Heavy topic! And not one that can include a lot of pictures really, so sorry about the heavy amount of text.
This one was actually another request from Gabby, who I'm highly suspicious, likes to know stuff, but prefers someone else to do the research? She's a snakey one, but it suits me. I love reading. So here you are Gabs: My opinion on the legalisation of prostitution in the UK. This one's for you.
When I was first presented with this potential post title, my instant reaction was that yes, I do think that prostitution should be legalised, for reasons I will discuss shortly. Since conducting my research though, my thoughts on the matter have shifted somewhat. But all in good time...
I think it important, first and foremost, to ascertain the current laws on prostitution in the UK. Actually, probably the main reason I want to start with this is because I've literally just read up on it and am pretty worried that I am going to forget it all very quickly if I don't write it all down immediately. It's quite complicated. From what I understand, this is how the law on prostitution currently stands in the UK (law students, please correct me if I haven't got this right):
Prostitution is currently NOT illegal, HOWEVER, there is a lot of legislation surrounding the act which makes it very difficult to engage in...
1. It's illegal to pay for a prostitute if they have been in any way coerced into any form of sex act by either the buyer, or a third party, against their own will.
2. Curb crawling is illegal.
3. Street work is illegal.
4. Brothels are illegal. The definition of a brothel relates to a place where more than one sex worker engages in sexual activity in exchange for a financial agreement.
5. Working as a prostitute in private is not illegal.
6. Escorting is not illegal.
7. In the case of prostitution, the legal age is 18, which differs to the normal consensual age of regular sex, which is currently 16 in the UK. Prostitution is strictly illegal below the age of 18.
Ok, so legality out the way, I would like to bring this back around to my initial reaction. I guess I've always heard, and could understand the argument that if prostitution is legalised, then it can be regulated. I do genuinely believe that there will always be a market for prostitution, so surely these regulations would at least offer some security as well as legal and medical assistance for the women involved? Bringing it above board would also mean less demand for black-market sexual slavery.
I think this is actually a common argument for the legalisation of the sex industry. Most recently this argument has been backed by the Women's Institute, who assert that legalising brothels would protect sex workers from assault, exploitation and drug dependency, as well as giving the workers themselves better access to health care, education and medication.
They also believe that allowing prostitutes to work in licensed premises would help prevent child prostitution, people trafficking and slavery as the women would have to be registered to work- requiring necessary working documents. Furthermore, if legalised, any abuse or exploitation within the industry could be more easily reported.
I actually felt like it would be approriate for me to include some positive statistics here from countries such at the Netherlands and Germany who have decriminalised prostitution, however it's a difficult one to present. It's not so much the figures of prostitution or human trafficking that's relevant, it's more the treatment and protection of women in the industry that's the issue at hand. So when the only real statistics I came across for Germany showed that the numbers of reported sex trafficking incidents hadn't really changed since they decriminalised the sex industry- it didn't seem all that relevant.
So with it all sounding so favourable, what altered my opinions on making prostitution legal?
The whole time I was reading arguments for and against, I couldn't help thinking that it's all too black and white: legal or illegal.
Ultimately, I'm not for sex being sold as a commodity. It seems like it would just be the lesser of two evils to legalise it, without actually dealing with the problem.
I can't help but think about the third parties involved. Legalising prostitution would, undeniably, have highly beneficial consequences for the women involved, which obviously I only see to be a good thing. But ultimately, what I think people arguing for legalisation fail to recognise is that it would also have highly beneficial consequences for the pimps and chains of human traffickers. I don't think it's ok for perception to turn from these people being low-life, morally corrupt individuals, to legitimate entrepreneurial business men overnight?!
Also, legalising prostitution seems to provide reasons for women to stay in the sex industry, instead of helping them to get out of it. Over the last decade, as pimping was legalised and brothels decriminialised in the Netherlands, the sex industry actually increased by 25% (Daley, 2001).
I guess for this reason I would like to propose a compromise. I think that being a prostitute should be leglaised, and street work should be tolerated. However, the demand should be penalised. It should become illegal for sex or sex acts to be bought full stop. This way, I believe there would at least be some control in terms of supply and demand. Legal implications for the men would help lessen demand. And subsequently, less demand would result in less work, and ergo, less prostitutes.
Another beneficial consequence of this, is that it would become a game of trust between the prostitute and the client as to whether or not the prostitute might turn the client in to the police. They then ultimately gain more control, and could even charge more for their time.
If the demand is diminished, human trafficking would not be such a lucrative business also, plus, women would be able to come forward without repercussion if they needed medical attention or were abused, and those men wouldn't have a leg to stand on; as even if the abuse was disputed, they still exchanged money for sexual acts.
With fear of sounding openly feminist, I would like to assert that I don't actually believe that prostitution is all about exploitation of women. In actual fact, I think it's more a case of exploitation of men's weaknesses in most instances. And it is with this in mind that I still think that private prostitution and escorting should remain legal, and potentially regulated brothels could be introduced. As far as I'm concerned, what goes on between two consenting adults is their business.
As a final thought, I think it is important to mention that I am also a little concerned about government incentive if they were to legalise the sex industry. It has been reported by the BBC that legalising prostitution could raise at least £250m a year for the treasury. The Royal Economic Society says that £770m is spent on prostitution every year, which only really gets put into perspective when you compare it with something like the reported £400m we spend on going to the cinema each year...!
Something tells me that this could provide the government's main motivation for the legalisation of the sex industry (not that I'm aware it's currently being reviewed?!). Cynic. I understand that with the economic climate being as it is, this extra economic boost wouldn't go amiss. But ethically justifiable? Probably not!
Anyway, interested as always in hearing your thoughts... :)
And Gabby, I hope this gives you some further insight?
L.
