Poverty, homelessness, gender inequality and sex discrimination are all issues that can drive women to become sex workers. Poverty can be a significant factor that forces women into prostitution to survive. Prior to the early 20th century, the Netherlands had abolished prostitution through national legislation. Anyone involved was criminalized. Public opinion and implementation have gradually become more lenient, giving rise to a more accepting attitude towards prostitution as a way of life.
The tension between national law and local policy created an increasingly conflicting system. This eventually led to the passing of a Bill in that gave municipal enforcement the authority to regulate prostitution. As a result, prostitution was more largely considered to be legitimate work rather than criminal activity. In order to further protect the rights of these workers, the Dutch government took a realistic and open-minded approach and passed another Bill in that abolished the ban on brothels.
This also gave sex workers the same status as other workers, including taxed income and access to the social security system. Brothels were legalized under the condition that they did not hinder public life. This new law in the Netherlands has decriminalized both workers and businesses in the sex industry. Local authorities supervise the conditions under which prostitution is permissible. Research comparing legal workers with those who work illegally found that the legal sector has several advantages.
First, the legal workers had superior health profiles. Second, those working illegally were twice as likely as the legal workers to have been assaulted, robbed, or kidnapped and three times more likely to experience extortion or violence by police officers. Third, there were several intangible advantages:. Legal status allows them access to the safest and most profitable venues, affords protection from the police, and facilitates the professionalization process.
Registration and monthly checkups appear to encourage behaviors that are protective of health as well as provide a barrier against police harassment. Registration increases the sense of legitimacy and community and is correlated with much lower levels of depression and mental stress.
Another major study compared different regimes in three Australian cities: criminalization in Perth Western Australia , decriminalization in Sydney New South Wales , and legalization in Melbourne Victoria. On all of the health and safety measures, legalization ranked superior to criminalization. It also performed better than decriminalization, because legalization implies some kind of state regulation whereas decriminalization is a non-interventionist, laissez-faire approach. In contrast to the macro-level studies critiqued earlier, the case studies briefly discussed here highlight the importance of examining micro-level policy implementation and the best available data on how sex workers actually fare under different regimes, rather than assuming that they are monolithically affected by the letter of the law.
Traffickers, like other organized criminals, gravitate to places where opportunities are greatest, which means that a prohibition on a desired commodity or service is a magnet for them. This principle is fully understood by those who have sought, historically and today, to end prohibitions on alcohol, gambling, drugs, and other vices.
Research documents substantial variation among legal prostitution systems. Some rely on regulations that are sound and can be considered best practices, while others impose rules that are overly burdensome for sex workers or the owners of the businesses they work for or have the effect of marginalizing certain types of workers.
Requiring sex workers to register with the authorities and mandatory counseling and condom use Austria, Germany are almost universally disliked by sex workers, and excessive restrictions on businesses the Netherlands have been counterproductive as well. Decriminalization means that criminal penalties are removed, leaving participants free to operate as they choose, subject to the rules pertaining to any other business. Unlike legalization, there are no regulations specific to the sex industry.
Many sex workers are averse to any regulation whatsoever. This laissez-faire approach is anathema to politicians and the wider public. For those who are open to removing criminal penalties, some kind of regulation is preferred. More importantly, unfettered decriminalization perpetuates risks to sex workers themselves as it does nothing to sideline bad actors. Without some kind of state oversight, exploitation is likely to continue in brothels, massage parlors, bars, and other erotic businesses.
The three-city Australian study mentioned above provides some evidence that legalization can be superior to decriminalization, and research in Belgium confirms this point. In Brussels, those who run sex businesses operate virtually free of any government control.
But unlike Antwerp and Ghent, city authorities take a radically lax approach to the area. Police rarely enter the district; buildings are in disrepair; security cameras are absent; officials conduct no background checks on third parties or site visits to monitor working conditions; police tend to ignore crimes against the window workers; and madams exercise total control over them.
Many of the madams are connected to organized crime networks based outside of Belgium, and they exercise tight control over the African or Eastern European women working for them. By contrast, the authorities in Antwerp and Ghent impose strict rules on the owners of window units and the workers are periodically interviewed by social workers and health providers to ensure that their health and safety are being protected and that they are working voluntarily.
Security cameras are visible and each district has its own designated health center, offering free services. Uniformed and undercover police officers patrol each district. The authorities in Brussels, by contrast, do almost nothing to control business operators, combat bad actors, or support the sex workers. The comparison suggests that there can be serious problems with unfettered decriminalization.
But the latter is, in fact, quite rare worldwide. When a system based on criminalization is dismantled, a two-step process usually follows: decriminalization followed by legalization. Criminal penalties are removed and regulations are imposed and, again, what matters is the nature of those rules. Do they unreasonably encumber sex workers and erotic business owners, or do they enhance their rights, health, and safety?
These are the questions policy makers grapple with when legalizing gambling and drugs as well. He has conducted extensive research on various aspects of sex work in several countries, including legal prostitution systems in Europe.
Among his contributions on human trafficking are a co-edited issue of the prestigious Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science May Photo by Pixabay from Pexels.
By Ronald Weitzer - 21 July Not only does sex work become safer when it is regulated, but legalization also works to weed out the black market that exists for prostitution, thereby making women safer overall. Also, sex workers are not branded as criminals, so they have better access to the legal system and are encouraged to report behaviors that are a danger to themselves and other women in the industry.
Finally, legalizing sex work will provide many other positive externalities , including tax revenue, reduction in sexually transmitted diseases, and reallocation of law enforcement resources. In the Netherlands, certain components of the legislation , such as requiring sex workers to register and setting the minimum age for prostitution at 21, could drive more sex workers to illegal markets.
Not only that, but studies indicate that legalizing prostitution can increase human trafficking. However, even those who are critical about legalizing prostitution can recognize the benefits that legislation can have on working conditions for sex workers. If countries with legislation in place spend more time listening to current sex workers, the results of decriminalizing prostitution include bringing safety, security, and respect to a demographic that has traditionally been denied such things.
The underlying reason that people are uncomfortable listening to sex workers about legalizing prostitution has nothing to do with concern for the health and safety of women.
If that were the genuine concern, prostitution would be legal in the United States by now. The underlying reason people disagree with legalizing prostitution is that prostitution is viewed as amoral because it involves mostly women selling their bodies for financial gain. However, telling women what they can and cannot do with their bodies does not come from a place of morality: that comes from a place of control. People, especially women, sell their bodies for financial gain in legalized fashions on a daily basis.
Pornography is legal, and so is exotic dancing. Why are these examples socially acceptable, even encouraged, but prostitution is seen as so appalling? The difference is that in all of these other situations, it is easy for people to pretend that the women involved are not actually selling their bodies directly. Prostitution does not allow the general public to have the benefit of these pretenses. Rather, the industry is honest about how sex and money are directly related.
And for many individuals, this is an uncomfortable notion.
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