Should the laws against prostitution be abolished?
NO:
Sections
- The Irish Times
- Breaking News
- Sport
- Business
- Technology
- Weather
- In Focus
- Blogs
- Archive Search
- Family Notices
Search for
Services
- Premium Email
- Games
- Dating
- Travel
- Frontpage Sales
- Photosales
- Ancestors
- Irish Times Training
- Mobile
- Reader Offers
 |
|
Kathleen Fahy says legalisation would normalise exploitation but clients should be seen as the real criminals
NO: Legalising prostitution does not protect those involved but rather acts to expand the sex industry and normalise the exploitation of women. This has been proven in other jurisdictions such as the Netherlands.
A woman seldom finds herself involved in prostitution as a result of unlimited choices, but rather as a consequence of very constrained circumstances. Prostitution is a survival strategy. By legalising the practice there is a failure to acknowledge that prostitution preys on particularly vulnerable individuals.
Women in prostitution suffer violence or the threat of violence on a regular basis. Legalisation does not protect the women from violence, rape and murder, which are endemic in the sex industry and are understood to be "occupational hazards".
Women prostituted in legal brothels in Victoria, Australia are given guidelines that dictate how to negotiate with a violent customer. In what other non-military profession is it necessary to handle hostage situations in a "normal" working day? No state has yet effectively regulated the sex industry.
The Netherlands believed that legalising prostitution would end child prostitution, but instead it has seen a huge increase in numbers of child prostitutes. The same phenomenon has occurred in Victoria, Australia.
Legalised prostitution has contributed to an increase in organised crime within the industry and this has led to an increase in violence against the women.
Where prostitution is legal, there is a greater demand for human trafficking of victims - as there is a well-established market - where the criminals exist as untouchables.
Facilitated by legalisation, traffickers operate with near impunity as prosecutions are difficult due to the fact that women working in licensed brothels are deemed "legitimate workers", leaving the police powerless to question suspected victims.
Legalisation does not empower a woman, either financially or emotionally, to remove the role of the pimp. The profit is made by the industry, the owners of legal brothels who will often demand 50-60 per cent commission from the women.
The competition for customers and pressure to earn money in the expanded sex industry puts huge pressure on women to deliver services that are degrading and upsetting and damaging. It is a myth to suggest, except in rare circumstances, that women may have greater control over their bodies and working terms.
Pro-legalisation groups (such as brothel owners and sex workers unions) say that when prostitution is legalised it is recognised as legitimate work. These groups argue that legalisation gives the women dignity and removes the damaging stigma attached to the work that they do.
The International Labour Organisation, which controversially calls for prostitution to be recognised as legitimate work, nonetheless recognises that "prostitution is one of the most alienated forms of labour".
Indeed, in Germany, in a country with an estimated 400,000 women in prostitution, there are less than 100 women who are willing to sign up to the union of prostitutes where they would have to register themselves as a prostitute.
Legalisation is an attempt to dignify the sex industry not the women involved - and we should never lose sight of this fact.
Clearly, to speak of prostitution as a "profession" is to misuse the word, so as to imply benefits, rights and entitlements which simply do not exist for women in prostitution, whether legalised or not.
Instead of legalising this form of abuse we should be looking at the factors, which lead women to feel they have no other choice but prostitution.
The prostituted woman's health is not necessarily protected by, nor of primary importance to, a regulated sex industry. While legalisation allows for HIV/Aids and STI screening, there is no compulsion for customers to undergo health checks, leaving the women vulnerable to infections.
In reality the men's health is protected as they are ensured that the woman they buy is "clean". This measure clearly serves to benefit the customers and not the women.
If a state legalises prostitution, thereby profiting in the form of taxes from the use of women's bodies for sexual purposes it, in effect, takes the role of the pimp. In countries where prostitution is legal, buying women for sex is portrayed as normal, allowing men to feel more justified in their sexually exploitative behaviour.
Ruhama is calling on the Irish Government not to penalise women involved in prostitution but to criminalise the buyers who exploit them.
We recommend a close examination of the Swedish model as a contribution towards constructing an Irish society based on equality, free from prostitution and its inherent harm. Logically, a policy must be based on an approach that seeks to end prostitution, rather than manage or legitimise it.
Sweden enacted legislation in 1999 which decriminalises prostitution for the seller but keeps it a criminal offence for the buyer (of sexual services).
They are already seeing positive effects with a decrease in trafficking and associated organised crime. Furthermore this legislation, which is supported by 80 per cent of the Swedish population, is making a clear statement that the purchasing of people for sexual services is not acceptable.
Kathleen Fahy is director of Ruhama, which works with and for women involved in prostitution and against trafficking
