Why legalizing sex work will never work
Opinion
David Swanson — The Link (B.C. Institute of Technology
BURNABY, B.C. (CUP — In recent years, the conversation surrounding sex work has changed. Many people have realized Canada's laws surrounding the procurement of sex have not been successful in its prevention. Currently, the sale of sexual services for money is legal, but many of the attendant activities (advertising it, setting up brothels etc. are not. Sex work has cemented its reputation as “society’s oldest profession” and, for those pursuing its legalization, that’s a justification for ending its prohibition.
They believe the sex trade will exist regardless of its lawfulness and should therefore be made legal, as regulation will bring it within government control, helping to minimize the negative effects of sex work like exploitation, drug addiction and physical abuse.
In most circumstances, this logic is sound. If the illegality of something does not curb behaviour, the effective harm reduction strategy may be to integrate that behaviour into the legal system. However, with regards to sex work, this could produce more harm than good.
Alexandra Mackenzie, a Vancouver advocate for the abolition of prostitution and co-founder of the organization Our Lives To Fight For, produced a powerful documentary outlining the pitfalls of legalized prostitution. In order to get a more complete understanding of the issue, Mackenzie interviewed academics, concerned community members and former prostitutes.
In doing so, she discovered that “no country has successfully legalized prostitution without substantial growth of human trafficking, organized crime, and underage prostitution.” She writes on Simon Fraser University's Journalists for Human Rights blog that, “In 2007, the mayor of Amsterdam called the legalization of prostitution an 'abysmal failure' due to a significant increases in organized crime, human trafficking, and drug trafficking.” She adds that, a year later, the National Dutch Police estimated that between 50–90 per cent of women in the legal brothels in Holland were "working involuntarily."
The sex trade is a very lucrative industry that perpetuates gender inequalities that will not be solved if prostitution is legalized. The sex trade will not become safer or easier to regulate. Legalization will only validate women (primarily as commodities, which dehumanizes sexual interactions.
Furthermore, legalization could perpetuate socioeconomic inequalities. For example, people applying for welfare are usually expected to complete an in-depth job search before they will be awarded government aid. In 2002, the German government legalized prostitution as a legitimate profession; in 2005,
The Telegraph
reported that women applying for welfare in Germany who were having difficulty finding work in traditional industries were being advised to apply to brothels. If they refused, benefits could be denied.
In this circumstance, legalized prostitution could actually result in an influx of impoverished women participating in the sex trade. Of course, this would be contrary to the legalization objective, which is to minimize women’s non-consensual participation in the industry. Sadly, the probability that financially disadvantaged women will be forced to sell sex as a means for providing for themselves and their families will likely increase.
So what is the solution? If prostitution isn’t legalized and regulated, then sex trade workers will be more susceptible to violence, disease and drug addiction. If it is, the government is responsible for propagating inequity with little evidence the policy will be socially beneficial.
Fortunately, there is a third option: the Nordic model. The Nordic model decriminalizes the sale of sex but criminalizes the act of buying sex. Across Scandinavia, countries including Sweden, Norway and Iceland have implemented this policy and seen positive results. By making the demand for paid sex illegal without punishing sex workers, the law recognizes prostitution as a form of exploitation and places the participation risk of hefty fines, incarceration and public shame on the buyer, not the seller, of sex. This legislation, in tandem with subsidized housing, job training programs and drug rehabilitation, has helped many women exit the industry.
Mackenzie writes, “Since the law was implemented in 1999, street prostitution [in Sweden] has decreased by 50 per cent with no increase in indoor prostitution." She adds that there's been a "considerable decline of human trafficking into Sweden.”
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else
in a lie. No surprise then that he's
shifted his high-dudgeon gear into overdrive. He says that if television stations in Georgia don't stop running an ad about him that his lawyers call “fundamentally NOT TRUE, or as PolitiFACT.org put it—a 'Pants on Fire' lie," he'll sue.
Relying on PolitiFACT to make the case for what's ablaze is always risky. Statements called false there today could be on the honor roll before the weekend is half over. In this case, however, the group probably got it right.
At issue is an ad by the SuperPAC Restore Our Future saying Gingrich “co-sponsored a bill with Nancy Pelosi that would have given $60 million a year to a U.N. program supporting China’s brutal one-child policy.” Various fact-checkers found that the 1989 legislation specifically excluded any funding for involuntary sterilizations, abortions or programs that forced anyone to accept family planning. Any station that runs the ad risks a defamation suit, Gingrich's lawyers state.
Upon hearing the news of the threatened lawsuit, hubris must have stepped off stage to give way to Gingrich with whom it can no longer compete. If a lawsuit were brought against the Newt every time he lied, it would tie up the civil judiciary east of the Mississippi for a decade.
After all, this is the guy who claimed 800 babies were tossed into dumpsters in Washington, D.C. (It was four. Who said only people who made more than a million dollars a year were subject to the income tax when it was initiated. (The rate was 1 percent for earners up to $20,000. Who claimed people could spend their food stamps to go to Hawai'i. (No, they can't. Who said it's illegal to pray in school. (No, it's not. Who said up to 25 percent of the White House staff under Clinton were drug users. (Example #231,309 proving that 87.4 percent of statistics are made up on the spot. Who claimed the United States spend less in 2010 on national defense than at any time since Dec. 6, 1941. (In inflation-adjusted dollars it was higher when than at any time since 1971 . Who said his first wife wanted their divorce. (Court documents say he did. Who said Freddie Mac paid him $1.6 million for "history lessons." (I am not even going to bother with that one. Who claimed he had never supported a mandated health-care coverage. (He had. Who claimed he took a vacation to Greece with Callista to shake up his campaign staff and see the Greek financial crisis up close. (Hahahahaha.
Lying is
second first nature to Newt Gingrich. Whether it's revising American history or his personal history, he thrives on lies. Couldn't exist without them. If PolitiFACT were on the ball, the guy would have to wear asbestos underwear to get through the day.
Davis was a convicted murderer who was put to death by the State of Georgia as punishment for the crimes of which he was found guilty. Like so many other death row inmates who were wrongly convicted of—and sometimes even executed for—crimes they did not commit, Troy Davis may well have been innocent. There was no physical evidence proving his crime, and many of the eywitnesses upon whom Davis' conviction depended later recanted their testimony, citing undue pressure from prosecutors to finger the person they had apparently already decided was responsible. In the end, however, whether or not Troy Davis was guilty or not is merely salt in the wound of a far bigger outrage.
The Catholic Church officially opposes capital punishment. This doctrine is in the same vein as those opposing abortion, birth control, and physician-assisted suicide: church doctrine dictates that life begins at conception and is a gift from God. Consequently, it is beyond the scope of any soul, no matter how high the earthly authority, to terminate a human life. It does not matter if it is legal, and it does not matter if the rationale is to relieve suffering: the taking of life is God's department, not ours.
Yet in the middle of September, as opposition to the impending execution of Troy Davis reached a fever pitch and a singular opportunity presented itself for the Church to not just call for an act of mercy, but support a key element of doctrine, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops was
silent as the grave. Yes, some local Catholic bishops in Georgia did support the conscience of their doctrine by calling for a reprieve, but the USCCB, the organization most responsible for lobbying and policy advocacy on behalf of the Holy See here in the United States, sat idly by. The execution of a possibly innocent man was not enough to stir the bishops into action. But birth control? That's a different story altogether.
The directive of President Obama's Health and Human Services Department that requires employers to cover the cost of contraceptive prescriptions was met with
outrage by the USCCB. Never before, they argued, had citizens been forced to pay for things that violated their religious conscience. Not that the Church would have been forced to cover the cost of contraceptives: churches who objected receive an exemption under the directive. The Bishops even
rejected a compromise that allowed women who work for affiliated organizations, such as nonprofits and hospitals, to obtain contraceptive coverage directly from an insurer, as opposed to through their employer. Apparently, preserving the "religious conscience" of an insurance company was ground that these bishops simply would not cede.
One could commend the bishops' commitment to principle if it were based on any sincerity. Unfortunately, that seems not to be the case. Our tax dollars subsidize executions in every state where they are conducted, as well as pay for the wars and occupations that offend a true Catholic conscience, yet these bishops will not lift a finger to stop the execution of one possibly innocent man, let alone work to prevent their believers from paying for these egregious violations of doctrine.
Yes, the hypocrisy is shameful, and it serves as yet another reminder that in this mean-spirited age, the only doctrines that conservatives deem worth standing up for are those that punish and impede, rather than those that demonstrate any inkling of compassion and mercy.
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