Regulating Prostitution

Another sociological objection to prostitution is that prostitution stimulates and feeds other criminal offences. For instances, drug trafficking, drug use, burglary, organised crime, “pimping”, assault and battery, theft, exploitation of children, and the trafficking of women. In addition, prostitution has immoral influence over the society for it may reasonably lead to moral corruption of dependent persons, especially children. In certain countries, most of the prostitutes are immigrants or they come from a certain race or ethnic group. For example, in the United States, the majority of sex workers, or more accurately the majority of those that were caught, are African American women. Consequently most African American women are stigmatised as prostitutes and alienated from mainstream of society. Prejudice and poverty of these women enable pimps to exploit their vulnerable economic and psychological situations and coerce them to enter and stay in the sex industry. Feminists argue that the structure “which persecutes women prostitutes while ignoring the participation of men”, aggravates the social and economic inequality that forces women into prostitution in the first place.

My Proposed Regulatory rules (My Framework) And Their Strength

Prostitution, described as the “oldest profession”, has been embedded in every culture and is realistically ineradicable. Thus, my framework aims to control the prostitution industry and to minimise the internal and external harms associated with prostitution as much as possible. In order to achieve these goals, I propose that prostitution should be legalised but soliciting, pimping, trafficking, underage patrons and prostitutes are made illegal with heavy penalties imposed on the offenders. I agree with Warnick that “many of the alleged harms about which prohibitionists complain are not a result of prostitution itself, but the effect that its continuing illegality generates”. Anti-prostitution legal regime only gives prostitutes perverse incentive to resort to the black market for protection, since they cannot seek state protection or redress in law. Prostitution exploits women not because the selling of sexual services is in itself exploitative, but because society degrades and marginalizes prostitutes and forces them into underground of continued abuse by pimps and customers. Where prostitution is illegal, prostitutes’ reluctance to seek medical care creates a dangerous position for themselves and customers and becomes a potential threat to public health. This problem can be alleviated by legalisation. Moreover, criminalisation has never significantly reduced the incidence of prostitution, it actually increases underground prostitution. Without fear of criminal sanctions or public reprisal under my framework, prostitutes can collectively demand police protection and control over their working conditions.

My framework is further regulated by zoning, age, healthcare and licensing requirements. A legal commercial sex sector could reduce street-walking prostitutes. Customers and sex workers could meet in safe environments, use of condom and health screening can be mandated to prevent STD infection. Firstly, any commercial sex trade must take place in the designated zone or “red light district” in private areas identified by state and local authorities. Prostitution is tolerated within the designated area, but it would be an offence if traded outside the area. This approach ensures that the sex service trade or solicitation only take place away from respectable parts of town. In Nevada, Australia, Netherlands and West Germany, such zoning regulation has proven effective in protecting the general public from exposure to prostitution. Designating prostitution in red light district make enforcements, such as police patrols and investigations, easier and more effective.  Also, brothels’ appearance is severely restricted, such as limiting the types of signs they can display outside the establishments. Advertising of any other kind is banned as well. The justification for such rule is to ... 

Secondly, the permitted age for a person to be prostitute and for a customer to purchase sex must be at least twenty-one years old. The reasoning behind this rule is so that any potential prostitutes would reach the level of maturity and make a rational choice when deciding whether to enter the sex industry. This would deter girls, especially those under-educated and unprivileged, from entering into the sex industry at a young age and be labelled as “prostitute” for the rest of their life. Instead, it is hoped that they would work elsewhere which might change their paths in the future. Similarly, johns should not buy sex especially before attaining adulthood. Such practice is unhealthy for a growing teenager in his adolescence. If underage prostitutes or patrons are caught, they should be sent to rehabilitation centre and disciplined by community service work. If they violate the probation, they could face a 30-day jail sentence. This penalty is hoped to educate and rehabilitate teenagers to go back to the right track rather than to punish them.

Thirdly, as a regulated entity, all prostitutes must submit to a mandatory health-licensing and registration scheme that require prostitutes to undergo health check-ups and testing once every six months for evidence of STD. It is recommended that the costs of the tests and purchase of condoms be the responsibility of each respective prostitute and brothel owner respectively. Generally, these women would be willing to pay to undergo health check-ups and testing because it is their own bodies and it is crucial that they are free from diseases to remain in the industry. Upon finding, as the result of medical screening, that any given prostitute is not infected with STD, and has attained the age of twenty-one, the respective prostitute will be granted a license to practice legal prostitution. If prostitutes wish to change brothels, they have to reapply for a new license. If, at a later stage, a prostitute is found to have contracted STD, her license will be suspended resulting in a ban in the trade to prevent spread of STD.

The owner of brothels, too, must apply for and obtain yearly renewable license to operate brothel business.  Such applications shall certify that the brothel owner only employs prostitutes who have attained the requisite age, have satisfied the requirements for and have obtained written proof of a valid health license, and are working as prostitutes of their own volition, without being coerced into working as prostitutes. It is the responsibility of brothel owner to dismiss and report to the licensing body if any woman is later found to be STD positive. Failure to do so would risk severe financial penalty and their license being suspended or revoked. Repeated breach of these requirements will lead to imprisonment.   Setting a licensing system is effective in obtaining information about prostitutes and brothels, as well as locating and protecting prostitutes if anything goes wrong, for example an outbreak of STD or serial murder of prostitutes. The licensing system also controls the sex industry by limiting the number of prostitutes and ensuring that brothel owners meet the zoning criteria mentioned above.

According to the Becker model, in order to deter prostitutes, pimps and clients from violating the law, the severity of legal sanction and the frequency of law enforcement must be the same or higher than the benefit of committing criminal prostitution. Thus, law enforcement such as police patrols and undercover investigations will be made frequently, and the sanctions imposed will range from warning to more severe form of mandatory imprisonment depending on the seriousness of the offence. On a global perspective, every country should adopt similar, if not the same, rules on the regulation and sanctions of prostitution. This could reduce human trafficking offences since criminals would not have incentive to trade women overseas, and also to prevent prostitutes from relegating to other countries that adopt an abolitionist approach to prostitution, or where the legal enforcement and sanctions are low.

Prostitutes under my framework are required to pay taxes just like other working citizens but are not eligible for unemployment compensation and social security benefits. Rather than try to impose certain choices by outlawing commercial sex, the state can and should, through non-legal mechanism, ensure that a woman’s choice is as informed and free as possible. Free choice can be encouraged by offering education, job training and counselling programs to assist sex workers to exit prostitution.

Limitation and Weakness

My framework aimed at achieving the said goals is likely to make the sex industry even more attractive for women to enter prostitution industry than when it is criminalized. To them, sex work is seen as a legal source of income and would enter that industry to make ends meet, knowing that many common problems associated with legalized prostitution have been taken care of.  Also, as in most countries regulating prostitution, illegal and unregulated street prostitution continues to coexist with regulated prostitution. This is because there will be a number of prostitutes who do not want to be registered due to the troublesome procedural requirements, unwillingly to pay tax or share their income with brothel owners, underage, failed or refuse to undergo health screening, and they prefer to work illegally. My framework may thus be criticised for forcing these prostitutes to go underground. When many of these prostitutes go underground, it becomes more difficult for public health and social workers to reach prostitutes and to provide them with health care, counselling programs, protection against violence and alternate employment opportunities.

My framework stresses on vigorous law enforcement as an effective deterrence of criminal prostitution. However, there are four main obstacles that my framework faces in enforcing prostitution law. Firstly, with limited financial and manpower resources, police tend to adopt selective enforcement and not to rigorously impose prostitution law so long as the trade remains relatively unnoticed. Secondly, with the development of internet prostitution, criminal enforcement requires more resources and sophistication, and is ever less likely to succeed. Thirdly, bribery and corruption are inevitable when public authorities have discretion in granting prostitution licenses. Fourthly, local authorities and brothel owners could gang up, for their private interest, to limit the number of brothels so that the existing brothel owners can monopolise sex industry and earn more profit.   All these factors would help criminal prostitution to survive.

Furthermore, my framework seeks to impose a range of penalties and sanctions with different severity to prevent prostitutes, johns and other interested parties from violating the law. Most of the more severe offences, such as human trafficking, forcing and deceiving women into prostitution, repeatedly violating the zoning, age and licence requirement, would lead to a sentence in jail. The heavy penalties and sanctions imposed on the offenders again may force prostitution to go underground. Moreover, statistics has shown that 70% of female inmates in American prisons were initially arrested for prostitution. Overcrowded? The cost of these sanctions would be distributed to the taxpayers.

Lastly, my framework cannot be applied effectively especially in developing countries like Thailand which rely heavily on sex tourism.  In such countries, where prostitution is illegal, the government would turn a blind eye to prostitution bans and its legal enforcements to allow the sex industry generates massive income for the country.

Conclusion

My framework which is based on legalization model would not solve all of the problems related to prostitution, especially where there are intrinsic problems of poverty and underdevelopment or huge social inequality, but would create an environment in which prostitutes could gain protection, self-esteem, become more empowered, and better standing in the society. Also, by making selling of sex a criminal prostitution if the prostitution is performed in a public area, involving minors, involving coercion of persons to be or become prostitutes, or performed by prostitutes who have failed to acquire a valid health license. Despite its weakness, I believe my framework will be effective to reduce most harms and problems of prostitution to both the society and prostitutes.

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