from the
Sexual Freedom Coalition,

Prostitution Pride

International Union of Sex Workers

compiled by Dr Tuppy Owens and Ana Lopes, MSc
with help from solicitors John Blandford and Ted Goodman

November 2000

Contents

Introduction

Sex Work

Trafficking

Legalisation v decriminalisation

The Laws around Prostitution

Problems to be addressed

The Sex Industry

The Laws on Pornography

Recommendations

Appendix 1 Quality and Quantity in Sex Work

Appendix 2 Common Arguments Against Prostitution

Appendix 3 Prostitution is beneficial in society

Appendix 4 Why Prostitutes are vulnerable to abuse

Appendix 5 Pornography - Trades and Professions

Appendix 6 Common Arguments against pornography

Appendix 7 Pornography is beneficial in society

Appendix 8 Royal College of Nursing Report

References

This report has been compiled in response to the Green Party's request for advice for the formation of a new policy on prostitution and the sex industry.

We were asked to pay attention to the following topics in order of priority: trafficking of people for sex work; prostitution; pornography and the sex industry. This explains the bias of this report.

We have subsequently been requested to offer similar advise to the Liberal Democratic Party to take to their next conference.

Our report is supported by several appendices, including the Royal College of Nursing Report of 1995 which endorses our findings.

We have approached many organisations. In particular, we have listened to Hilary Kinnel the UK National Coordinator for the European Network for HIV / STD prevention in Prostitution. Hilary attended a home Office seminar contributed to their reform on sexual offences. However she expresses frustration over the way the authorities ignore her expertise.

Jo Bindman recommends that prostitution be redefined as sex work as a preliminary condition for the enjoyment by sex workers of their full human and labour rights.

However, sex work includes a whole range of activities (see appendix 3) many of which are less stigmatised than prostitution, and are not usually as tightly controlled by the law.

Prostitution is defined here as selling sexual services which include relief through intercourse, oral sex or using the hand to masturbate the client. Some dominatrices offer domination services without sexual relief and assume that they are thus not working as prostitutes but this is a grey area.

In her paper of 1999, Jo Doezema has pointed out that the current panic over the trafficking of women and children has a historical precedent in the panic over the white slave trade in Victorian times. This moral panic was used to provide hysteria against brothels, and convince the public that prostitutes were not "loose women" but "innocent victims of men". Newspapers sell on stories of asexual vulnerable people being shipped around the world and imprisoned in sex slave camps.

Jo goes on to say, "To the myth of the white slave's innocent has been added the third world difference of supposed ignorance, faithfulness to tradition and sexual backwardness. The myth of white slavery / trafficking in women is ostensibly about protecting women, yet the underlying moral concerns are with controlling them."

Jo suggests that women who migrate for the sex industry can only be freed from violations of their human rights if they are first freed of their mythical constraints.

Trafficking does exist but in low numbers. It may involve luring women away from home under false pretences ("come to England to be a nanny") or else luring prostitutes away from home to earn more money.

False documentation and flights are provided. Once the woman arrives, her papers are usually taken away and she is forced to work long hours for low wages, with no choice of what she can do or with whom. She is told she must repay debts and pay large rents, and told that as an illegal immigrant she must not complain to the authorities. Sometimes she is not allowed out of the brothel unless escorted.

Concern has been expressed that a large part of British prostitution results from trafficking. We have been unable to locate reliable statistics to back this up - from the Metropolitan Police report detailed below it would seem likely that the figures might be 500 of the approximately 80,000 prostitutes in the UK, ie 0.06%.

The situation may be more grim on an international level. Mirkinson reported in Breakthrough (1994) that from one to two million women and children are trafficked each year and over 100,000 women are shipped to Japan to serve in indentured servitude in bars and brothels.

However small the proportion of trafficked prostitution in Britain, it is still unacceptable and needs to be dealt with as a priority.

The Metropolitan Police report of 1996 identified the level of criminal activity at that time. Between 1992 and 1996 they closed down all six of the Triad brothels they found operating in London and all the principles were convicted along with the brothel managers and twenty five people deported. Another trafficker brought nearly 100 females from Brazil, providing false travel documents, taking their passports away and forcing them to work for œ50 a client but charging them between œ7,500 and œ9000 to be brought here and œ400 a week accommodation and expenses. He has also been convicted. An organised crime group from Lithuania brought 40 prostitutes to Central London under the cover of the import/export of cars, and at the time of the report was still under investigation.

The police have now formed a National Vice Contact Directory and hold a National Vice Conference to improve action plans and liaison with the Immigration Service, the National Criminal Intelligence Service and authorities in other countries.

The Immigration Service deports the illegal prostitutes immediately, which makes it impossible for the police to use them as witnesses when attempting to convict the traffickers. This is an area which needs to be improved.

Sex workers' projects in central London are in contact with many non-UK nationals and reports of extreme coercion have emerged.

Usually it is reported that the reason for migrants and non-UK citizens involvement in sex work is the lack of other sources of income: such people may be unable to obtain legitimate work owing to lack of work permits, and as non-UK residents they may be refused benefits. This is an issue about how Britain treats foreigners.

Every country in Europe is affected by inward migration driven by political and social upheaval in the country of origin, and by other social and economic factors. Migrants who are denied the opportunity to obtain legitimate work may through necessity engage in sex work. Others may be able to obtain entry to Europe only through engaging with traffickers: usually such migrants will be aware that they will be working in the sex industry when they get to Europe (Survey of Sex Work Characteristics and Policies 1999 European Network for HIV / STD Prevention in Prostitution). Other reports recognise that the majority of those who end up in debt-bondage or slavery like conditions were already working as sex workers. This does not make it any more acceptable.

A number of today's campaigns have become a platform for reactionary and paternalistic voices, advocating a rigid sexual morality under the guise of protecting women, and incorporating racist and classist perceptions in their analysis of the sex industry in developed countries. Often, "trafficking" is used by states to initiate and justify restrictive policies.

The police and other authorities have reasons to exaggerate reports of 'slavery' in which sex workers are unable to select their clients or decide what services they will give. Scare-mongering creates jobs.

ANSWERS

1) Develop the flow of international intelligence, police cooperation and improve Immigration rules so that criminals involved with the trafficking women are no longer able to operate.

2) The solution to abuse is legislation against the abusers combined with decriminalisation of the work itself, enabling sex workers to form and join their own union and assert their legal rights. Once this work is out in the open, it will allow the setting of acceptable standards against which unacceptable working conditions can be judged.

3) Change current legislation so that prostitution is not run by criminals, nor attract criminals to the industry.

4) Change current legislation so that trafficked workers can get help from the authorities and be protected from the person/people controlling them.

For decades, sex workers have been campaigning for the decriminalisation of sex work. From PLAN (Prostitution Laws are Nonsense) in the 1970s to the current International Conferences, decriminalisation is the most favoured option. This is in favour of legalisation, as explained below.

"Legalisation" can simply mean that prostitution is not against the law but in reality, legalised systems often include special taxes; restricting prostitutes to working in brothels or in certain zones; licenses; registration of prostitutes and government records of individual prostitutes; and health checks which often means punitive quarantine. Within these systems, the police are relegated the job of prostitution control through criminal codes. Usually, prostitute activists use the term legalisation to refer to systems of state control, which defines the term by the realities of the current situation.

When the general public concerned with civil rights, privacy, etc., call for 'legalisation', they may not be aware of the implications of that term, or of the problems inherent in many legal systems.

Some sex workers want legalisation. However, wherever this has been adopted - for example, in Nevada in the United States and in Germany - sex workers became vulnerable to state control. Legal brothels tend to be soulless places where the employees are requested to work long shifts for low pay. Many girls in Germany prefer to work outside the system even though they have no state benefits.

On the other hand, decriminalisation is another option. Decriminalisation is understood as the removal of laws against prostitution. That is, the repeal of legislation which in intent or in practice, results in the placing of sex workers outside the scope of the rule of the law.

Most sex workers want prostitution to be treated exactly the same as any other trade, which does not need any extra laws. Trafficking is already illegal. Sex with a person underage is illegal. Problems in the street can be dealt with by current laws against causing a nuisance or obstruction (eg the Public Order Act). There are also laws against drug dealing. If the police put their efforts into the fight against drug-related and other real crime, consenting adults can get on with their business with no harm to anyone and make their contribution to society (see Appendix 3)

It is often useful to compare sex with food. You would be unable to complain about your meal in restaurant if food were illegal.

It is not illegal to sell sex in Britain. However, the laws that exist make it almost impossible to do so legally, and criminalise those involved.

British Laws on Prostitution were laid down to suppress vice, based on the morality of the time. Reform is due and this has been recognised by various bodies such as the Townswomen's Guild and the Royal College of Nursing.

The current laws have very little to do with the present situation, and some councils have taken the law into their own hands: Birmingham and Edinburgh licence massage parlours and Edinburgh operates a tolerated zone for street work. The police use their own discretion - sometimes tolerating and sometimes abusing their power, sometimes crying out for a change in the law as Keith Halliwell, Chief Constable of West Yorkshire did in 1996.

Abolitionists - that is those who want prostitution abolished argue that prostitution is violence against women. Even those who hold this view must surely agree that current laws criminalise and penalise the people who they identify as victims.

Our proposals to changes in the law have been formulated by sex workers, their solicitors and allies. This is unusual as sex workers are rarely given a voice. Some sex workers did give evidence in the Wolfenden Report 1959 but from the recommendations made by Diane Abbott's all-party Prostitution Group of MPs it is unlikely they were consulted (recommendations such as prostitutes being sentenced with community service and clients having their car licences endorsed!). Baroness Masham confessed "our working party politicians said they could not be seen in the same room as working women, so we could not bring them into the consultation". Sir Ivan Lawrence, chair of the home Office Select Committee of MPs said that reform would lead to moral decline: "this would encourage more women to become prostitutes. There's always been pressure from those who want to weaken the social fabric of society. We should hold on to the barriers for as long as possible."

Current Laws and proposed reform:-

1) Disorderly Houses Act 1751- this piece of legislation criminalises brothels, sex parties, etc. Off street work is much safer than street work, but escort agencies, massage parlours and saunas are criminalised by aspects of this legislation, making them areas that attract organised crime. Sex workers are also vulnerable to this law at private addresses and in their own homes, especially if they work in groups of two or more. This undermines safety. This legislation undermines sex workers' ability to occupy living premises, so it undermines family life and promotes personal isolation and homelessness. Brothel legislation also affects street workers, as many prefer to take customers indoors. This must be encouraged rather than penalised, as indoor locations offer far more safety for the sex worker, reduce neighbourhood nuisance, and allow for at least basic hygiene. Indoor premises can also incorporate security devices to monitor clients. This legislation should be repealed.

2) Vagrancy Act 1824 - makes it an offence for a "common prostitute" to "wander in a public street". It also covers "riotous and indecent behaviour" by a "common prostitute" in public. For the law to be fair and non-discriminatory, all reference to the term "common prostitute" must be removed from the statute book. And if "riotous and indecent behaviour" are not crimes in the sense of this Act for other citizens, neither should they be so for sex workers.

3) Town Police Clause Act 1847 - one section of this act provides that, "it is an offence for any person keeping any house, shop, room or any place of public resort for the sale or consumption of refreshments of any kind, knowingly to suffer common prostitutes to assemble and continue there". This is an example of various aspects of UK law which discriminate against sex workers, in this case making it technically impossible for sex workers to sit together in a cafe. It could also be used against organisations offering drop-in facilities for sex workers where refreshments are available.

4) Offences Against the Person Act 1861 - criminalises the marking of a person during S/M and piercing for pleasure. It is a human right to consent to having your body marked or decorated as you wish. Many prostitutes offer S/M and professional doms are in great demand. Their work is threatened by this act. The Spanner Trust is campaigning to reform this law with the help of Liberty and, hopefully Stonewall.

5) Sexual offences Act 1956 - prohibits controlling prostitution and living off immoral earnings. Any changes in this aspect of current legislation ought to focus on abuse, violence and exploitation, but in all other circumstances should allow sex workers to share their homes and incomes with private partners and family members. This might change once the European Convention of Human Rights becomes law on 2/10/00.

The irony is that the activities of coercive and abusive pimps have been largely ignored by the law enforcement agencies. We argue that the appropriate legislation to use against exploitative pimping are the laws against rape, kidnap, assault, threats to kill, abduction, etc. The sexual offences act should be amended. Currently, an abusive male may claim in defence that his victim was a sex worker. Instead of counting in his defence, this should count as an aggravating factor, especially if the victim was also a minor.

Nobody has the right to coerce anyone else into doing what they don't want to do and appropriate legislation should be used. The European Convention will be useful in this.

Moreover, current legislation aimed at "controlling prostitutes" can in principle be used against maids and employed health workers who advise sex workers on ways to practise prostitution more safely and/or provide items such as condoms. Changes in legislation should remove the possibility of the law being interpreted in this way.

The "controlling prostitution" aspect can also be used against those running massage parlours, saunas or escort agencies. The role of the manager/manageress can be very important in protecting sex workers, for example by making condoms available, providing security devices, keeping records of abusive customers, etc.

6) Street Offences Act 1959 - criminalises soliciting. Street work is dangerous and this legislation (together with the Sexual Offences Act 1985) increases the vulnerability of street workers by criminalising this activity. These laws do not prevent prostitution. Even when enforced with maximum police resources, street activity is simply moved from one place to another. To ignore the negative impact of these pieces of legislation on the safety of sex workers, is to treat them as second-class citizens whose safety is of no concern to the government. Any changes in current legislation must promote sex workers' ability to negotiate with potential customers. This is essential for improving their safety and control of their interactions with customers. Criminalising this process puts sex workers at risk of violence and abuse.

7) The Licensing Act 1964 prohibits landlords/bar staff serving a "working prostitute". This is discriminatory and must be removed.

After the sex laws and laws surrounding prostitution have been abolished, there will still be problems to be addressed.

Problems can be a matter for discussion within a sexwork consultation. Such a system already operates successfully in Holland. Delegates from the Red Thread, the Prostitution Information Centre, the Association of Sex Club Owners, the Dutch Institute for Prostitution Issues, the Association of Window Brothel Owners, the Foundation Against Trafficking in Women, the Foundation for Clients of Prostitutes, the National Street Prostitution Platform and the Foundation of STD Prevention meets every two months.

As a result there is much more tolerance towards prostitution in Holland because people are less threatened by it. For example, there is a button beneath each window booth to be used to alert the police if a client misbehaves.

1) Street Workers

Street workers encounter a wide variety of problems:-

ù complaints from local residents

ù violence

ù health and safety risks for themselves and clients.

ANSWERS:

i) The Public Order Act 1986 criminalises causing alarm, distress or harassment and can be used to ensure that the selling of sex in the streets does not cause problems. In other words, if a prostitute wishes to ply her trade in the street, she/he must do so without causing problems to others in that street.

If the laws against soliciting and curb crawling were relaxed, the area would not attract the criminal element.

If the laws against pimping were abolished, the police could switch their attention from non-violent dependents to much more serious crimes such as attacks, robberies rapes and murder

ii) Safe Spaces An area should be designated, by negotiation among all parties, where street prostitutes can work without upsetting local residents and where they are safe (ie not on bleak industrial estates). Office and non-residential inner city areas would be ideal. Large cities may need several such spaces.

Having a lively street scene in a designated area would attract other trade such as caf‚s and bars, bookshops, clothing and novelty stores.

iii) Facilities Designated areas should be provided with facilities such as drop-in centres, 24-hour condoms and needle exchange booths. Facilities should include support for people wishing to leave the industry and newcomers. City police should be made accountable to all citizens including sex workers; 24-hour protection of sex workers should be provided.

iv) Legal respect and protection of prostitutes The police and courts need to be educated on sex work so that prostitutes can feel it's not a waste of time to report the frequent violence, rape and pimping committed against them. Once prostitutes feel less threatened, they will be able to take more control over their work, improve the standards of service and (with the repeal of laws forbidding them to work together) establish group practices indoors.

v) Attack heroine-related crime, including the use of drugs to control prostitutes. Prostitutes who are dependent on IV drugs need much greater outreach. Such addiction poses a health risk (prostitutes who are addicts are ten times more likely to be infected with HIV or hepatitis). Addictions makes sex workers less likely to take control during the transaction and more desperate for money. This in turn may make them agree to unsafe sex. Prostitutes who are HIV positive provide a health risk and need assistance in finding other careers. It is unacceptable that the state spends so much money trying to prevent people taking harmless drugs, while turning a blind eye to crime associated with hard drugs and the associated risks both to prostitutes and their clients.

2) Tax

Many prostitutes sign on for state benefits because they know no other way to avoid the tax man who is likely to make unreasonable demands. Some become self-employed with some fictitious career, such as "therapist". They live in trepidation of being tumbled and getting an enormous tax bill.

Problems arise when the Inland Revenue and Customs and Excise assess the earnings at a very high figure, and the prostitute has no way of satisfying them that the assessment is incorrect because books have not been kept properly.

ANSWER:

1) Sexual services to be taxed alongside other services.

2) Advise should be on hand at the sex workers support projects. The sex workers organisation Red Thread in Holland is currently offering this service since the laws legalising brothels are coming into force.

3) Tenancies

A landlord may let premises to one prostitute provided he charges the normal commercial rent. The standard lease has wording to forbid the promises to be used for "immoral earnings" and thus most prostitutes are breaking the terms of their lease. This gives them no security of tenure and no encouragement to spend money to create a pleasant working environment.

ANSWER: Pressure be put on the legal profession to omit this clause from new leases.

4) Clip Joints and Rip-off adverts in magazines etc

While there is sexual guilt and people feel deep down that sex is dirty, there will always be a market for rubbish.

ANSWER: Education. Opposition to religious attitudes and institutions which foster sexual guilt and repression.

6) Strippers

There is a current trend for councils to insist that striptease venues pay hefty licences. This is creating a situation in which the only work available is in the American-style lap dance parlours. Thus, strippers are losing their freedom to dance as they wish and work when they want.

ANSWER: Allow striptease acts to take place wherever people want to see them. The state should not pimp by imposing hefty licence fees.

7) Abolishing the Laws is Not Enough

Police in many parts of the UK in practice allow sex workers to operate on condition they are discreet, children are not involved and drugs are not part of the equation.

The sex industry, like other industries, is often characterised by gross inequality and abuse of power.

The tabloid newspapers, encouraged by the government, often "expose" what are in fact well-run brothels. They delight in the "scandal" of finding such an institution, especially when it is in the home counties and involves "respectable" clients. Such campaigns, when successful, feed fear and guilt into every sex worker and every client for years to come.

Most wives will feel edgy if they know a hooker is working next door. They could never entertain the idea of their husband visiting a prostitute. But millions of husbands do, always behind her back.

In an era when most people value an honest, meaningful relationship with their partner, this dilemma needs to be addressed.

It's not just the women who are to blame. Many men regard female prostitutes as bad, dirty girls who will do all the things they wouldn't want their wives to engage in -- girls they can use, abuse and cheat on. They look upon male prostitutes as disgusting poofters who excite them (therefore they bash them - nearly all clients of rent boys are married men).

Both male and female prostitutes have to be on their guard every minute they are working.

The tabloids and the Government, with the pretence of protecting us, actually prevent people feeling sexually calm and free. They want us all to be uptight and nervous so we rush around like caged chickens fearful of life; imprisoned slaves to the system.

Essentially, selling sex and being a legitimate wage earner makes people feel uncomfortable. Probably this is one reason why the government has a hard time giving sex workers credibility. But that is largely because the government is so disrespectful of sex, never offering citizens privacy outside the marital bed.

ANSWER: sex education -- If all this were to be resolved (and society has a long way to go), the prostitute could get on with giving the client a good time, instead of looking over his/her shoulder. Men need to stop regarding women as either Madonna or Whore. Women must understand men's needs and work out how to provide them and/or cope with the reality that men visit whores.

Men and women will, hopefully, one day adore prostitutes as sex experts and use them when necessary, without shame.

Education might also help the public understand how newspaper sales are boosted by the use of double porn, when pornographic expos‚s are published..

Let's compare Prostitution with Hairdressing!

Hairdressing salons operate under regulations so that the staff and clients are safe and comfortable. If a hairdresser wishes to do home visits, they still follow a code of conduct so that hair does not fall out etc. Prostitution can easily run under similar ethics.

The Sex Industry is a multi-million pound international industry with porn barons now being quoted on the stock exchange. The distinction between the sex trade and non-sex is blurring as there is more erotic imagery in lifestyle magazines such as Nova and Maxim and on television. Paris fashion designs are as sexy as clothes sold in fetish and erotic stores.

British Laws are ancient and draconian beside those of most other countries in the world. Their closest counterparts are in countries such as Singapore, China and Saudi Arabia. The laws are listed below.

Pornography per se is not outlawed but the Obscene Publications Acts outlaw articles which are "obscene" or "indecent". This is unsatisfactory because these definitions are arbitrary and depend on subjective evaluation. Every attempt to fix a satisfactory definition of what should be illegal have failed. When Canada altered its laws in 1992 to accommodate the more anti-porn position, it was heterosexual male customs officers who deemed lesbian, feminist-produced "erotica" to be pornographic and thus illegal, since this kind of material was not to their objective liking.

If people don't like pornography, they are not forced to look at it.

Current laws censoring erotic material on phone lines and live sex shows, pornographic acting and modelling are out of date. They are not in line with the rest of Europe and need to be abolished.

The police are frustrated that the laws are unworkable and Customs and Excise have conflicting ideas about what is allowed. This results in the ridiculous situation whereby British citizens are prosecuted for importing material which is already sitting on the shelves in our shops! They are further frustrated by the fact that juries never seem to think there's anything wrong in porn and regularly produce "Not Guilty" verdicts.

Fifty years ago The Danish government commissioned a ten-year study of the effects of pornography. It concluded that looking at pornography is not harmful to adults or children. They thus lifted their ban on all pornography in 1965, admitting that it was a violation of human rights to prevent individuals deriving pleasure from porn. They were right: the sex crime rate in Denmark fell by 66 per cent.

The Danes bought a lot of porn to begin with, then didn't bother much any more. It didn't really change their lives or values. It just made them feel safer because the sex crime rate had dropped.

Interestingly, they don't sell kiddy porn in Denmark because they think it's immoral (and the market is so small it's no great loss). So you see - when people are given freedom they don't go mad or become evil - they behave responsibly.

So why couldn't Britain follow their example? Ten years later, a British study culminated in the Williams Report which reached similar conclusions but was rejected by Margaret Thatcher in 1979. Governments know that by controlling our sexuality, they can control us, too. It's time the British stopped being repressed, reclaimed their freedom, and made society a safe and happy place.

In the Illustrated Presidential Report on the Commission on Obscenity and Pornography, we have access to some of the US authority's responses to research which proves that pornography is not harmful. They express a fear that allowing more "immorality" they will lose control, and society will crumble (as in Rome). They confuse pornography with immorality. Compared with many other industries that are destroying our planet and advertising useless products to corrupt people, the sex industry is comparatively moral.

The Laws on Pornography

The sale of pornography and sex products are restricted by ancient laws, and more modern laws which sometimes contradict the old ones and we can only draw the conclusion that the state is out to confuse us and intimidate us so that we dare not challenge them.

Our laws reflect British fondness of sexual hypocrisy

We allows privileged people to indulge in all kinds of antisocial behaviour, ie: using "common prostitutes'' for sexual services whilst at the same time condemning prostitution; using state privileges to get pornography but not allowing the local pub to employ a stripper on a Sunday lunchtime. It also allows anything which is fashionable or lucrative to crush things which ordinary people enjoy. For example, hard core videos are banned whilst The Face can list the top Hard Core Videos. Erotic Performance is banned at Heaven while Nova magazine publishes 200 pages of provocative imagery. The working classes (ie the prostitutes and the porno people) carry the can for what the middle class people (who have nicked their imagery) fear.

We have three common laws:-

It is also restricted by the following acts:-

Further restrictions on our liberty come from:-

We recommend an end to all censorship and restrictions on the importation of porn involving consenting adults and to the laws which restrict the sexual activities of consenting adults so we can enjoy S/M and sex parties in private.

The Law Commission has recommended that most of these offences be abolished. The National Campaign Against the Obscene Publications Acts and the Campaign against censorship have been attempting to influence Governments to end censorship for over twenty years without success. Indeed the current Government threaten to make the laws even more restrictive.

1) Quality

Like other professionals, most sex workers specialise in a specific type of service. Sometimes sex workers try a few things before they settle into the type of work most suitable for them (and when AIDS came along many prostitutes switched to work which did not involve penetrative sex, ie domination or fantasy enactment). Generally sex workers are particular about what they do. A stripper, for example, may feel as far away from whoring as the average housewife. A sex therapist would probably feel uncomfortable performing a striptease and a whore may be shy of letting people see her/himself naked. Most porn stars will charge a fee to screw on set but never accept private assignations.

It is not only prostitutes who are discriminated against in the law. Everyone involved with the selling of sexual services is vulnerable and restricted by laws of censorship.

Here is the range of sex work:-

People who work on sex phone lines

Strippers, live sex performers and erotic performance artists

People who work in fantasy including doms, subs and those catering to fetishes and cross-dressers

Photographic and artists' models

Sexual surrogates and those who specialise in people with disabilities

Pornographic actors and actresses

Sex teachers and therapists including Tantric workshop facilitators, group leaders, sex therapists, agony aunts and uncles, lecturers, educators, researchers and experimentalists

Prostitutes: these may include street workers, erotic masseuses and masseurs, sauna staff, escorts, call girls & boys, amateurs and hosts & hostesses, plus people who get money out of clients by being sexy

Supporting staff including maids, door men, receptionists, cleaners, fluffers

Landlords & landladies of flats, brothel keepers, massage parlour and sauna owners, escort agencies, pimps (including people who act as agents / managers, and may also be managers of large hotels, cruisers, etc), sex holiday companies, and people who come up with various scams in order to avoid the laws and provide secret avenues for sex hungry/adventurous people to pay for sexual pleasure

There are people who do the above work who are gay and straight. There are people who do it at home or else travel away from home to work. There are people who do it openly and those who do it in secret.

The same rules need to apply to all of these.

People tend to have an official and unofficial side to their sexual activities. There are people who:-

Most of us are whores, to some extent. Marxists would say that all of us are whores — under capitalism!

2) Quantity

Sex for money can take many forms, which makes it very difficult to quantify sex work. Some estimates have been made. For example, during the sex workers strike in France in 1975, they reckoned there were 6,000 prostitutes in Paris.

A more recent estimate was made in 1999 (Survey of Sex Work Characteristics and Policies by the European Network for HIV/STD Prevention in Prostitution) that there were 79,850 sex workers in the UK, which is 1.5 per 1000 of the total population. This may be an underestimation.

1) Prostitution encourages rape

Sex is sold in the "respectable" world but the sex workers get the blame for all the ills of society. Marilyn Monroe, Madonna and Kate Moss could be described as selling sex, but they are generally regarded as heroes. They are certainly not accused of encouraging rape or violence against women, but strippers, prostitutes and phone sex workers do get blamed for such things. In reality, prostitutes take the brunt of male violence; they rarely complain because the police and courts take no notice.

Politicians today tend to adopt the fashionable so-called "politically-correct" anti-sex, anti-male so-called "feminist" notion that all men are potential rapists and all women need to be protected.

2) Prostitution destroys families

Prostitutes provide a service to partners who are unable to find satisfaction within the marriage and thus help to hold the marriage together.

3) Most women are forced into prostitution

Most people are forced to work for money in order to survive. Many women "slip" into prostitution rather than choose to do it as a career move and find it difficult to get out. Many of the drop-in and advice centres provide support for people wishing to leave the industry but obviously this is not enough.

Decriminalising the industry would make it less attractive to the criminal world and so fewer women would be vulnerable. It would also lift the stigma so women would be less isolated and change career more easily. It would encourage women who might enjoy being a sex worker to enter the industry.

Trafficking is dealt with in the main text.

4) Prostitution is for men - not women

There are probably as many sexually dissatisfied women in heterosexual partnerships and marriages as men, but women are much less vocal and are less prepared to go out of their way to deal with their dissatisfaction.

Few British women go to whores. Even if they do not orgasm during sex, they are more likely to reach for the vibrato or have casual sex than book into the local sauna for a full sex and fantasy session.

If women were more confident about expressing their desires and less in need of being reassured they are desired, they might visit prostitutes more often.

Male prostitutes are happy to service women and would probably be very good at the job (and charge very little as many men have a fantasy to do this job). There is a trade for women in red light districts where female sex workers will, after a long night, pay for a session for their own pleasure. There are also gigolos available and in need of work.

5) Men who frequent prostitutes are bad and should be criminalised

Men who frequent whores are ordinary men. They may not be getting what they need from their wives or partners, of they may have no partner. Some married men would not like their wives to indulge in the kind of sex they pay prostitutes for, although this is normally more to do with their own hang ups than the nature of their fantasies. Others don't dare ask their wives or have no skills in inspiring their wives. Often the wives decline their requests so regularly that they give up and seek a more receptive response from prostitutes. Most husbands live in fear of their wives / partners finding out, because this could lead to divorce or cold war.

Some people need to see prostitutes because they have no other sexual outlet. For example, disabled people with weak or short arms may be unable to masturbate and have no other form of orgasmic release. Prostitutes find that much of their work is of a caring and educational nature, helping people gain confidence and experience, and rid themselves of fears and low self esteem. Most prostitutes say they like their clients, and they are the same kind of people as their friends.

5) Prostitution in the streets causes nuisance and offence

This is dealt with in the main text.

1) Prostitutes can make the world safer for women

Rather than encourage rape, prostitutes are there for people who have a strong sex drive and cannot find anyone to have sex with . They cope with all those with confused and repressed sexualities, removing the risk of attack they cause to other women.

2) Prostitutes can relieve those who cannot masturbate

People with weak, short or no arms may live in perpetual sexual frustration unless they have a toe that reaches, somebody who will help them out or the money to pay a prostitute. Denying them the opportunity to pay for what other people take for granted is denying them absolute human rights.

3) Prostitutes provide orgasms

Some people find it impossible to have an orgasm without expert stimulation, be this physical or mental. Women may be so inhibited that only visiting a prostitute will work for her. Men might have fetishes which need to be enacted before they can reach a really great orgasm.

4) Prostitutes become experts who can offer high quality sex.

If there was not such a stigma, everyone would want to visit prostitutes for erotic inspiration and self indulgence. They provide the chance for new experiences without entering a new relationship which many people find of enormous value at certain stages of their lives.

In some cultures, it is customary for all young men to learn about sex from the local prostitutes before they have sex with other women.

5) Prostitution is the oldest profession and should be respected

Like any other profession - there are the experts, the specialists, the all-rounders, the scoundrels and the bad people who need hounding out. Bad people ruin the reputation of the industry and must be eliminated - this is where the law should contribute.

Whores in the temples of ancient civilisations were regarded as goddesses. In more recent times, Christians promoting chastity and feminists warning women that men are up to no good, prostitutes have become monsters in the eyes of society, with all the men who frequent them mysteriously coming from the other side of the track.

In reality, most prostitutes are mothers too. Their clients are fathers too. Today's whores are still providing the same holy nourishment, but society refuses to recognise their power, wisdom, skills and spirituality.

One woman wrote:

"At the age of forty-two, I became a prostitute. The immediate impetus was unemployment and disgust at the women's labor market, but my deeper motivation was the continuation of my quest for wholeness and meaning. My inspirations were the Qadeshet, the "Sacred Prostitutes" of our ancestors' temples. This seven-year experiment has paid off magnificently. By using pre-patriarchal models of female sexuality as a noble, even divine power, I have constructed a life that is extraordinarily sweet, to say nothing of confounding most of this culture's preconceptions around both female and male sexuality."

Prostitutes call themselves all kinds of names, from whore to therapist; slut to Tantric teacher; hostess to surrogate. Each have their own style but when you listen to what they actually do, most provide approximately the same range of services. They act as listeners (to everyone in pain, including sufferers of child sexual abuse), pacifiers (often of the same), substitute mothers, sisters and brothers, they enact fantasies, dominate to force those who are normally in control in their work and social lives to play submissive; whores may also play sub.

Prostitutes fulfil all kinds of role: from a quick hand-job behind a carrier bag in the park, to dinner and all night bed companion to "girlfriend" for a month's holiday. Depending where and who they are, they may get paid anything from 50p round the back of the shed, to œ10,000 for a night in the Sultan's palace.

Some do this with grace and love, others with one eye on the clock and the other eye on his wallet, hoping to steal it. There are sex workers who can actually adapt their mind sets to "fall in love" with each client, in order to give them maximum benefit of the time spent. There are others who despise all clients and play tricks to make them come fast.

6) It can be a satisfying Job

The fact is that a growing number of women are switching to work in sex rather than in other jobs because they find it gives them more freedom and job satisfaction. You chose your hours, you make more money per hour than most of your friends and you spend your time giving pleasure (and often receiving it too).

Some women who may once have opted for a career in nursing find it more satisfying offering a caring "hands on" service caring for people's personal needs. So many people in society have never been touched caringly or had their emotional needs catered for. Sex work allows caring individuals to offer such services and they often just advertise as a prostitute because this is the easiest way to make a living.

7) Many Men Need Teaching

Sociologists recognise that many men pay for sexual gratification and emotional solace because they have not yet learned to find either elsewhere. Many shy, socially phobic and disabled men rely on prostitutes to teach them how to gain a positive body image, seduce and make love. The book Shadow Syndromes by John J Ratey and Catherine Johnson identifies a high incidence of minor forms of Aspergers Syndrome in males in Western cultures, which means that they can't respond to normal invitations of emotional bonding and socialisation.

8) Prostitution enables many women to liberate themselves

It is not uncommon for women to enter the sex industry in order to establish their own sexual identity. Belle du Jour was a classic. There are many situations where women decide to enter sex work because it seems to be the only way they can throw their sexual repressive background to the wall. They usually have to keep quiet about it and never identify themselves publicly.

9) Prostitution provides a better alternative to starving or stealing

When a woman is desperate to feed herself and her children (or a drug habit) and has no other income, prostitution is often the best option for her. One woman is quoted as saying that working as a street worker to provide the money to buy heroine for herself and her partner is better than him going out thieving because he might get a long prison sentence. (Mckeganey, Neil and Barnard, Marina 1996 Sex Work on the Streets)

10) Prostitutes may be subversive

Many women feel that offering pleasure in a situation which is against the law, in an environment where most of society would be shocked, to be a subversive act. Most keep quiet about their little secret but International Sex Workers Union activist Rona is supported by her company director husband Barry, and was crowned Bonk of England during the City of London J18 riots.

11) Prostitutes Educate

Prostitutes provide a service where people can learn. A young person can learn about their orientation and how to become a good lover. A couple can experiment with group sex. Isolated people can learn how to become intimate, people can learn about S/M and explore their submissive or dominant sides.

12) Prostitutes provide fun

They offer a service of pleasure. In countries where women are allowed to work together, there are clubs where people go along for an orgy: sex parties with several prostitutes and a group of clients. People enjoy visiting prostitutes for light hearted yet intensely erotic experiences, which may be very difficult to find elsewhere.

13) Prostitution is good for mental health

Comforting sex without ties is excellent for mental health, soothing the nervous system, and helping the client improve their sense of well being.

14) Prostitution can cure problems

People with social disabilities such as stammerers can be helped to overcome their problems by loving attention and uncovering anxieties. People who have been sexually abused as children often need a lot of patient body work to overcome sexual difficulties and prostitutes are invaluable in this work.

15) Sex Work can be empowering

People gain personal strength from selling their bodies because their clients worship and admire them, they have as much sex as they want and the defy traditional mores and roles imposed on them. Often prostitutes are extremely healthy, playful, creative, adventurous and independent women.

Working as a prostitute can be extremely dangerous: entering the cars of strangers, taking them down dark alleys and even being in a hotel room alone with them, puts the sex worker at extreme risk.

However this does not explain why clients often rape and attack sex workers. The reason is essentially guilt and repression. Men try to inflict their ideas of how women should behave (ie act as virgins) by beating up women who behave like whores. Men who are guilty about their homosexual urges express their homophobia by beating up the rent boy they have just had sex with.

Sexual violence is about power. Men feel that paying for sex is empowering and it helps them to get off but they abuse their power further by misbehaving. Paradoxically, when prostitutes attempt to handle the sex in authoritative way, these men become even more violent.

For more information on this phenomenon, please see Prostitution and Violence in the book Sex Work on the Streets in our book list.

Until three years ago, it would have been unthinkable to include TV companies, fashion designers and advertising agencies in a list of pornographers. However, things have changed and pornography is now "mainstream". This is probably the cause of the recent panic from people who hold anti-porn arguments. However, all you need to do is relax, erotic imagery has been with us since imagery began. It never hurt anybody except insecure people who felt they might lose their partners if they found more fun elsewhere. Obviously, for a tired, breast-feeding mother, these fears may be well founded but not if she gives herself some time for herself and her own pleasures, and time for her man's pleasures too.

Quality

Publishers of magazines, newspapers and Internet sites
Compilers of listings and adverts
TV companies
Film makers
Advertising agencies
Phone sex line
Fashion designers
Fetish and S/M equipment manufacturers
Sex aid manufacturers
Sex educators
Shopkeepers
Distributors
Club proprietors and promoters
Set designers, Lighting and sound engineers, security stewards,
Projectionists, video electronics experts,
Writers, composers, album designers, and everyone in the music industry
Photographers, stylists, lighting experts and computer wizards
Artists
Gallery owners

Quantity

Because the industry is so diverse and could include anything displaying an erotic bare arm, a saucy expression, or a leather choker, it is impossible to quantify. O'Toole (1988) states that the quantity of porn sold is always hyped up by those who try to censor it. The claim that 27 million porn magazines are sold annually in the UK is hard to believe, and it is hard to imagine where the figure came from, since only two British porn magazines are actually audited. Porn is the most popular subject on the Internet, and with DVDs enabling people to download entire porn films, censorship will be impossible and the magnitude of the porn industry even more impossible to estimate.

Research in the 70's demonstrated that people who were against pornography were also against the media criticising the police, state and church. This has changed to include feminist doctrine which promotes the idea that people can be degraded by an image, and that most pornography is violent. There is also more concern that children should be shrouded in sexual innocence.

1) Pornography is violent and encourages men to be violent to women

This argument is often put forward by people who have seen no pornography, and based on hearsay. Perhaps they are extremely fearful of sex and any depiction of sex seems threatening to them, therefore violent.

Another problem is that when pornography includes S/M, their ignorance of S/M makes them confuse it with violence. It insults people in the S/M community, most of who are caring and non-voilent. It is the wife and husband beaters who are out of control and inflict violence, not those who use rituals of dominance and submission to enhance their sexlives.

Some feminists claim that no woman can genuinely enjoy S/M and that it is part of a gender power struggle in society. They fail to appreciate that most of the women in S/M are dominants. Submissive women are well documented in classics such as Histoire d'O. In reality they experience great difficulty finding a good male dominant partner.

The police often argue that S/M porn should banned in case somebody who does not understand it tries to copy it. This argument could apply to any violent film or book.

2) Protection of Children

The argument most commonly put forward for censorship is the necessity to keep sexually explicit material out of the hands of children. This is paranoia spreading from America. In places where they do not feel children need "protecting", ie Denmark and Holland, the children do not seem to suffer. In Holland, for example hard core porn sits on news stands beside children's magazines, and have done so for over twenty years. We have to ask ourselves, have Dutch children been harmed - are Dutch adults dysfunctional? To the contrary, they seem extremely rational and contented.

Much research was carried out in Denmark, the UK and USA in the early 70's to measure the effects of pornography on young people. It concluded that sex offenders and other sexual deviants are significantly less experienced with erotica during adolescence.

The law is currently allowing R18 videos to be sold but only in licensed sex shops where children are not allowed. This means that most of the British public cannot easily purchase them, as there are only a limited number of shops. Licences for such shops cost œ18,000 a year, which means that only the very wealthy large companies can afford to own them.

The truth of the matter is that most people in this country saw pornographic material at school - as however the law is phrased, one child finds their parent's porn stash or a magazine stuffed behind a toilet or in a rubbish bin and makes themselves popular (or rich) by circulating it around the various classes. With increasing numbers of mail order companies selling porn, the ease of down-loading films from the Internet onto DVDs, and sex phone lines, it is even easier for children to have access to porn. This probably means that porn is so easily available that, in the near future, they will not bother to look at it. For the more taboo porn is, the more interested children will be and peer pressure will encourage children to look before they might have chosen to.

3) Pornography degrades women

People used to say that they find homosexuality degrading, and this is no longer acceptable. However it shows how the process of feeling degraded stems from the person's own attitutes and intolerance

Hardcore pornography depicts both genders, of all ages and shapes. This is in contrast to the censored pornography which we see in Britain - the girlie mags and tabloids which would probably go out of business once our censorship laws are relaxed.

Porn actresses are not coerced: they are skilled and well-paid. Porn actresses from the 70's are actually gaining respect as cult figures.

Pornography, both soft and hard, honours and reveres the body and sexuality. Feminist claims that it is sexist and degrading to women are based on the myths that (a) female models and actresses don't enjoy exposing and parading their bodies so that they can be adored and (b) women are undermined because they may be considered inferior because their bodies are not as conventionally beautiful. The feminist argument ignores gay porn - where gay men (who are much more lookist than hetero men) enjoy looking at beautiful male bodies and hot action. It ignores the fact that many women love looking at sexy bodies. People like beauty and like sex. Pornography supplies both.

3) Pornography encourages men to rape women

In Denmark the sex crime rate fell after the ban on pornography was lifted.

In the USA, numerous studies on the relationship between pornography and sex crimes, detailed in the Illustrated Presidential Report of the Commission on Obscenity and Pornography, showed no causal link between the two.

A recent theory suggests that psychopaths who commit serious sexual offences such as rape do so because they cannot fantasise. Thus pornography which supplies fantasies may help them with sexual outlets and lessen the urge to rape.

4) Slippery Slope Theory

An anti-porn argument is that soft core leads to hardcore which leads to snuff movies. Just as in drugs, there is no slippery slope in pornography. Cannabis does not lead to heroine, and watching a beautiful blow job doesn't lead to snuff movies. The slippery slope argument is to keep us afraid.

Snuff movies do not exist. They are a figment of the gutter press's imagination and food for their "double porn". The News of the World sells millions of papers, creating scandals about snuff movies and exposing orgiasts to excite its readers, telling them it is disgusting.

5) Pornography is boring

Much of it is - it has evolved from criminals and fast buck merchants. They are selling to a group of people who feel extremely guilty about masturbating over it, and this guilt makes them mindless and furtive. They prefer to get off over fantasies which have no relationship with the love and affection they experience at home, so the imagery is cold,
mean and formulaic. Arousal comes from the extreme (size, length, graphic clarity) rather than inventiveness, style, depth and meaning.

The stigma attached to porn puts more creative people off. Despite all this, there is now a trend to show pornography in art centres to set standards and attract a discerning public.

6) Pornography Corrupts

Then the censors themselves must be corrupted! People who belong to a religion or follow dogma often feel morally justified in stopping free thinking consenting adults from enjoying harmless pleasures. They believe all kinds of myths and scare stories to endorse this condemnation. The British seem to enjoy hypocrisy, double standards, putting on a "respectable face' and sneaking off for a bit of depravity. This is childish and we need to grow up.

(this was the subject of an Oxford Union debate and the motion was carried, partially as a result of the following arguments)

1) Porn acts as a safety valve

Masturbating over porn relieves tension and lessens frustration. Thus people are less likely to commit sex crimes.

2) It's useful in sex therapy. Looking at porn reduces sexual anxiety.

Showing a picture of a pretty pussy isn't going to turn a homosexual into a heterosexual. Nor should it. But porn is used to educate and help people accept sexual activities better. Most men know that cocks vary a lot in size and shape and so don't worry about being weird, but women often worry, especially nervous that they played with themselves and made the labia become weird shapes. By looking at photos of all the various kinds of vulva, women learn to relax about themselves.

Showing couples how blow-jobs look helps them feel less nervous; showing pictures of masturbation helps lessen the guilt. Once couples find out it's OK to masturbate together, sex therapy proceeds quickly and successfully.

3) Porn spices up the sex-lives of millions of couples who've been together for a long time. They look at the porn together, get turned on and have hot sex.

Most people have fantasies about having group sex or doing wild things that are difficult to organise or realise. So porn allows you to witness the scenes of your longings, without all the worries of jealousy, breaking friendships - your neighbours might not speak to you again if you invite them round for an orgy - or breaking the law.

4) Porn provides spicy fantasy lives for people without a partner or who are in a dull relationship. Women tend to read novels and men look at top-shelf mags, films and videos, or satellite TV.

5) Porno is very popular. When the photographic process was discovered it was used to create porn before anything else. It has become the main use for the Internet.

The reverend Chad Varah, founder of The Samaritans, relates a story that in the 1960s, Sight and Sound magazine did a survey of West End cinemas during the afternoon. They found there were four times as many viewers squashed on uncomfortable seats in tiny basement porno theatres than in the plush cinemas showing big movies! People love porn!

6) Porn provides orgasms which are beneficial for people's health, strengthening the heart and lungs, circulation and leaving them with a feeling of well-being.

7) Porn is beneficial to many of its stars. You may find this hard to believe but being sexual in front of a camera can have a profound effect - especially on women - they blossom sexually. Porn is a fun job for those who are good at performing in front of the camera. It's a myth that women are drugged and dragged into pornography.

8) Porn can be amusing and lots of people watch it at parties or show it around in the pub, which lowers inhibitions so that people feel less worried about discussing their sex lives. Laughter and sex go together happily as both are joyful.

9) Porn can be shocking. People love to be shocked. Seeing something shocking challenges everyday standards, helps people put things into perspective, makes life less grey, and is cathartic - bringing all your repressed emotions to the surface and thus refreshing you.

10) Porn can be educational. This is especially true in fetish and S/M porn, where it's sometimes difficult to find out how to give an enema, put someone in bondage or whip them without damaging them. Once it becomes legal and socially acceptable, it has the capacity to be more so, teaching shy people how to make sexual approaches, and educating society that disabled people can be great lovers. People can learn about safer sex from books and films that show it graphically.

11) Porn can be enjoyed by everyone whatever their education and class (unlike the media which provides different messages to each). The rich and sophisticated can enjoy their erotic art and when that gets taken to court, the judge is in a dilemma because it breaks the rule that the refined don't show their sexual feelings, and how can he ban a work of a great artist?

12) Porn is subversive. It's an insult to British adults to ban us seeing hard porn. It's a way of nannying and controlling us. It's a very clever device - because to control the people's sexuality, you control the people. Porno is thus subversive. Subversion of a police totalitarian state is very a important benefit to society.

Pornographers often have political motivation - and use it to discredit careerists, embarrass hypocrites and make political statements.

The last three are reasons why banning porn is harmful to society:

13) Banning porn is an insult to people - if we can see pictures of everything else, why not sex? Sex is beautiful, not shameful.

14) Banning porn means that the authorities get to see it all, and we don't. If it depraves and corrupts that means we have depraved and corrupt authorities, and if it doesn't, then what's the point of the ban?

15) Finally, Banning porn means that in society we are not free to make our own choices. We don't need someone else to decide what we may and may not read and view and most people would agree that adults shouldn't be reduced to only seeing things suitable for a five year old!

Introduction

The Royal College of Nursing's 1995 Congress passed a resolution in favour of decriminalising prostitution. The current laws relating to prostitution are discriminatory and sexist. They reflect society's ambivalence towards prostitution. They protect nobody and do not effectively limit commercial sex. In arguing for decriminalisation, the RCN is not accepting prostitution as a healthy way to work, nor legitimising either the buying or selling of sex. Neither is the RCN advocating a new regulatory framework for prostitution which creates a series of state or local authority run brothels.

The RCN is simply arguing that prostitutes should not be treated as criminals, and that if women choose to sell sex they should be allowed to do so lawfully.

It is not known how many people are involved in prostitution, either as sex workers or as clients since the industry is hidden within society. But it is the workers rather than clients, who are 'blamed' for the existence of prostitution. It is the workers who bear the burden of stigma about commercial sex, as society constructs a category of women who are marginalised, isolated and somehow 'different' from other women. This 'whore-stigma' and separateness needs to be challenged, and the health needs of men and women who prostitute addressed.

Current law

In the United Kingdom, the laws on prostitution are framed so that prostitution itself is not illegal, but any public manifestation, such as soliciting, advertising, making agreements with clients or working together, is illegal. The laws relating to prostitution are contained in several statutes within the criminal code, as well as by particular police practices in interpreting those laws. In England and wales the statutes are the 1956 Sexual Offences Act, the 1959 Street Offences Act and the 1895 Sexual Offences Act. In Scotland and Northern Ireland the statutes are different, but the effects are the same.

The 1956 Sexual Offences Act makes it illegal to keep a brothel: for a man to knowingly live of 'immoral earnings' of prostitution: and for a woman to profit by aiding and abetting prostitution. Designed to protect women from exploitation and from those who wish to profit from her prostitution, it actually strikes at the heart of a woman's legal right to dispose of her money as she wants and to enjoy the same family relationships as others. Boyfriends, brothers, husbands and sons are liable for prosecution for 'living off immoral earnings', and any woman who lives with a prostitute can be charged with 'controlling the movements of a prostitute'. In reality where a relationship is not coercive the people involve are unlikely to be charged - but it remains a possibility within the law. In addition it is not legal for woman to band together for greater safety, since two or more women working from the same premises constitutes a brothel.

The 1959 Street Offences Act makes t illegal for a 'common prostitute' to loiter or solicit for the purposes of prostitution. There is no definition of the term 'common prostitute'. If the police see a woman they believe to be approaching men to offer sex for money, they give a caution and that caution, together with her name and address, are entered into a central register. After two cautions she will be arrested and charged. In court the only evidence necessary for conviction is previous cautions and the fact that the police believe her to be a 'common prostitute'. In other words, a woman can only be charged with loitering or soliciting if she is a 'common prostitute', and she is a 'common prostitute' if the police say she has been soliciting. This refers only to women.

Female prostitution is the only offence in which the law allows previous convictions to be made known in court before sentencing. Prostitutes are referred to in court as 'common prostitute' in any legal hearing whether the case is concerned with commercial sex or not. The label is used, and has effected the outcome, in child custody cases, rape cases, and even in an in-vitro fertilisation case to uphold a judgment that the woman would not be a fit mother. Such a law offends against natural justice, infringing women's right to privacy as well as her civil rights.

The 1985 Sexual Offences Act makes kerb-crawling illegal. It was enacted in an attempt to focus attention on male clients. However, from the perspective of prostitute women, it means that clients are even more anxious to make a quick pick up and women therefore have to make an instant decision about whether to get into the car, thereby increasing the dangers. The evidential rules are discriminatory in that they are more stringent for kerb crawling than for soliciting, as, during the passage of the Bill, there was concern that 'innocent' men could be embroiled.

The only way of working legally as a prostitute is to work from home without advertising. Since most women who prostitute are mothers, few wish to bring their clients into their home and into possible contact with their own children. Any other way of working puts women on the wrong side of one or other law:

Current situation

In most parts of the country, a high proportion of saunas and massage parlours are openly selling sex. The police leave them alone whilst there is no public criticism, only acting to close the place down if there is a complaint, even if that complaint is on 'moral' grounds. Since such establishments are outside the law, there is no protection for those women working within them. It should be possible to apply for a licence for an establishment selling sex in the same way as licensing of other commercial properties. Such a licensing system could ensure that there was sufficient security, a supply of condoms, and access to health information and services for the prostitutes, and that the community was protected by ensuring that establishments were discreet and sufficiently spread out to prevent a 'red light' district.

AIDS has been used to reinforce beliefs that prostitute women are unclean, immoral and spread diseases. There is no evidence for this. Studies show that the incidence of HIV in prostitute women is linked with drug use rather than with their occupation. Compulsory testing is sometimes demands as part of the argument for 'legalisation' of prostitution. Compulsory testing would not be countenanced for other occupational or social groups. Compulsory HIV testing or screening for disease is not appropriate and cannot be supported. Easy access to sympathetic and easily accessible health services is the right of everyone.

Protection for children and young people

Children, young people and other vulnerable women, such as girls and women with learning disabilities, must be protected from sexual exploitation. The current laws on child abuse should continue to be used to protect children from sexual abuse and child prostitution. The most effective way to prevent young people from becoming involved in prostitution is for society to tackle youth poverty and homelessness, and build up young people's sense of self esteem.

It is currently an offence to 'live off immoral earnings' and this is sometimes used to prosecute pimps, some of whom are violent and exploitative. Decriminalisation of prostitution would free vulnerable prostitutes from their reliance on pimps and enable them to seek protection of the police where pimps are violent or attempt to extort money. The law, and police effort, should be concentrated on preventing exploitation, coercion and violence, rather than on controlling the prostitutes.

Community concerns

It must be recognised that street prostitution has a a significant impact on the community where it takes place. In 'red light' districts women, young men and children are harassed and solicited by men seeking sex, and residents have to contend with the nuisance of used condoms and needles, public sexual activity and the threatening presence of pimps. These concerns need to be addressed by a change in the law to review and rationalise the laws on nuisance and public order, and possibly create an enforceable offence of harassment.

It has been argued that a system of legalisation, with strict regulation (with compulsory health checks and registration for prostitutes) would force women off the streets. However, that would merely set up a two tier system with those women who 'passed the tests' working legally and those who did not, working illegally on the streets.

Decriminalisation alone will not end street prostitution. It is necessary also to allow establishments to be licensed where sex is sold, women to be able to work together co-operatively and to rent premises from which to work. As a result of these measures, fewer prostitutes would work on the streets.

Policy recommendations

Health services:

Social policy:

Changes in the law:

Recommendations

The committee is invited to discuss the draft policy. It is proposed to bring organisations who agree with such a policy together to form a campaign to jointly lobby for the decriminalisation of prostitution.

ROBBI ROBSON

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, NURSING POLICY AND PRACTICE

References

Bindman, Jo 1997 report entitled Redefining prostitution as sex work on the international agenda. http://www.walnet.org/csis/papers/index.html

Doezema Jo 1999 Loose Women or Lost Women ? The re-emergence of the myth of white slavery in contemporary discourses on trafficking in women http://www.walnet.org/csis/papers/doezema-loose.htm

Hebditch and Anning 1988 Porn Gold - Inside the Pornography business. London: Faber and Faber.

Hoskins, Michael 1996 report entitled "Trafficking in Women for Sexual Exploitation - Assessment of the current threat within central London" Metropolitan Police Service.

Jaget, Claude (ed.) 1980 Prostitutes: Our life. Bristol: Falling Wall Press.

Kemp Earl (ed) 1970 The Illustrated Presidential Report of the Commission pm Obscenity and Pornography San Diego: Greenleaf Classics

Kinnell, Hilary 1999 "Survey of Sex Work Characteristics and Policies in the UK, Netherlands, Belgium, France, Ireland & Luxembourg".

Mckeganey, Neil and Barnard, Marina 1996 Sex Work on the Streets: prostitutes and their clients. Buckingham, Philadelphia: Open University Press.

Lopez-Jones Nina 1999 Some Mother's Daughter - the hidden movement of prostitute women against violence London: Crossroads.

O'Toole, Lawrence 1988 Pornucopia - Porn, Sex, Technology and Desire London: Serpent's Tail.

Owens,Tuppy 1997 Disabled People Make the Best Clients. Unpublished paper.