Solutions?

Nathan Creitz, over at Church Ethos, posted an article concerning the legalization of prostitution a few days ago.  He was examining the issue and offering a “solution” to the “problem.”

His assessment suffers from at least two critical flaws, however.  First, much of his information comes from web sites run by the anti-prostitution crowd.  Despite widespread criticism and debunking of Melissa Farley’s malpractice (or, as she refers to it, “research”), people still use her information to support a variety of punitive actions against sex workers and their clients.  In the comments on Nathan’s article, I was able to demonstrate a couple of problems with her “facts,” but you know, once someone reads something that supports their positions it tends to stick with them as the gospel (no pun intended, Nathan).  In fairness to him, he did indicate that I’d shed some light on the subject and cause him to rethink some things, though.

The second flaw is a lack of basic understanding of the sociology surrounding prostitution.  For example, he originally made no distinction between street workers and those who sell sex privately.  His understanding of the world, which again was based largely upon what he took from Farley’s misinformation, was that street workers comprised the bulk of those who sell sex.  When I pointed out that, in reality, they only constituted about 10% of those who sell sex, he was astounded and didn’t believe me until I pointed him to a source.

He also had a rather simplistic outlook about the ability to develop programs to get women out of sex work:  He’d educate them and find them jobs.  I pointed out that many of us actually have degrees, including many with advanced degrees (and that is not uncommon for street workers as well).  I also explained that, unless and until you find women jobs making the kind of money they can selling sex, you’re not going to have any serious impact on the industry using that approach.  Most sex workers can make in a couple of hours what they would working an entire week at most other commonly available jobs, especially as young women working their way through college.

In the end his solution, basically, was to decriminalize the selling of sex and criminalize the purchase of sex, as if this was something new.   Hmm, where have we heard this before?  Oh, yeah, Sweden.  And while the specific results there are a bone of contention (because of claimed biases in the various studies done on its results), the net result is that prostitution still takes place in Sweden; it just does so underground now.  Sex workers in Sweden will tell you they are far less safe under the current law than they were previously (when prostitution was not illegal).

Another fact that escaped Nathan was that it is already a crime in many cities and states to buy sexual services.  They often fine the Johns, take their cars away from them, and force them to attend “training” programs about STDs and respect for women (ignoring male and transgender sex workers).  That, too, has yet to quell prostitution to any significant degree.  There are a few places on this planet where buying or selling sex will get you executed, and yet even that doesn’t stop people from exchanging sex for money and other services or goods of value.  So assuming that the mere criminalization of the buying of sex is going to magically stop it is woefully naive.

As we went back and forth in the comments on his blog, he narrowed the scope of his discussion to those who are coerced into prostitution and “the children,” or the minors who engage in sex work.  Let me state unequivocally that I support anything we can do to get anyone who doesn’t want to be doing the work, or who doesn’t have any business in the work out of it. That includes anyone who doesn’t do it consensually or who is incapable of consent, for whatever reason (age, mental defect, altered state, etc.).  I just want us to adopt some serious approaches that are, you know, going to work.  I’m tired of seeing lip service paid to this issue by fucking no-nothing politicians and others.  Nathan’s intent is good, but he’s just not familiar enough with how everything fits together to be able to develop and articulate a rational response.  He gets credit for trying, though.

So what would work?  I don’t think anyone knows the specific answer to that with any certainty.  Quite clearly, the simple criminalization of the buying and selling of sex doesn’t work.  It never has, and it never will. For the life of me I can’t figure out why otherwise rational people can’t seem to wrap their heads around that.

First and foremost, we need to recognize that many sex workers do what they do because they enjoy the work and/or like the kind of money they can make from it, accept that and move on with addressing issues related to those who want or need to get out.  And, when someone makes a decision to enter sex work, allow them to make it.  Some may hate it and get out; others may like it and stick with it for a while.  Let them do their thing and go on with their lives unencumbered by the idiocy of the way we currently treat those who engage in sex work.  Wasting time arresting, prosecuting, and warehousing those who do the work consensually wastes money and resources that could be much more effectively applied to getting others out of the work.

We also need to recognize that those forced into sex work are not criminals, but victims, and deal with them accordingly.  New York and California, two of the most progressive states in the country, are leading the way by enacting laws that treat minors caught up in sex work as victims.  We need to extend this to apply to anyone, adult or minor, who’s coerced into sex work.  Arresting the prostitute, charging her with a crime, and penalizing her does absolutely dick to help her get out of the business.  In fact, it perpetuates it.  She’ll have to earn money to pay for attorney costs, fines, and court fees when she gets done.  Let’s see, what would she do when she needs to make some money to pay all of that?  Yep, prostitution.  See the problem with this approach?  The epitome of nonsense.

There’s going to need to be some kind of social support system to help those who want out to get out; there’s just no way around that.  Perhaps it might be modeled after programs used in drug rehab (which would, by necessity, have to integrated into whatever we come up with), and include training, job placement assistance, parenting skill development (for those with children), financial counseling, and other programs that might support someone wanting out.

So my basic proposal as to what we might do includes the following.  I’m sure other people will be able to add to this or expand on the points I’m including, but they could, and should, serve as a jumping off point for additional discussions on the subject.

1. Decriminalize the consensual exchange of sex for something else of value.  This is a no-brainer and nothing else anyone ever proposes in any form will work without taking this first step.  Don’t enact new laws regulating everything, just decriminalize it and perhaps pass some basic regulations governing where it can’t be done. Some people point to places where prostitution has been legalized as examples of it “not working.”  The failure is directly related to the onerous regulations that are placed on the work, though, rather than its simple decriminalization.  The Netherlands is an excellent example of this, as is Nevada.  Requiring prostitutes to be held as slaves by brothel owners for the entire time they’re in town to work and restricting their movement isn’t much better than making it illegal to begin with.  New Zealand’s decriminalization is often pointed to as a potential model for use here in the U. S.  With a few tweaks it could easily work here as well as it has there.

2.  Strengthen and enforce human trafficking laws already on the books.  Trafficking is an entirely separate issue from prostitution and the two shouldn’t even be linked.  Human beings trafficked into the world of sexual slavery are NOT prostitutes – they’re slaves.  Period.  Penalties for trafficking human beings, especially minors, should include life imprisonment for those responsible, full stop.

We can point again to The Netherlands for an example of how this can be mismanaged.  Even though prostitution was legalized there, there is still a trafficking problem.  People will point to that and say, “See, legalization of prostitution does nothing to inhibit the trafficking of humans into prostitution.”  The disparity stems largely from porous borders and the way the country understands and enforces it’s immigration and border laws, though.  Combine this with the narrow manner in which prostitution can be carried out in the country (i.e., only in brothels) and it becomes easy to see why legalization has done little to inhibit the flow of sexual slaves into the country.  This is why I mentioned above that if you don’t decriminalize the work, nothing else you do will matter.

3. Strengthen and enforce existing laws against coercion of someone into prostitution, and make them specific to the intent to coerce. As it stands right now, most state laws are written to criminalize anyone “living off the proceeds from prostitution” or something similar to that.  Though originally intended to be used to prosecute pimps, the net result is that it often criminalizes the prostitute’s family and other legitimate business associates (including, technically, their children, by the way).   Prostitutes need support services just like any other business person, and there’s no reason to criminalize those who legitimately help them do their work (schedulers, madams, drivers, etc.).  Make it a crime to force or coerce someone into prostitution and enforce that law, but allow the prostitutes to spend their money as they see fit.

4.  Redirect all of that money being used now to arrest, prosecute, and jail sex workers toward social programs to help those wanting to get out of the business.  This would, by necessity include drug rehab, domestic abuse counseling, job training, and other educational programs as I discussed above.  If we don’t develop some social support mechanisms to provide them with some legitimate path out of the work, they’re not likely to go anywhere until they die (or hit the jackpot).  The overwhelming majority of those who want out of prostitution are street workers – those engaged in “survival” sex and who have to earn a quick buck to score their next hit or put food on the table.   Use these funds to allow faith-based groups and other community-based organizations to develop programs to help these folks, evaluate them over time and see what works, and use those as models for additional programs.

All of those, even collectively, are not going to be the panacea I’d like it to be, and I am sure open to other suggestions for ideas that might have a legitimate shot at working.  To be valid, any idea would need to:

• Not treat consensual exchanging of sex for something of value as a crime,
• Not place undue restrictions on those engaged in sex work,
• Recognize as valid an individual’s decision to engage in sex work, for whatever reason they elect to use,
• Recognize the differences between prostitution-related concepts and those wholly dissociated with prostitution (i.e., trafficking, etc.),
• Recognize the factors/pressures that send people into “survival” mode (including drug addiction) and incorporate appropriate mechanisms for dealing with these.

So what say ye?  Anyone have any thoughts about other approaches we might use to actually allow consensual sex work to flourish while inhibiting trafficking, coercive manipulation, and mistreatment by the justice system?

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Tagged as: decriminalization, human trafficking, legalization, prostitution, sex work