fear.
Netherlands in 2000, the sex industry Although 60 percent of women reported
expanded 25 percent (Daley, 2001: 4). At that buyers had sometimes been prevented
any hour of the day, women of all ages from abusing them, half of those women
and races, dressed in hardly anything, answered that, nonetheless, they thought
are put on display in the notorious that they might be killed by one of their
windows of Dutch brothels and sex clubs "customers (Raymond et al: 2002).
and offered for sale - for male 9.Legalization/decriminalization of
consumption. Most of them are women from prostitution does not enhance women's
other countries (Daley, 2001: 4) who have choice.
in all likelihood been trafficked into Most women in prostitution did not make a
the Netherlands. rational choice to enter prostitution.
There are now officially recognized They did not sit down one day and decide
associations of sex businesses and that they wanted to be prostitutes.
prostitution customers in the Netherlands Rather, such choicesare better termed
that consult and collaborate with the survival strategies. Rather than consent,
government to further their interests and a prostituted woman more accurately
promote prostitution. These include the complies to the only options available to
Association of Operators of Relaxation her. Her compliance is required by the
Businesses, the Cooperating Consultation very fact of having to adapt to
of Operators of Window Prostitution, and conditions of inequality that are set by
the Man/Woman and Prostitution the customer who pays her to do what he
Foundation, a group of men who regularly wants her to do.
use women in prostitution, and whose Most of the women interviewed in CATW
specific aims include to make studies reported that choice in entering
prostitution and the use of services of the sex industry could only be discussed
prostitutes more accepted and openly in the context of the lack of other
discussible, and to protect the interests options. Most emphasized that women in
of clients (NRM Bureau, 2002:115-16). prostitution had few other options. Many
Faced with a dearth of women who want to spoke about prostitution as the last
work in the legal sex sector, the Dutch option, or as an involuntary way of
National Rapporteur on Trafficking states making ends meet. In one study, 67% of
that in the future, a proposed solution the law enforcement officials that CATW
may be to offer [to the market] interviewed expressed the opinion that
prostitutes from non EU/EEA countries, women did not enter prostitution
who voluntarily choose to work in voluntarily. 72% of the social service
prostitution. They could be given legal providers that CATW interviewed did not
and controlled access to the Dutch market believe that women voluntarily choose to
(NRM Bureau, 2002: 140). As prostitution enter the sex industry (Raymond and
has been transformed into sex work, and Hughes: 2001).
pimps into entrepreneurs, so too this The distinction between forced and
potential solution transforms trafficking voluntary prostitution is precisely what
into voluntary migration for sex work.The the sex industry is promoting because it
Netherlands is looking to the future, will give the industry more security and
targeting poor women of color for the legal stability if these distinctions can
international sex trade to remedy the be utilized to legalize prostitution,
inadequacies of the free market of sexual pimping and brothels. Women who bring
services. In the process, it goes further charges against pimps and perpetrators
in legitimizing prostitution as an option will bear the burden of proving that they
for the poor. were forced. How will marginalized women
Legalization of prostitution in the State ever be able to prove coercion? If
of Victoria, Australia, has led to prostituted women must prove that force
massive expansion of the sex industry. was used in recruitment or in their
Whereas there were 40 legal brothels in working conditions, very few women in
Victoria in 1989, in 1999 there were 94, prostitution will have legal recourse and
along with 84 escort services. Other very few offenders will be prosecuted.
forms of sexual exploitation, such as Women in prostitution must continually
tabletop dancing, bondage and discipline lie about their lives, their bodies, and
centers, peep shows, phone sex, and their sexual responses. Lying is part of
pornography have all developed in much the job definition when the customer
more profitable ways than before asks,did you enjoy it? The very edifice
(Sullivan and Jeffreys: 2001). of prostitution is built on the lie that
Prostitution has become an accepted women like it. Some prostitution
sideline of the tourism and casino boom survivors have stated that it took them
in Victoria with government-sponsored years after leaving prostitution to
casinos authorizing the redeeming of acknowledge that prostitution wasn't a
casino chips and wheel of fortune bonuses free choice because to deny their own
at local brothels (Sullivan and Jeffreys: capacity to choose was to deny
2001). The commodification of women has themselves.
vastly intensified and is much more There is no doubt that a small number of
visible. women say they choose to be in
Brothels in Switzerland have doubled prostitution, especially in public
several years after partial legalization contexts orchestrated by the sex
of prostitution. Most of these brothels industry. In the same way, some people
go untaxed, and many are illegal. In choose to take dangerous drugs such as
1999, the Zurich newspaper, Blick, heroin. However, even when some people
claimed that Switzerland had the highest choose to take dangerous drugs, we still
brothel density of any country in Europe, recognize that this kind of drug use is
with residents feeling overrun with harmful to them, and most people do not
prostitution venues, as well as seek to legalize heroin. In this
experiencing constant encroachment into situation, it is harm to the person, not
areas not zoned for prostitution the consent of the person that is the
activities (South China Morning Post: governing standard.
1999). Even a 1998 ILO (UN International Labor
4.Legalization/decriminalzaton of Organization) report suggesting that the
prostitution increases clandestine, sex industry be treated as a legitimate
hidden, illegal and street prostitution. economic sector, found that prostitution
Legalization was supposed to get is one of the most alienated forms of
prostituted women off the street. Many labour; the surveys [in 4 countries] show
women don't want to register and undergo that women worked "with a heavy
health checks, as required by law in heart,""felt forced,"or were
certain countries legalizing ";conscience-stricken" and had negative
prostitution, so legalization often self-identities. A significant proportion
drives them into street prostitution. And claimed they wanted to leave sex work
many women choose street prostitution [sic] if they could (Lim, 1998: 213)."
because they want to avoid being When a woman remains in an abusive
controlled and exploited by the new sex relationship with a partner who batters
businessmen. her, or even when she defends his
In the Netherlands, women in prostitution actions, concerned people don't say she
point out that legalization or is there voluntarily. They recognize the
decriminalization of the sex industry complexity of her compliance. Like
cannot erase the stigma of prostitution battered women, women in prostitution
but, instead, makes women more vulnerable often deny their abuse if provided with
to abuse because they must register and no meaningful alternatives.
lose anonymity. Thus, the majority of 10.Women in systems of prostitution do
women in prostitution still choose to not want the sex industry legalized or
operate illegally and underground. decriminalized.
Members of Parliament who originally In a 5-country study on sex trafficking
supported the legalization of brothels on done by the Coalition Against Trafficking
the grounds that this would liberate in Women and funded by the Ford
women are now seeing that legalization Foundation, most of the 146 women
actually reinforces the oppression of interviewed strongly stated that
women (Daley, 2001: A1). prostitution should not be legalized and
The argument that legalization was considered legitimate work, warning that
supposed to take the criminal elements legalization would create more risks and
out of sex businesses by strict harm for women from already violent
regulation of the industry has failed. customer and pimps (Raymond et al, 2002).
The real growth in prostitution in "No way. It's not a profession. It is
Australia since legalization took effect humiliating and violence from the men's
has been in the illegal sector. Since the side. Not one woman interviewed wanted
onset of legalization in Victoria, her children, family or friends to have
brothels have tripled in number and to earn money by entering the sex
expanded in size; the vast majority industry. One stated: Prostitution
having no licenses but advertising and stripped me of my life, my health,
operating with impunity (Sullivan and everything.
Jeffreys: 2001). In New South Wales, CONCLUSION
brothels were decriminalized in 1995. In Legislators leap onto the legalization
1999, the numbers of brothels in Sydney bandwagon because they think nothing else
had increased exponentially to 400-500. is successful. However, as Scotland
The vast majority have no license to Yard's Commissioner has stated: ...You've
operate. To end endemic police got to be careful about legalizing things
corruption, control of illegal just because you don't think what you are
prostitution was taken out of the hands doing is successful.
of the police and placed in the hands of We hear very little about the role of the
local councils and planning regulators. sex industry in creating a global sex
The council has neither the money nor the market in the bodies of women and
personnel to put investigators into children. Instead, we hear much about
brothels to flush out and prosecute making prostitution into a better job for
illegal operators. women through regulation and/or
5.Legalization of prostitution and legalization, through unions of so-called
decriminalization of the sex industry sex workers,and through campaigns which
increases child prostitution. provide condoms to women in prostitution
Another argument for legalizing but cannot provide them with alternatives
prostitution in the Netherlands was that to prostitution. We hear much about how
it would help end child prostitution. In to keep women in prostitution but very
reality, however, child prostitution in little about how to help women get out.
the Netherlands has increased Governments that legalize prostitution as
dramatically during the 1990s. The sex work will have a huge economic stake
Amsterdam-based ChildRight organization in the sex industry. Consequently, this
estimates that the number has gone from will foster their increased dependence on
4,000 children in 1996 to 15,000 in 2001. the sex sector. If women in prostitution
The group estimates that at least 5,000 are counted as workers, pimps as
of the children in prostitution are from businessmen, and buyers as consumers of
other countries, with a large segment sexual services, thus legitimating the
being Nigerian girls (Tiggeloven: 2001). entire sex industry as an economic
Child prostitution has dramatically risen sector, then governments can abdicate
in Victoria compared to other Australian responsibility for making decent and
states