Prostitution is the practice of individuals engaging in sexual activities for payment. It is a controversial practice that has generated emotional debate among agencies that enforce the law and business communities. The practice of prostitution has harmful implications on individuals, businesses, and communities. The arguments about how to address the issue of legalized prostitution have been subject to parliamentary actions in many countries. Countries such as Netherlands and Germany among others have legalized and decriminalized systems of prostitution which includes; decriminalizing brothels, pimps, and buyers (Farley, 317).
Other countries such as Thailand have put in place legal systems which bar prostitution activities and enterprises but in reality tolerate brothels and the purchase of women for commercial sexual exploitation, especially in its sex tourism sector. Sweden on the other hand has a different legal approach where it punishes the buyers while at the same time criminalizing women in prostitution. This paper presents arguments for not legalizing and decriminalizing prostitution. The arguments apply for those forms of prostitution sponsored by governments including the legalization of brothels, pimps, and decriminalization of the sex sector or any system in which prostitution is accepted as “sex work”.
There are several reasons why I strongly legalization and/or decriminalization of prostitution by governments. This includes one, it perpetuates sex trafficking; two, it rewards pimps, traffickers, and the sex industry; three, it expands the sex industry instead of controlling it; four, it drives many women into street prostitution; five, it promotes child prostitution; six, it does not protect the women in prostitution; seven does not promote the health of women; last but not least, it does not enhance women’s choice.
In this first part of the discussion, it is important to note that the prostitution industry that is legalized and/decriminalized is the main cause of the sex trafficking menace. In the Netherlands for example, prostitution was legalized with the hope that it would assist in bringing to an end the problem of exploitation suffered by desperate immigrant women trafficked in the country for prostitution purposes. This legal measure did not assist the country to solve the problem as expected instead, as the Budapest Group (1999) report found, 80% of women in the Netherlands’s brothels were victims of trafficking from other nations. Again, the International Organization Migration report of 1994 indicated that “nearly 70% of women from Central and Eastern Europe” were trafficked to the Netherlands alone (IOM, 17). These statistics indicate that indeed the policy of legalizing and decriminalizing the practice enhanced sex trafficking in the Netherlands.
The Netherlands has in place trafficking policies and programs that discourage prostitution. However, the country has removed every legal barrier that encourages vices such as pimping, buying, and brothels. For instance, Netherlands Justice Ministry agitated for a legal quota of foreign “sex workers” in 2000 because the prostitution market in the country demanded a variety of bodies (Dutting, 16). In the same year, Netherlands also requested and was granted judgment from the European courting legitimizing prostitution as an economic activity, hence giving women from European Union countries and the former Soviet bloc countries the opportunity to get permits to work as “sex worker” in the Dutch Sex Industry. This ruling by the European Union court has emboldened the traffickers to use the permits to traffic foreign women into the Dutch sex industry. The traffickers intelligently coach the trafficked women to describe themselves as independent “migrant workers” (Farley, 316).
Several Dutch victim support organizations have reported an increase in the number of women who have fallen victim to trafficking in the year since the ban on brothels in the Netherlands was lifted. In contrast, the numbers of victims from other countries which have not legalized prostitution dropped were reported by these organizations (Bureau NRM, 75). Germany started the process of legalizing prostitution in the 1980s. By 1993, the prostitution industry in Germany had consisted of 75% of women who were from countries such as Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, and other South American countries. The high volumes of foreign women in Germany’s sex industry indicate that these women were trafficked into Germany through facilitation. It is logical to note that poor women cannot afford to facilitate their migration, cover travel expenses, and travel documents, and set themselves in “business” without intervention (Bureau NRM, 75).
Secondly, legalizing and/or decriminalizing prostitution would amount to rewarding the pimps, traffickers, and the sex industry. For example, the legalization of prostitution in the Netherlands brought about all aspects of the sex industry such as; the pimps, sex workers themselves, and buyers who, under the legalization clauses have evolved into third party business people and legal sexual entrepreneurs. Legalizing prostitution and decriminalizing the sex industry converts venues such as brothels, sex clubs, massage parlors, and other prostitution sites into legalized venues where commercial sexual practices are allowed to grow legitimately with little deterrence.
Proponents of legalization or decriminalization of prostitution advance the argument that legalizing or decriminalizing prostitution gives dignity and professionalizes women in the prostitution industry. The truth is that dignifying prostitution as work does not dignify women in any way; instead, it offers dignity to the sex industry. People should realize that decriminalization of prostitution doesn’t just include women but includes a whole sex industry. People should think of the negative implications of; legalizing pimps as legal sex business people or third party business people and recognizing men who buy women for sex purposes as accepted as legal consumers of sex.
Thirdly, legalizing and/or decriminalizing prostitution does not control the sex industry, instead it aides its expansion. Looking at the Netherlands for example, the prostitution industry now accounts for 5% of the economy (Daley, 4). The country legalized pimping and decriminalized brothels in 2000, as a result, it led to the rise of the sex industry in the Netherlands by 25% (Daley, 4). In addition, the legalization and/or decriminalization of prostitution in the Netherlands have given rise to associations that vigorously champion the growth of prostitution. Such associations include; associations of sex businesses and organizations consisting of prostitution consumers. These associations consult and often collaborate with the government of the Netherlands to further their interests. This emboldens and encourages the spread of prostitution and the striving of the sex industry.
Fourthly, the decision to legalize or decriminalize prostitution will send large numbers of women into street prostitution. The goal of legalized prostitution was to establish brothels and sex clubs where women in prostitution are kept indoors where they are less vulnerable. Unfortunately, these brothels are manifested of pimps who control the so-called ‘sex workers’, and hence, many women find themselves in street prostitution to avoid exploitation and control of these cartels (Farley, 320).
Fifth, to legalize prostitution and to decriminalize the sex industry increases cases of child prostitution instead of reducing or eradicating it. In the Netherlands for instance, the reason for the legalization of prostitution was to assist eradicate child prostitution in society. Looking at statistics in child prostitution in the 1990s in the Netherlands, a dramatic rise was recorded indicating the infectiveness of this legislation. In the period 1996-2001, an increase of more than 300% of children in prostitution was estimated by Amsterdam-based Child Rights Organization. This organization estimated that at least 5000 of these children in the Dutch sex industry were trafficked from foreign nations. In Australia for instance, the state of Victoria recorded a dramatic increase in child prostitution when it was legalized as compared to other states in Australia where prostitution was not legalized. Of all Australian states, Victoria recorded the highest incidences of child prostitution (Farley, 321).
Sixth, legalized system of prostitution does not promote the health of women. The purpose of putting in place a legalized system for prostitution was to authorize health checks and certification for women. It does not include the male buyers. Therefore, it does not make public health sense as monitoring only women in prostitution does not shield them from sexually transmitted diseases and HIV/AIDS. You cannot monitor and control safe sex free from diseases by examining only women under a legalized or decriminalized system of prostitution. Men as consumers of sex can transmit STDs and HIV/AIDS to the women they buy. The legalization of brothels and other entities of “controlled” prostitution is argued to protect women through enforceable condom policies. According to Raymond et al., (2001), 47% of women in the U.S. who were engaged in prostitution acknowledged that men preferred having sex without the use of condoms; 73% of these women also revealed that men offered to pay more for sex without using a condom; and 45% reported occasions of violence by men when they insisted on the use of condoms by men (Raymond et al., 145).
Seventh, prostitution legalization or decriminalization of the sex industry does not reduce the demand for prostitution; instead, it increases the demand for these activities. Legalizing sex for money motivates men to purchase women in a wider and permissible range of socially acceptable settings. In countries that have decriminalized the prostitution industry, men now view prostitution as acceptable. These men would not risk buying women for sex before the sex industry had been decriminalized. The legalization of prostitution presents women as play toys for men and boys. The law depicts women as sexual commodities and makes people view prostitution as a harmless activity (Daley, A1).
Eighth, the legalization of prostitution and decriminalization of the sex industry creates more risks and harm for women in prostitution, especially from violent customers and pimps who are exploitative. The Coalition Against Trafficking in Women conducted a study in five countries which revealed that most women in prostitution did not want the legalization of prostitution and decriminalization of the sex industry. They interviewed 146 women who strongly asserted that prostitution should not be legalized and taken as legitimate work. They felt that it is not a profession and none of them interviewed wanted her children to earn money through commercial sex. The majority of these women felt that prostitution stripped them of their life and health. Therefore, a deduction can be made that these women were in this trade because they did not make a rational choice to join prostitution. Many of these women revealed that they took up prostitution as the last resort to make ends meet.
Another study conducted by Coalition Against Trafficking in Women revealed that 67% of law enforcement officials acknowledged that women did not join prostitution voluntarily. CATW also interviewed social service providers and 72% of them did not believe women joined the prostitution industry on voluntary basis.
Works cited
Bureau NRM. Trafficking in Human Beings: First Report of the Dutch National Rapporteur. The Hague (2002): 155.
Daley, Suzanne. “New Rights for Dutch Prostitutes, but No Gain”. New York Times A1- 4 (2001).
Dutting, Giseling. “Legalized Prostitution in the Netherlands – Recent Debates”. Women’s Global Network for Reproductive Rights (2000,): 3: 15-16.
Farley, M. Prostitution, Trafficking, and Traumatic Stress. New York: Haworth Press, 2004.
IOM (International Organization for Migration). Trafficking and Prostitution : the Growing Exploitation of Migrant Women from Central and Eastern Europe. Budapest: IOM Migration Information Program, 1995.
Raymond, Janice, G. Donna, M. Hughes, Donna, M. & Carol, A. Gomez. Sex Trafficking of Women in the United States : Links Between International and Domestic Sex Industries, Funded by the U.S. National Institute of Justice. N. Amherst, MA: Coalition Against Trafficking in Women, 2001.