The Prostitution Debate


THE CONTROVERSIAL Tolerance Zones (Scotland) Bill and the British
government’s consultation document on prostitution, Paying the Price, have
sparked a real debate about how to deal with the issue of prostitution.
 The following is an edited version of an article by Sinead Daly
which first appeared in International Socialist, the paper of CWI members
in Scotland.

ALTHOUGH THE Tolerance Zones Bill was defeated in 2003, MSP Margo
McDonald is presenting a similar bill which is due to be heard by the end
of this year. The Bill, if passed, would see tolerance zones designated by
the local council in consultation with the police, health boards and the
local community. The council would then have a duty of care to provide
CCTV, adequate lighting and access to support workers.

There is real division among support agencies that work with
prostitutes about whether to support the Bill. Routes out of prostitution,
based in Glasgow, where there are no tolerance zones, oppose the bill.
While the Scottish Prostitution Education Project (Scotpep) based in
Edinburgh – where until 2001 they had a designated tolerance zone –
support it.

Tolerance zones

Scotpep claims that there has been a massive increase in recorded
attacks in Edinburgh – 111 in 2003 compared with 11 in 2001. Previously
they found it easy to locate and support prostitutes, now they are
dispersed all over the city.

Prostitutes themselves have reported feeling less safe; one woman said:
"I carry a knife with me now and I have never, ever done that
before". Another said: "since the zone has gone we have had to
put up with more violence than ever before, from the residents and drug
dealers pushing their kit and more girls than ever on drugs."

Before the ending of tolerance zones, less than a third of prostitutes
were heroin addicts in Edinburgh compared to 97% in Glasgow and 90% in
Aberdeen. There is also less incidence of sexually transmitted disease.

The reality of working on the streets is horrific, women tell of being
raped, severely beaten and being driven by strangers to locations they may
not know or feel safe in – if they are attacked who do they tell?

One study found that 66% of women involved in street-based prostitution
in the UK experienced client violence, including being slapped, kicked or
punched – 28% reported rape or attempted rape.

Legalisation

THE SITUATION facing the estimated 700 women per year smuggled into the
UK to work as prostitutes, mostly unknowingly and unwillingly, is worse.
They face not just the brutality of their abusers who buy sex but also
from their ‘pimps’ who have enslaved them.

Who can they turn to if they get the chance to escape – the police? If
they report to the police they will most likely be deported. The reality
is these women are being criminalised both as prostitutes but also as
illegal immigrants.

The legalisation of prostitution, pimping and brothels has facilitated
an increase in the trafficking of women. According to Michael Platzer,
Head of UN Centre for International Crime Prevention, "the laws help
the gangsters. Prostitution is semi-legal in many places and that makes
enforcement tricky. In most cases the punishment is very light."

Netherlands

Rode Draad (Red Thread) a prostitutes union in the Netherlands claims
that the legalisation of brothels has meant that prostitutes working
conditions have improved. Many are now entitled to holiday, maternity and
sick pay, as well as improved pay and conditions.

However, this is not the case for many. The other side of the coin is
that prostitution is now regarded as a legitimate profession – so much so
that two women have had their benefit stopped because they refused to take
a job as a prostitute!

Big business and the governments who back up their system are now
beginning to recognise that there is a lot of money to be made, which is
why we are seeing the beginnings of the legalisation of brothels. One of
the proposals under consideration by the British government is
legalisation/licensing of brothels and prostitutes.

The 1998 report from the UN’s International Labour Organisation
blatantly legitimated sexual exploitation as an appropriate, key component
of gross national product and called upon governments of poorer countries
to take economic advantage of "The Sex Sector" – regulated,
expanded and taxed!

Decriminalisation

We should be in favour of removing the existing legislation that
criminalises prostitution. [This is not the same as legalising it]. We
would not want to condone or legitimise any aspect of the sex industry,
which is based, not on sexual ‘freedom’ and openness, but on the
commercial exploitation of sex, and promotes stereotypical and damaging
images of sex and sexuality.

However, the legal system should not be making criminals of prostitutes
who are generally amongst the most vulnerable and most exploited people in
society. Statistics released by the British Home Office consultation
document state that 70% of prostitutes have been in local authority care
as children, 45% have been victims of child sexual abuse and 42% have been
raped.

We should back harm reduction measures that will ensure that
prostitutes can work more safely, ie well-lit tolerance zones, safe
off-the-street venues where support workers and health workers have
regular contact.

There is also a need for women to access safe houses, a place where
they can go to escape from their pimp/abuser. Women should also be assured
that they will be given a legal right to remain should they manage to
escape.

At the same time it is essential to fight for policies to end poverty
like a decent minimum wage and free education.

We live in a society which is based on inequalities of power and wealth
and breeds poverty, exploitation and abuse. Sexism, including the sexual
exploitation of women, is rooted in its very structures. As long as this
system remains women will continue to be forced into the ‘sex industry’. A
socialist society will provide the only lasting solution.

The socialist would welcome readers’ views on this issue.