This is an old story, in a way. Back in January the “Safety First Coalition” participated in a debate at the Parliament to discuss the Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill. The Swedish solution was discussed along New Zealand’s decriminalisation of prostitution.
Catherine Healy, a founding member and national co-ordinator of the New Zealand Prostitutes’ Collective, also appointed by the Minister of Justice to the New Zealand Prostitution Law Review Committee was also there.
In 2003, the Scottish government enlisted the University of London to do a comprehensive analysis of outcomes of prostitution policies in other countries. The researchers chose Australia, Ireland, and the Netherlands to represent various strategies of legalizing and/or regulating prostitution. The outcomes in the states under review that had legalized or regulated prostitution were found to be just as discouraging or even more discouraging than the traditional all round criminalization.
Legalization and/or regulation of prostitution, according to the study, led to:
A survey of legal prostitutes under the showcase Netherlands legalization policy finds that 79% say they want to get out of the sex business.
In the past two years there have been frequent reports [1] [2] [3] of female students resorting to prostitution to pay for the rising tuition fees. The research, conducted by Kingston University has found that in the past 6 years there has been a 50% rise. As 130 students were asked whether they had any friends involved in the sex trade, one in ten responded positively.
So what is the state of this profession in Britain? Briefly we could say prostitution in itself is legal. That is if we stick to the definition of “exchanging participation in sexual activities for money or other goods”. On the other hand, many other activities that are linked to the sex trade are outlawed.
SW5 – an organisation that supports male and transgender sex workers – describes this system as a version of the “good news, bad news joke”. To name a few: pimping, soliciting and kerb crawling are illegal.
For many years the UK government has announced an overhaul of the legislation surrounding the sex trade. These changes are currently under review, so the Sexual Offences Act introduced in 2003 and the Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill are the legal points of reference for this profession.
Prison sentences for soliciting were abolished in 1983. According to the Socialist Worker Online around 3,500 women each year are cautioned or convicted for soliciting (however the source of this data is not identified in this article). Anti-social Behaviour Orders (Asbos) are frequently used against sex workers. A 2002 review by the Home Office found that 5% of all Asbos dealt with prostitution (Source: All Women Count). Many campaigners have protested that these measures have been used as a “quick fix” against undesirable behaviour in the streets, without looking at the core causes.
Harriet Harman, Minister for Women and Equality, is reportedly seeking to outlaw prostitution. Many are concerned that this move would force prostitution underground and make women more vulnerable to violence.
Currently, it is estimated that 80,000 individuals are involved in prostitution in the UK (source: CARE document on Prostitution and Human Trafficking).
The current situation poses some important questions.
