Prostitution policy and the women's movement

Feminists have consistently viewed prostitution as a social problem and opposed state regulated or legalized prostitution. However, feminists in different eras have taken conflicting policy stands on the problem. Progressive era feminists and their organizations supported severe state suppression of prostitution. In contrast, contemporary feminist groups join prostitutes in support of decriminalization. Through historical analysis that compares feminist thought and organization of the two eras, this paper offers an explanation of this contradiction in policy positions based on shifts in feminist thought about the role of the state, particularly criminal sanctions, in addressing prostitution, and changes in the organizing strategies of feminists. The paper also offers important insights to contemporary feminists contemplating policy stands which rely on legal sanctions as a strategy and facilitate alliances with moral crusaders to redress social problems.     

Solidarity as boomerang

In the Netherlands, the prostitutes' rights movement emerged with the formation of an influential coalition of feminists and policy-makers who devoted themselves to an improvement in the juridical and social position of prostitutes. By seeking to connect into the priorities of the government's emancipation policy, this coalition succeeded in placing the issue of prostitutes' rights onto the political agenda. This paper addresses the question why this policy has failed to strengthen the position of prostitutes. By analyzing both the factors which enabled the initial prosperous development of the prostitutes' rights campaign as well as the conditions under which the turning-point arose, it is concluded that everything went smoothly as long as professional prostitutes monopolized image-formation. The process failed at the moment that policy-makers incorporated multi-problematic categories of prostitutes. In place of the intended social integration of all categories, the prostitutes' rights campaign led to a strengthening of the stigma that is attached to prostitution.     

Policing prostitution in an era of human trafficking enforcement

Prostitution and commercialized vice have been variously prioritized as urban crime problems across U.S. history. In response, lawmakers have historically been guided by a prohibititionst view where people selling, buying or facilitating the sale of sex are considered to be immoral and criminal. In recent years, public concern about the trafficking of persons for sex has reframed prostitution and the expectations of government response. The U.S. federal government and all fifty states have passed legislation that is guided by an abolitionist view of prostitution where people who are forced or coerced to sell sex are redefined as victims. State, county and municipal police officers are now receiving training on how to identify human trafficking cases and investigators are being trained to investigate and prepare cases for prosecution. Despite these efforts under the new legal regime, confusion exists about how sex trafficking differs from prostitution and correspondingly necessitates different types of law enforcement responses. Adding to this complication is the fact that in many major cities the responsibility for identifying and eradicating human trafficking has fallen to the same group of investigators who are responsible for enforcing vice and prostitution laws. As a result, prostitution enforcement is expected to change as police increasingly focus on identifying sex trafficking victims. Using data on police arrests for prostitution from 1980 to 2012, we examine the impact of federal and state anti-trafficking legislation on the local enforcement of prostitution. Our findings inform debate about legal reform as a response to urban crime problems and illustrate the complexities of policy implementation and interpretation.     

Exploring terra incognita: Family values and prostitution acceptance in China

One of the unexamined issues in China is the public attitude toward prostitution. Little is known about public opinion on prostitution in China or Asia, and no work exists regarding the association between family values and public opinion on prostitution. Data from the World Values Surveys were used to explore social determinants of the attitude toward prostitution with a focus on the relationship between family values and acceptance of prostitution in China. The results from the multivariate logistic regression showed that family values were a significant predictor of the attitude toward prostitution, independent of tolerance, feminism, authoritarianism, and employment. While the effects of tolerance and feminism were consistent with the findings in the U.S., the effects of authoritarianism and religiosity were inconsistent. This article concluded with a call for reevaluation of the current harsh policy in order to gain a better handling of prostitution in China.     

Analysis of prostitution in Japan

Before World War II, we witnessed the purification movement, on which Christian groups embarked as moral entrepreneurs. After the war, female groups took the initiative in a movement for anti‐prostitution law. The movement resulted in the enactment of the Prostitution Prevention Law in 1956, which made prostitution a punishable criminal offense. On the other hand, in the United States in the 1960s, some criminologists advocated the necessity of de‐criminalization of victimless crimes, one of which was prostitution. Some groups of feminists also insisted on the de‐criminalization of prostitution to emancipate women toward a freer and more liberated sexuality. New ideas regarding the control, or lack thereof, of prostitution were then introduced into Japan — a country where decriminalization was not realized in the dimension of criminal laws.

With its rapid economic growth, Japan became a consumer's society, in which the demand for prostitution increased. In response to this trend, more prostitutes committed financially compensated sexual acts in disguised brothels or in other various call‐girl systems. However, the total number of offenses of the Prostitution Prevention Law exposed by the police has decreased drastically during the past thirty years. In essence, we now see the de‐criminalization of prostitution in the practices of law enforcement agencies.     

Effects of prostitution: An urban population responds

This article examines community perceptions about the legalization of prostitution in a large southern community. The authors utilized a random digit dialing technique to develop a representative sample consisting of 850 respondents. In addition, the authors interviewed prostitutes to determine their perceptions about how they helped individuals and society. Themes were developed from the personal accounts of the prostitutes and presented to the public to assess their feelings regarding whether or not prostitution is beneficial in certain instances. One of the major findings of the study was that 32% of the community members interviewed believed that prostitution should be legalized. This finding led the authors to discuss policy implications in the last section of the article.     

Delegation Dilemmas: Coalition Size,Electoral Risk,and Regulatory Governance in New Democracies

This article addresses the determinants of regulatory agency design in multiparty‐coalition governments. Previous research has mainly focused on U.S. institutions, producing context‐specific findings. We found electoral uncertainty, government turnover, and coalition size to be key factors explaining the bureaucratic autonomy of 31 state regulatory agencies recently created at the subnational level in Brazil. The legislative support that chief executives enjoy only acquires explanatory power when it is interacted with government turnover. Because Brazilian governors have great ability to build oversized majority coalitions, coalition strength influences the governor's strategy when the governor faces credible threats from rival elite groups.     

The production and reproduction of prostitution

This article is the result of a study aimed at grasping the knowledge of ‘prostitution’ since 1999 when the purchase of sexual services was criminalised in Sweden. Key informants drawn from the police, social services and voluntary organisations, who work in close proximity to prostitution, were interviewed. We focus on how the position of the informant, considering governmental and non-governmental exercise, effects her or his understanding, and reproduction, of the phenomena. The central themes are the question of definition, the importance of exposure and the occurrence of male prostitution. It is suggested that a study of these themes shows how the traditional position of the bad woman as vendor and the invisible man as purchaser is preserved. Hereby all the other constellations, that may as well be considered to be prostitution, remains unproblematized.     

Professional male prostitution: A neglected phenomenon

Male prostitution is generally regarded as a problematic phenomenon. This paper refutes this view by showing that most researchers have consistently selected only the problematic categories of male prostitution for their studies while ignoring successful prostitutes. A second difficulty is that many researchers explain male prostitution in terms of the individual psychosocial characteristics of those who practice it. Consequently little is known about male prostitution as an occupational/professional career. Based on ethnographic research in the world of male prostitution in Amsterdam, the occupation is analyzed as a commercial service-oriented business with economic and social characteristics typical of other small- and medium-sized businesses.This article was presented at the 50th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Criminology in San Francisco, 1991.     

Violence and legalized brothel prostitution in Nevada: examining safety, risk, and prostitution policy

This article examines violence in legalized brothels in Nevada. Debates over prostitution policies in the United States have long focused on questions of safety and risk. These discourses inevitably invoke the coupling of violence and prostitution, though systematic examinations of the relationship between the two are sparse. This article explores the issue of violence in the Nevada brothel industry. By drawing on interviews with prostitutes, managers, and policy makers, this article examines both prostitutes' perceptions of safety and risk and brothel managers' practices designed to mitigate violence. Discourses relate to three types of violence: interpersonal violence against prostitutes, violence against community order, and sexually transmitted diseases as violence. The authors conclude by arguing that the legalization of prostitution brings a level of public scrutiny, official regulation, and bureaucratization to brothels that decreases the risk of these 3 types of systematic violence.     

Liberal coercion? Prostitution,human trafficking and policy

Liberal prostitution policy aims at improving labor conditions for prostitutes and protecting victims of forced prostitution. Given its policy mandates, legalized prostitution should be linked to better protection policies for trafficking victims and stronger anti-trafficking measures. In this paper, I investigate empirically whether or not legalized prostitution improves protection policies for victims, as it is presumed. The results of my analysis—using data from 149 countries for the period of 2001–2011—suggest that a liberal prostitution policy does not lead to better protection and, in some cases, legalized prostitution can be detrimental to protecting victims of human trafficking.     

Street‐Level Tort Law: The Bureaucratic Justice of Liability Decision‐Making

Most legal scholarship on tort focuses primarily on judicial decisions, but this represents only a limited aspect of tortious liability. The vast majority of decisions concerning tortious liability are made by bureaucrats. Unavoidably then, there are two tiers of justice in tort law. This article focuses on the lower tier – bureaucratic decision‐making – arguing that the justice of bureaucratic decisions on tort should be considered on its own terms and not by judicial standards. We develop the notion of bureaucratic justice, applying a normative framework originally set out in relation to public administration. This enables an evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of different ways of bureaucratically determining liability claims in tort. The regimes discussed concern the liability of public authorities, but decision makers comprise both state and non‐state actors and the bureaucratic justice framework is, in principle, applicable to understand and evaluate the liability of both public and private actors.     

Rape investigation and prosecution: Stuck in the mud?

Abstract

This paper evaluates the Stern Review of rape in the context of public responses to rape, in England and Wales. The piece is based on an anti-rape feminist approach and so weighs a woman-centred approach to rape responses against the mainstream justice model. Overall, the argument made is that nothing much is really changing in public responses to rape. The work outlines problems with the Stern contention that the conviction rates for rape need to be calculated differently, and takes issue with the claim that the “policies are right”. Stern's call for greater support for women who have been raped is welcomed, but the effectiveness of the review process itself is questioned. These discussions illustrate the process of attrition as it is variously understood by feminists and by Baroness Stern. It is suggested that reviews themselves may be little more than a dampener, brought in when claims for change create a need to be seen to be doing something. A preferred alternative might be some form of ongoing body, reviewing and challenging practice and policy; however, it is recognised that this could be difficult to achieve amid the current spending cuts. The paper then turns to evaluate trends in support for survivors and notes that the more “professional” models of the Sexual Assault Referral Centre and the Independent Sexual Violence Advisers have held sway for some time. However, under the new coalition, government funding is also being directed towards women-only Rape Crisis centres, and this move is warmly welcomed here. The work concludes that much does indeed remain the same, despite positive signs in terms of respect for this survivor-centred model.     

Prostitution control in America: Rethinking public policy

In the past two decades there has been little critical examination of the prevailing methods of controlling prostitution in the United States. This article examines selected problems in the control of prostitution in the United States and critically assesses three major alternatives to the prevailing policy of criminalization. Alternative approaches are evaluated using the criteria of public preferences, efficient use of criminal justice resources, and harm reduction. One policy, involving a dualistic approach, is found to be superior in satisfying these criteria. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Teenage prostitution and the future of the female adolescent in Nigeria

Nigeria has a large number of adolescents living and making a living on the streets. This has been attributed to economic factors and exposure to all forms of risks. The result is the proliferation of prostitution among the adolescents with its attendant problems. This article considers the different forms of adolescent prostitutes: those in brothels, street walkers, call girls, and casual, part-time, or floating prostitutes, as well as the trafficking of adolescent girls across international borders. The causes of adolescent prostitution in Nigeria are largely economic, sociological, and socioeconomic factors. A two-dimensional approach was adopted in considering the attitude to prostitution. Coping mechanisms include endurance, self-medication, seeking medical attention, and adaptation. The effects of prostitution are psychological reactions, psychosocial damage, and the political implication, which damages the image of the nation. Approaches to combat adolescent prostitution in Nigeria include legislative steps, governmental efforts, policy making, awareness programs, and the efforts of nongovernmental organizations, community conscientization, and societal measures.     

Shadow chairs as monitoring device? A comparative analysis of committee chair powers in Western European parliaments

Recent work on coalition governance claims that government parties use the chairs of parliamentary committees to ‘shadow’ ministers and thus to monitor coalition partners. This argument rests on the assumption that committee chairs enjoy special powers to extract information from ministries and to affect policy-making in committee. To test this assumption, the paper develops the first comparative measure of committee chair powers in fifteen Western European democracies. The analysis shows that most committee chairs have very limited formal powers and that the share of shadowing chairs does not increase when committee chairs are more powerful. Both findings cast doubt on the interpretation of shadow chairs as a monitoring device. We sketch an alternative explanation according to which coalition parties employ the shadowing strategy in order to increase public visibility and to counteract issue ownership by the minister’s party.     

Shame on you,John! Laws,stigmatization, and the demand for sex

The present article contributes to the literature on prostitution by shedding light on the effects of the criminalization of buying sex on the amount of prostitution bought, as well as on the proposed theoretical mechanisms underlying this change. We find indications that criminalizing the buying of sex may decrease the quantity of sex bought. While we find that stigma influences the demand for sex, we do not find that stigma increases as a result of the law. Therefore, the possible reduced quantity of sex bought is probably due to the more direct risk of getting caught.     

Assessing the Impact of the 1996 Thai Prostitution Law: A Study of Police Arrest Data

The purpose of this paper was to evaluate the impact of the Thai Prevention and Suppression of Prostitution Act of 1996 in ten geographical regions of the country. This paper also addresses law enforcement approaches in controlling prostitution. Data for prostitution arrests from 1995 to 1998 were obtained from official police sources (Statistics of Reported Crimes of Thailand). ARIMA intervention analysis was employed; revealing the arrest rates of prostitutes between pre- and post-enactment of the present Prostitution Act did not differ statistically within the regions except for Region 8 (Phuket). The paper reaches two general conclusions: (1) the 1996 Thai prostitution law did not significantly reduce the arrest rate for prostitution across the country; and (2) further consideration must be given to the idea of decriminalizing prostitution, which might allow for licensure, improving health and living conditions as well as potentially limiting exploitation and impact crimes associated with the prostitution industry.     

Labours in Vice or Virtue? Neo-liberalism, Sexual Commerce, and the Case of Indian Bar Dancing

Of late, the Indian state has adopted an abolitionist stance towards sex work and bar dancing. This article argues that although in the Indian state of Maharashtra, the judicial overturning of the ban against bar dancing has been celebrated by feminists as a triumph of women's right to livelihood over patriarchal demands of women's sexual morality, the judgment is predicated on a sharp distinction between morally 'good' and 'bad' female labour, namely, bar dancing and sex work. This is ironic given their striking sociological similarities and the stigmatization and levels of state abuse inflicted against both. The article considers the usefulness of the totalizing logic of neo-liberalism for explaining the increased judicial and feminist tolerance for bar dancing. The article argues that prospects for redistributive law reform for all sexual workers are dim unless the arbitrary legal distinctions drawn between markets in female sexual labour are overcome.     

Effects of the criminalizing policy of sex work in Spain

The aim of this study is to analyse the effects on sex workers of new regulations that ban the practice of street prostitution in Spain. This country has not traditionally maintained a clear policy regarding prostitution. However, in recent years there has been a clear turn towards the criminalization of behaviours related to voluntary prostitution. The city councils of several Spanish cities have banned the practice of street prostitution and sanctioned it with fines issued to both prostitutes and clients. Even if few studies on prostitution have been carried out in Spain, none of them had yet analysed the effects of the adoption of civic ordinances on sex workers.In this paper we present the results of an empirical research carried out with a sample of 79 sex workers – in 20 cases with in-depth interviews – to explore the effects of the new regulation on their labour conditions.