1.

Legalization/decriminalization of prostitution is a gift to pimps, traffickers and the

sex industry.

What does legalization of prostitution or decriminalization of the sex industry mean? In the
Netherlands, legalization amounts to sanctioning all aspects of the sex industry: the women
themselves, the so-called "clients," and the pimps who, under the regime of legalization, are
transformed into third party businessmen and legitimate sexual entrepreneurs.

Legalization/decriminalization of the sex industry also converts brothels, sex clubs,

massage parlors and other sites of prostitution activities into legitimate venues where
commercial sexual acts are allowed to flourish legally with few restraints.

Ordinary people believe that, in calling for legalization or decriminalization of prostitution,

they are dignifying and professionalizing the women in prostitution. But dignifying
prostitution as work doesn't dignify the women, it simply dignifies the sex industry. People
often don't realize that decriminalization, for example, means decriminalization of the whole
sex industry not just the women. And they haven't thought through the consequences of
legalizing pimps as legitimate sex entrepreneurs or third party businessmen, or the fact that
men who buy women for sexual activity are now accepted as legitimate consumers of sex.

CATW favors decriminalization of the women in prostitution. No woman should be punished

for her own exploitation. But States should never decriminalize pimps, buyers, procurers,
brothels or other sex establishments.

2. Legalization/decriminalization of prostitution and the sex industry promotes sex

trafficking.

Legalized or decriminalized prostitution industries are one of the root causes of sex
trafficking. One argument for legalizing prostitution in the Netherlands was that legalization
would help end the exploitation of desperate immigrant women trafficked for prostitution. A
report done for the governmental Budapest Group* stated that 80% of women in the
brothels in the Netherlands are trafficked from other countries (Budapest Group, 1999: 11).
As early as 1994, the International Organization of Migration (IOM) stated that in the
Netherlands alone, "nearly 70 per cent of trafficked women were from CEEC Central and
Eastern European Countries]" (IOM, 1995: 4).

The government of the Netherlands promotes itself as the champion of anti-trafficking

policies and programs, yet cynically has removed every legal impediment to pimping,
procurement and brothels. In the year 2000, the Dutch Ministry of Justice argued for a legal
quota of foreign "sex workers," because the Dutch prostitution market demands a variety of
"bodies" (Dutting, 2001: 16).

Also in the year 2000, the Dutch government sought and received a judgment from the
European Court recognizing prostitution as an economic activity, thus enabling women from
the EU and former Soviet bloc countries to obtain working permits as "sex workers" in the
Dutch sex industry if they can prove that they are self employed. NGOs in the Netherlands
have stated that traffickers are taking advantage of this ruling to bring foreign women into
the Dutch prostitution industry by masking the fact that women have been trafficked, and by
coaching the women how to prove that they are self-employed "migrant sex workers."

In the one year since lifting the ban on brothels in the Netherlands, NGOs report that there
has been an increase of victims of trafficking or, at best, that the number of victims from
other countries has remained the same (Bureau NRM, 2002: 75). Forty-three municipalities
in the Netherlands want to follow a no-brothel policy, but the Minister of Justice has
indicated that the complete banning of prostitution within any municipality could conflict with
"the right to free choice of work" (Bureau NRM: 2002) as guaranteed in the federal
Grondwet or Constitution.

In January, 2002, prostitution in Germany was fully established as a legitimate job after
years of being legalized in so-called eros or tolerance zones. Promotion of prostitution,
pimping and brothels are now legal in Germany. As early as 1993, after the first steps
towards legalization had been taken, it was recognized (even by pro-prostitution advocates)
that 75 per cent of the women in Germany's prostitution industry were foreigners from
Uruguay, Argentina, Paraguay and other countries in South America (Altink, 1993: 33). After
the fall of the Berlin wall, brothel owners reported that 9 out of every 10 women in the
German sex industry were from eastern Europe (Altink, 1993: 43) and other former Soviet
countries.

The sheer volume of foreign women who are in the prostitution industry in Germany - by
some NGO estimates now up to 85 per cent - casts further doubt on the fact that these
numbers of women could have entered Germany without facilitation. As in the Netherlands,
NGOs report that most of the foreign women have been trafficked into the country since it is
almost impossible for poor women to facilitate their own migration, underwrite the costs of
travel and travel documents, and set themselves up in "business" without outside help.

The link between legalization of prostitution and trafficking in Australia was recognized in
the U.S. State Department's 1999 Country Report on Human Rights Practices, released by
the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. In the country report on Australia, it
was noted that in the State of Victoria which legalized prostitution in the 1980s, "Trafficking
in East Asian women for the sex trade is a growing problem" in Australialax laws -
including legalized prostitution in parts of the country - make [anti-trafficking] enforcement
difficult at the working level."

3.Legalization/decriminalization of prostitution does not control the sex industry. It

expands it.

Contrary to claims that legalization and decriminalization would regulate the expansion of
the sex industry and bring it under control, the sex industry now accounts for 5 percent of
the Netherlands economy (Daley, 2001: 4). Over the last decade, as pimping became
legalized and then brothels decriminalized in the Netherlands in 2000, the sex industry
expanded 25 percent (Daley, 2001: 4). At any hour of the day, women of all ages and races,
dressed in hardly anything, are put on display in the notorious windows of Dutch brothels
and sex clubs and offered for sale -- for male consumption. Most of them are women from
other countries (Daley, 2001: 4) who have in all likelihood been trafficked into the
Netherlands.

There are now officially recognized associations of sex businesses and prostitution
"customers" in the Netherlands that consult and collaborate with the government to further
their interests and promote prostitution.

These include the "Association of Operators of Relaxation Businesses," the "Cooperating

Consultation of Operators of Window Prostitution," and the "Man/Woman and Prostitution
Foundation," a group of men who regularly use women in prostitution, and whose specific
aims include "to make prostitution and the use of services of prostitutes more accepted and
openly discussible," and "to protect the interests of clients" (NRM Bureau, 2002:115-16).

Faced with a dearth of women who want to "work" in the legal sex sector, the Dutch
National Rapporteur on Trafficking states that in the future, a proposed "solution" may be to
"offer [to the market] prostitutes from non EU/EEA countries, who voluntarily choose to work
in prostitution" They could be given "legal and controlled access to the Dutch market"
(NRM Bureau, 2002: 140). As prostitution has been transformed into "sex work," and pimps
into entrepreneurs, so too this potential "solution" transforms trafficking into voluntary
migration for "sex work." The Netherlands is looking to the future, targeting poor women of
color for the international sex trade to remedy the inadequacies of the free market of "sexual
services." In the process, it goes further in legitimizing prostitution as an "option for the
poor."

Legalization of prostitution in the State of Victoria, Australia, has led to massive expansion
of the sex industry. Whereas there were 40 legal brothels in Victoria in 1989, in 1999 there
were 94, along with 84 escort services. Other forms of sexual exploitation, such as tabletop
dancing, bondage and discipline centers, peep shows, phone sex, and pornography have
all developed in much more profitable ways than before (Sullivan and Jeffreys: 2001).

Prostitution has become an accepted sideline of the tourism and casino boom in Victoria
with government-sponsored casinos authorizing the redeeming of casino chips and wheel of
fortune bonuses at local brothels (Sullivan and Jeffreys: 2001). The commodification of
women has vastly intensified and is much more visible.

Brothels in Switzerland have doubled several years after partial legalization of prostitution.
Most of these brothels go untaxed, and many are illegal. In 1999, the Zurich newspaper,
Blick, claimed that Switzerland had the highest brothel density of any country in Europe,
with residents feeling overrun with prostitution venues, as well as experiencing constant
encroachment into areas not zoned for prostitution activities (South China Morning Post:
1999).

4. Legalization/decriminalzaton of prostitution increases clandestine, hidden, illegal

and street prostitution.
Legalization was supposed to get prostituted women off the street. Many women don't want
to register and undergo health checks, as required by law in certain countries legalizing
prostitution, so legalization often drives them into street prostitution. And many women
choose street prostitution because they want to avoid being controlled and exploited by the
new sex "businessmen."

In the Netherlands, women in prostitution point out that legalization or decriminalization of

the sex industry cannot erase the stigma of prostitution but, instead, makes women more
vulnerable to abuse because they must register and lose anonymity. Thus, the majority of
women in prostitution still choose to operate illegally and underground. Members of
Parliament who originally supported the legalization of brothels on the grounds that this
would liberate women are now seeing that legalization actually reinforces the oppression of
women (Daley, 2001: A1).

The argument that legalization was supposed to take the criminal elements out of sex
businesses by strict regulation of the industry has failed. The real growth in prostitution in
Australia since legalization took effect has been in the illegal sector. Since the onset of
legalization in Victoria, brothels have tripled in number and expanded in size - the vast
majority having no licenses but advertising and operating with impunity (Sullivan and
Jeffreys: 2001).

In New South Wales, brothels were decriminalized in 1995. In 1999, the numbers of
brothels in Sydney had increased exponentially to 400-500. The vast majority have no
license to operate. To end endemic police corruption, control of illegal prostitution was taken
out of the hands of the police and placed in the hands of local councils and planning
regulators. The council has neither the money nor the personnel to put investigators into
brothels to flush out and prosecute illegal operators.

5. Legalization of prostitution and decriminalization of the sex industry increases

child prostitution.

Another argument for legalizing prostitution in the Netherlands was that it would help end
child prostitution. In reality, however, child prostitution in the Netherlands has increased
dramatically during the 1990s. The Amsterdam-based ChildRight organization estimates
that the number has gone from 4,000 children in 1996 to 15,000 in 2001. The group
estimates that at least 5,000 of the children in prostitution are from other countries, with a
large segment being Nigerian girls (Tiggeloven: 2001).

Child prostitution has dramatically risen in Victoria compared to other Australian states
where prostitution has not been legalized. Of all the states and territories in Australia, the
highest number of reported incidences of child prostitution came from Victoria. In a 1998
study undertaken by ECPAT (End Child Prostitution and Trafficking) who conducted
research for the Australian National Inquiry on Child Prostitution, there was increased
evidence of organized commercial exploitation of children.
6. Legalization/decriminalization of prostitution does not protect the women in
prostitution.

The Coalition Against Trafficking in Women International (CATW) has conducted 2 major
studies on sex trafficking and prostitution, interviewing almost 200 victims of commercial
sexual exploitation. In these studies, women in prostitution indicated that prostitution
establishments did little to protect them, regardless of whether they were in legal or illegal
establishments. "The only time they protect anyone is to protect the customers."

In a CATW 5-country study that interviewed 146 victims of international trafficking and local
prostitution, 80% of all women interviewed suffered physical violence from pimps and
buyers) and endured similar and multiple health effects from the violence and sexual
exploitation (Raymond et al: 2002).

The violence that women were subjected to was an intrinsic part of the prostitution and
sexual exploitation. Pimps used violence for many different reasons and purposes. Violence
was used to initiate some women into prostitution and to break them down so that they
would do the sexual acts. After initiation, at every step of the way, violence was used for
sexual gratification of the pimps, as a form of punishment, to threaten and intimidate
women, to exert the pimp's dominance, to exact compliance, to punish women for alleged
"violations," to humiliate women, and to isolate and confine women.

Of the women who did report that sex establishments gave some protection, they qualified it
by pointing out that no "protector" was ever in the room with them, where anything could
occur. One woman who was in out-call prostitution stated: "The driver functioned as a
bodyguard. You're supposed to call when you get in, to ascertain that everything was OK.
But they are not standing outside the door while you're in there, so anything could happen."

CATW's studies found that even surveillance cameras in prostitution establishments are
used to protect the establishment. Protection of the women from abuse is of secondary or
no importance.

7. Legalization/decriminalization of prostitution increases the demand for

prostitution. It boosts the motivation of men to buy women for sex in a much wider
and more permissible range of socially acceptable settings.

With the advent of legalization in countries that have decriminalized the sex industry, many
men who would not risk buying women for sex now see prostitution as acceptable. When
the legal barriers disappear, so too do the social and ethical barriers to treating women as
sexual commodities. Legalization of prostitution sends the message to new generations of
men and boys that women are sexual commodities and that prostitution is harmless fun.

As men have an excess of "sexual services" that are offered to them, women must compete
to provide services by engaging in anal sex, sex without condoms, bondage and domination
and other proclivities demanded by the clients. Once prostitution is legalized, all holds are
barred. Women's reproductive capacities are sellable products, for example. A whole new
group of clients find pregnancy a sexual turn-on and demand breast milk in their sexual
encounters with pregnant women. Specialty brothels are provided for disabled men, and
State-employed caretakers who are mostly women must take these men to the brothels if
they wish to go (Sullivan and Jeffreys: 2001).

Advertisements line the highways of Victoria offering women as objects for sexual use and
teaching new generations of men and boys to treat women as subordinates. Businessmen
are encouraged to hold their corporate meetings in these clubs where owners supply naked
women on the table at tea breaks and lunchtime.

A Melbourne brothel owner stated that the client base was "well educated professional men,
who visit during the day and then go home to their families." Women who desire more
egalitarian relationships with men find that often the men in their lives are visiting the
brothels and sex clubs. They have the choice to accept that their male partners are buying
women in commercial sexual transactions, avoid recognizing what their partners are doing,
or leave the relationship (Sullivan and Jeffreys: 2001).

Sweden's Violence Against Women, Government Bill 1997/98:55 prohibits and penalizes
the purchase of "sexual services." It is an innovative approach that targets the demand for
prostitution. Sweden believes that "By prohibiting the purchase of sexual services,
prostitution and its damaging effects can be counteracted more effectively than hitherto."
Importantly, this law clearly states that "Prostitution is not a desirable social phenomenon"
and is "an obstacle to the ongoing development towards equality between women and
men."**

8. Legalization/decriminalization of prostitution does not promote women's health.

A legalized system of prostitution that mandates health checks and certification only for
women and not for clients is blatantly discriminatory to women. "Women only" health checks
make no public health sense because monitoring prostituted women does not protect them
from HIV/AIDS or STDs, since male "clients" can and do originally transmit disease to the
women.

It is argued that legalized brothels or other "controlled" prostitution establishments "protect"

women through enforceable condom policies. In one of CATW's studies, U.S. women in
prostitution interviewed reported the following: 47% stated that men expected sex without a
condom; 73% reported that men offered to pay more for sex without a condom; 45% of
women said they were abused if they insisted that men use condoms. Some women said
that certain establishments may have rules that men wear condoms but, in reality, men still
try to have sex without them. One woman stated: "It's 'regulation' to wear a condom at the
sauna, but negotiable between parties on the side. Most guys expected blow jobs without a
condom (Raymond and Hughes: 2001)."

In reality, the enforcement of condom policy was left to the individual women in prostitution,
and the offer of extra money was an insistent pressure. One woman stated: "I'd be one of
those liars if I said 'Oh I always used a condom.' If there was extra money coming in, then
the condom would be out the window. I was looking for the extra money." Many factors
militate against condom use: the need of women to make money; older women's decline in
attractiveness to men; competition from places that do not require condoms; pimp pressure
on women to have sex with no condom for more money; money needed for a drug habit or
to pay off the pimp; and the general lack of control that prostituted women have over their
bodies in prostitution venues.

So called "safety policies" in brothels did not protect women from harm. Even where
brothels supposedly monitored the "customers" and utilized "bouncers," women stated that
they were injured by buyers and, at times, by brothel owners and their friends. Even when
someone intervened to control buyers' abuse, women lived in a climate of fear. Although 60
percent of women reported that buyers had sometimes been prevented from abusing them,
half of those women answered that, nonetheless, they thought that they might be killed by
one of their "customers" (Raymond et al: 2002).

9. Legalization/decriminalization of prostitution does not enhance women's choice.

Most women in prostitution did not make a rational choice to enter prostitution. They did not
sit down one day and decide that they wanted to be prostitutes. Rather, such "choices" are
better termed "survival strategies." Rather than consent, a prostituted woman more
accurately complies to the only options available to her. Her compliance is required by the
very fact of having to adapt to conditions of inequality that are set by the customer who pays
her to do what he wants her to do.

Most of the women interviewed in CATW studies reported that choice in entering the sex
industry could only be discussed in the context of the lack of other options. Most
emphasized that women in prostitution had few other options. Many spoke about
prostitution as the last option, or as an involuntary way of making ends meet. In one study,
67% of the law enforcement officials that CATW interviewed expressed the opinion that
women did not enter prostitution voluntarily. 72% of the social service providers that CATW
interviewed did not believe that women voluntarily choose to enter the sex industry
(Raymond and Hughes: 2001).

The distinction between forced and voluntary prostitution is precisely what the sex industry
is promoting because it will give the industry more security and legal stability if these
distinctions can be utilized to legalize prostitution, pimping and brothels. Women who bring
charges against pimps and perpetrators will bear the burden of proving that they were
"forced." How will marginalized women ever be able to prove coercion? If prostituted
women must prove that force was used in recruitment or in their "working conditions," very
few women in prostitution will have legal recourse and very few offenders will be
prosecuted.

Women in prostitution must continually lie about their lives, their bodies, and their sexual
responses. Lying is part of the job definition when the customer asks, "did you enjoy it?"
The very edifice of prostitution is built on the lie that "women like it." Some prostitution
survivors have stated that it took them years after leaving prostitution to acknowledge that
prostitution wasn't a free choice because to deny their own capacity to choose was to deny
themselves.

There is no doubt that a small number of women say they choose to be in prostitution,
especially in public contexts orchestrated by the sex industry. In the same way, some
people choose to take dangerous drugs such as heroin. However, even when some people
choose to take dangerous drugs, we still recognize that this kind of drug use is harmful to
them, and most people do not seek to legalize heroin. In this situation, it is harm to the
person, not the consent of the person that is the governing standard.

Even a 1998 ILO (UN International Labor Organization) report suggesting that the sex
industry be treated as a legitimate economic sector, found that "prostitution is one of the
most alienated forms of labour; the surveys [in 4 countries] show that women worked 'with a
heavy heart,' 'felt forced,' or were 'conscience-stricken' and had negative self-identities. A
significant proportion claimed they wanted to leave sex work [sic] if they could (Lim, 1998:
213)."

When a woman remains in an abusive relationship with a partner who batters her, or even
when she defends his actions, concerned people don't say she is there voluntarily. They
recognize the complexity of her compliance. Like battered women, women in prostitution
often deny their abuse if provided with no meaningful alternatives.

10. Women in systems of prostitution do not want the sex industry legalized or
decriminalized.

In a 5-country study on sex trafficking done by the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women
and funded by the Ford Foundation, most of the 146 women interviewed strongly stated that
prostitution should not be legalized and considered legitimate work, warning that
legalization would create more risks and harm for women from already violent customer and
pimps (Raymond et al, 2002). "No way. It's not a profession. It is humiliating and violence
from the men's side." Not one woman interviewed wanted her children, family or friends to
have to earn money by entering the sex industry. One stated: "Prostitution stripped me of
my life, my health, everything."

Conclusion:

Legislators leap onto the legalization bandwagon because they think nothing else is
successful. However, as Scotland Yard's Commissioner has stated: "You've got to be
careful about legalizing things just because you don't think what you are doing is
successful."

We hear very little about the role of the sex industry in creating a global sex market in the
bodies of women and children. Instead, we hear much about making prostitution into a
better job for women through regulation and/or legalization, through unions of so-called "sex
workers," and through campaigns which provide condoms to women in prostitution but
cannot provide them with alternatives to prostitution. We hear much about how to keep
women in prostitution but very little about how to help women get out.

Governments that legalize prostitution as "sex work" will have a huge economic stake in the
sex industry. Consequently, this will foster their increased dependence on the sex sector. If
women in prostitution are counted as workers, pimps as businessmen, and buyers as
consumers of sexual services, thus legitimating the entire sex industry as an economic
sector, then governments can abdicate responsibility for making decent and sustainable
employment available to women

Rather than the State sanctioning prostitution, the State could address the demand by
penalizing the men who buy women for the sex of prostitution, and support the development
of alternatives for women in prostitution industries. Instead of governments cashing in on
the economic benefits of the sex industry by taxing it, governments could invest in the
futures of prostituted women by providing economic resources, from the seizure of sex
industry assets, to provide real alternatives for women in prostitution.

Notes:

*Budapest Group. (1999, June). The Relationship Between Organized Crime and Trafficking
in Aliens. Austria: International Centre for Migration Policy Development. The Budapest
process was initiated in 1991. Nearly 40 governments and 10 organizations participate in
the process, and about 50 intergovernmental meetings at various levels have been held,
including the Prague Ministerial Conference.

**The National Rapporteur on trafficking at the National Swedish Police has stated that in
the 6 months following the implementation of the Swedish law in January 1999, the number
of trafficked women to Sweden has declined. She also stated that according to police
colleagues in the European Union that traffickers are choosing other destination countries
where they are not constrained by similar laws. Thus the law serves as a deterrent to
traffickers. Quoted in Karl Vicktor Olsson, "Sexkopslagen minkar handeln med kvinnor,"
Metro, January 27, 2001: 2.

"Prostitution is an extreme form of gender discrimination. Legalization of this

violence to women restricts women's freedom and citizenship rights. If women
are allowed to become a legitimate commodity, they are consigned to a second-
class citizenship. Democracy is subverted"

Donna Hughes

Making the Harm Visible

There is intense debate surrounding the legalisation of prostitution. Full

legalisation involves prostitution taking the same status as any other occupation,
i.e. giving sex workers access to social security and healthcare, regulating their
places and terms of employment, etc.
In many EU countries prostitution is de-criminalised, in other words, it is not a
criminal offence to work as a prostitute. In the words of Hughes: "Considering the
documented harm to women who are trafficked and prostituted, it is only logical
that women should not be criminalized for being the victim of those abuses.
Decriminalization also means that women will not fear arrest if they seek
assistance and may be more likely to testify against pimps and traffickers."
Hughes goes on to argue that profiting from the services of a prostitute should be
a crime in law, be this as a man buying sexual services, or as anyone gaining
financial profit from a sex worker's activity: "But there absolutely should be no
decriminalization for pimps, traffickers, brothel owners, or the men who buy
women in prostitution. All legal reforms should aim to stop these perpetrators
and profiteers."
In her Factsheet on Prostitution, Melissa Farley argues that prostitution is:

a) sexual harassment
b) rape
c) battering
d) verbal abuse
e) domestic violence
f) a racist practice
g) a violation of human rights
h) childhood sexual abuse
i) a consequence of male domination of women
j) a means of maintaining male domination of women
k) all of the above

The well known Andrea Dworkin is part of the feminist camp which claims
"Violation is a synonym for intercourse" (Dworkin, Intercourse), and prostitution
is no exception; Beyond that, prostitution is the not only the affirmation, but the
result of male supremacy. In a 1992 speech called Prostitution and male
supremacy, Dworkin claims: "When men use women in prostitution, they are
expressing a pure hatred for the female body. It is as pure as anything on this
earth ever is or ever has been. It is a contempt so deep, so deep, that a whole
human life is reduced to a few sexual orifices, and he can do anything he wants."
Dworkin too asks how to define prostitution, she provides an answer:
"Prostitution is not an idea. It is the mouth, the vagina, the rectum, penetrated
usually by a penis, sometimes hands, sometimes objects, by one man and then
another and then another and then another and then another. That's what it is."

Andrea Dworkin was speaking at a symposium with the focus of translating ideas
from academia to action, but Farley claims Dworkin's brand of feminism is dead.
Citing Catharine MacKinnon: "[In the past, we had a women's] movement which
understood that the choice to be beaten by one man for economic survival was
not a real choice, despite the appearance of consent a marriage contract might
provide. ...Yet now we are supposed to believe, in the name of feminism, that the
choice to be fucked by hundreds of men for economic survival must be affirmed as
a real choice, and if the woman signs a model release there is no coercion
there." Farley's factsheet publishes results from one study which found 75% of
women working as escorts had attempted suicide, and Hughes too points to the
harm done to women through prostitution: "Prostitution causes extreme harm to
the body and the mind. Women who survive the beatings, rapes, sexually
transmitted diseases, drugs, alcohol, and emotional abuse, emerge from
prostitution ill, traumatized, and often, as poor as when they entered."

Calling on governments to realise that 'women's bodies and emotions belong to

them', Hughes says that is a state permits prostitution to flourish, a certain
portion of each generation of young women will be lost. "Prostitution should not
be legalized. Legalization means that the state imposes regulations under which
women can be prostituted. In effect, regulation means that under certain
conditions it is permissible to exploit and abuse women."
In 1998 the Swedish government brought a bill to parliament which would in
effect criminalise the buyers of sexual services, punishing them with a heavy fine
or 6 month in jail. The bill as cited by EUROPAP states: "This new prohibition
marks Sweden's attitude towards prostitution. Prostitution is not a desirable
social phenomenon. The government considers, however, that it is not reasonable
to punish the person who sells a sexual service. In the majority of cases at least,
this person is a weaker partner who is exploited by those who want only to satisfy
their sexual drives... It is also important to motivate prostitutes to seek help to
leave their way of life. They should not run the risk of punishment because they
have been active as prostitutes." The legislation in Sweden was not only the
result of lesser social acceptance of prostitution , but also an effort to
eradicate trafficking.

Legally able to sell her body, albeit for a short period of time, women become
commodities. Commodification of women not only leads to women becoming
second class citizens, but it also normalises the concept of a human being
becoming the property of someone else. For Hughes, there is no difference
between trafficking which is by now universally recognised as a severe violation
of human rights, and prostitution, which in Europe is widely tolerated,
occasionally partly legal, and in the case of Holland, entirely so: "Prostitution is
consuming thousands of girls and women and reaping enormous profits for
organized crime in post-communist countries. In addition, each year, several
hundred thousand women are trafficked from Eastern European countries for
prostitution in sex industry centers all over the world. The practices are
extremely oppressive and incompatible with universal standards of human rights.
The sex trade is a form of contemporary slavery and all indications predict its
growth and expansion into the 21st century."

The European Parliament reports that police do not expect the sex trade to grow
substantially in the Nordic region, however, the Swedish government hopes
"By prohibiting the purchase of sexual services, prostitution and its damaging
effects can be counteracted more effectively than hitherto. The government is
however of the view that criminalisation can never be more than a supplementary
element in the efforts to reduce prostitution and cannot be a substitute for
broader social exertions." Hughes would agree that there is a wider social
context, however she says "Above all, state bodies and non-governmental
organizations should understand that prostitution is a demand market created by
men who buy and sell women's sexuality for their own profit and pleasure. Legal
reforms should therefore create remedies that assist victims and prosecute
perpetrators"
The perception of the prostitute as a victim is one which resounds through the
literature against legalisation of sex work. For Dworkin, the prostitutes is a
victim of male supremacy, poverty and/or incest, and Catharine MacKinnon puts
prostitution in a wider context in Prostitution and Civil Rights: "The legal right to
be free from torture and cruel and inhuman or degrading treatment is recognized
by most nations and is internationally guaranteed. In prostitution, women are
tortured through repeated rape and in all the more conventionally recognized
ways. Women are prostituted precisely in order to be degraded and subjected to
cruel and brutal treatment without human limits; it is the opportunity to do this
that is exchanged when women are bought and sold for sex."

An alternate school of feminism sees sex work as empowerment, and the sex
worker as willfully exerting and exploiting her power over the client. For Hughes,
the concept is impossible: "Most arguments in favor of legalization are based on
trying to distinguish between 'free' and 'forced' prostitution and trafficking.
Considering the extreme conditions of exploitation in the sex industry, those
distinctions are nothing but abstractions that make for good academic debates.
They are, however, meaningless to women under the control of pimps or
traffickers."

Debating Legalized Prostitution

Two scholars debate whether or not to legalize prostitution. Professor Janice Raymond is the co-executive
director of the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women, the author of 5 books, and Professor Emerita at the
University of Massachusetts in Amherst. Dr. Melissa Ditmore was the principal investigator for Revolving Door,
the first report released by the Sex Workers Project, and is currently a research consultant for the organization.

Against Legalization

Professor Janice Raymond - When the question of legalization of prostitution is discussed, many
commentators start with the unproven assumption that legalization protects women. Who said so? Lets look at
the evidence in countries that have legalized or decriminalized prostitution.

In the Netherlands, Germany, and Australia, legalization has failed to protect the women in prostitution, control
the enormous expansion of the sex industry, decrease child prostitution and trafficking from other countries,
and prevent HIV/AIDS -- all arguments used for legalization. And it has transformed these countries into
brothels.

Legalizing prostitution is legalizing the prostitution industry. What many people dont realize is that legalizing
prostitution means not only decriminalizing the women in prostitution, but also the pimps, brothels and buyers.
My organization favors decriminalizing the women but not the pimps who promote prostitution and trafficking
and exploit the victims. In countries like the Netherlands when legalization took effect, pimps overnight became
sex businessmen. One day, they were criminals and the next day legitimate entrepreneurs.

Legalization led to open season on prostituted women in the Netherlands. Organized crime took over the sex
industry, and this is the main reason why 30 percent of the window brothels have recently been shutterd by the
mayor of Amsterdam. Because they had become a haven for traffickers and unsafe for women, Amsterdam and
Rotterdam have also closed down their tipplezones -- what some call tolerance zones, but in truth are out-and-
out sacrifice zones where certain women can be bought and sold.

Germanys legalized prostitution system has become a magnet for sexual exploiters, so much so that Germany
has become the destination of choice in Europe for traffickers. Legalization in the State of Victoria in Australia
has encouraged 3 times more illegal than legal brothels. Even the Australian Adult Entertainment Industry
acknowledged that the illegal sex industry is out of control there. At the same time, many legal brothel owners
have been involved in setting up and profiting from illegal brothels. Customers want more exotic, younger,
cheaper women and those who can be induced not to use condoms. Victoria has the highest rates of child
prostitution of all the states and territories in Australia.

In the 21st century, how can any individual or country say they support gender equality when, at the same time,
they fortify the legal segregation of a class of women who can be bought and sold? So often we hear that
prostitution is inevitable, and that a zero tolerance approach is unrealistic. It is no more unrealistic to work for
an end to sex slavery than it was and is to work for an end to race slavery.

There is no evidence that legalization of prostitution makes things better for women in prostitution. It certainly
makes things better for governments who legalize prostitution and of course, for the sex industry, both of whom
enjoy increased revenues.

Instead of abandoning women to state-sanctioned brothels, laws should address the demand. Men who use
women in prostitution have long been invisible. There is a legal alternative to state sponsorship of the
prostitution industry. Rather than cozying up with pimps and traffickers, States could address the demand as
Sweden has done -- by penalizing the men who buy women for the sex of prostitution. And as in Sweden, this
would help create a chilly climate for the buyers and the traffickers.

For Decriminalization

Dr. Melissa Ditmore - Prostitution should be decriminalized. This would remove prostitution from the criminal
code and thereby render prostitution akin to other businesses. Itd be taxed and subject ot business
requirements. Decriminalization of prostitution has been a success in New Zealand and parts of Australia. They
cite decriminalization as an advantage over legalization because removing prostitution from the criminal code
avoids both the problems of graft and abuse associated with police jurisdiction over prostitution and the
sometimes overbearing regulations that accompany legalization. (For example, in Nevadas brothels, brothel-
owners decide whether licensed prostitutes are allowed to leave the brothel during their off hours. Prostitutes
can be required to stay on the premises for weeks at a time, no matter their working hours.) Decriminalization
would better protect people in the sex industry from violence and abuse.

In many places, legal reform of prostitution laws is not a high priority for advocates for the rights of sex workers.
One reason is that in the majority of the world, consenting adults exchanging sex for money is not per se illegal,
but this does not prevent the harassment of sex workers and their colleagues by law enforcement. Legal reform
clearly does not solve all problems related to the sex industry.

However, advocates and activists would rally behind legal reform that would lead to police addressing violence
committed against sex workers. Police cannot and do not simultaneously seek to arrest prostitutes and protect
them from violence. Currently, under New York Criminal Procedure Law, sex workers who have been victims of
sex offenses, including assault and rape, face greater obstacles than other victims. Indeed, women describe
being told, What did you expect? by police officers who refused to investigate acts of violence perpetrated
against women whom they knew engaged in prostitution. The consequences of such attitudes are tragic: Gary
Ridgway said that he killed prostitutes because he knew he would not be held accountable. The tragedy is that
he was right he confessed to the murders of 48 women, committed over nearly twenty years. That is truly
criminal.

P OST ED BY JA NI C E RAY MO ND & M EL ISS A DI TMO RE ON F E BR UA RY 28, 200 7 2 :13 P M

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C OMMENTS (29)
JA M ES GI BBO NS DAL E T HE FO URTE E NT H :
I very much agree with the "10 Reasons Why Non-Sex Workers Should Not Write Papers About Sex Work"
post, particularly points 4: "By far the most 'degrading' aspect of sex work is the associated stigma,
discrimination and vilification - a direct result of the disempowering misinformation propagated by the media
and the anti-sex work lobby.", 5: "It is exceedingly arrogant to assume not only that you understand the
intricacies of an industry you don't even work in, but that you have the right to speak for those who do.", 7: "By
denying sex workers the right to have their voices heard in the political arena, and attempting to limit their
sexual and financial independence, anti-sex work feminists make a mockery of the fundamental principles of
feminism" and 9: "The portrayal of sex workers as degraded victims is, in itself, a form of degrading
victimisation.".

Many arguments against the legalization of prostitution are based on stereotypes, preconceived notions and
myths. As for Janice Raymond's arguments concerning the Netherlands, they are not supported by anything
other than rhetoric and the efforts of Job Cohen (Amsterdam's current mayor) to make the Red Light District -
which upsets his sensibilities, apparently - into a shopping district. Incidentally, Cohen has not substantiated his
claims that prostitution in Amsterdam is intrinsically linked to organized crime (the Hell's Angels in particular)
with anything more than sweeping generalizations or anecdotal statements.
As far as I see it, Cohen's political efforts amount to a huge step back. Cohen is destroying Holland's progress
in regards to the sex industry. To put it into a clumsy analogy, he is hacking off limbs when a band-aid would
have sufficed.

J UN E 4, 200 8 12 :0 5 P M | R E PO RT OF F EN SI V E CO MM EN T

BRO DA WAYO:

Dear Secretary ,
i missed the last years conference and i want to know whether it will be organize this year.I really want to be
part.
u can reply through - chicksfather@yahoo.com .Thank you

M AY 22 , 20 08 8:1 6 AM | R E PO RT OF F EN SI V E CO MM EN T

BRO DA WAYO:

Dear Secretary ,
i missed the last years conference and i want to know whether it will be organize this year.I really want to be
part.
u can reply through - chicksfather@yahoo.com .Thank you

M AY 22 , 20 08 8:1 5 AM | R E PO RT OF F EN SI V E CO MM EN T

M ARC US AU R EL IUS :

Legalize the Brothels

#1, No one is forcing anyone to have sex.

#2, Can be taxed and gets women off the streets and abuse.
#3, No one has the right to tell two consensual adults what they can do with their bodies if it's not hurting
anyone else which brings us to #4.
#4, Wife's don't want the competition. What wife after 4 kids and works wants to perform like she did when they
first got married? They already got their meat hooks into you, why should they?
#5, If a man discreetly get's his fantasy out of the way for an agreed upon price (not forcing anyone) and goes
back home, he puts no pressure on his spouse to do anything she doesn't want to do.
#6, Going to a brothel for your fantasy with a younger women would not only help that mid-life crisis but keep
the mistresses from breaking up a family. Wife is not pressured, kids keep father, father get's fantasy out of
libido, he get's taxed and dies!
#7, Cuts down on date rape by giving an alternative than Jane Doe accepting all of those free drinks and then
telling you to drop dead when you want her number, which brings you back to #4 and the competition concept,
she may think twice and may save money on drinks that go no where.
#8, What better way to introduce your son to sex than in a safe, healthy, controlled environment that does not
get the neighbors daughter pregnant or some disease. Instead, nowadays he ends up getting raped by some
teacher in the mid west.

We can clearly see that this whole illegal nonsense was contrived by the feminist movement in order to control
men, if they really wanted to push for womens freedom to choose they would band together to have
prostitution legalized in order to allow women to do whatever the hell with their bodies.

If I want to sit naked and watch a women parade around with nothing on that's perfectly alright and if she
touches me behind closed doors and away from prying eye's that's even ok, but if I even so much as give her
one red penny for her to do so we commit a crime? What Religious Order came up with that idea?

As before, no one is forcing anyone to do anything they are not willing to and with regulation and licensing it
has been proven world round that it can work and has never been healthier than ever. This practiced has been
going on since the beginning and will go on well after, it's just those same bunch of backwards, sexually
repressed feminists from the bible belt and wife's who do not want to lose her place in the "hen" pecking order
to a younger, more attractive, and sexually active woman who is just using what God gave her to make some
money. This whole country is run off of sex, why are they the only one's banned for making a living at THEIR
CHOICE?

In closing, Men are constantly getting the shaft. We die earlier than women, We take the more stressful jobs,
We are 99.9% the first ones going into battle, divorce is usually harshest on men, we are over taxed, over
worked, and under sexed then we die. When are we going to take back this country from the feminists and be
men again? We are Gladiators! Do you hear me guys? Bring back the A-Team Damn it! I say legalize
prostitution! What's worse, a man who spends a few bucks for a 30 minute fantasy or someone who finds a
mistress who tries to blackmail for either cash or a divorce and breaks up a family. How about the guy being
frustrated every day because after 4 kids and twenty years of marriage his wife has had enough already so he
comes down with cardiac disease and dies of a heart attack!

I am Marcus Aurelius

J UN E 7, 200 7 10 :1 9 A M | R E PO RT OF F EN SI V E CO MM EN T

A SH KA RA S A ND S:

10 Reasons Why Non-Sex Workers Should Not Write Papers About Sex Work

1. The only people truly qualified to speak to the experiences of sex workers, are sex workers themselves.
2. Basing a theory on myths and stereoypes and then 'proving' that theory using other myths and stereotypes is
not a study - it's a creative writing exercise.
3. Sex workers are living, breathing human beings with hearts and every time you describe them as something
other than living, breathing human beings, their hearts break.
4. By far the most 'degrading' aspect of sex work is the associated stigma, discrimination and vilification - a
direct result of the disempowering misinformation propagated by the media and the anti-sex work lobby.
5. It is exceedingly arrogant to assume not only that you understand the intricacies of an industry you don't
even work in, but that you have the right to speak for those who do.
6. Contrary to popular belief, sex workers are perfectly capable of putting pen to paper and telling their own
stories.
7. By denying sex workers the right to have their voices heard in the political arena, and attempting to limit their
sexual and financial independence, anti-sex work feminists make a mockery of the fundamental principles of
feminism.
8. You don't see sex workers writing papers on the work practices of marine biologists or the psychological
wellbeing of accountants.
9. The portrayal of sex workers as degraded victims is, in itself, a form of degrading victimisation.
10. You risk looking like a fool who wrote a paper on a topic you quite obviously know nothing about.

1. A significant part (how much is pretty controversial) of the prostitution system has to
do with criminal networks forcing clandestines to sell sex in order to compensate for the
cost of coming to the country they are in now. Even in cases where it's not clandestines,
there can always be dangerous mob-like networks behind it, in which case it's a very
tedious situation for the women suffering from it, constant violence.
2. Even for the ones who do consciously choose to become prostitutes, it can be argued
that they do it out of despair, when there are no other options, thus it's still a tedious
situation for them since they're still suffering from it, they're just doing it knowingly.
3. These two previous arguments make prostitution a problem of violence, sexual violence,
since women find themselves forced into a situation they do not want, and to some extent,
rape, since they are having sex against their will in a way, or at least they would not have
sex without the money, meaning they don't really want it.
4. Most prostitutes are women, and most clients are men, which means a lot of people
label prostitution as a gender inequality. Since it's a system that almost exclusively puts
men in power and subjects women to violence, it can be argued that prostitution is very
sexist.
5. Many people see prostitution as a shameful act, sometimes even immoral, and that
combined with the fact that it is strongly bound with violence, they think it should be
prohibited to define a line of conduct, because laws should supposedly follow moral. So
legalizing prostitution would mean the state says "It's okay to see a prostitute, and it's okay
to sell your body", and a lot of people disagree with that and fear that it would support the
prostitution system most of all.
There's no question that by legalizing something, you're making it socially acceptable. This is the
crux of the issue. Many people get at least queasy with the idea that something so intimate is nothing
more than a business transaction. Not surprising, since the idea of "cuddle shops" tends to creep
people out.

So, do we want to accept that sex can be bought and sold like shoes? Most would disagree. The
argument that we would devalue sex is by allowing prostitution is valid in this case.

This would strengthen the notion that women are sex objects. I mean, if you were a man who saw
pictures of half-naked women everywhere you went for most of your life, what would you think about
them? What if a significant percentage of women just went into prostitution? No, I don't want to see
what good the feminist movements have brought us undone.

Another possibility is an increase in recreational drugs for sex enhancement. Meth, alcohol, and
ecstasy are currently popular. This could easily lead legalized brothels to offer drugs to make
customers return. It would also make sildenafil (Viagra) more abused. It would not be surprising if
rogue pharmacies, counterfeit pharmaceutical drugs, and quack "male enhancers" become an even
worse problem.