tag:theconversation.com,2011:/au/topics/prostitution-6540/articlesProstitution – The Conversation2023-09-25T20:58:22Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2139482023-09-25T20:58:22Z2023-09-25T20:58:22ZSex workers’ rights: Governments should not decide what constitutes good or bad sex<iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/sex-workers-rights-governments-should-not-decide-what-constitutes-good-or-bad-sex" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>An Ontario Superior Court justice has dismissed <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/sex-workers-1.6970016">a constitutional challenge to Canada’s sex work laws</a>, saying that the <a href="https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/annualstatutes/2014_25/page-1.html">Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act (PCEPA)</a> does not violate sex workers’ Charter rights. </p>
<p>A coalition of 25 sex workers’ rights groups organized a challenge to the legislation, arguing that sex workers are <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/superior-court-hearing-decriminalization-of-sex-work-canada-1.6604546">harmed by the partial criminalization of sex work</a>. Anti-prostitution groups argued that the law discourages men from buying sex and reduces commercial sex, in line with the goals of the <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/debating-sex-work-9780190659899">Nordic or Equality Model</a> of sex work. </p>
<p>The judge ruled that while he believes the laws don’t violate the Charter — which is what he was asked to rule on — <a href="https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/ontario-court-dismisses-sex-workers-charter-challenge">regulation and decriminalization might be better policy options</a>. But, he wrote, it is up to Parliament to make those decisions, not the judiciary. And it is about time the government did so.</p>
<h2>Canada’s laws on sex work</h2>
<p>The current law was developed by the Conservative government of Stephen Harper. PCEPA makes buying sex illegal while selling sex is legal in some circumstances. This asymmetrical model still leaves sex work in a legal grey area because one side of the transaction is legal and the other is not. </p>
<p>Much research has been done on the benefits of decriminalizing sex work, including work done by <a href="https://www.amnesty.ca/womens-rights-gender-justice/blog-setting-the-record-straight-on-protecting-the-human-rights-of-sex-workers/">Amnesty International</a> and <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/09/18/eu-harmful-prostitution-resolution-passes">Human Rights Watch</a>. These are not fly-by-night organizations. They based their stance on solid research about the harms of criminalization. They are against trafficking and against the abuse of sex workers and they have policies against both. </p>
<p>There is also <a href="https://www.wsanz.org.nz/journal/docs/WSJNZ312Schmidt35-49.pdf">the example of New Zealand</a>, which has decriminalized sex work and uses health and labour laws to regulate the industry. I won’t reiterate the <a href="https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/publications/ten-reasons-decriminalize-sex-work">arguments</a> here in favour of <a href="https://www.aclu.org/news/topic/its-time-to-decriminalize-sex-work">decriminalization</a> because there is <a href="https://www.ubcpress.ca/red-light-labour">so much research</a> already <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007%2Fs13178-021-00636-0">out there</a>. </p>
<p>What I want to discuss in this article is the very conservative (perhaps unconscious) sexual beliefs that underlie many people’s negative view of sex work. The issue is a complicated one, and I recognize how it can be easier to believe that all female sex workers are victims and all male clients are predators, instead of taking a more nuanced view. </p>
<p>That was certainly my opinion before I did <a href="https://www.mqup.ca/slut-shaming--whorephobia--and-the-unfinished-sexual-revolution-products-9780228006657.php">interviews with working escorts</a>. Meeting women who sell sex and do so with respect and dignity changed the way I viewed sex work.</p>
<h2>Conservatism and sex</h2>
<p>Sex has historically been separated into “good sex” and “bad sex” because of what is called the heterosexual conjugal bond, or more colloquially, traditional marriage. Those who defined what was good and bad sex <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/sexuality-a-very-short-introduction-9780199298020?cc=ca&lang=en&">were often men</a>.</p>
<p>Traditional socially conservative views see acceptable sex as being with one person, only after marriage, heterosexual and relational, meaning that even masturbation was taboo. Scholars have outlined the detrimental effects of the <a href="https://canadianscholars.ca/book/politics-and-sex/">heterosexual conjugal bond</a> on women and sexual minorities. </p>
<p>Canada has liberalized its laws significantly since <a href="https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/david-allyn/make-love-not-war/9780316039307/">the 1960s sexual revolution</a>. Gay sex, premarital and extramarital sex and polyamory are more acceptable than they once were, but the vestiges of this conservative ideology remain. Recent protests against sex and gender identity education <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/9972437/anti-lgbtq2-rallies-canada-counter-protests/">in the school system</a> illustrate this. </p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-parental-rights-movement-gave-rise-to-the-1-million-march-4-children-213842">How the 'parental rights' movement gave rise to the 1 Million March 4 Children</a>
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<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/549839/original/file-20230923-17-skg2pr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two pairs of feet on a bed." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/549839/original/file-20230923-17-skg2pr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/549839/original/file-20230923-17-skg2pr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/549839/original/file-20230923-17-skg2pr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/549839/original/file-20230923-17-skg2pr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/549839/original/file-20230923-17-skg2pr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/549839/original/file-20230923-17-skg2pr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/549839/original/file-20230923-17-skg2pr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Personal moral beliefs about what constitutes good sex should not determine public policy regarding sex work.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
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<p>Most feminists would reject the idea that they are complicit with ideas that harm women or LGBTQ+ people because they have no problem with gay sex, premarital sex or extramarital sex. But anti-prostitution activists draw the line at commercialized sex for essentially moral reasons. Sex work remains bad sex.</p>
<p>As the director of an anti-trafficking group <a href="https://www.mqup.ca/slut-shaming--whorephobia--and-the-unfinished-sexual-revolution-products-9780228006657.php">said to me</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“I don’t believe that every aspect of being a human being can be reduced to labour, to work. I think human sexuality is that part of ourselves, that part of being human that should not be for sale, should not be turned into a commodity that can be bought or sold, so on that front we don’t recognize sex as work so we don’t call anyone a sex worker.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>In this view, sex should not be commercialized. And to many people that is common sense. If you are raised in any kind of organized religion, you are likely to believe that sex is special and should be limited to heterosexual marriage. But that is a moral argument based on personal views of sex, and not necessarily what we should base public policy on. </p>
<h2>The value of sex work</h2>
<p>The sex workers I interviewed saw the value in sex work. They felt they were helping people, and providing a service and giving others pleasure was a part of that.</p>
<p>This is vehemently rejected by anti-prostitution activists. As one such activist <a href="https://www.mqup.ca/slut-shaming--whorephobia--and-the-unfinished-sexual-revolution-products-9780228006657.php">told me</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“If you are disabled or in some way unable to have a normal, sexual relationship with another person, so you think that the right way is to buy it? Well, my answer to you is that unfortunately due to your illness and your disability you cannot have sex with another person.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>So those who might have problems accessing sex because of disability, age or physical attractiveness are simply out of luck. </p>
<p>But if there are women and men who get meaning out of their sex work and see value in what they do, why are we preventing them from doing this work? Why are we creating laws in a way that makes it less safe for them to do so? </p>
<p>If anti-prostitution activists don’t acknowledge that many women do choose to engage in sex work, they are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95947-1">denying the agency those women clearly have</a> and this speaks to a paternalism and saviourism that needs to be faced. </p>
<p>Protections must, of course, be in place for those who don’t consent to sex work and harsh penalties should be taken in place for traffickers. But we do not need to criminalize consenting adults and their expressions of sexuality. We already have laws against sexual assault, trafficking, force, fraud and coercion. We should not want personal morality and religious beliefs being imposed on our public policy.</p>
<p>Many women can and do sex work with respect and dignity. Governments should be looking at those conditions and ensuring that those who sell sex, female and male, cis and transgender, are doing so under the safest possible conditions. </p>
<p>Whether it is a <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/vancouver-sex-workers-plan-co-op-brothel-1.681434">co-op brothel, as was tried in British Columbia</a>, or women working together in their homes or working online, there are many ways to work safely. <a href="https://www.wsanz.org.nz/journal/docs/WSJNZ312Schmidt35-49.pdf">New Zealand has shown through their health and safety regulations</a> how governments can make sex work safer. If the current courts are unwilling or unable to make sex work safer, then Parliament needs to do so.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/213948/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Meredith Ralston has received funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. </span></em></p>Laws regarding sex work should not be legislated based on personal moral beliefs. They should prioritize the safety of sex workers and their clients.Meredith Ralston, Professor of Women's Studies and Political Studies, Mount Saint Vincent UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2018102023-03-20T19:43:09Z2023-03-20T19:43:09ZSex workers are left out in the cold by Ottawa’s unjust conviction amendments<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515815/original/file-20230316-16-jzc793.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4438%2C3218&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino speaks during a news conference on the government's plan to enable expungements for convictions under the Criminal Code for bawdy house, indecency-based and abortion-related offences in Ottawa in March 2023. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The federal government recently announced its intention to amend the <em>Expungement of Historically Unjust Convictions Act</em> to <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/public-safety-canada/news/2023/03/government-of-canada-takes-another-step-towards-righting-historically-unjust-convictions0.html">expand the list of offences Canadians can apply to have struck from their criminal records.</a> The list now includes abortion-related offences and indecent acts in a bawdy house.</p>
<p>We are a group of gay and lesbian historians who study the criminalization of queer communities in Canada. While we applaud changes that allow women and abortion providers to apply to have their records expunged, we question the partial and historically faulty way the government has added bawdy-house offences to the act.</p>
<p>Sex workers charged with bawdy-house offences, for example, remain excluded from accessing the expungement process. </p>
<p>In other words, if a bawdy-house conviction was only about indecency, people can now apply to have their records expunged. But if there are any allegations of sex work related to their convictions, they cannot.</p>
<p>However, police often alleged both indecency and sex work were taking place inside the bawdy houses.</p>
<p>And so in the government’s view, bawdy-house laws may now be historically unjust, but only for some.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A rap sheet lists alleged offences after an arrest of a gay man in 1981." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515848/original/file-20230316-26-dndima.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515848/original/file-20230316-26-dndima.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=357&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515848/original/file-20230316-26-dndima.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=357&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515848/original/file-20230316-26-dndima.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=357&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515848/original/file-20230316-26-dndima.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515848/original/file-20230316-26-dndima.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515848/original/file-20230316-26-dndima.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">A 1981 rap sheet shows how police described a bawdy house arrest.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Toronto Police via Freedom of Information request</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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</figure>
<h2>Flawed act, limited uptake</h2>
<p>In 2018, the federal government passed Bill C-66, which established a process to expunge the records for those who had been convicted of historically unjust offences. This was part of Prime Minister <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/homosexual-offences-exunge-records-1.4422546">Justin Trudeau’s apology to queer people in Canada.
</a></p>
<p>During debate on the bill, <a href="https://sencanada.ca/Content/Sen/Committee/421/RIDR/briefs/2018-02-05_C-66_Historians_e.pdf">we argued that it failed to fully carry out the prime minister’s apology</a> because it included only two offences — buggery/anal intercourse and gross indecency, a small fraction of the Criminal Code provisions that have historically targeted queer people. </p>
<p>It left out bawdy-house laws, indecency, vagrancy and criminalization for HIV non-disclosure. We also argued the application process was too onerous.</p>
<p>Turns out, we were right. In the first three years of the act, <a href="https://theconversation.com/pride-and-prejudice-with-only-9-lgbtq-criminal-record-expungements-whats-to-celebrate-161308">a paltry nine expungements were granted</a>. This represents an exceedingly small number of those who have been unjustly charged. </p>
<p>According to updated Parole Board information recently emailed to us, the Record Suspension Division has received 70 applications for expungement, with still only nine granted. Sixty applications have been refused, primarily because the convictions were not on the list of eligible offences for expungement.</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/pride-and-prejudice-with-only-9-lgbtq-criminal-record-expungements-whats-to-celebrate-161308">Pride and prejudice: With only 9 LGBTQ criminal record expungements, what’s to celebrate?</a>
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<h2>History of criminalization</h2>
<p>The recent changes amend Bill C-66 to broaden the range of expungable offences by adding, in addition to abortion, “indecent acts” committed in bawdy houses. This is possible because the bawdy-house law was repealed in June 2019, <a href="https://www.ourcommons.ca/Content/Committee/421/JUST/Brief/BR10002313/br-external/HooperTom-e.pdf">something we argued for at the time</a>. </p>
<p>Why, then, has it taken the government so long to add this to the list of expungable offences? </p>
<p>The government decision to specifically exclude sex workers from expungement ignores the fact that in 2013, the Supreme Court of Canada struck down the bawdy house law in relation to sex work. It’s also a serious misunderstanding of how marginalized sexual and gender communities have been criminalized and policed historically.</p>
<p>In 1917, <a href="http://activehistory.ca/2016/03/bath-raid-victims-should-also-be-pardoned/">the Criminal Code definition of a bawdy house was expanded</a> to encompass not just prostitution but also other “indecent acts.” This set the stage for the police to use the bawdy-house law to both punish sex workers and arrest men caught up in bathhouse raids.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A black-and-white photo shows a man with blood on his face scuffling with a group of police officers." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515822/original/file-20230316-22-iegt45.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515822/original/file-20230316-22-iegt45.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=369&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515822/original/file-20230316-22-iegt45.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=369&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515822/original/file-20230316-22-iegt45.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=369&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515822/original/file-20230316-22-iegt45.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515822/original/file-20230316-22-iegt45.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515822/original/file-20230316-22-iegt45.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">A man with blood streaming down his face scuffles with police outside the Ontario legislature in 1981 after about 1,000 gay rights demonstrators marched to protest the arrests of men in four city steam baths.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/UPC/Gary Hershorn</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Despite the long historical overlap in the policing of sex workers and gay men, the government is making a distinction between the indecency clause of the bawdy-house law and the parts of the law that pertained to the exchange of sex for money. </p>
<p>As historians, we have a deep appreciation for the historical links in the policing and criminalizing of sex workers and gay men. This shared history informs our criticism of the government’s attempt to single out gay men as worthy of expungement while leaving sex workers out in the cold.</p>
<h2>New divisions, old problems</h2>
<p>Because the arrest records of men charged with indecent acts in a bawdy house often include police allegations of sex work in their records, their applications for expungement would be ineligible. </p>
<p>This sets up another division between the deserving and undeserving — between men whose historically unjust conviction makes no reference to sex work and those whose records do, accurately or not.</p>
<p>In addition, those wishing to clear a record of “indecency” must prove the indecent act took place in a bawdy house. However, <a href="https://torontoist.com/2017/03/cruising-history-policing-gay-sex-toronto-parks/">the vast majority of indecency convictions stem from police entrapment of men in public parks and washrooms</a>. </p>
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<img alt="A beach is framed by a willow tree branch." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515826/original/file-20230316-18-cof9tb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515826/original/file-20230316-18-cof9tb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515826/original/file-20230316-18-cof9tb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515826/original/file-20230316-18-cof9tb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515826/original/file-20230316-18-cof9tb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515826/original/file-20230316-18-cof9tb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515826/original/file-20230316-18-cof9tb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Marie Curtis Park in west-end Toronto was a frequent site of police surveillance of gay men.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
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<p>Even though men take great care to construct privacy for themselves so as not to bother others, none would qualify for an expungement because the indecency took place in “public” and not in a bawdy house. </p>
<p>The government’s very narrow definition of indecency fails to include most people charged with this offence.</p>
<p>On top of these newly created problems with the Expungement Act, many obstacles in the existing process remain. For example, people who were convicted but received a discharge at sentencing are not eligible for expungement, despite the fact their records continue to hang over them. </p>
<p>What’s more, all the onerous requirements of the expungement application, which place the burden of proof on the applicant, also remain.</p>
<h2>Justice for all</h2>
<p>Back in 2018, the Senate Committee on Human Rights urged that as soon as the Expungement Act was passed, <a href="https://sencanada.ca/en/committees/RIDR/Report/56562/42-1">the government should consult with community members and experts to review remaining discriminatory historical laws</a>. The committee specified “prostitution-related offences.”</p>
<p>Five years later, the government has still not consulted with those who know this history best. Instead, it introduced changes that are historically unfounded, extremely limited in scope and seek to divide sexual and gender communities.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1633507750612279440"}"></div></p>
<p>As historians of sexuality, we argue that the historical record supports <a href="http://sexworklawreform.com/media-statement-amendments-to-the-expungement-act-liberals-once-again-pay-lip-service-to-equality/">sex workers’ organizations and their demand that the government include bawdy-house convictions related to prostitution</a> in expungement legislation. These convictions disproportionately affect women of colour, Indigenous women and transgender people.</p>
<p>And so, in 2023, we once again call upon the federal government to provide meaningful access to criminal record expungement for all — queer people, sex workers, trans and non-binary people — who have been convicted of historical offences for consensual sex.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/201810/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Experts on the history of sexuality in Canada say recent changes to the Expungement Act don’t go far enough, and they urge Canadians to reject attempts to divide marginalized communities.Steven Maynard, Adjunct Associate Professor of History, Queen's University, OntarioGary Kinsman, Professor Emeritus, Sociology, Laurentian UniversityPatrizia Gentile, Professor, Sexuality Studies/Human Rights & Social Justice, Carleton UniversityTom Hooper, Sessional Assistant Professor in Critical Human Rights, Department of Equity Studies, York University, CanadaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1927472022-10-26T07:42:06Z2022-10-26T07:42:06ZLegal sex work in South Africa won’t create new problems, just help solve old ones<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491858/original/file-20221026-4292-7fl4wu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Activists hold placards as they call for the decriminalisation of prostitution.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">MATTHEW KAY/AFP via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>South Africa’s post apartheid government has been toying with the idea of decriminalising sex work for almost two decades. But it has hesitated to act with the necessary courage to regulate the industry in a progressive way. </p>
<p>The reluctance to take bold action to decriminalise the sector has detrimental effects for sex workers. Decriminalisation would give sex workers access to labour rights and help prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. Most importantly, it would give sex workers more protection from <a href="https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/report_pdf/southafrica0819_web_0.pdf">violence</a>. The recent discovery of the bodies of six women, believed to be those of <a href="https://www.news24.com/news24/southafrica/news/were-under-siege-and-need-protection-sex-workers-as-man-accused-of-killing-6-women-appears-in-court-20221011">murdered sex workers</a>, in Johannesburg once again highlighted the dangers they face.</p>
<p>The incident has <a href="https://ewn.co.za/2022/10/11/decriminalise-sex-work-to-advance-human-rights-and-reduce-gbv-activists#:%7E:text=JOHANNESBURG%20%2D%20Activists%20are%20again%20calling,shop%20in%20the%20city%20centre">reignited the debate</a> on decriminalisation. </p>
<p>Based on my research into the subject – including my <a href="https://scholar.ufs.ac.za/bitstream/handle/11660/1390/BothaR.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y">2006 PhD thesis</a> – my view is that progress on this issue is hampered by the government’s fears of what might follow. The two biggest fears are that it will lead to a <a href="https://journals.co.za/doi/epdf/10.10520/ejc-genbeh_v19_n3_a17">spike in the sex work industry and the possibility of child prostitution</a>.</p>
<p>But these fears do not warrant inaction. Government needs to start drafting a legislative framework to regulate the industry and decriminalise sex work. This is the only way to protect sex workers from further abuse and violence.</p>
<h2>Misplaced fear</h2>
<p>Sex work is by no means a popular career choice. Decriminalisation is thus unlikely to cause an upsurge in sex work. </p>
<p>In the main, people are forced into sex work by socio-economic circumstances, including <a href="https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/Book2008SellingSexInCT.pdf">poverty</a>, and a lack of alternatives. </p>
<p><a href="https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/Book2008SellingSexInCT.pdf">Research indicates</a> that 76% of sex workers in Cape Town entered the industry as a result of financial need.</p>
<p>In relation to fears about children, the country already has clear and separate statutory provisions in place to combat child prostitution. These include sections 15, 16 and 17 of the <a href="https://www.justice.gov.za/legislation/acts/2007-032.pdf">Sexual Offences Related Matters and Amendment Act 32 of 2007</a>. Perhaps the most important of these is section 17, which specifically prohibits the sexual exploitation of children.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/murder-of-johannesburg-sex-workers-shows-why-south-africa-must-urgently-decriminalise-the-trade-192686">Murder of Johannesburg sex workers shows why South Africa must urgently decriminalise the trade</a>
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<p>With these sections in place, the success of preventing an increase in child prostitution, once adult sex work was decriminalised, would depend on effective law enforcement.</p>
<p>A spike in child prostitution did take place in, for example, the Netherlands and parts of Australia, once they decriminalised the sex industry. Research shows that this <a href="https://scholar.ufs.ac.za/bitstream/handle/11660/1390/BothaR.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y">was a result of ineffective law enforcement</a>.</p>
<h2>Exposure to violence</h2>
<p>South Africa is a hotbed of crime and has one of the <a href="https://www.gov.za/speeches/minister-bheki-cele-release-quarter-four-crime-statistics-202122-3-jun-2022-0000">highest incidences of violence</a> in the world.</p>
<p>Because of the illegal status of their work, sex workers are forced “underground”, which makes them <a href="https://journals.co.za/doi/epdf/10.31920/2050-4284/2019/8n2a10">more susceptible to violence</a> than other citizens – who are already “at high risk”.</p>
<p><a href="https://journals.co.za/doi/pdf/10.10520/ejc-genbeh_v19_n3_a7">Research</a> indicates that almost half (45%) of the South African sex workers who died in 2018 and 2019 were murdered. There are an estimated <a href="https://journals.co.za/doi/epdf/10.10520/ejc-genbeh_v19_n3_a17">167,000</a> sex workers in the country.</p>
<p>Sex workers are ideal targets of violence. Meeting clients in discreet places to hide their occupation leaves them exposed to violence from clients. They are also unlikely to report crimes against them if they fear being prosecuted themselves and <a href="https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/report_pdf/southafrica0819_web_0.pdf">abused further by the police</a>. </p>
<p>The only way to stop violence against sex workers and protect their basic rights is to decriminalise sex work. The longer this reality is ignored, the more violence, including murders, will follow.</p>
<h2>The history</h2>
<p>Sex work in South Africa was originally criminalised in terms of section 20 (1A) of the apartheid-era <a href="https://www.justice.gov.za/legislation/acts/1957-023.pdf">Sexual Offences Act, 1957</a>, which prohibits “unlawful carnal intercourse” or “acts of indecency” for reward. According to this statutory provision, the sex workers (<a href="https://journals.co.za/doi/epdf/10.31920/2050-4284/2019/8n2a10">mostly females</a>) are the perpetrators of the crime, and their clients are accomplices.</p>
<p>Both the sex worker and the client are liable for prosecution and the same punishment, which <a href="https://www.justice.gov.za/legislation/acts/1957-023.pdf">includes</a> imprisonment for a maximum period of three years with or without a maximum fine of R6,000 (US$325). But in criminal law terms, the conduct of a perpetrator (in this case the sex worker) is considered more blameworthy than that of the accomplice.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/sex-workers-in-nigeria-deserve-fair-treatment-from-the-media-183984">Sex workers in Nigeria deserve fair treatment from the media</a>
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<p>A 2002 minority High Court <a href="http://www.saflii.org/za/cases/ZACC/2002/22.html">judgment</a> highlighted this distinction as indirect gender discrimination. The legislature then responded by introducing section 11 to the <a href="https://www.justice.gov.za/legislation/acts/2007-032.pdf#page=16">Sexual Offences Related Matters and Amendment Act 32 of 2007</a>. The section provides that</p>
<blockquote>
<p>A person (‘A’) who unlawfully and intentionally engages the services of a person 18
years or older (‘B’), for financial or other reward, favour or compensation to B or to a
third person (‘C’)-
(a) for the purpose of engaging in a sexual act with B, irrespective of whether
the sexual act is committed or not; or
(b) by committing a sexual act with B,
is guilty of the offence of engaging the sexual services of a person 18 years or older.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This wording simply shifts the “more blameworthy” role of being a perpetrator to the client, while the sex worker becomes the accomplice. Although this removes gender discrimination and is more compliant with the constitution, it is not a progressive step in the direction of decriminalisation.</p>
<p>Both the sex worker and client are still liable for prosecution and punishment and are forced to operate underground.</p>
<p>The South African Law Reform Commission <a href="https://journals.co.za/doi/abs/10.10520/ejc-genbeh_v19_n3_a17#:%7E:text=The%20criminalization%20of%20sex%20work,et%20al.%2C%201999">first reviewed</a> the law banning sex work in 2006. It opted to continue with the approach of criminalising the sex industry.</p>
<p>Discussions continued <a href="https://www.justice.gov.za/salrc/dpapers/dp0001-2009_prj107_2009.pdf">in 2009</a> and again <a href="https://pmg.org.za/committee-meeting/24533/">in 2017</a>. But nothing came of them. The opportunity to make changes was missed again recently when the Sexual Offences and Related Matters <a href="https://www.justice.gov.za/legislation/acts/2021-013.pdf">Amendment Act</a> failed to decriminalise sex work.</p>
<h2>Looking forward</h2>
<p>Fearing what might follow decriminalisation does not justify continuing to criminalise sex work. It is here to stay, whether legal or illegal.</p>
<p>Criminalisation has been shown to be <a href="https://scholar.ufs.ac.za/bitstream/handle/11660/1390/BothaR.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y">ineffective in eliminating sex work</a>.</p>
<p>In addition, it’s been shown that it forces it underground, exposing sex workers to violence, including murder.</p>
<p>It’s time South Africa took more progressive steps.</p>
<p>Decriminalisation will come with its own challenges and teething problems, but continuing to turn a blind eye to the plight of sex workers will mean that they live in danger.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/unequal-power-relations-driven-by-poverty-fuel-sexual-violence-in-lake-chad-region-185918">Unequal power relations driven by poverty fuel sexual violence in Lake Chad region</a>
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<p>The government can learn valuable lessons from other countries, such as New Zealand, were sex workers are <a href="https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2003/0028/latest/DLM197815.html">regulated by law</a>. </p>
<p>They enjoy better protection against violence, have labour rights, can decline clients and have access to healthcare. Brothels are only allowed to <a href="https://www.nzpc.org.nz/The-New-Zealand-Model">operate in certain areas</a> and <a href="https://obiter.mandela.ac.za/article/view/12620/17568">child prostitution remains a crime</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/192747/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rinda Botha does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Regulating the sex work industry is the only way to protect sex workers from abuse and violence.Rinda Botha, Senior lecturer, University of the Free StateLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1926862022-10-19T12:37:43Z2022-10-19T12:37:43ZMurder of Johannesburg sex workers shows why South Africa must urgently decriminalise the trade<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490588/original/file-20221019-18-fd57p0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Sex workers and their supporters protest outside the Johannesburg Magistrate's Court during the first appearance of a man accused of killing six women.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA-EFE/Kim Ludbrook</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The decomposed bodies of six women, four of whom were identified as sex workers, were recently <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2022-10-16-murder-of-six-women-in-joburg-exposes-safety-hazards-for-sex-workers-in-sa/">discovered</a> at a panel beating factory in Johannesburg. A 20-year-old man has been <a href="https://ewn.co.za/2022/10/18/failed-id-parade-delays-case-against-man-linked-to-6-bodies-found-in-joburg">charged with six counts of murder</a>. The case highlights, again, the risks of sex work for women in South Africa. </p>
<p>It also puts the spotlight on the regulation of sex work. As a commissioner for the <a href="https://cge.org.za/">Commission for Gender Equality</a>, I was involved in drafting its 2013 position paper on sex work: <a href="http://cge.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/CGE-Decr.pdf">Decriminalising Sex Work in South Africa</a>.</p>
<p>There are different ways of regulating sex work. These include criminalisation, legalisation, partial decriminalisation and decriminalisation. Sex work is a crime in South Africa, which means that all sex work that is performed on streets or in brothels is illegal and is policed as such.</p>
<p>This makes it particularly difficult for sex workers who operate on the streets to be safe. They fear being arrested by police, often forcing them into unsafe spaces where clients are free to abuse them. They are also vulnerable to <a href="https://wlce.co.za/police-abuse-of-sex-workers/">police abuse</a>.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/sex-workers-in-nigeria-deserve-fair-treatment-from-the-media-183984">Sex workers in Nigeria deserve fair treatment from the media</a>
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<p>Like the Commission for Gender Equality, I also support decriminalisation. That would, among other things, mitigate some of the risks that sex workers face because of their work being deemed a crime in the country. They are exposed to physical violence, the risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases, unintended pregnancies, police abuse, mental anguish and even death. Decriminalisation means that sex workers can choose where to work, and they won’t have to fear arrests, <a href="https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/report_pdf/southafrica0819_web_0.pdf">police harassment and stigmatisation</a>. </p>
<h2>Criminalisation</h2>
<p>Sex work in the country is regulated through the <a href="https://www.justice.gov.za/legislation/acts/1957-023.pdf">Sexual Offences Act 23 of 1957</a> and the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Related Matters) <a href="https://www.justice.gov.za/legislation/acts/2007-032.pdf">Amendment Act, 2007</a>.</p>
<p>These laws were reviewed several years ago by the <a href="https://www.justice.gov.za/salrc/">South African Law Reform Commission</a>, a permanent body that investigates law reform, established under <a href="https://www.justice.gov.za/salrc/docs_gen/1973_19_South%20African%20Law%20Reform%20Commission%20Act.pdf">Act 19 of 1973</a>. Its <a href="https://www.justice.gov.za/salrc/reports/r-pr107-SXO-AdultProstitution-2017.pdf#page=29">2015 report</a> called for the continued criminalisation of sex work to prevent people from </p>
<blockquote>
<p>knowingly living off the earnings of prostitution (and) benefiting from the prostitution of another person. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>It also recommended the continued use of public ordinances to deal with the “public nuisance” of “prostitutes”. Rebutting the argument that poverty is one of the reasons people enter sex work, the report said women should rather seek social welfare interventions. </p>
<p>But this is not a viable option. Given the country’s very high levels of poverty and joblessness, the resources of government to support poor women are spread thin. <a href="https://static.pmg.org.za/SASSA_2022-23_Annual_Performance_Plan.pdf">Almost 47%</a> of South Africans now depend on government grants. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-sexual-and-reproductive-law-for-east-african-countries-is-being-resisted-186954">Why sexual and reproductive law for east African countries is being resisted</a>
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<p>The <a href="https://eachother.org.uk/sex-work-and-sex-trafficking-different/">conflation of sex work with human trafficking</a> contributes to the support for the continued criminalisation of sex work. But not all sex work is coerced and not all sex workers are trafficked. Women are often driven to sex work because of economic needs and <a href="https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/world/europe/2022-10-18-women-turn-to-sex-work-to-survive-cost-of-living-crunch/">increasing costs of living</a>, and some women exercise a choice to do sex work. </p>
<p>But they also face serious risks. So, what are the alternatives?</p>
<h2>Other approaches</h2>
<p>Elsewhere legislation makes sex work legal under certain conditions, such as regular medical check-ups, licensing, and registration as a form of state control of sex workers. For example, sex work is legal in the <a href="https://www.government.nl/topics/prostitution/question-and-answer/work-as-a-prostitute-in-the-netherlands">Netherlands </a> and in some jurisdictions in <a href="https://www.catwa.org.au/prostitution-laws-in-each-state/">Australia</a>, <a href="https://catwinternational.org/press/belgium-joins-germany-in-creating-legal-haven-for-sex-trade/">Germany</a> and <a href="https://thenevadaindependent.com/article/the-indy-explains-how-legal-prostitution-works-in-nevada">Nevada</a> in the US. Some African countries have a <a href="https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/countries-where-prostitution-is-legal">combination of legality and illegality</a>. Legalisation still does not provide the broader freedom of decriminalisation, which will curb stigmatisation by making sex work <a href="https://www.borgenmagazine.com/benefits-of-legalizing-prostitution">just like any other job</a>.</p>
<p>With partial decriminalisation, the sex worker is not criminalised – their clients are. In other words, the buyer of the service can be arrested, but not the seller. This is called the Swedish model because this is where it was used for the first time <a href="https://www.swarmcollective.org/blog/the-swedish-model">in 1999</a>. While this may sound like a good idea, it actually makes sex workers more vulnerable, because it drives their work underground. It creates a lack of trust between the sex worker and client, reduces her bargaining power and <a href="https://genderjustice.org.za/video/the-swedish-model-why-partial-criminalisation-of-sex-work-will-not-help-sex-workers-or-sa-society/">hampers her ability to negotiate safe sex</a>.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-south-africas-hiv-prevention-programmes-should-include-sex-worker-clients-157264">Why South Africa's HIV prevention programmes should include sex worker clients</a>
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<p>Sex workers on the streets of Sweden have reported harsher conditions since partial decriminalisation was introduced, as well as <a href="https://www.nswp.org/sites/nswp.org/files/Issue-Paper-4%5B1%5D_0.pdf">greater stigmatisation and discrimination</a>.</p>
<h2>Decriminalisation</h2>
<p>The South African Commission for Gender Equality’s position paper, mentioned above, calls for decriminalisation. This means a repeal of all laws against sex work, as well as the removal of provisions that criminalise all aspects of sex work. </p>
<p>The difference between legalisation and decriminalisation is that decriminalisation does not come with any state-imposed regulations specific to sex work. Instead the industry is regulated through existing statutes and regulations, particularly labour law. </p>
<p>Sex work becomes recognised as a legitimate business and falls under conventional employment and health regulations. Sex workers will, therefore, have the same rights as other workers and will also have the responsibility to pay taxes.</p>
<p>In her timely 2022 <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Policing-Bodies-Work-Desire-Johannesburg/dp/1503629740">book</a> Policing Bodies - Law, Sex Work and Desire in Johannesburg, legal scholar <a href="https://kinseyinstitute.org/about/profiles/ithusi.php">India Thusi</a> makes a strong case for decriminalisation. She clearly shows the complexity of relationships between sex workers and law enforcers, and how criminalising sex work is counterproductive.</p>
<h2>Looking forward</h2>
<p>In February 2022, John Jeffery, South Africa’s deputy justice minister, announced further consultations on the Law Reform Commission’s report. <a href="https://www.citizen.co.za/news/decriminalisation-of-prostitution">He said</a> there was a need to “fully engage” with all stakeholders – including government departments – on the proposed policy options and their implications, given the diversity of views, even though public hearings on sex work had already taken place. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-sex-workers-view-on-south-africas-latest-plans-to-beat-hiv-79355">A sex worker's view on South Africa's latest plans to beat HIV</a>
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<p>The six women whose bodies were found in Johannesburg deserved protection and support, and the right to do their work safely. Decriminalisation would be a powerful step towards honouring their memories – and keeping other sex workers safe.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/192686/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amanda Gouws receives funding from the National Research Foundation (NRF).</span></em></p>The conflation of sex work and human trafficking fuels support for the continued criminalisation of sex work.Amanda Gouws, Professor of Political Science and Chair of the South African Research Initiative in Gender Politics, Stellenbosch UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1908822022-09-29T12:32:25Z2022-09-29T12:32:25ZUN slavery estimate raises question: Are 50 million people really enslaved today?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486639/original/file-20220926-26-nievn5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=529%2C41%2C1467%2C1287&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Forced laborers lived in prison cells at one palm oil plantation in Indonesia. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/private-prison-cell-is-seen-at-house-former-head-of-news-photo/1238075980?adppopup=true"> Kiki Cahyadi/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>According to the United Nations, <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/09/1126421">about 50 million people</a> are enslaved worldwide.</p>
<p>The report, released Sept. 12, 2022, by the U.N.’s <a href="http://www.ilo.org">International Labor Organization</a>, <a href="https://www.iom.int">the International Organization for Migration</a> and the human rights group <a href="https://www.walkfree.org">the Walk Free Foundation</a>, revealed that 28 million people are in forced labor and another 22 million in forced marriage. </p>
<p>Forced labor includes exploitation in domestic work, agriculture and manufacturing. It also includes state-imposed forced labor and commercial sexual exploitation. Poverty is a powerful driver for forced labor around the globe, particularly in India, East Asia and West Africa. </p>
<p>Forced marriage, mainly affecting women and girls, often has gendered, patriarchal roots. </p>
<p>The U.N.’s latest estimate of 50 million has grown substantially <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2017/09/19/world/global-slavery-estimates-ilo">since its last estimate in 2017</a>, when it reported 40 million persons were enslaved. </p>
<p><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=WuHCE3sAAAAJ&hl=en">As someone who studies modern slavery</a>, I am intrigued by global estimates. </p>
<p>Are there really 50 million persons living in slavery today as the U.N. claims? </p>
<p>What explains how the global estimate increased by 10 million over five years? Does that mean we will see an annual increase of 2 million slaves each year moving forward? </p>
<h2>Getting better at global estimates</h2>
<p>Global estimates of modern slavery have improved over time. </p>
<p>In 2013, Walk Free’s <a href="https://scholarship.richmond.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1031&context=polisci-faculty-publications">first Global Slavery Index</a> reported 29.8 million persons enslaved. </p>
<p>But that estimate was based almost entirely on expert input instead of nationally representative random sample surveys – the gold standard of research design. </p>
<p>For its <a href="https://legacy.globalslaveryindex.org/download/">2016 Global Slavery Index</a>, <a href="https://www.walkfree.org/">Walk Free</a> partnered with <a href="https://www.gallup.com/home.aspx">Gallup</a> and commissioned random sample surveys for 25 countries. </p>
<p>By partnering with the world’s premier polling organization and using advanced survey techniques, Walk Free was able to embark on groundbreaking work.</p>
<p>However, Walk Free ended up generating a global estimate for 168 nations, not just the 25 nations it had surveyed. That meant for the other countries in its 2016 estimate, Walk Free relied on both expert input and statistical techniques – and didn’t solely use nationally representative survey data. </p>
<h2>The devil in the details</h2>
<p>That same technique of mixing survey data with statistical techniques applies to the U.N.’s 2017 and 2022 global estimates. </p>
<p>For its <a href="https://www.alliance87.org/global_estimates_of_modern_slavery-forced_labour_and_forced_marriage.pdf">2017 estimate</a>, the U.N., working with Walk Free and other organizations, commissioned surveys in 48 countries from 2014 to 2016. And for its <a href="https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_norm/---ipec/documents/publication/wcms_854733.pdf">2022 report</a>, the U.N. gathered data from 68 countries to estimate forced marriage and from 75 countries to estimate forced labor. </p>
<p>Though the report revealed a clear increase in the number of nationally representative surveys to generate these global estimates, it still fell short in measuring a majority of the countries in the world. </p>
<p>There are currently <a href="https://www.un.org/en/about-us">193 member states</a> in the United Nations. The U.N.’s 2022 global estimate that surveyed 75 countries to estimate forced labor did not survey the remaining 118 countries, instead basing its numbers on expert input and statistical techniques. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/417728/original/file-20210825-23-1jren5z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A view from above shows buildings in a grid, with identifying labels such as police station, hospital and visitation center." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/417728/original/file-20210825-23-1jren5z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/417728/original/file-20210825-23-1jren5z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417728/original/file-20210825-23-1jren5z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417728/original/file-20210825-23-1jren5z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417728/original/file-20210825-23-1jren5z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=679&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417728/original/file-20210825-23-1jren5z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=679&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417728/original/file-20210825-23-1jren5z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=679&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A 2018 satellite image shows detention camps built near the Kunshan Industrial Park in China’s Xinjiang region.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Planet Labs/AP,</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Nor did the U.N. publish a full list of the countries for which it conducted nationally representative surveys in 2017. It’s difficult, then, to know how many of those 48 countries sampled for the 2017 report were repeated for the 2022 report. </p>
<p>We also don’t have publicly available data for those 48 countries, let alone the countries surveyed for the 2022 global estimate. </p>
<p>And without access to any of the statistical calculations made by the U.N. for either estimates, scholars cannot independently replicate the findings of the U.N. for either of its 2017 or 2022 reports. </p>
<h2>Comparing apples and oranges</h2>
<p>This lack of transparency makes it difficult to claim that there really was an increase of 10 million in the number of enslaved persons from 2017 to 2022. </p>
<p>Two things are happening here. The U.N. seems to be getting much better at estimating global slavery. But because the survey techniques are improving over time, it is impossible to make comparisons. </p>
<p>Consider the analogy of a bathroom scale. In weighing yourself, you might purchase an inexpensive scale at first just to get a rough idea of how much you weigh. But then, becoming more concerned about your health, you then purchase a much better scale that gives you a far more precise measurement. </p>
<p>This doesn’t mean that your weight changed radically. It just means you now have a much better sense of your weight. </p>
<p>This analogy applies to measuring contemporary slavery. </p>
<p>The scale used by Walk Free was novel in 2013, and improved by 2016. The scale the U.N. used in 2017 was more precise, and the figures for 2022 got even better. </p>
<p>But to go back and say there are 10 million more persons enslaved today than there were in 2017 is not warranted. </p>
<h2>Finding clarity</h2>
<p>Global estimates of modern slavery are eye-catching and important.</p>
<p>The 50 million figure today is one of the best estimates of modern slavery available and can prompt policymakers to take action. Without awareness of this crime, the problem cannot be solved. </p>
<p>Yet, moving forward, the public still needs more reliable, more valid and more transparent data. Science advances on the promise that data is freely available to enable others to replicate or improve the analysis.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/190882/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Monti Datta was a consultant with the Walk Free Foundation from 2013 to 2016.</span></em></p>Global estimates of modern-day slavery by the United Nations reveal improving methods for calculating the data.Monti Datta, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of RichmondLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1607362021-05-12T16:16:06Z2021-05-12T16:16:06ZHow sex work has been affected by the pandemic<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/400316/original/file-20210512-17-lalsiu.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Challenging circumstances.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/deep-red-almost-infrared-light-bulb-66883996">Vlue</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the months before the pandemic, I was involved in an <a href="https://arxiv.org/pdf/2006.15648.pdf">extensive piece of research</a> into the sex work industry in the UK. Focusing on the main online market for sex work in the UK, <a href="https://www.adultwork.com/">AdultWork</a>, we analysed the profiles of more than 11,500 sex workers to understand the industry and how it operates online. </p>
<p>The total number of sex workers in the UK <a href="https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201617/cmselect/cmhaff/26/26.pdf">was estimated</a> in 2016 to be slightly over 70,000, so our sample was a substantial portion of the industry (albeit not necessarily a representative sample). The findings, and follow-up work that I have done subsequently, give some valuable insight into the shape of the sex industry in the UK, as well as some of the changes and challenges experienced by sex workers during the pandemic. </p>
<p>One of the main findings from our study, which was <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13691058.2021.1901145">recently published</a> in the Journal of Culture, Health & Sexuality, was that more than half of the female sex workers in our cohort were not British. The majority of these non-British workers identified as being from eastern European countries (the next largest was western Europeans, including Spaniards and Germans, but it was a far smaller proportion). Many travelled to the UK for a few weeks of work followed by a return to their home country, where they had family and dependants to feed. Sex work was their main source of income. </p>
<p>We found that eastern European sex workers in the UK charge 30% less than their British colleagues, despite their profiles being viewed by more people on average. The reason for the lower charges <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13545701.2017.1330547">has been argued to be</a> because they feel less secure about their job, and because they need a minimum income to cover the cost of hotels, flights and so on and can’t risk ending up with too little. </p>
<p>These workers were often the ones who provided riskier services, such as unprotected sex or extreme BDSM (bondage, dominance and submission/sadomasochism). In many ways, they are also probably the workers who have been most challenged by the pandemic. </p>
<h2>Sex work and the pandemic</h2>
<p>We have heard a lot about how the pandemic has been very difficult for industries that bring people together such as pubs, restaurants and airlines. Sex work has also been severely challenged by the fact that people have not been allowed to physically interact outside their households in the UK and elsewhere during most of the pandemic. </p>
<p>Unlike most other industries, many sex workers <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-54780027">have not been eligible</a> for government support during the crisis. Because many <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/842920/Prostitution_and_Sex_Work_Report.pdf">do not have records</a> of their taxed income they have been unable to benefit from the UK <a href="https://www.gov.uk/guidance/claim-a-grant-through-the-coronavirus-covid-19-self-employment-income-support-scheme">income support scheme</a> for self-employed people. This is even more likely to have been the case for the many sex workers in the UK whose primary residence is abroad.</p>
<p>Factors such as clients’ health concerns and limited mobility have <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/jan/29/uk-sex-workers-rising-violence-hardship-pandemic">reduced demand</a> for sexual services during the pandemic. <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-52183773">Reports have also noted</a> that many sex workers turned to offering online services. Yet that does not mean that no in-person sex work has been taking place, as we found during follow-up research. Though it is very difficult to produce comprehensive statistics on the volume of sexual transactions, a simple comparison between the daily number of reviews that clients left on AdultWork after receiving services in 2019 and 2020 suggests there has been no substantial decline in the number of encounters – see the graph below. </p>
<p><strong>AdultWork reviews per day, 2020 vs 2019</strong></p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/400076/original/file-20210511-22-1egphz3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Graph showing numbers of AdultWork reviews in 2020 vs 2019" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/400076/original/file-20210511-22-1egphz3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/400076/original/file-20210511-22-1egphz3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400076/original/file-20210511-22-1egphz3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400076/original/file-20210511-22-1egphz3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400076/original/file-20210511-22-1egphz3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400076/original/file-20210511-22-1egphz3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400076/original/file-20210511-22-1egphz3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Taha Yasseri</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Sex work is one of those jobs that has never stopped being demanded and supplied, <a href="https://blog.royalhistsoc.org/2021/05/04/the-women-had-saved-the-situation-indian-womens-work-in-war-and-famine/">neither during wars nor famines</a>, so it would be naïve to think otherwise in the case of a pandemic. In fact, the pandemic-induced financial pressure <a href="https://www.thesun.ie/news/6460182/sex-workers-ireland-covid-cases-women-prostitution/">has reportedly</a> made former sex workers return to the sector and many newcomers <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-more-students-are-turning-to-sex-work-during-covid-19-pandemic-12066700">start working</a> in the profession too.</p>
<p>If the level of business has stayed fairly constant in a market in which the supply has potentially gone up, it means that sex work has become more competitive during the pandemic – and even more so for vulnerable workers at the “low end” of the market. A more competitive market is likely to mean that workers either lower their prices or take bigger risks with the services they provide, or both at the same time. My preliminary analysis shows that the gap between the highest and lowest prices has increased during the pandemic.</p>
<p>On top of that, when meeting people outside of your household is illegal, in-person sex work effectively becomes illegal too (<a href="http://www.mash.org.uk/get-support/the-law/#:%7E:text=Is%20sex%20work%20legal%3F,the%20Sexual%20Offences%20Act%202003.">in the UK</a> sex work is normally legal, though various activities, including pimping, running a brothel and soliciting in a public place, are all illegal). This <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0020872820962202">is likely</a> to have meant that vulnerable workers have been taking bigger risks while being afraid of the legal consequences of, for example, going to the police to report an assault by a client. </p>
<h2>COVID vaccines for sex workers</h2>
<p>Many countries have been prioritising COVID vaccinations based on people’s age, type of job, and pre-existing health conditions. In <a href="https://arxiv.org/pdf/2006.15648.pdf">our analysis</a>, we found out that the majority of sex workers, as well as ones most in demand, were aged between 18 and 36, which puts them at the end of the queue for vaccines. </p>
<p>This would only change if governments recognised that sex work has not stopped in spite of the social-distancing restrictions, and considered the health risks that sex workers take in their day-to-day jobs and the benefits of an early vaccination both for them and society as a whole. At a time when sex workers’ usual access to healthcare support such as GPs and sexual-health nurses <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-bristol-54780027">has been disrupted</a>, this is something that governments should look into urgently.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/160736/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Taha Yasseri has received funding from EPSRC. </span></em></p>New research into sex work in the UK highlights some of the changes and challenges sex workers have faced.Taha Yasseri, Associate Professor, School of Sociology; Geary Fellow, Geary Institute for Public Policy, University College DublinLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1575912021-03-23T05:27:34Z2021-03-23T05:27:34ZUS massage parlour shootings should ring alarm bells in Australia: the same racist sexism exists here<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391060/original/file-20210323-15-hyxlcn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Damian Dovarganes/AP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The recent <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/03/18/atlanta-shooting-live-updates/">US shootings</a> at massage businesses in Atlanta should ring alarm bells in Australia. Eight people were killed in the attacks, <a href="https://prostitutionresearch.com/prostitution-is-a-racialized-hate-crime-against-women/">including</a> four Korean women and two Chinese women. </p>
<p>US authorities are still trying to determine the <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/crime-georgia-spas-int-idUSKBN2B90J0">exact motive</a> behind the attack by a 21-year-old white man, who is <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/03/17/us/shooting-atlanta-acworth?fbclid=IwAR1nDwVEAQmD2xLq0g9YMzZFf0K7lKwa9i3_HqNofVavTGx8m0J_qAcr-lk#the-suspect-had-visited-massage-parlors-in-the-past">a suspected sex buyer</a>.</p>
<p>But some feminist groups, such as <a href="https://www.awcep.org/post/a-statement-on-the-georgia-shootings-from-asian-women-for-equality">Asian Women for Equality</a>, immediately identified misogynist racism as a key element behind this sort of violence. As one member of the group, Suzanne Jay, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/asian-woman-attacks-1.5954232?fbclid=IwAR2DsAP3jztXHbk78aUDd88xi3uCTyEzYy1h4MK4rBD3-6eN6vefEwc0QXs">said</a>, </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Men are being trained by the prostitution industry. They’re being encouraged and allowed to orgasm to inequality. This has an impact on Asian women who have to deal with these men.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The global sex trade, feminists have <a href="https://prostitutionresearch.com/prostitution-is-a-racialized-hate-crime-against-women/">argued</a>, </p>
<blockquote>
<p>increasingly contributes to the dehumanisation of all Asian women.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Indeed, it has been reported that the Atlanta shooting suspect <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/03/17/us/shooting-atlanta-acworth?fbclid=IwAR1nDwVEAQmD2xLq0g9YMzZFf0K7lKwa9i3_HqNofVavTGx8m0J_qAcr-lk#the-suspect-had-visited-massage-parlors-in-the-past">explained</a> the attacks were a form of vengeance to eliminate the “temptation” for his “sexual addiction”. </p>
<h2>How Australia’s massage businesses operate</h2>
<p>Like the US, Australia’s “massage parlours” are associated with the prostitution of Asian women. These venues, outwardly presenting as massage businesses but offering illicit sexual services, make up the majority of brothels in the city I study, Melbourne. </p>
<p>Australia’s commercial sex industry is regulated at the state and territory level, resulting in a patchwork of differing models. </p>
<p>In Victoria, massage parlours are estimated to outnumber legal brothels <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/language/english/the-majority-of-illegal-brothels-are-massage-shops-say-police">five-fold</a>. My research on Melbourne’s massage parlours <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1538513221996272">supports</a> this estimate.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/will-victoria-be-the-first-place-in-the-world-to-fully-decriminalise-sex-work-146751">Will Victoria be the first place in the world to fully decriminalise sex work?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Despite the <a href="http://classic.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/vic/consol_act/swa1994129/s1.html">main purpose</a> of Victoria’s Sex Work Act to “control sex work”, the majority of Victoria’s brothels get around the legislative requirements and controls by operating under the guise of legitimate massage businesses. </p>
<p>Massage businesses are usually considered a general retail premises in most council areas, which do not require a planning permit or registration. </p>
<p>Australia’s sex industry is also heavily <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0971852416667885">reliant</a> on a culture of sexualised racism.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/visible-sites-sex-industry-tegan-larin/e/10.4324/9781003056065-9?context=ubx&refId=2ac00932-586a-4034-b879-0ca58ae9bc0a">An analysis of online</a> massage parlour advertising conducted as part of my research shows ads commonly feature images of Asian women in suggestive poses. The wording highlights race or ethnicity, with such phrases as “young and beautiful trained girls from Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Vietnam, China and Malaysia”. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/new-report-shows-compelling-reasons-to-decriminalise-sex-work-83955">New report shows compelling reasons to decriminalise sex work</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In addition to ads, my research also examined online sex buyer review forums. These typically <a href="https://www.heraldsun.com.au/leader/outer-east/online-forums-show-thriving-illegal-sex-trade-in-melbourne-suburbs/news-story/53d5f7f7bda916b2b3ba2c76e829a7ca">encourage</a> men to include <a href="https://thenakedtruth.reviews/threads/joining-procedure.6583495/https:/thenakedtruth.reviews/threads/joining-procedure.6583495/">descriptions</a> of “ethnicity, appearance, breast size”, ratings of the women’s body parts and the “services” received. </p>
<p>These sex buyer reviews not only demean and denigrate women, they also promote the sexualised and racist stereotypes that pervade the industry. </p>
<p>Perhaps unsurprisingly, a recent study of sex buyer reviews of Australia’s legal brothels <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1077801218757375">found</a></p>
<blockquote>
<p>that sex buyers actively construct and normalise narratives of sexual violation and violence against women.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>The effects of sexualised racism in prostitution</h2>
<p>This blatant racism, misogyny and male sexual entitlement is not confined to massage parlour owners or their customers. It’s also embedded in Victoria’s <a href="https://content.legislation.vic.gov.au/sites/default/files/d5d42cad-a7c4-3542-a543-3c1566dcbead_16-47sra002%20authorised.pdf">Sex Work Regulations</a>. </p>
<p>The updated regulations now allow advertising to reference “race, colour or ethnic origin of the person offering sexual services”. This means that Victoria’s sex industry legally promotes women from minorities as an eroticised “other”. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/us-has-a-long-history-of-violence-against-asian-women-157533">US has a long history of violence against Asian women</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>This normalisation of sexualised racism promoted by the sex trade in Australia may have wider effects. </p>
<p>A Korean-Canadian doctor, Alice Han, for example, <a href="https://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2019-08-01/alleged-racial-profiling-at-regional-nsw-motel/11300086?fbclid=IwAR2vSvxdHiUdWwM1QGViFfl9Lq-obFC_ePYD6zy1EumvW0qvAGiK0JqrffA">recounted</a> to the ABC being asked twice in a span of 12 hours in regional New South Wales whether she was a sex worker.</p>
<p>She said this exemplifies “a pattern of demeaning stereotyping and racial profiling” of Asian women in Australia, and the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-12-27/asian-massage-therapists-endure-sexual-harassment/9286272">association</a> of Asian women with prostitution more broadly. </p>
<p>Australia’s sex industry also relies on the migration and trafficking of Asian women for its survival. </p>
<p>Indeed, Australia’s sex industry is <a href="https://www.collectiveshout.org/how_long_can_the_sex_industry_deny_trafficking">rife</a> with modern slavery for the purposes of sexual exploitation. Cases have been found in both <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/wall-cavity-brothel-owners-to-face-penalties-20150206-1384k8.html">legal</a> and <a href="https://www.heraldsun.com.au/truecrimeaustralia/police-courts/how-illegal-brothels-use-debt-visas-to-control-women/news-story/51f66baad37bbb93f0a00449a6162475">illegal</a> brothels, signalling the wholesale <a href="https://theconversation.com/buying-sex-should-be-banned-in-australia-21079">failure</a> of prostitution legislation in this country. </p>
<p>This raises <a href="https://www.policyforum.net/full-decriminalisation-of-the-sex-industry-is-a-step-backwards/">questions</a> about the model of total decriminalisation being <a href="https://www.vic.gov.au/review-make-recommendations-decriminalisation-sex-work">proposed</a> in Victoria. This model <a href="https://www.catwa.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/CATWA_Submission_Vic-Decrim-Review.pdf">seeks</a> to decriminalise not only those exploited in prostitution but those who profit from them, such as pimps, brothel owners and sex buyers. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1189302824712228865"}"></div></p>
<h2>The best path forward</h2>
<p>Australia is increasingly behind the rest of the world when it comes to approaching prostitution from a gender equality perspective. </p>
<p>Indeed, the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) has <a href="https://www.catwa.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/CEDAW_Art6_summary.pdf">consistently reprimanded</a> Australia for not meeting its requirements to reduce the demand for prostitution.</p>
<p>In order to address the mix of racism, misogyny and men’s sexual entitlement that prostitution is founded on, Australia must adopt a new national framework. The <a href="https://www.catwa.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/NORDIC-MODEL-2017-booklet-FINAL-single-page.pdf">Nordic or “Equality” model</a> offers one path forward — it decriminalises those working in prostitution, but not those who exploit them. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391069/original/file-20210323-13-1exjfk1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391069/original/file-20210323-13-1exjfk1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391069/original/file-20210323-13-1exjfk1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391069/original/file-20210323-13-1exjfk1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391069/original/file-20210323-13-1exjfk1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391069/original/file-20210323-13-1exjfk1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391069/original/file-20210323-13-1exjfk1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A ‘stop Asian hate’ rally outside the Georgia state capitol in Atlanta.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ben Gray/AP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This model, which has garnered support from <a href="https://www.spaceintl.org/">survivors of prostitution</a> and <a href="https://catwinternational.org/">anti-trafficking organisations</a> around the world, includes robust social services to support those in the sex trade and assist them into transitioning to other industries.</p>
<p>We know prostitution relies on the abuse of the world’s most marginalised women and girls in order to function. It is predominantly Asian and migrant women who suffer on the front lines of Australia’s sex trade. </p>
<p>While the national conversation <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-56397170">confronting</a> society’s acceptance of sexual violence is well overdue, we cannot ignore the sexism, misogyny and racism bound up in Australia’s sex trade.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/157591/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tegan Larin is affiliated with the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women Australia.</span></em></p>Like the US, Australia’s ‘massage parlours’ are reliant on the prostitution, fetishisation and trafficking of Asian women.Tegan Larin, PhD Candidate Monash University XYX Lab, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1531082021-01-19T14:28:09Z2021-01-19T14:28:09ZHow COVID-19 restrictions prevent Nairobi’s sex workers from accessing vital healthcare<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/379014/original/file-20210115-19-njfmn4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A person living with HIV shows her clinic appointment and anti-retroviral drugs regimen card. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">TONY KARUMBA/AFP/GettyImages</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Sex workers are one of the most vulnerable social groups in the world. <a href="https://www.theglobalfund.org/en/key-populations/">They experience</a> widespread stigma, discrimination, state and non-state violence and harassment. This results in <a href="https://www.aamc.org/news-insights/new-coronavirus-affects-us-all-some-groups-may-suffer-more">decreased access</a>
to services – including healthcare. </p>
<p>This is a serious problem for female sex workers who have frequent sexual contact with multiple partners which puts them at risk of acquiring HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. Other risks include unwanted pregnancies, induced abortion, sexual violence and cervical cancer. </p>
<p>HIV and sexual and reproductive healthcare, in particular, are <a href="https://www.who.int/hiv/pub/guidelines/keypopulations/en/">critical</a> for female sex workers. Many who are living with HIV rely on antiretroviral (ARV) medication for good health. Any disruptions to access would have serious consequences. Estimates <a href="https://doi.org/10.6084/M9.FIGSHARE.12279914.V1">show</a> that a disruption in the supply of ARVs lasting six months could lead to over 500,000 HIV-related deaths among adults in sub-Saharan Africa.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, COVID-19 has made it even harder for sex workers <a href="https://www.nswp.org/news/impact-covid-19-sex-workers-africa">all over Africa</a> to access healthcare. </p>
<p>In Kenya, to control the spread of the new coronavirus, the government <a href="https://www.garda.com/crisis24/news-alerts/396661/kenya-authorities-extend-nationwide-curfew-and-revise-covid-19-measures-through-january-3-update-34">enacted strategies</a> to manage the disease which created major challenges for various groups of society, including female sex workers. These included movement restrictions, dusk to dawn curfews, social distancing measures and the closure of bars and nightclubs. </p>
<p>We wanted to know how the government’s strategies had impacted female sex workers and their ability to access healthcare in Nairobi, the country’s capital. There are <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1016/S0968-8080%2804%2923125-1">at least</a> 20,000 sex workers in Nairobi, most of whom are women. Kenya does not criminalise sex work, but there are <a href="https://www.unaids.org/en/resources/presscentre/featurestories/2020/may/20200520_kenya">a number of</a> other laws which can be used to oppress sex workers.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17441692.2020.1810298">We found</a> that the COVID-19 restrictions created life-threatening challenges to female sex workers as they weren’t able to access their medication, support or their clients. </p>
<p>Sex workers are a marginalised and vulnerable group of women and young girls, with no recourse to public protection. This means the burden falls on NGOs to ensure healthcare is available and accessible. </p>
<h2>What sex workers said</h2>
<p>We collected data from 117 female sex workers living in informal settlements in Nairobi. We also collected data from 15 healthcare providers and from workers at the Bar Hostess Empowerment and Support Programme – an organisation that supports sex workers. </p>
<p>Sex workers typically use clubs and bars as a safe a space to meet clients. But, under the restrictions, these were closed or had limited operating hours. This meant that their livelihood was removed overnight. This made medication, as well as transport to visit clinics, a luxury they couldn’t always afford. </p>
<p>The restriction of movement in and out of Nairobi was a huge challenge for many. It was introduced abruptly leaving no consideration for those who had temporarily travelled out of Nairobi to go back to their homes. Some sex workers in our study were stranded outside the city without knowledge of alternative services which could meet their healthcare needs. One sex worker said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I am a mobile sex worker (call girl), I had travelled out of town with a client. After the movement ban in and out of Nairobi, the client left to pick up something in Nakuru town leaving me in the hotel room. But he never came back for like two days. I was unable to sustain the bills so I had to be chased out of the hotel. Now I am unable to access the health services that I need, I am still new here in Nakuru and I don’t know anyone here it’s really a challenge to access any medical service. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Restrictions of movement within the city also meant that some sex workers weren’t able to access their usual clinics. As one sex workers described:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I have missed my appointments to the clinic… I was supposed to go collect my ARVs but now with the lockdown, how will I go to collect them? I cannot visit the public health facility because of stigma and discrimination. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Fuelled by the government’s restrictions, we also found that sex workers were too afraid to use health services out of fear of contracting COVID-19. </p>
<h2>Dusk to dawn curfew</h2>
<p>The dusk to dawn curfew was cited as a key barrier to healthcare access for sex workers. </p>
<p>An outreach worker at one of the clinics explains that the curfew denies young sex workers adequate time to interact and share at their “Safe Space”. These spaces are provided by three healthcare centres – run by the Bar Hostess Empowerment and Support Programme across the city and are accessed by hundreds of young people each day – usually for medication and reproductive health services. They also use the space for education, to share their experiences and offer support. </p>
<p>The night curfew also forced the sex workers to change their operations and work during the day. In some cases this meant that sex workers were forfeiting visits to the clinics because they had limited time during the day to work and go to seek healthcare services before the curfew hours.</p>
<p>Curfew restrictions and cessation of movement coupled with police brutality on those found breaking the rules further intensified the challenges of accessing healthcare for sex workers as observed by a health worker:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Recently some clients from Biafra tried to sneak out to come to the drop-in centre for services but the police found them and turned them back. The police are really mistreating them. </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>A way forward?</h2>
<p>There are solutions. The Bar Hostess Empowerment and Support Programme and the University of Leicester, in the UK, invented practical responses to the effects of COVID-19. One of these <a href="https://www.bhesp.org/index.php">was to</a> use motorbikes to deliver essential commodities needed by sex workers, with a service user population of 20,000 sex workers. The programme is reaching out to many people each day to provide urgent medication, support and advocacy. </p>
<p>In addition to this, a mobile phone application has been created to enhance access to the clinics and the facilities at Bar Hostess Empowerment and Support Programme for the service users. This will cushion sex workers during the COVID-19 period and the longer term impacts of this pandemic.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/153108/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Teela Sanders receives funding from the University of Leicester Global Challenges Research Fund. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rahma Hassan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>COVID-19 restrictions created life-threatening challenges to female sex workers as they weren’t able to access their medication, support or their clients.Teela Sanders, Professor in Criminology, University of LeicesterRahma Hassan, PhD Fellow, University of NairobiLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1365892020-04-17T15:35:56Z2020-04-17T15:35:56ZCoronavirus: why French sex workers seeking support from government are unlikely to receive funding<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/328675/original/file-20200417-152563-17z232h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/red-lantern-on-wall-light-district-216104746">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In France, where prostitution is partly criminalised, it is <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-prostitution-trafficking/france-arrests-at-least-two-people-a-day-for-buying-sex-under-new-law-charity-idUSKBN17F202">illegal to buy sexual services</a> but legal for a woman or a man to sell sex. And anyone selling sex must pay taxes like everyone else. But many people in prostitution – some of whom consider themselves “sex workers” and therefore believe they should be entitled to workers’ rights and protection – are not currently eligible for state income support, despite seeing their income disappear as a result of the nationwide COVID-19 lockdown.</p>
<p>Sex-worker organisations are now calling on the government to create an emergency fund to help the most vulnerable among their number survive the crisis. Understanding France’s current prostitution policy helps to explain why it is unlikely the state will agree.</p>
<p>Like many countries, France has introduced <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/13/macron-france-remain-strict-lockdown-for-another-month">unprecedented measures</a> to combat the spread of Covid-19: citizens are required to stay indoors and avoid social contact, and all non-essential businesses have either closed or switched to working from home. For people in prostitution, these new rules have led to a significant <a href="https://www.euronews.com/2020/04/16/it-s-a-contact-job-sex-workers-struggle-amid-the-coronavirus-crisis">loss of income</a> as sex workers and their clients isolate at home.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/sfhPirdcSzo?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>In 2016 a <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-35982929">law</a> was introduced that banned the purchase but not the sale of sexual services. The law was designed to signal the state’s belief that prostitution is a form of violence against women and contrary to human dignity.</p>
<p>But community health groups have <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/29/world/europe/france-prostitution-violence.html">criticised</a> the law for increasing the stigma around and vulnerability of those working in prostitution. They argue that sex workers, and especially those who are particularly vulnerable, such as undocumented migrants and people struggling with substance abuse, have had to adopt increasingly <a href="https://www.medecinsdumonde.org/en/actualites/publications/2018/04/12/study-impact-law-13-april-2016-against-prostitution-system-france">unsafe working practices</a> in order to survive. Competing for fewer clients, some of whom demand risky conditions such as unprotected sex, makes people more vulnerable. Having to hide from the police to protect their clients also exposes sex workers to increased violence. </p>
<p>Recently, aid organisations have highlighted the <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/20200325-life-under-lockdown-ups-precarity-for-france-s-prostitutes">escalating insecurity</a> experienced by sex workers unable to work because of the new confinement measures. Reports have emerged of sex workers being evicted from their homes because they <a href="https://www.nst.com.my/world/world/2020/04/582040/covid-19-france-sex-workers-seek-emergency-fund-lost-income">cannot afford rent</a>, and fewer vulnerable people are <a href="https://www.lemonde.fr/planete/article/2020/03/24/face-au-coronavirus-la-precarite-aggravee-des-prostituees_6034289_3244.html">reaching out</a> to community health organisations for food or medical help. It is not a problem specific to France and similar situations have been reported around the world, including <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/apr/13/uk-sex-workers-in-dire-and-desperate-state-amid-coronavirus-lockdown">the UK</a>.</p>
<h2>Shadow workers</h2>
<p>In response to the COVID-19 lockdown, the state has agreed <a href="https://www.thelocal.fr/20200319/what-economic-help-self-employed-in-france-are-entitled-to-during-the-coronavirus-lockdown">to subsidise</a> up to 84% of employees’ wages, and has introduced a €1,500 per month grant for the self-employed. Sex workers who have the right to live and work in France and are registered as self-employed may be able to apply to these schemes.</p>
<p>However, anybody working illegally, in what is referred to as the “underground” or “shadow” economy, is excluded from workers’ benefits, including income support, despite being required to pay tax. In France, everybody who earns money through legal and illegal means has to pay tax. However, only those who work legally get workers’ benefits – including the new COVID-19 income support.</p>
<p>It’s a paradox: everybody works, everybody pays tax (in theory), but only some get workers rights and protection. In the current situation, anybody in the underground economy loses their work but get no benefits. This means that all mitigation measures introduced to help people with their income during lockdown are useless to part of the population.</p>
<p>The issue being raised by activist groups is that this will push vulnerable sex workers to continue working to earn money and put public health measures at risk since they cannot access income support. These organisations argue that setting up an emergency fund for people in this position would ensure that they can stay at home and self isolate without becoming destitute. </p>
<p>Although exact numbers are hard to determine, there are an estimated <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/29/world/europe/france-prostitution-violence.html">30,000</a> people involved in prostitution in France, of which <a href="https://www.egalite-femmes-hommes.gouv.fr/les-chiffres-cles-de-la-prositution/">93%</a> are believed to be foreigners (documented or not), and many of whom are vulnerable and unable to draw on government support. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/328684/original/file-20200417-152567-1o0c403.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/328684/original/file-20200417-152567-1o0c403.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=917&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/328684/original/file-20200417-152567-1o0c403.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=917&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/328684/original/file-20200417-152567-1o0c403.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=917&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/328684/original/file-20200417-152567-1o0c403.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1153&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/328684/original/file-20200417-152567-1o0c403.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1153&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/328684/original/file-20200417-152567-1o0c403.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1153&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Many working in prostitution want to be recognised as workers entitled to rights and protections.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/kyiv-ukraine-march-3-2017-picket-603391577">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Community health groups and sex-worker organisations have begun fundraising to help out those most in need. They have also <a href="https://strass-syndicat.org/communiques-de-presse/lettre-ouverte-president-emmanuel-macron/">written</a> to French President Emmanuel Macron for emergency funds to support sex workers during the lockdown as these organisations are unable to meet the demand for their help.</p>
<p>MPs have also written to the Marlène Schiappa, secretary of state for gender equality, to <a href="https://www.laprovence.com/article/edition-marseille/5961012/mourir-de-faim-ou-du-covid-19.html">highlight</a> the plight of sex workers during the crisis. All argue that state support is vital to ensuring that vulnerable people are not forced out of confinement to earn money, putting themselves and others at risk. </p>
<h2>Prostitution policy</h2>
<p>So far, the government has refused to provide special assistance to these sex workers. Schiappa <a href="https://www.euronews.com/2020/04/16/it-s-a-contact-job-sex-workers-struggle-amid-the-coronavirus-crisis">has stated</a> that it would be “very complicated” for the state to compensate individuals working illegally, including undeclared sex workers. Since the end of World War II, the French government considers all those working in prostitution (overwhelmingly presumed to be women) as <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09639489.2017.1304902?journalCode=cmcf20">victims of exploitation</a> in need of rescue and rehabilitation, and only steps in to help those willing to leave prostitution.</p>
<p>The state supports people wishing to stop selling sex via a programme of social and financial aid delivered through accredited charities and women’s rights organisations. But <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/s41253-020-00109-7">recent research</a> reveals this support package remains underfunded and unevenly applied. It has also been criticised for helping fewer than 100 people per year <a href="https://www.liberation.fr/france/2019/04/25/prostitution-un-parcours-de-sortie-sans-issue_1723375">exit prostitution</a> since the programme was introduced in 2017.</p>
<p>If the French state maintains its current policy position, it is unlikely to compensate vulnerable sex workers for lost income if they are unwilling or unable to leave prostitution. Instead it will continue to direct people towards its exit programme or charitable organisations for support. Yet policies that do not address sex workers’ welfare needs, or those of people subsisting in the “shadow” economy more generally, are likely to endanger lives and undermine the wider public health measures aimed at stemming the epidemic.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/136589/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emily St Denny does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>After a change in the law which criminalises the purchase of sexual services, the French government is willing to help only those who wish to exit prostitution for good.Emily St Denny, Lecturer in Politics, University of StirlingLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1268402019-12-03T18:36:23Z2019-12-03T18:36:23ZHidden women of history: Neaera, the Athenian child slave raised to be a courtesan<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/303687/original/file-20191126-112489-1t3mfb0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=11%2C28%2C762%2C549&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Gustave Boulanger, The Slave Market, 1886.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>In <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/hidden-women-of-history-64072">this series</a>, we look at under-acknowledged women through the ages.</em></p>
<p>The ancient worlds of Greece and Rome have perhaps never been as popular as they presently are. There are numerous television series and one-off
documentaries covering both “big picture” perspectives and stories of ordinary people.</p>
<p>Neaera was a woman from fourth century BCE Athens whose life is significant and sorrowful – worthy to be remembered – but may never feature in a glossy biopic. </p>
<p>Possibly born in Corinth, a place where she lived from at least a young age, Neaera was raised by a brothel-keeper by the name of Nicarete. </p>
<p>Her predicament was the result of her being enslaved to Nicarete. While we don’t know the reason for this, we do know that foundlings were common in antiquity. The parents of baby Neaera, for whatever reason, left her to fate – to die by exposure or be collected by a stranger. </p>
<p>From a young age, Neaera was trained by Nicarete for the life of a hetaira (a Classical Greek term for “courtesan”). It was Nicarete who also named her, giving her a typical courtesan title: “Neaera” meaning “Fresh One”. </p>
<p>Ancient sources reveal Naeara’s life in the brothel. In a legal speech by the Athenian politician and forensic orator, Apollodorus, the following description is provided:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>There were seven young girls who were purchased when they were small children by Nicarete … She had the talent to recognise the potential beauty of little girls and knew how to raise them and educate them with expertise – for it was from this that she had made a profession and from this came her livelihood. </p>
<p>She called them ‘daughters’ so that, by displaying them as freeborn, she could obtain the highest prices from the men wishing to have intercourse with them. After that, when she had enjoyed the profit from their youth, she sold every single one of them …</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The occasion for the passage from Apollodorus is a court case that was brought against Neaera in approximately 343 BCE. Neaera was around 50-years-old by the time of her prosecution, which took place in Athens. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-grim-reality-of-the-brothels-of-pompeii-88853">The grim reality of the brothels of Pompeii</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Trafficking and abuse</h2>
<p>The circumstances of her trial are complicated, involving the buying, selling, trafficking and abuse of Neaera from a very young age. </p>
<p>Piecing together the evidence from Apollodorus’ prosecution speech, which has come down to us with the title, “Against Neaera”, it transpires that two of her clients, who shared joint ownership of her, allowed her to buy her freedom around 376 BCE. </p>
<p>Afterwards, she moved to Athens with one Phrynion, but his brutal treatment of her saw Neaera leave for Megara, where circumstances caused her to return to sex work.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/303862/original/file-20191126-112517-294sqo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/303862/original/file-20191126-112517-294sqo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/303862/original/file-20191126-112517-294sqo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=601&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303862/original/file-20191126-112517-294sqo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=601&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303862/original/file-20191126-112517-294sqo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=601&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303862/original/file-20191126-112517-294sqo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=755&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303862/original/file-20191126-112517-294sqo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=755&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303862/original/file-20191126-112517-294sqo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=755&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A man and a prostitute reclining on a bench during a banquet; Tondo from an Attic red-figure kylix, circa 490 BC.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Further intrigues involving men and sex work saw Neaera eventually face trial on the charge of falsely representing herself as a free Athenian woman by pretending to be married to a citizen. </p>
<p>The charge of fraud was based on the law that a foreigner could not live as a common law “spouse” to a freeborn Athenian. The fact that Neaera also had three children, a daughter by the name of Phano, and two sons, further complicated the trial and its range of legal entanglements.</p>
<p>While we never discover the outcome of the trial, nor what happened to Neaera, the speech of the prosecutor remains, and reveals much about her life. Unfortunately, the speech of the defence is lost. </p>
<p>We do know, however, that the man with whom Neaera cohabitated, Stephanus, delivered the defence. Of course, he was not only defending Neaera – he was defending himself! Should Neaera have been found guilty, Stephanus
would have forfeited his citizenship and the rights that attended it. </p>
<p>Stephanus had a history of legal disputes with the prosecutor, Apollodorus. He also had a history of being in trouble with the law. For example, he had illegally married off Phano – not once, but twice – to Athenian citizens. Shady “get rich quick” schemes motivated such activities, and it seems that Stephanus was adept at using both his “wife” and his “daughter’ for bartering and personal profit.</p>
<p>Another accusation revealed during the trial alleged that Stephanus
arranged for Neaera to lure men to his house, engage them in sex, and then bribe them. And while Apollodorus provides no evidence for such a scam ever having taken place, judging by Stephanus’ track-record, it does not seem implausible. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-the-myth-of-the-ancient-greek-gay-utopia-88397">Friday essay: the myth of the ancient Greek 'gay utopia'</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Remembering Neaera</h2>
<p>Reading through the long, complex and damnatory speech of Apollodorus, we risk losing sight of the woman at the centre of it. Caught amid petty politics, sex scandals, and personal vendettas is a woman who becomes peripheral to the machismo being played out in court. </p>
<p>Yet, somewhat ironically, this is the only ancient source we have that records not only Neaera and the life she was forced to lead – but the life of a hetaira from infancy, girlhood, middle-age and, ultimately, past her "use by” date.</p>
<p>Had she not been taken to court as part of the factional fighting of ancient Athens, had she not had her reputation annihilated so publicly, we would have never known about Neaera. </p>
<p>Were it not for Apollodorus and his ancient version of “slut-shaming”, Neaera’s story would have been lost.</p>
<p>But it hasn’t been lost. Somewhere, amid the male rhetoric, her story endures. Unfortunately, her voice is not preserved. All we can read in the speech, “Against Neaera” are the voices of men; her prosecutor and the witnesses he calls to the stand. </p>
<p>Ironically, these testimonies and accusations - so casually introduced in ancient Athens, but received so differently today - emphasise the inhumanity of the sex trade in an antiquity too often and too unthinkingly valorised. </p>
<p>The document known as “Against Neaera” is the only record we have of this (almost) hidden woman. It prompts us to remember. And it’s important to remember Neaera.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/126840/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marguerite Johnson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>From a young age, Neaera was trained for the life of a hetaira, or courtesan. Her tragic story comes to us only through court documents, but she deserves to be remembered.Marguerite Johnson, Professor of Classics, University of NewcastleLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1225172019-09-13T11:41:46Z2019-09-13T11:41:46ZThe bizarre social history of beds<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/292304/original/file-20190912-190007-oeufvq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">For centuries, people thought nothing of crowding family members or friends into the same bed.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-vector/bare-soles-feet-parents-child-bed-1434180680?src=RUxgfivnwwjcmTb_p_5Dfw-6-49">miniwide/Shutterstock.com </a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Groucho Marx <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/1199470">once joked</a>, “Anything that can’t be done in bed isn’t worth doing at all.” You might think he was referring to sleeping and sex. But humans, at one time or another, have done just about everything in bed.</p>
<p>And yet, despite the fact that <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=-tpwQgAACAAJ&dq=warm+snug+lawrence&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiFlpLYnMnkAhXuhOAKHQOTAKIQ6AEwAHoECAAQAg">we spend one-third of our lives in bed</a>, they’re more of an afterthought.</p>
<p>I certainly didn’t think much about beds until I found myself talking about their history with the executives of a mattress company. These humble artifacts, I learned, had a big story to tell – one that’s 77,000 years old.</p>
<p>That’s when, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22158814">according to archaeologist Lynn Wadley</a>, our early African ancestors started to sleep in hollows dug out of cave floors – the first beds. They wrapped themselves in insect-repelling grasses to avoid bed bugs as persistent as those of today’s seedy motels.</p>
<p>Much about our beds have remained unchanged for centuries. But one aspect of the bed has undergone a dramatic shift.</p>
<p>Today, we usually sleep in bedrooms with the door shut firmly behind us. They’re the ultimate realm of privacy. No one else is allowed in them, aside from a spouse or lover.</p>
<p>But as I show in my forthcoming book, “<a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300223880/what-we-did-bed">What We did in Bed</a>,” it wasn’t always this way. </p>
<h2>Beds full of ‘buck and babble’</h2>
<p>The structure of the bed has remained remarkably consistent: We know that raised frames with mattresses <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0079497X0000311X">were being used in Malta and Egypt</a> by 3000 B.C., which means that people have been using them for over 5,000 years. </p>
<p>Early Egyptian beds were little more than rectangular wooden frames with legs and leather or fabric sleeping platforms. The upper end was often <a href="https://hannahpethen.files.wordpress.com/2019/02/bed_yuya_tuya_cairomuseum-1.jpg?w=584">angled slightly upwards</a>. Grass, hay and straw stuffed into sacks or cloth bags served as a scratchy mattress for centuries.</p>
<p>But one thing that has changed is who has occupied the bed. For most of human history, people thought nothing of crowding family members or friends into the same bed.</p>
<p>The 17th-century diarist Samuel Pepys often slept with male friends and rated their conversation skills. <a href="http://www.archive.org/stream/diarycorrespon02pepy/diarycorrespon02pepy_djvu.txt">One of his favorites</a> was the “merry Mr. Creed,” who provided “excellent company.” In September 1776, John Adams and Benjamin Franklin famously shared a bed in a New Jersey inn with only one small window. Adams kept it shut, but Franklin wanted it open, complaining that he would suffocate without fresh air. <a href="http://mentalfloss.com/article/54169/time-ben-franklin-and-john-adams-shared-bed">Adams won the battle</a>. </p>
<p>Travelers often slept with strangers. In China and Mongolia, <a href="https://www.tripsavvy.com/heated-kang-bed-in-northern-china-1495322">kangs</a> – heated stone platforms – were used in inns as early as 5000 B.C. Guests supplied the bedding and slept with fellow tourists. </p>
<p>Bedding down with strangers could lead to some awkwardness. The 16th-century English poet Andrew Buckley <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/if-walls-could-talk-9780802712721/">complained of bedmates</a> who “buck and babble, some commeth drunk to bed.”</p>
<p>Then there was the Great Bed of Ware – a massive bed kept in an inn in a small town in entral England. Built with richly decorated oak around 1590, the four-post bed is about the size of two modern double beds. Twenty-six butchers and their wives – a total of 52 people – <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2012/apr/11/v-and-a-museum-great-bed-ware">are said to have spent a night in the Great Bed in 1689</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/292314/original/file-20190912-190016-xl7c3l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/292314/original/file-20190912-190016-xl7c3l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/292314/original/file-20190912-190016-xl7c3l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/292314/original/file-20190912-190016-xl7c3l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/292314/original/file-20190912-190016-xl7c3l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=657&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/292314/original/file-20190912-190016-xl7c3l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=657&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/292314/original/file-20190912-190016-xl7c3l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=657&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An 1877 drawing of the Great Bed of Ware.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Great_Bed_of_Ware_1877.png">Harper's New Monthly Magazine</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Holding court</h2>
<p>While regular people crammed into beds, royalty often slept alone or with their spouse. But their bedrooms were hardly bastions of privacy.</p>
<p>The ceremonial bedding of newlyweds was a public spectacle for a royal court. After a royal wedding, <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Sex_in_History.html?id=z7SUHAAACAAJ">a form of symbolic intercourse often occurred in front of numerous witnesses</a>. </p>
<p>After the feast, the bride was undressed by her ladies and put to bed. The groom would then arrive in his nightshirt, sometimes accompanied by musicians. The bed curtains were then drawn, yet the guests sometimes wouldn’t leave until they saw the couple’s naked legs touching, or heard suggestive noises. The following morning, the stained bed linen was displayed as proof of consummation.</p>
<p>And why go to an office when you can rule from the bedroom? Each morning, Louis XIV of France would sit in his bed, bolstered by pillows, <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/files/3875/3875-0.txt">and preside over elaborate gatherings</a>. Surrounded by courtiers like the gossipy Lord Saint-Simon, he composed decrees and consulted with high officials.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/292095/original/file-20190911-190065-16ex4wm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/292095/original/file-20190911-190065-16ex4wm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/292095/original/file-20190911-190065-16ex4wm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=356&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/292095/original/file-20190911-190065-16ex4wm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=356&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/292095/original/file-20190911-190065-16ex4wm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=356&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/292095/original/file-20190911-190065-16ex4wm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/292095/original/file-20190911-190065-16ex4wm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/292095/original/file-20190911-190065-16ex4wm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">King Louis XIV’s bedroom was a royal staging ground.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/versailles-france-july-02-2016-kings-495823597?src=wnKrjtNfAWREc7mRQc6VTQ-1-0">V_E/Shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>From public to private</h2>
<p>During the 19th century, beds and bedrooms gradually became private spheres. A major impetus was rapid urbanization during the Industrial Revolution. In cities, <a href="https://urbanomnibus.net/2016/04/201604typecast-the-row-house/">compact row houses were constructed</a> with small rooms, each with a specific purpose, one of which was sleeping.</p>
<p>Another reason was religion. The Victorian era was a devout age, and Evangelical Christianity <a href="http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/nineteen/nkeyinfo/nevanrev.htm">was pervasive by the 1830s</a>. Such beliefs placed great emphasis on marriage, chastity, the family, and the bond between parent and child; allowing strangers or friends under the covers was no longer kosher. By 1875, Architect magazine <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52855.Inside_the_Victorian_Home">had published an essay</a> declaring that a bedroom used for anything other than sleeping was unwholesome and immoral.</p>
<p>Bedrooms reserved for adults and children became commonplace in affluent 19th century homes. Husbands and wives <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52855.Inside_the_Victorian_Home">sometimes even had separate bedrooms</a>, perhaps connected by a door, each with their own adjoining dressing rooms.</p>
<p>Self-help books advised Victorian housewives about how to decorate their bedrooms. In 1888, writer and interior decorator Jane Ellen Panton <a href="https://archive.org/details/b21528871/page/n4">recommended</a> bright colors, washstands, chamber pots and, above all, a “long chair,” where a wife could rest when overwhelmed.</p>
<h2>Tech knocks down the door</h2>
<p>Today, bedrooms are still considered sanctuaries – a calming place to recuperate from the chaos of everyday life. Portable technology, however, has wormed its way under our covers.</p>
<p><a href="https://beta.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/mimicking-their-parents-many-teens-sleep-with-their-phones-survey-finds/2019/05/28/1bf2ee68-8188-11e9-9a67-a687ca99fb3d_story.html">A survey from earlier this year</a> found that 80% of teens brought their mobile devices into their bedrooms at night; nearly one-third slept with them. </p>
<p>In a way, technology has reverted the bed to its earlier role: a place to socialize – chatting with friends, maybe even strangers – late into the night. And we can only wonder how many tweets President Trump has composed <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/371144-trump-i-sometimes-tweet-from-bed">while burrowed under his blankets</a>. </p>
<p>But in some ways, the effects of these glowing bedmates seem to be a bit more pernicious. <a href="https://brobible.com/culture/article/study-cell-phones-bedroom-relationships/">One study</a> surveyed couples who brought their smartphones to bed with them; more than half said the devices caused them to miss out on quality time with their partner. <a href="https://www.psypost.org/2018/04/abstaining-smartphone-use-bedroom-improves-happiness-according-new-research-51020">In another study</a>, participants who banished smartphones from the bedroom reported being happier and having a better quality of life. Maybe that’s because these devices <a href="https://www.upi.com/Health_News/2018/05/25/Study-Leave-tablets-smartphones-out-of-bedroom-for-better-sleep/1361527265282/">eat into our sleep</a>. </p>
<p>Then again, I’m not so sure my sleep would be much better if I were to bed down with drunk strangers, as Andrew Buckley did. </p>
<p><em>Nadia Durrani is a contributing author of this article.</em></p>
<p>[ <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=thanksforreading">Thanks for reading! We can send you The Conversation’s stories every day in an informative email. Sign up today.</a></em> ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/122517/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brian Fagan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Today’s beds are thought of as bastions of privacy. But not long ago, they were the perches from which kings ruled and places where travelers hunkered down with complete strangers.Brian Fagan, Distinguished Professor Emeritus in Anthropology, University of California, Santa BarbaraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1209432019-08-05T15:50:07Z2019-08-05T15:50:07ZSex worker rights: Hysteria, surveillance and threats to fundamental freedoms<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/286821/original/file-20190804-117910-7mvnsi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C508%2C2048%2C1020&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Sex worker rights -- fought for at this red umbrella protest in Vancouver -- are under threat by 'hospitality' programs which ask civilians working in hotels to 'report' on their guests. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Caroline Doerksen </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>2:00 a.m. The phone rang, abruptly awakening me. It was the hotel night clerk calling to tell me that members of the Montréal Police Service were downstairs and wanting to search my room. When I asked why, I was told there was a report of a missing youth being held in the hotel. Knowing I couldn’t refuse without negative consequences, I reluctantly agreed. </p>
<p>This happened to one of us — Kerry Porth, sex worker rights activist, educator and scholar. Along with Genevieve Fuji Johnson — professor of political science at Simon Fraser University and co-author of this article — Kerry was in Montréal to attend the <a href="http://www.ippapublicpolicy.org/conference/icpp4-montreal-2019/10">International Conference of Public Policy</a>. Our paper on harm reduction in sex work was well received by a small but interested audience. Until this raid on Kerry’s room, never did it cross our minds that our work would attract the attention of the law. </p>
<p>In May 2019, the Montréal Police Service launched RADAR, an anti-trafficking program that <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/spvm-radar-sexual-exploitation-1.5152323">enlists hotel staff and taxi drivers in identifying suspicious activity</a>. RADAR is similar to other initiatives implemented across North America. </p>
<p>For several years, industry associations such as the Ontario Restaurant Hotel and Motel Association and the American Hotel and Lodging Association have been partnering anti-trafficking organizations like Polaris and ECPAT-USA along with police departments. These initiatives include providing hotel employees — from global hotel chains like the Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt and others — <a href="http://www.orhma.com/Portals/0/Insider/2015/Microsoft%20Word%20-%20Housekeeping.pdf">with lists of trafficking indicators</a>. Indicators include guests having multiple computers and phones, large amounts of cash, and lots of alcohol, condoms, lube and lingerie. Other signs include: refusing cleaning services; leaving minors in the room; infrequently leaving the room; frequently using the “Do not Disturb” sign; <a href="http://www.orhma.com/Portals/0/Insider/2015/Microsoft%20Word%20-%20Front%20Desk.pdf">wearing provocative clothing and shoes; taking a lot of toiletries; asking for more towels; staying for long periods with few possessions; and renting more than one room</a>. Wearing large hats and sunglasses is <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/594970e91b631b3571be12e2/t/5cd329e8a4222f20baf5378b/1557342696892/ECPAT-USA_AntiTraffickingHotelChecklist.pdf">also listed as an indicator</a>. Children’s items and <a href="https://reason.com/wp-content/uploads/assets/db/15489592738697.pdf">toys are also suspicious</a>. </p>
<p>A serious issue with these indicators is that, like claims linking an increase in trafficking to major sports events, <a href="http://www.gaatw.org/publications/WhatstheCostofaRumour.11.15.2011.pdf">they are not based on evidence</a>. They <a href="https://swanvancouver.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/SWAN-ADVOCACY-TOOLKIT.pdf">render suspicious entirely benign behaviour</a>, and they empower amateur agents of the state to report this behaviour to state authorities. The consequences of these programs are far-reaching.</p>
<h2>Programs impede safety and freedom</h2>
<p>These programs may make it more difficult for real victims of both sexual exploitation and sex trafficking to come forward, <a href="https://reason.com/2019/02/05/hotel-surveillance-state-sex-trafficking/">seek the help they want and receive that help</a>. Those who have power over them may find more ways of keeping them hidden from well-publicized efforts to detect them. Moreover, by funding these programs, valuable resources are diverted from addressing deeper causes of trafficking and, im/migrants who are either <a href="http://www.gaatw.org/publications/WhatstheCostofaRumour.11.15.2011.pdf">exploited or trafficked</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.14197/atr.20121435">may fear incarceration or deportation</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/286820/original/file-20190804-117893-19jefjc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=17%2C20%2C941%2C461&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/286820/original/file-20190804-117893-19jefjc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286820/original/file-20190804-117893-19jefjc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286820/original/file-20190804-117893-19jefjc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286820/original/file-20190804-117893-19jefjc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286820/original/file-20190804-117893-19jefjc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286820/original/file-20190804-117893-19jefjc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sex worker rights – fought for at this red umbrella protest – are under threat.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Caroline Doerksen</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Captured by the excessively broad net of initiatives are consenting adults engaging in transactional sex. These programs <a href="https://doi.org/10.14197/atr.20121435">make sex workers reluctant to carry condoms</a>, more <a href="http://doi.org/10.14197/atr.201219126">mistrustful of law enforcement</a> and less likely to <a href="http://www.spoc.ca/ONS%20press%20release.pdf">“seek help from law enforcement even if they are experiencing violence, abuse, harassment or exploitation”</a>. These initiatives also threaten the rights and freedoms of citizens — perhaps especially those of us who are racialized. </p>
<p>Threats include those to <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/airplane-mode/woman-delta-flight-says-she-was-mistaken-human-trafficking-victim-n824456">mobility rights, personal security rights and freedom of association</a>. As the raid on Kerry’s room suggests, these initiatives may also pose threats to academic freedom. </p>
<p>The incident has caused us to think more carefully about hiding from sight any research materials we may have with us when we travel. We believe it was those research materials — along with a stuffed animal, Sheepy, who accompanies Kerry on overnight trips away from home — may have been what triggered the report to the Montréal police.</p>
<h2>Gaining the trust of sex workers</h2>
<p>Ultimately, these programs threaten the very concept of citizenship. These anti-trafficking initiatives represent a shift from an ideal of citizenship in which members of a political community have a responsibility to be critical of the state and to keep a vigilant eye on its exercise of power. The ideal citizen underlying programs such as RADAR is one in which she becomes an agent of the state blindly implementing its agenda. </p>
<p>Human trafficking of any kind is a serious concern. However, concerns about sex trafficking often belie a powerful moralism that resists evidence and logic. This moralism feeds certain anti-trafficking campaigns that are more harmful than helpful, especially when those campaigns involve harnessing the surveillance powers of an archipelago of hotels, taxi companies, and airlines.</p>
<p>If we really want to combat sexual exploitation and trafficking — and we do — a critical first step is <a href="https://livingincommunity.ca/sex-work-101/">public education about the differences among sexual exploitation, sex trafficking and sex work</a>. People engage in sex work for a wide range of reasons including, for some, a lack of other employment options. Sometimes sex workers will travel across jurisdictions to work. Sex work occurring indoors — in condos or hotel rooms — is <a href="https://scc-csc.lexum.com/scc-csc/scc-csc/en/item/13389/index.do">safer than that happening on the streets</a>. None of these facts necessarily reduce sex work to sex exploitation or trafficking. Anti-trafficking policies and programs need to be <a href="http://doi.org/10.14197/atr.201219126">directly informed by sex workers and their organizations</a>. </p>
<p><a href="http://doi.org/10.1001/journalofethics.2017.19.1.sect2-1701">The decriminalization of adult prostitution</a> is another crucial step to combat sexual exploitation and trafficking. Once decriminalized, prostitution can be governed by the same types of labour laws in other areas and sex workers can receive the same protections as workers in other areas. </p>
<p>Municipal governments, including police departments, need to work hard to gain the trust of sex workers and their advocacy and support organizations. These advocacy groups are among the best positioned to identify victims of either sexual exploitation or sex trafficking and to refer them to trusted programs that can enable them to exit the trade should they choose to do so. We believe that trafficking cannot be addressed without these steps, and certainly not by amateur agents of the state marking off trafficking indicator checklists.</p>
<p><em>Sex worker rights activist, educator and independent scholar Kerry Porth co-authored this article.</em> </p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Genevieve Fuji Johnson receives funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. She is a professor of Political Science and Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies at Simon Fraser University. Kerry Porth is a Sex Worker Rights Activist, Researcher, and Scholar. She works for Pivot Legal Society. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kerry Porth does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Citizens-watch programs designed by police to aid anti-trafficking efforts threaten the rights and safety of sex workers.Genevieve Fuji Johnson, Professor, Political Science and Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies, Simon Fraser UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1200982019-07-09T15:50:31Z2019-07-09T15:50:31Z4 questions answered on sex trafficking in the US<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283250/original/file-20190709-44457-1ux24jv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Hotels and motels along major highways are common spots for sex trafficking.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/dirty-empty-dark-corridor-apartment-building-603070067">Ken Stocker/shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jul/08/jeffrey-epstein-trump-bill-clinton-prince-andrew-case-spotlight-famous-friends">The revelations about billionaire Jeffrey Epstein</a>, who is accused of <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/07/08/739464392/wealthy-financier-jeffrey-epstein-charged-with-sex-trafficking-of-minors">sex trafficking girls</a>, paint a grim picture of sex trafficking in the U.S. The buying and selling of human beings is strong in America more than 150 years since the end of the Civil War. </p>
<p>Sex trafficking, <a href="https://www.state.gov/j/tip/laws/61124.htm">as the federal government defines it</a>, is “the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision or obtaining of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act” by means of “force, fraud, or coercion.” This is a form of modern-day slavery. </p>
<p>Found in <a href="https://www.ovcttac.gov/taskforceguide/eguide/1-understanding-human-trafficking/11-forms-of-human-trafficking/">massage parlors, escort services, residential brothels and street prostitution</a>, some might be victims for weeks and <a href="https://polarisproject.org/human-trafficking/sex-trafficking">others for years</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=WuHCE3sAAAAJ&hl=en">As someone who studies human trafficking</a>, I feel that it’s important for the public to understand how it manifests in the U.S. today. While there’s still a great deal that is unknown about sex trafficking, research studies and nonprofits have been able to gather telling data on this industry’s victims and perpetrators.</p>
<h2>1. Where does sex trafficking happen?</h2>
<p>Sex trafficking <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2018.07.008">tends to occur</a> in motels and impoverished neighborhoods along the interstate highway system as well as in major urban centers. Some of the busiest corridors of the interstate include I-5 in the West, I-95 in the East and I-80, stretching from coast to coast. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/262739/original/file-20190307-82681-2an1cw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/262739/original/file-20190307-82681-2an1cw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/262739/original/file-20190307-82681-2an1cw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262739/original/file-20190307-82681-2an1cw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262739/original/file-20190307-82681-2an1cw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262739/original/file-20190307-82681-2an1cw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262739/original/file-20190307-82681-2an1cw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262739/original/file-20190307-82681-2an1cw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Interstate highway map of the continental U.S.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/interstate-map-continental-united-states-state-25866832">Stacey Lynn Payne/shutterstock.com</a></span>
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</figure>
<p><a href="https://polarisproject.org">The nonprofit Polaris</a> operates the National Human Trafficking Hotline, which takes tips on sex and labor trafficking. Although the Polaris data are not from a random-sample survey, they shed light on types of sex trafficking in the U.S. In 2017, Polaris received more than 6,000 hotline tips about sex trafficking across America. Among these data, the top venues for sex trafficking included illicit massage parlors, hotels and motels, and residential brothels.</p>
<p><iframe id="TTHRI" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/TTHRI/2/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p><a href="https://www.natso.com/en_us/articles/articles/view/natso-briefs-house-homeland-security-committee-on-industry-efforts-to-combat-human-trafficking-industrys-fight-against-human-trafficking-multi-faceted">The National Association of Truck Stop Operators</a> has partnered with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s <a href="https://www.dhs.gov/blue-campaign">Blue Campaign</a>. The National Association of Truck Stop Operators offers trainings to help truckers, truck stop owners and employees identify the signs of human trafficking, such as malnourishment, lack of eye contact and disorientation.</p>
<p>Hotel chains <a href="https://www.hotelmanagement.net/operate/marriott-ecpat-usa-partner-to-counter-human-trafficking-hotels">like Marriott</a> are training their employees as well. </p>
<h2>2. Who are the victims?</h2>
<p>Reliable data on the number of sex trafficking victims in the U.S. <a href="https://theconversation.com/fact-check-how-many-people-are-enslaved-in-the-world-today-107078">are hard to come by</a>.</p>
<p>In the U.S., studies show that most victims of sex trafficking are young women and girls. They are, <a href="http://polarisproject.org/sites/default/files/2017NHTHStats%20%281%29.pdf">on average, 19 years old</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1524838018821956">Risk factors</a> for sex trafficking include a history of child abuse, substance abuse, poverty, involvement in child protective services, involvement in juvenile detention and prior sexual exploitation. </p>
<p>Runaway and homeless youth are especially at risk for sex trafficking. A study conducted in Philadelphia, Washington, D.C. and Phoenix found that <a href="https://www.covenanthouse.org/homeless-issues/human-trafficking-study">14% of homeless youth identified themselves as victims of sex trafficking</a>. Among these sex trafficking victims, 33% identified as LGBTQ. </p>
<p>A young person is more likely <a href="https://www.thorn.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Survivor_Survey_r5.pdf">to meet her trafficker for the first time online</a> rather than in person, due to the rise of social media. </p>
<h2>3. Who are the traffickers and the johns?</h2>
<p>Men who purchase commercial sex come from all walks of life.</p>
<p><a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1007%2Fs11524-013-9809-8">One comparative study on men and their lifetime history of paying for sex</a> found that 4.9% of men in Tampa, Florida, said they had ever paid for sex. Among those men who paid for sex in Tampa, men aged 41 to 70 were most likely to pay for sex, making up about 13% of the total. </p>
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<p>Traffickers include <a href="https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/250955.pdf">mom-and-pop operations, crime rings, gangs and cartels</a>. Sometimes, when a victim of sex trafficking has been groomed enough, she becomes “<a href="https://sharedhope.org/the-problem/trafficking-terms/">the bottom</a>,” helping her trafficker recruit other victims.</p>
<p>Research shows that <a href="https://cup.columbia.edu/book/what-slaveholders-think/9780231181822">modern-day slaveholders have a complicated mindset, condescending and paternalistic</a>, not necessarily one of pure evil. Slaveholders can think they are doing a favor to the enslaved, by taking care of them, giving them food and shelter, and even “protecting” them from a world in which they would otherwise be disposable. </p>
<h2>4. How much money does the commercial sex economy generate?</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.urban.org/research/publication/understanding-organization-operation-and-victimization-process-labor-trafficking-united-states">A 2014 study of sex trafficking in seven major U.S. cities</a> found that revenues from underground commercial sex ranged from US$39.9 million in Denver to $290 million in Atlanta. </p>
<p><iframe id="BoS3h" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/BoS3h/1/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>Although many experts suspect that major sporting events, <a href="https://www.state.gov/documents/organization/226277.pdf">like the Super Bowl</a>, might encourage the demand for commercial sex, preliminary research suggests <a href="https://www.mccaininstitute.org/exploring-the-impact-of-the-super-bowl-on-sex-trafficking-2015/">the effect is negligible</a>. </p>
<p>The breadth of sex trafficking in the U.S. has prompted federal responses. The FBI has organized <a href="https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/operation-cross-country-xi">Operation Cross Country</a>, a collaboration of dozens of field offices and hundreds of local law enforcement organizations. In October 2017, Operation Cross Country XI conducted a nationwide sting leading to the freeing of 84 minors and the arrest of 120 traffickers. </p>
<p>With better data collection methods and a stronger national coordinated effort, the U.S. could eventually come closer to the day when modern slavery is no more. </p>
<p><em>This is an updated version of <a href="https://theconversation.com/sex-trafficking-in-the-us-4-questions-answered-112675">an article originally published on March 8, 2019</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/120098/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Monti Datta does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>While there’s still a great deal that is unknown about sex trafficking, research studies and nonprofits have been able to gather telling data on this industry’s victims and perpetrators.Monti Datta, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of RichmondLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1185272019-06-19T13:39:31Z2019-06-19T13:39:31ZStudy shines light on how vulnerable children are trafficked in Nigeria<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279542/original/file-20190614-158967-1iwya16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Trafficking is a very real threat for kids in Nigeria.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Paschal Okwara/Shutterstock/Editorial use only</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The international trafficking of children has received much attention in recent times. But, little attention has been paid to how it plays out and its unique dynamics in Nigeria.</p>
<p>Child trafficking is one of the most flourishing organised criminal enterprises in Nigeria. <a href="https://punchng.com/oyo-becoming-hot-spot-of-girls-trafficking-nis/">In Oyo State alone</a> (Nigeria has 36 states and a federal capital), the Nigerian Immigration Service rescued 464 trafficked children and arrested 101 traffickers and 120 end-users between 2016 and this year.</p>
<p>Nigeria is a source, transit spot and destination for human trafficking. Close to 1.4 million Nigerians live in <a href="https://www.globalslaveryindex.org/2018/data/country-data/nigeria/">slave-like conditions</a>.</p>
<p>An investigation into the recruiting strategies of traffickers and their networks could be helpful in arresting this menace.</p>
<p>With this in mind, I conducted <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10246029.2014.922107">research</a> in which I examined the recruitment strategies of trafficking networks. I interviewed drivers, domestic servants, those who employed domestic servants, and trafficking agents in two communities in Ibadan, Oyo State where the crime is endemic. </p>
<h2>Research findings</h2>
<p>My research found that traffickers have established markets where they supply trafficked children who are younger than 18. Their clients include plantation agriculturists, brothel house owners, and middle-class urban households. Based on their needs, the farmers, brothel owners and urban households contact traffickers to obtain children to work for them. </p>
<p>The brothel managers demand children for sexual exploitation. Farmers, meanwhile, use the trafficked children for cheap labour on plantations.</p>
<p>Households demand child domestic servants to lessen the burden of executing domestic chores while at the same time engaging in paid work. In deciding whether to hire domestic servants, households adopt the so-called “make or buy strategy”. Under the “make strategy”, households devise a plan to split housework and home management between family members. The “buy strategy” is adopted only when the activities go beyond what households believe they can manage – then, they “outsource” to a domestic servant.</p>
<p>If they decide to go this route, the household specifies the age and sex of the preferred domestic servant. For most employers, sex is considered alongside age. </p>
<p>Other required qualities include the ability to communicate in the employer’s language or <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-west-africas-pidgins-deserve-full-recognition-as-official-languages-101844">pidgin English</a>, good character, history or place of origin, and the ability to work under stress.</p>
<h2>Recruitment strategies</h2>
<p>Traffickers can recruit from child trafficking endemic communities in Oyo State or other states. Our respondents adopted two major strategies in recruiting children as domestic servants and child prostitutes. The first involves the use of relatives, coworkers, religious associates, club members and neighbours to lure children away.</p>
<p>The second strategy relies on recruiting agents or traffickers. The traffickers use field agents. Here, trust is vital. Without trust, it’s difficult for prospective employers to get to the traffickers. The agents ensure that prospective employers are genuine and not part of the security apparatus.</p>
<p>For traffickers who are indigene (that is, from the communities where the children are recruited from), the method is usually deception. They trick parents into releasing their children for supposed training in the city. A 16-year-old domestic servant affirmed:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It was my uncle who came to Igede to tell my people that he wanted me to assist him with his business that was booming. He took me from Benue to Benin and dropped me with a woman at a brothel house. I was expected to sleep with men and pay money for the house I slept in every morning. I cried throughout the three days I stayed there … I ran away … I went back to Igede. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Another strategy is to use people from the recruiting community to get children to work in town. A trafficker stated:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I have one Alhaji (meaning a Muslim who has completed the holy pilgrimage to Mecca) in Benue State. We got to know each other through wheat trading. Any time I need people to work here (in Ibadan) … I will just call on him and since we have been able to establish trust and confidence, it is not difficult for him to get some of these children for me. </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Trafficking season</h2>
<p>My research participants who recruit from Igede community in Benue state told me they are more likely to get more children during the <a href="https://www.nigeriagalleria.com/Nigeria/States_Nigeria/Benue/Igede-Agba-Festival-Benue.html">New Yam Festival</a> when people of Igede extraction return home to thank their communal deity for a bumper harvest before officially eating the new yam. </p>
<p>The traffickers and agents use this period to entrap new children. They come to Igede with lots of money to attract attention. I found that traffickers set out on the recruitment journey towards the end of the year and returned early in the year with newly trafficked children. A female domestic servant said all Igede indigene who live or work elsewhere were expected to return home to join in the Christmas festivities. Most of the traffickers can be seen in the community at this time, as often they bring the children home and then return with them to the city.</p>
<p>The traffickers or agents engage in house-to-house canvassing, asking and persuading people to release their children to them, usually on agreed terms. Once this is settled, the local community agent either transports the children on his or her own, or awaits a vehicle sent by an associate in Ibadan to transport the new recruits. </p>
<p>A private vehicle is usually hired from Ibadan, which is more than 500kms away, to avoid suspicion.</p>
<h2>Combating the scourge</h2>
<p>To combat trafficking, it’s important for the Nigerian government to understand and deal with the factors that predispose children to being trafficked. These include rural underdevelopment and poverty, for instance. The <a href="https://www.naptip.gov.ng/?page_id=112">National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons</a> needs to strengthen its campaign aimed at fighting the trafficking of people within Nigeria. </p>
<p>A good place to start would be to target festival periods to educate the communities from which children are sourced about the scourge of child trafficking. Such education needs to expose the gimmicks traffickers use to lure vulnerable children. The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons may also need to revisit its current strategy and leverage more on inter-agency collaboration.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/118527/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Oludayo Tade does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>An investigation into the recruiting strategies of traffickers and their networks could be helpful in arresting this menace.Oludayo Tade, Researcher in criminology, victimology, electronic frauds and cybercrime, University of IbadanLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1124552019-03-12T10:46:03Z2019-03-12T10:46:03ZThere’s no way to stop human trafficking by treating it as an immigration enforcement problem<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/261994/original/file-20190304-92301-ow69br.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Trump has signed a law aimed at curbing sex trafficking.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Trump/db563f4c76ad41acae6e4bef6b6ec68c/4/0">AP Photo/Evan Vucci</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/26078163/patriots-owner-robert-kraft-officially-charged-first-degree-solicitation-prostitute">Robert Kraft</a>, the New England Patriots’ billionaire owner, recently made headlines when he was charged with two counts of soliciting prostitution. The women involved were undocumented Chinese immigrants who were human trafficking victims at the <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/25/us/jupiter-florida-day-spa-living-conditions/index.html">Orchids of Asia</a> spa in <a href="https://www.wptv.com/news/region-n-palm-beach-county/jupiter/how-detectives-gathered-evidence-inside-orchids-of-asia-day-spa">Jupiter, Florida</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://polarisproject.org/beyond-raid-reporting-massage-parlor-trafficking">Raids</a> and <a href="https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-human-trafficking-task-force-20190129-story.html">sting operations</a> like this one, which ensnared about 100 other far less prominent alleged perpetrators and a <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/robert-kraft-is-just-one-of-many-rich-and-powerful-men-busted-in-florida-prostitution-ring">few other very rich men</a>, have become <a href="https://fightthenewdrug.org/277-arrested-in-florida-undercover-sex-trafficking-sting/">commonplace</a> across the <a href="https://human.globalincidentmap.com">U.S. and the world</a>. They highlight the <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/fbi-child-sex-trafficking-raid-bust-84-rescued-paedophilia-ncmec-a8010856.html">ongoing exploitation</a> faced by <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trafficking-arrests/nearly-500-arrested-in-california-human-trafficking-raids-idUSKBN15G5J6">large numbers</a> of vulnerable people. </p>
<p>While conducting research about human trafficking in <a href="https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315602103">Thailand</a> and <a href="https://scholarship.richmond.edu/spcs-faculty-publications/83/">Cambodia</a>, I’ve observed that grassroots nonprofits are often effective in addressing <a href="https://baylor-ir.tdl.org/handle/2104/8104">its root causes</a>.</p>
<h2>Good models</h2>
<p>While no one knows <a href="https://www.ctdatacollaborative.org">how big the problem is</a>, <a href="https://gcm.unu.edu/publications/articles/a-human-rights-approach-to-human-trafficking.html">human trafficking</a> is getting more attention today. This higher profile has given rise to what the criminology researchers <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=cwoetNMAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">Sanja Milivojevic</a> and <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=bxfd9XAAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">Sharon Pickering</a> call a “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10345329.2013.12035985">global trafficking complex</a>,” which they describe as a “tangled web of agendas, priorities, policies and ideological underpinnings.”</p>
<p>In turn, cases like <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/30/sex-trafficking-activist-somaly-mam-quits">Somaly Mam</a>, a Cambodian woman who was praised by celebrities before resigning from her organization in scandal, show that some <a href="https://www.salon.com/2014/06/10/hollywoods_dangerous_obsession_with_sex_trafficking/">exaggerate the scale of human trafficking</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s12117-005-1035-7">misrepresent it</a> to the public for their own financial gain. Fighting human trafficking has become a <a href="https://doi.org/10.14197/atr.20121431">high-stakes endeavor across the world</a>, with a dozen countries spending more than <a href="https://doi.org/10.14197/atr.20121437">US$1.2 billion on anti-trafficking efforts between 2003 and 2012</a>. </p>
<p>But many <a href="http://www.globalmodernslavery.org">grassroots nonprofits</a> witness this exploitation firsthand with the people they serve directly and do make a difference.</p>
<p>One excellent nonprofit model is the <a href="https://www.macfound.org/fellows/981/">Coalition of Imokalee Workers</a>, a Florida human rights organization that fights for decent farm worker compensation. Its anti-trafficking and advocacy work has led to <a href="https://hbr.org/2017/09/audacious-philanthropy">effective and much-needed preventive measures</a>. Most notably, the group has collaboratively developed a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=ZbagCjyQqwo">Fair Food program</a> to ensure that <a href="https://ciw-online.org/fair-food-program/">corporations, farm owners and businesses</a> pay farm workers adequately and treat them more ethically.</p>
<p>Another exemplary model is the <a href="http://www.atcc.or.th">Anti Human Trafficking and Anti Child Abuse Center</a> in Thailand. The nonprofit aids children who have been sexually and physically abused and trafficked, many of whom are from Burma, Laos and Cambodia.</p>
<p>Realizing that the issue of child exploitation coincides with issues of poverty and vulnerability, the organization also helps law enforcement authorities <a href="https://www.bangkokpost.com/news/special-reports/1292363/online-task-force-closes-the-net-on-paedophiles">stage sting operations</a> to hold perpetrators accountable. They also participate in <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/former-teacher-sentenced-27-years-prison-child-sex-tourism-and-child-pornography-offenses?fbclid=IwAR3VIjAkUARqtBtrFzpnWJYjB8xGJuIjYB1nV2BcCBwOo6Vhp65wPMr3i8A">joint task forces</a> together with <a href="https://thethaiger.com/news/national/dutch-man-arrested-in-chon-buri-on-trafficking-and-overstay-charges-1">local</a>, <a href="https://www.chiangraitimes.com/thailands-anti-human-trafficking-task-force-tatip-takes-down-ugandan-prostitution-ring.html">national</a> and <a href="https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/report-from-thailand-part-4">international</a> leaders to address the root causes of trafficking.</p>
<h2>Immigration policies</h2>
<p>Here in the U.S., the Trump administration’s efforts to slow the pace of immigration are making conditions more <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/1988-07-25/news/mn-4650_1_tijuana-dump">precarious for undocumented workers</a> and causing an uptick in <a href="https://thehill.com/opinion/civil-rights/396781-trumps-harsh-immigration-policies-are-a-gift-for-human-traffickers">human trafficking</a>. <a href="https://www.humanrightsfirst.org/blog/crackdown-immigration-puts-trafficking-victims-more-danger">As migrants lose rights and protections</a>, they tend to <a href="https://polarisproject.org/human-trafficking-temporary-work-visas-data-analysis-2015-2017">become more vulnerable to exploitation</a>, not less.</p>
<p>This is not unique, however. Many other countries, including Thailand, are using <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-thailand-migrants-idUSKCN11Z0C3">trafficking as a rationale for more restrictive immigration policies</a>. Their leaders often try to achieve political ends by demonizing <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7660.2010.01665.x">migrants forced to do work they do not wish to do</a>. </p>
<p>President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed that one benefit of the <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/transcript-president-trump-on-face-the-nation-february-3-2019">border wall</a> he wants built would be curbing <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-meeting-human-trafficking-southern-border/">human trafficking</a>. I do not believe that rationale for his harsh immigration policies adds up.</p>
<p>Like many experts, I see no <a href="https://polarisproject.org/human-trafficking-myths-and-facts">statistical evidence supporting the claim</a> the wall will stop trafficking. Although other <a href="https://theconversation.com/youth-living-in-settlements-at-us-border-suffer-poverty-and-lack-of-health-care-103416">complex humanitarian crises</a> exist on <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/nov/19/americas-poorest-border-town-no-immigration-papers-no-american-dream">both sides of the border</a>, any <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7660.2012.01786.x">policy that punishes the people that it is intended to help</a> won’t resolve the issues that jeopardized them in the first place.</p>
<p>In addition, he has maligned immigrants, calling alleged undocumented gang members “<a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/05/16/trump-immigrants-animals-mexico-democrats-sanctuary-cities/617252002/">animals</a>” or “<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/03/politics/trump-ms13-illegal-immigration-rhetoric/index.html">an infestation</a>.” This kind of disparaging of newcomers can <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/02703149.2016.1210964">increase human trafficking</a>, two psychologists have found.</p>
<p>To be sure, Trump has signed several important laws, including one that <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/president-donald-j-trump-fighting-eradicate-human-trafficking/">designates US$430 million to fight trafficking</a>. The White House continues, however, to pressure legislators to tie stronger border security to human trafficking, which distracts from the <a href="http://blog.petrieflom.law.harvard.edu/2018/06/27/the-intersection-of-human-trafficking-and-immigration/">real issue of the exploitation of migrants</a>.</p>
<p>It is also troubling that Trump is a longtime friend of men accused and convicted of crimes involving human trafficking, including <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2017/05/04/jeffrey-epstein-trump-lawsuit-sex-trafficking-237983">Jeffrey Epstein</a> and Kraft. The <a href="https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/article227186429.html">Miami Herald has unearthed selfies</a> of him posing with Li “Cindy” Yang, a political donor and the founder of the Florida spa chain embroiled in the prostitution bust. The photos were taken weeks earlier, at a Mar-a-Lago <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/433179-super-bowl-selfie-emerges-of-trump-with-founder-of-spa-where-new">Super Bowl viewing party</a>, and Yang no longer owns the spas and has not been charged.</p>
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<h2>Discourage exploitation</h2>
<p>The types of policies I think would help would <a href="https://polarisproject.org/current-federal-laws">discourage this exploitation</a> and <a href="https://www.ojjdp.gov/programs/human-trafficking-services.html">support survivors</a>, while at the same time not restricting migration in ways that make <a href="http://www.tipheroes.org/blog/immigrants-are-vulnerable-to-human-trafficking/">already vulnerable groups even more vulnerable</a>. </p>
<p>In Southeast Asia, I’ve seen that <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2015/dec/14/shrimp-sold-by-global-supermarkets-is-peeled-by-slave-labourers-in-thailand">laborers</a> and <a href="https://asiancorrespondent.com/2018/01/113-trafficking-victims-rescued-victoria-secret-brothel/">sex workers</a> from <a href="http://www.gvc-italia.org/labour_migration_and_human_trafficking_between_cambodia_and_thailand_the_way_forward.html">Cambodia</a>, <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2018/01/23/thailand-forced-labor-trafficking-persist-fishing-fleets">Burma</a> and <a href="https://www.rfa.org/english/news/laos/rescue-02282018165557.html">Laos</a> are more <a href="https://www.unodc.org/southeastasiaandpacific/en/2017/08/trafficking-in-persons-thailand-report-launch/story.html">easily exploited in Thailand</a>, not because of a weak border, but because those on the wrong side of it have <a href="https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50107257/bid-protect-migrant-workers-thailand/">no recourse if mistreated</a>. </p>
<p>I believe the same dynamic holds true here in North America and in all areas where the world’s estimated <a href="https://www.ilo.org/global/publications/books/WCMS_575479/lang--en/index.htm">40 million human trafficking victims</a> are being forced to work for little or no pay.</p>
<p>The new law <a href="https://www.ncronline.org/news/quick-reads/trump-signs-law-pump-430-million-anti-human-trafficking-efforts">calls for spending $430 million to fight trafficking</a>, and many major organizations like <a href="https://www.unicefusa.org/stories/reauthorization-anti-trafficking-legislation/32240">UNICEF</a>, <a href="https://www.ijm.org/news/ijm-applauds-house-passage-of-trafficking-victims-prevention-and-protection-act-of-2017">International Justice Mission</a> and <a href="https://www.worldvisionadvocacy.org/2019/01/08/trafficking-act-reauthorized-2018/">World Vision</a> support the law. Yet Trump immediately undercut its effectiveness by <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/02/04/trump-claims-wall-is-needed-stop-human-trafficking-no-data-back-up-his-claim/?utm_term=.d1815deeb8a1">spouting anti-immigrant rhetoric</a>, saying, “This really is an invasion of our country by human traffickers.” In my view, his words undermined at least some of the potential positive impact of this new funding.</p>
<p>I recommend continuing collaborative efforts without sensationalizing with misinformed rhetoric. I also believe that Trump should focus anti-trafficking messages on the abuse of power and the exploitation of the vulnerable instead of taking advantage of trafficking to push for a border wall.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/112455/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bob Spires is affiliated with Love Without Boundaries, an international nonprofit serving disadvantaged children in China, Cambodia, India and Uganda. He has collaborated with Liberty Shared, an international nonprofit anti-trafficking and advocacy organization. </span></em></p>Governments should heed the expertise of the grassroots nonprofits that witness this scourge firsthand.Bob Spires, Assistant Professor of Education, University of RichmondLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1126752019-03-08T11:43:44Z2019-03-08T11:43:44ZSex trafficking in the US: 4 questions answered<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/262543/original/file-20190306-100784-1bttt0i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Hotels and motels along major highways are common spots for sex trafficking.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/dirty-empty-dark-corridor-apartment-building-603070067">Ken Stocker/shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>New England Patriots CEO Robert Kraft’s criminal charges <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/04/sports/robert-kraft.html">in a suspected sex trafficking case</a> in southern Florida draw new attention to this serious problem.</p>
<p>Sex trafficking, <a href="https://www.state.gov/j/tip/laws/61124.htm">as the federal government defines it</a>, is “the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision or obtaining of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act” by means of “force, fraud, or coercion.” This is a form of modern-day slavery. Found in <a href="https://www.ovcttac.gov/taskforceguide/eguide/1-understanding-human-trafficking/11-forms-of-human-trafficking/">massage parlors, escort services, residential brothels and street prostitution</a>, some might be victims for weeks and <a href="https://polarisproject.org/human-trafficking/sex-trafficking">others for years</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=WuHCE3sAAAAJ&hl=en">As someone who studies human trafficking</a>, I feel that it’s important for the public to understand how it manifests in the U.S. today. While there’s still a great deal that is unknown about sex trafficking, research studies and nonprofits have been able to gather telling data on this industry’s victims and perpetrators.</p>
<h2>1. Where does sex trafficking happen?</h2>
<p>Sex trafficking <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2018.07.008">tends to occur</a> in motels and impoverished neighborhoods along the interstate highway system as well as in major urban centers. Some of the busiest corridors of the interstate include I-5 in the West, I-95 in the East and I-80, stretching from coast to coast. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/262739/original/file-20190307-82681-2an1cw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/262739/original/file-20190307-82681-2an1cw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/262739/original/file-20190307-82681-2an1cw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262739/original/file-20190307-82681-2an1cw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262739/original/file-20190307-82681-2an1cw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262739/original/file-20190307-82681-2an1cw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262739/original/file-20190307-82681-2an1cw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262739/original/file-20190307-82681-2an1cw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Interstate highway map of the continental U.S.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/interstate-map-continental-united-states-state-25866832">Stacey Lynn Payne/shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://polarisproject.org">The nonprofit Polaris</a> operates the National Human Trafficking Hotline, which takes tips on sex and labor trafficking. Although the Polaris data are not from a random-sample survey, they shed light on types of sex trafficking in the U.S. In 2017, Polaris received more than 6,000 hotline tips about sex trafficking across America. Among these data, the top venues for sex trafficking included illicit massage parlors, hotels and motels, and residential brothels.</p>
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<p><a href="https://www.natso.com/en_us/articles/articles/view/natso-briefs-house-homeland-security-committee-on-industry-efforts-to-combat-human-trafficking-industrys-fight-against-human-trafficking-multi-faceted">The National Association of Truck Stop Operators</a> has partnered with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s <a href="https://www.dhs.gov/blue-campaign">Blue Campaign</a>. The National Association of Truck Stop Operators offers trainings to help truckers, truck stop owners and employees identify the signs of human trafficking, such as malnourishment, lack of eye contact and disorientation.</p>
<p>Hotel chains <a href="https://www.hotelmanagement.net/operate/marriott-ecpat-usa-partner-to-counter-human-trafficking-hotels">like Marriott</a> are training their employees as well. </p>
<h2>2. Who are the victims?</h2>
<p>Reliable data on the number of sex trafficking victims in the U.S. <a href="https://theconversation.com/fact-check-how-many-people-are-enslaved-in-the-world-today-107078">are hard to come by</a>.</p>
<p>In the U.S., studies show that most victims of sex trafficking are women and young girls. They are, <a href="http://polarisproject.org/sites/default/files/2017NHTHStats%20%281%29.pdf">on average, 19 years old</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1524838018821956">Risk factors</a> for sex trafficking include a history of child abuse, substance abuse, poverty, involvement in child protective services, involvement in juvenile detention and prior sexual exploitation. </p>
<p>Runaway and homeless youth are especially at risk for sex trafficking. A study conducted in Philadelphia, Washington, D.C. and Phoenix found that <a href="https://www.covenanthouse.org/homeless-issues/human-trafficking-study">14 percent of homeless youth identified themselves as victims of sex trafficking</a>. Among these sex trafficking victims, 33 percent identified as LGBTQ. </p>
<p>A young person is more likely <a href="https://www.thorn.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Survivor_Survey_r5.pdf">to meet her trafficker for the first time online</a> rather than in person, due to the rise of social media. </p>
<h2>3. Who are the traffickers and the johns?</h2>
<p>Men who purchase commercial sex come from all walks of life.</p>
<p><a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1007%2Fs11524-013-9809-8">One comparative study on men and their lifetime history of paying for sex</a> found that 4.9 percent of men in Tampa, Florida, said they had ever paid for sex. Among those men who paid for sex in Tampa, men aged 41 to 70 were most likely to pay for sex, making up about 13 percent of the total. </p>
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<p>Traffickers include <a href="https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/250955.pdf">mom-and-pop operations, crime rings, gangs and cartels</a>. Sometimes, when a victim of sex trafficking has been groomed enough, she becomes “<a href="https://sharedhope.org/the-problem/trafficking-terms/">the bottom</a>,” helping her trafficker recruit other victims.</p>
<p>Research shows that <a href="https://cup.columbia.edu/book/what-slaveholders-think/9780231181822">modern-day slave holders have a complicated mindset, condescending and paternalistic</a>, not necessarily one of pure evil. Slaveholders can think they are doing a favor to the enslaved, by taking care of them, giving them food and shelter, and even “protecting” them from a world in which they would otherwise be disposable. </p>
<h2>4. How much money does the commercial sex economy generate?</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.urban.org/research/publication/understanding-organization-operation-and-victimization-process-labor-trafficking-united-states">A 2014 study of sex trafficking in seven major U.S. cities</a> found that revenues from underground commercial sex ranged from US$39.9 million in Denver to $290 million in Atlanta. </p>
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<p>Although many experts suspect that major sporting events, <a href="https://www.state.gov/documents/organization/226277.pdf">like the Super Bowl</a>, might encourage the demand for commercial sex, preliminary research suggests <a href="https://www.mccaininstitute.org/exploring-the-impact-of-the-super-bowl-on-sex-trafficking-2015/">the effect is negligible</a>. </p>
<p>The breadth of sex trafficking in the U.S. has prompted federal responses. The FBI has organized <a href="https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/operation-cross-country-xi">Operation Cross Country</a>, a collaboration of dozens of field offices and hundreds of local law enforcement organizations. In October 2017, Operation Cross Country XI conducted a nationwide sting leading to the freeing of 84 minors and the arrest of 120 traffickers. </p>
<p>A national discussion on sex trafficking is growing after Kraft’s arrest. With better data collection methods and a stronger national coordinated effort, I believe that the U.S. could eventually come closer to the day when modern slavery is no more.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/112675/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Monti Datta does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>New England Patriots CEO Robert Kraft’s criminal charges in a suspected sex trafficking case draw new attention to this illicit underground economy.Monti Datta, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of RichmondLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1045352018-12-17T11:41:06Z2018-12-17T11:41:06ZIndian bill to ‘protect’ trafficking victims will make sex workers less safe<p>Hoping to protect women from <a href="https://www.epw.in/rethinking-2018-trafficking-bill">sexual exploitation</a>, Indian lawmakers are pushing a bill that amends the criminal code to harden legal and financial penalties for sex trafficking. </p>
<p>The “<a href="https://www.prsindia.org/billtrack/the-trafficking-of-persons-prevention-protection-and-rehabilitation-bill-2018-5277/">Trafficking of Persons (Prevention, Protection and Rehabilitation) Bill</a>,” which passed the lower house of India’s parliament in July 2018 and may become law in 2019, seeks to make combat this lucrative, illicit trade. </p>
<p>Not everyone thinks harsh deterrence will work.</p>
<p>Days after it passed in the lower house of India’s Parliament in July, two United Nations experts said the bill leans too heavily <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2018/07/1015352">on the criminal justice system</a>. Without more of a “human-rights based and victim-centred approach,” the UN special rapporteurs on human trafficking and modern slavery warned, India “risks further harming already vulnerable individuals.” </p>
<h2>India’s sex trade</h2>
<p>According to the Indian government, <a href="https://www.prsindia.org/billtrack/trafficking-persons-prevention-protection-and-rehabilitation-bill-2018">4,980 victims of sex trafficking were rescued</a> in the country in 2016. </p>
<p>Sex workers in India oppose the bill that’s ostensibly meant to protect them, saying it inaccurately <a href="https://www.epw.in/engage/article/raid-and-rescue-how-anti-trafficking-strategies-increase-sex-workers-vulnerability-to-exploitative-practices">conflates human trafficking with consensual sex work</a>.</p>
<p>In major Indian cities like Kolkata, Hyderabad and Sangli, sex workers are <a href="http://nnswindia.org/">well organized and politically engaged</a>. Yet no sex worker groups were consulted during the drafting of the legislation.</p>
<p>Community leaders <a href="https://www.epw.in/engage/article/raid-and-rescue-how-anti-trafficking-strategies-increase-sex-workers-vulnerability-to-exploitative-practices">argue</a> that the anti-trafficking legislation promotes a dangerous idea that everyone in the sex trade is either a victim or a criminal. </p>
<p>“If this bill becomes law, the police will harass us even more,” <a href="http://www.atimes.com/article/indias-new-sex-trafficking-bill-does-more-harm-than-good-say-experts/">said</a> Kajol Bose, secretary of the Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee, one of India’s largest sex worker organizations. “The number of raids will increase and the number of clients will decrease.” </p>
<p>I believe Indian lawmakers could improve their bill by looking to the strong systems already in place locally across India that prevent forced prostitution. </p>
<p>I conducted <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=d-PZU8sAAAAJ&hl=en">anthropological research</a> with Kolkata’s <a href="https://durbar.org/">Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee</a>, which has a membership of 65,000 people across the state of West Bengal.</p>
<p>The group is based in Sonagachi, Kolkata’s iconic red-light district, which is tucked behind a main artery in the northern part of the city. This bustling and congested labyrinth of narrow alleyways lined by houses, most of which operate as brothels, is home to some 10,000 sex workers. An estimated 20,000 male customers visit Sonagachi daily. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/250332/original/file-20181212-110261-f1lgcp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/250332/original/file-20181212-110261-f1lgcp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250332/original/file-20181212-110261-f1lgcp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250332/original/file-20181212-110261-f1lgcp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250332/original/file-20181212-110261-f1lgcp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250332/original/file-20181212-110261-f1lgcp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250332/original/file-20181212-110261-f1lgcp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sex workers in Kolkata’s Sonagachi district wait for customers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Associated-Press-International-News-India-INDIA-/397dd200d8e4da11af9f0014c2589dfb/5/0">AP Photo/Bikas Das</a></span>
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<p>Most Sonagachi brothels are managed by female brothel owners, or “malkins,” who keep half of their employees’ payment. </p>
<p>Most of the women I met working in Sonagachi came from poor, rural villages in India, Bangladesh or Nepal. </p>
<p>Driven by increasing hunger and poverty in formerly agricultural regions, many arrived in Kolkata planning to enter the sex trade because they figured it was the best way to feed themselves and their families. Some can even afford to send money back to their families.</p>
<h2>Keeping Kolkata’s red light district safe</h2>
<p>Other women in Sonogachi were brought there by a friend or husband, and began doing sex work because they felt they had little choice. </p>
<p>This is the kind of exploitation that the sex worker’s union wants to prevent. So, in 1997, the Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee founded the “<a href="https://durbar.org/html/anti_trafficking.html">self-regulatory board</a>” to combat trafficking in Sonagachi. </p>
<p>Every morning, between at 10 a.m., peer educators and outreach workers visit area brothels. Since the board is comprised mainly of local sex workers, newcomers to Sonagachi are easily identified.</p>
<p>Women new to the scene are taken for <a href="https://durbar.org/html/health_care.html">medical evaluation</a> to a local health center called the Abinaash Clinic. Durbar has run the clinic since it took over the government’s HIV/AIDS prevention program in 1997. The STD testing done there prevents the spread of disease in Sonagachi. </p>
<p>A bone ossification test, which gives an age range, helps identify minors. Underage sex workers are handed over to the Child Welfare Committee of Kolkata, a government agency. </p>
<p>Determining whether adult women newly arrived to Sonagachi have been trafficked requires a more extensive investigation. It can take days to get women to open up about how they arrived in Sonagachi and who brought them there.</p>
<p>Many of the women and girls approached by the Durbar are newcomers not just to sex work but to city living in general. They are usually confused by and even fearful of the group’s intervention. They seldom cooperate immediately.</p>
<p>It can take days of gentle questioning before the women start talking. During that process, newcomers to Sonagachi are housed at the nearby Short Stay Home, a residence run by the Durbar Committee.</p>
<p>Ultimately, those determined to have entered the sex trade willingly will be permitted to return to her brothel in Sonagachi. The women usually become members of Durbar and are given a photo ID card that confirms her status as a healthy and consensual sex worker – which usually helps them avoid arrest when police raids occur.</p>
<p>If the self-regulatory board concludes that a new entrant is being coerced into sex work by a trafficker, the authorities are contacted. The woman is usually placed in “<a href="https://www.opendemocracy.net/beyondslavery/vibhuti-ramachandran/rescued-but-not-released-%E2%80%98protective-custody%E2%80%99-of-sex-workers-in-i">shelters</a>” – prison-like detention centers – while the government tries to get her back home. </p>
<h2>Anti-trafficking bills hurt more than they help</h2>
<p>In my assessment, the Sonagachi method is effective because it starts by recognizing that sex work is a job – one that must be done voluntarily, by consenting adults. </p>
<p>Based on that reality, it puts in place protections that keep trafficked women and children from abuse. The Durbar Committee works closely with local police, alerting them to the presence of minors and trafficked women.</p>
<p>Other red light districts in <a href="http://www.sangram.org/">India</a>, <a href="http://www.nswp.org/members/asia-and-the-pacific/empower-foundation">Thailand</a> and beyond have sex worker unions use <a href="https://www.opendemocracy.net/beyondslavery/wendelijn-vollbehr/improving-anti-trafficking-strategies-why-sex-workers-should-be-inv">similar preventive measures</a> to combat trafficking.</p>
<p>Several lawmakers I spoke with in Kolkata during my research dismissed the efforts of Durbar. They say trafficking is rampant in Sonagachi, and that the government must step in. </p>
<p>In my experience, most also see prostitution as a dangerous and immoral act – something that only victims of coercion would do. As a result, the Indian anti-trafficking bill they crafted outlaws the sex trade and punishes all who participate in it. </p>
<p>The proposed law, which includes social services for reintegrating trafficked women into society, may help some women. Organization like the Durbar Committee cannot identify and protect all victims of sexual exploitation in India.</p>
<p>Still, Indian lawmakers could learn something from the frontline community organizations already doing this work. Sex workers can be government partners in the fight against human trafficking – but only if they are not its targets.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/104535/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Simanti Dasgupta receives funding from Research Council SEED Grants, University of Dayton.</span></em></p>If India really wants to stop sex trafficking, legislators might consider asking sex workers in Kolkata how they keep the Sonagachi red light district safe and exploitation-free.Simanti Dasgupta, Associate Professor, University of DaytonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1073142018-12-09T17:46:01Z2018-12-09T17:46:01ZCanada’s laws designed to deter prostitution, not keep sex workers safe<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/249361/original/file-20181206-128187-qxuiko.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=110%2C22%2C7238%2C4880&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Protesters in front the Supreme Court of Canada in 2013 when the court was hearing arguments on the constitutionality of Canada's prostitution laws. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Are Canada’s current prostitution laws, enacted in 2014, achieving their goals? How you answer that question will depend on what you identify those goals to be.</p>
<p>News reports frequently claim that <a href="https://www.thestar.com/vancouver/2018/11/08/how-a-canadian-law-meant-to-protect-sex-workers-is-making-it-harder-for-them-to-stay-safe.html">Canada’s criminal prostitution laws are failing to achieve their goals</a>. These articles often suggest that the laws were implemented to make <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/prostitution-law-sex-workers-edmonton-1.4843505">sex work safer</a>, <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-canadas-new-prostitution-laws-may-not-make-sex-work-safer-research/">healthier</a> and <a href="https://vancouversun.com/opinion/columnists/as-vancouver-fails-to-enforce-prostitution-laws-trudeau-government-needs-to-declare-its-stance-on-legalizing-sex-work">less risky for those who engage in it</a>. Despite these consistent assertions, these outcomes are not what the laws aim to achieve.</p>
<p><a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3031586">Canada’s criminal laws applicable to prostitution were enacted with the intention of denouncing and deterring prostitution.</a> Prostitution is legally defined by the Supreme Court of Canada as the exchange of sexual services for consideration. This exchange is now illegal in Canada. </p>
<p>Parliament based the new laws on the concern that prostitution is an extremely dangerous activity that poses a risk of violence and psychological harm regardless of where it takes place. Their position was that legalizing prostitution does not eliminate these harms. </p>
<h2>Bedford decision</h2>
<p>Those who suggest the goal of Canada’s prostitution laws is to make sex work safer often point to the Supreme Court’s decision in <a href="https://www.canlii.org/en/ca/scc/doc/2013/2013scc72/2013scc72.html?autocompleteStr=bedford&autocompletePos=1">the Bedford case</a>.</p>
<p>Before 2013, there were no direct criminal prohibitions on the purchase or sale of sexual services in Canada. Criminal laws curtailed how and where prostitution could take place.</p>
<p><a href="https://scc-csc.lexum.com/scc-csc/scc-csc/en/item/13389/index.do">In December 2013, the Supreme Court of Canada declared three Criminal Code offences then applicable to adult prostitution unconstitutional.</a>.</p>
<p>In its decision, the Supreme Court held that the laws in place at that time precluded people engaged in prostitution — a risky but legal activity — from taking steps to reduce their risk of harm.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/249085/original/file-20181205-186064-1gd4p4o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/249085/original/file-20181205-186064-1gd4p4o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/249085/original/file-20181205-186064-1gd4p4o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/249085/original/file-20181205-186064-1gd4p4o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/249085/original/file-20181205-186064-1gd4p4o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=585&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/249085/original/file-20181205-186064-1gd4p4o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=585&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/249085/original/file-20181205-186064-1gd4p4o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=585&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Terri-Jean Bedford prepares to testify at the Senate committee looking into the Conservative government’s prostitution bill, on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Sept. 10, 2014.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Fred Chartrand</span></span>
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<p>However, in the Bedford decision, the Supreme Court made clear that Parliament was not precluded from imposing limits on where and how prostitution may be conducted in Canada. What Parliament was required to do was to ensure that the laws it chose to implement did not increase the risks faced by prostitutes in a way that was overly broad or grossly disproportionate to the new law’s objectives. </p>
<p>The Supreme Court acknowledged that dealing with prostitution is complex and sensitive. How prostitution is regulated is a matter of great public importance; few countries leave prostitution entirely unregulated. </p>
<h2>Canadian Parliament: Prostitution discouraged</h2>
<p>In 2014, the <a href="https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/annualstatutes/2014_25/page-1.html">Canadian Parliament enacted The Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act</a> (PCEPA). This new legislative approach to prostitution criminalized “obtaining sexual services for consideration,” making prostitution itself illegal for the first time in Canada. </p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/who-are-we-talking-about-when-we-talk-about-prostitution-and-sex-work-88123">Who are we talking about when we talk about prostitution and sex work?</a>
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<p>Activities thought to contribute to creating or supporting a market for sexual services were also criminalized. It is a criminal offence in Canada to obtain financial or other material benefits from the exchange of sexual services, to procure a person to provide sexual services for consideration or to advertise an offer to provide sexual services. </p>
<p>Those who exchange their own sexual services for consideration are immunized from prosecution for their participation in the commission of these offences because they are understood to be victims in need of support and assistance. </p>
<p>It is also an offence to communicate with anyone for the purpose of offering or providing sexual services for consideration in a public place, or in any place open to public view, that is or is next to a school ground, playground or daycare centre.</p>
<p>In the preamble to PCEPA, Parliament expressed grave concerns about the exploitation that is inherent in prostitution and the risks of violence posed to those who engage in it. They also identified that social harm results from objectification of the human body and commodification of sexual activity. To protect human dignity and equality, Parliament decided that prostitution itself should be discouraged. </p>
<p>On Nov. 29, 2018, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice released its first decision on the constitutionality of three of the new prostitution laws. The Court upheld the constitutionality of these laws. <a href="https://www.justice.gc.ca/Eng/Rp-Pr/Other-Autre/Protect/P1.Html">Referencing a Department of Justice technical paper explaining the new legislative scheme,</a> Justice Stephen T. Bale found that the goal of PCEPA is to reduce the demand for prostitution with a view to discouraging entry into it, deterring participation in it, and ultimately abolishing it to the greatest extent possible. </p>
<p>Bale held that the material benefit, procuring and advertising offences are not overly broad or grossly disproportionate to that objective. In upholding the constitutionality of the offences, Bale found that Parliament was responding to pressing and substantial concerns. </p>
<p>The Court specifically rejected the applicants’ argument that an objective of PCEPA is to enhance the safety, security and dignity of people involved in sex work. </p>
<h2>Funding, education and enforcement needed</h2>
<p>Along with the concerns expressed above, Bale reasoned the pressing and substantial concerns to which Parliament responded with PCEPA included that the majority of those who sell their own sexual services are women and girls. Marginalized groups such as Indigenous women and girls are disproportionately represented in prostitution. Further, the choice to enter prostitution is often more apparent than real; it is often driven by poverty, child sexual abuse and drug addiction. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/249564/original/file-20181209-128220-gmig8v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/249564/original/file-20181209-128220-gmig8v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/249564/original/file-20181209-128220-gmig8v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/249564/original/file-20181209-128220-gmig8v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/249564/original/file-20181209-128220-gmig8v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/249564/original/file-20181209-128220-gmig8v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/249564/original/file-20181209-128220-gmig8v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Demonstrators protested the Harper government’s proposal for prostitution legislation on a Toronto street Saturday, June 14, 2014.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/William Campbell</span></span>
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<p>Prostitution reinforces gender inequalities by normalizing the treatment of primarily women’s bodies as commodities to be bought and sold. The purchase of sexual services creates the demand for prostitution and third parties promote and capitalize on this demand for their own gain.</p>
<p>Whether the objectives of Canada’s current prostitution laws can be achieved depends in large measure on three factors: <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/how-the-new-prostitution-law-can-withstand-a-charter-challenge/article21142536/">enforcement, funding and societal and educational commitment.</a></p>
<p>So far, enforcement of the new laws has been uneven. Police in Canada have significant discretion in deciding how and whether to enforce laws. Police forces in Canada take different approaches to enforcing Canada’s criminal prostitution laws. The <a href="https://vancouver.ca/police/assets/pdf/reports-policies/sex-enforcement-guidelines.pdf">Vancouver Police Department</a>, for example, takes the position that sex work involving consenting adults is not an enforcement priority.</p>
<p>In addition, although <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/news/archive/2014/12/government-canada-announces-20-million-help-victims-leave-prostitution.html">the federal government promised funding to help the sellers of sexual services exit prostitution</a>, the amount is generally agreed to be inadequate.</p>
<p>Finally, meaningful implementation of the PCEPA will also require education to shift societal attitudes towards recognizing prostitution as inconsistent with equality and human dignity. Provinces may want to consider teaching about prostitution and its harms as part of their sexual education programs.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.ourcommons.ca/DocumentViewer/en/41-2/house/sitting-101/hansard">In introducing PCEPA, Parliament concluded that decriminalization and legalization would not make prostitution safe</a>. As a result, the goal of the legislation is to denounce and deter prostitution itself. </p>
<p>Parliament took some steps to ensure those who continued to engage in prostitution were not precluded from taking safety measures expressly identified in the Bedford case. They immunized them from prosecution for the new commodification offences, excluded certain non-exploitive relationships from the new material benefit offence and limited the locations in which communicating would constitute an offence. </p>
<p>However, making the sex trade safer for those who continue to engage in the now criminal act of prostitution is not an aim of the new laws.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/107314/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Debra M Haak does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Canada’s prostitution laws are based on the idea that prostitution is dangerous. Legalizing prostitution doesn’t eliminate the risks of violence and psychological harm.Debra M Haak, PhD Candidate and Teaching Fellow, Queen's University, OntarioLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1000382018-07-27T08:46:18Z2018-07-27T08:46:18ZSex workers are the experts on their profession – they must be heard in debates about its future<p>Many sex workers in the UK are worried that the government may consider <a href="https://theconversation.com/banning-sex-work-advertising-online-will-put-sex-workers-in-danger-99457">fresh calls</a> to ban sex work advertising online. A <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/289245278_Nothing_About_Us_Without_Us_Ten_Years_of_Sex_Workers'_Rights_Activism_and_Advocacy_in_Europe">core tenet</a> of sex worker activism is “nothing about us without us”, yet many sex workers fear their voices are being sidelined from current debates about the future of the industry.</p>
<p>In early July, a debate was held in parliament about how best to tackle commercial sexual exploitation. The motion, tabled by the MP Sarah Champion, <a href="https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2018-07-04/debates/50911795-3525-4F4A-B047-EF87047B5176/CommercialSexualExploitation">discussed</a> the possibility of introducing measures similar to laws <a href="https://gizmodo.com/the-uk-wants-its-own-version-of-fosta-sesta-that-could-1827420794">introduced in the US</a> in April, known as FOSTA-SESTA. </p>
<p>These laws, which have led to the shutting down of a <a href="https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/websites-shutting-down-across-the-internet-after-congress-passes-sex-traffi">number of prominent sex work</a> websites, have already had devastating consequences for sex workers in the US, with an increase in anecdotal reports of <a href="https://www.engadget.com/2018/04/27/suicide-violence-and-going-underground-fosta-sesta/">assaults, disappearances and deaths</a> since the law’s introduction.</p>
<p>Understandably, sex workers in the UK are concerned. Yet, so far, their voices have been almost entirely absent and silenced within this conversation. </p>
<p>The parliamentary debate was based on a May 2018 report from the All-Party Parliamentary Group <a href="https://appgprostitution.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Behind-closed-doors-APPG-on-Prostitution.pdf">on prostitution</a>, which <a href="http://prostitutescollective.net/2018/07/briefing-oppose-a-ban-on-sex-workers-advertising-online/">sidelined evidence</a> given by current sex workers. It recommended measures be taken against websites that sex workers use to advertise and to screen potential clients.</p>
<p>The findings were in direct contrast to a <a href="https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201617/cmselect/cmhaff/26/26.pdf">report from the Home Affairs Committee</a>, published two years earlier, which did include the testimony of sex workers and activist groups. It recommended that decriminalisation of some aspects of sex work would be a more beneficial approach for the safety of those trafficked and those choosing sex work than removing these platforms. </p>
<h2>Voices sidelined</h2>
<p>The parliamentary debate caused a great deal of outrage within sex worker circles. As Champion herself <a href="https://twitter.com/SarahChampionMP/status/1014257496918315008">wrote</a> on Twitter: “Just the thought of it has got social media engaged.” </p>
<p>But that engagement included a number of sex workers expressing fear for their lives. As the debate took place, sex workers and allies <a href="https://theconversation.com/banning-sex-work-advertising-online-will-put-sex-workers-in-danger-99457">gathered outside parliament</a> in protest, with <a href="https://www.rt.com/uk/431916-british-sex-workers-protest/">signs reading</a>, “outlaw poverty, not adverts”, “rights, not rescue”, and “are you seriously going to follow in Trump’s footsteps?” Even more took to social media to express their concerns. </p>
<p>In the <a href="https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2018-07-04/debates/50911795-3525-4F4A-B047-EF87047B5176/CommercialSexualExploitation">debate</a>, a number of MPs propagated damaging rhetoric surrounding sex work. Such myths included the conflation of <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/POL3040622016ENGLISH.PDF">consensual sex work with sex trafficking</a>, the idea that sex work is inherently <a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/juno_mac_the_laws_that_sex_workers_really_want/transcript?language=en">exploitative or abusive</a>, and that <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781134023318">sex work is less legitimate</a> than other forms of employment. </p>
<p>The debate included <a href="https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2018-07-04/debates/50911795-3525-4F4A-B047-EF87047B5176/CommercialSexualExploitation">multiple, shocking quotations from clients</a> deriding the services provided by sex workers, taken from an escort review service. These are undeniably unpleasant in tone. While the account of one former sex worker, who never worked in the UK, was cited, no testimony from current sex workers was referred to or quoted from throughout the session. How can a debate which prioritises the words of clients over the words of workers claim to support the rights of those involved in this particular form of labour? It is as absurd as using customer comments to demonstrate what working in retail is like.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/229416/original/file-20180726-106514-fck6gb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/229416/original/file-20180726-106514-fck6gb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/229416/original/file-20180726-106514-fck6gb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/229416/original/file-20180726-106514-fck6gb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/229416/original/file-20180726-106514-fck6gb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/229416/original/file-20180726-106514-fck6gb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/229416/original/file-20180726-106514-fck6gb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Some MPs have called for a ban on sex work advertising online.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/close-word-sex-on-computer-keyboard-70135693?src=CheYnLTGJKUp-XJVPjaUyA-1-1">Shutterstock</a></span>
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<h2>Stigma reinforced</h2>
<p>Doing this has much wider implications for sex worker safety. By perpetuating these misconceptions, the stigma against sex workers is reinforced, and they are further silenced. When all sex workers are painted as exploited, abused victims with a false consciousness, their autonomy is disregarded. They are infantilised, delegitimised and disempowered, often by paternalistic politicians who speak over them, rather than with them. </p>
<p>This is further exacerbated by the fact that many sex workers often belong to <a href="https://medium.com/@harleyfacepalm/sarah-champion-is-wrong-criminalising-sex-workers-online-adverts-will-lead-to-more-harm-7453cd7170a3">other marginalised groups</a>. In order to understand sex work, the first source of information should be those who conduct that work. Only then can the nature of the industry be truly understood.</p>
<p>Following the debate, a <a href="https://sps.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/university-of-bristol-research-on-prostitution-and-sex-work">public consultation</a>, currently being carried out by the University of Bristol and commissioned by the Home Office, is looking at the prevalence of prostitution and sex work in England and Wales. The research team are seeking input from: “People currently or formerly involved in prostitution and sex work, academics, NGOs/charities, criminal justice and health practitioners, police and others.” From their findings, recommendations will be made as to how best to proceed with policy. </p>
<p>Human trafficking is clearly a serious issue, and one that needs to be tackled. However, this cannot come at the expense of the safety of those who choose that line of work of their own volition. In the words of one sex worker:</p>
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<p>Sex workers need to be considered as the experts on their own profession, or else their marginalisation and exploitation will only be increased. When their incomes and lives are on the line, they cannot be silenced.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/100038/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rosie Hodsdon does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The opinions of current sex workers must be sought before any changes are made to the law governing the websites they use.Rosie Hodsdon, PhD Candidate in Law and Sexuality, Northumbria University, NewcastleLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/928832018-06-25T09:19:14Z2018-06-25T09:19:14ZIdeological war against the decriminalisation of sex work risks sidelining much of the evidence<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/217464/original/file-20180503-153888-1gkbbyj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/home">via shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>I’ve spent more than a decade researching controversial, sensitive topics. But in many ways, my <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/264457872_Women%27s_Open_Spaces_Evaluation_Final_Report">research</a> on the <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=QiUlDwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=erin+sanders+mcdonagh&ots=pEri0aPj0h&sig=t_i3dcy2f7C-Lw2t3LJAH7M2Tj4#v=onepage&q=erin%20sanders%20mcdonagh&f=false">sex industry</a> has been the <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Policing-the-Sex-Industry-Protection-Paternalism-and-Politics/author/p/book/9781138716629">most difficult</a>. This is in large part due to the contentious nature of debates on how to organise it. </p>
<p>These debates remain very current in Britain. Following the publication in May of an <a href="https://appgprostitution.uk/inquiry/">inquiry into “pop-up brothels”</a>, Gavin Shuker, chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Prostitution and the Global Sex Trade, <a href="https://www.politicshome.com/news/uk/home-affairs/law/house/house-magazine/95277/gavin-shuker-organised-sexual-exploitation">recommended</a> that in order to end sex trafficking, the government should criminalise paying for sex. The report has been criticised as “shoddy” by organisations such as the <a href="http://prostitutescollective.net/2018/05/press-release-another-sham-inquiry-from-the-self-appointed-partisan-all-party-parliamentary-group-on-prostitution/">English Collective of Prostitutes</a>, who suggest that decriminalising the sex industry is the best way to keep sex workers safe from exploitation.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://discoversociety.org/2016/07/05/prostitution-in-the-uk-today-radical-feminism-and-the-marginalisation-of-sex-workers-voices/">gulf between certain groups of feminists</a> on this issue is also deep and seemingly unbridgeable. Some feminists see sex work as the ultimate expression of patriarchal violence against women and call for the total abolishment of prostitution. Others, including me, recognise prostitution as a form of work and draw on human rights perspectives and the voices of sex workers – which include women, men, and trans workers – to come to this understanding of the issue.</p>
<p>Finding a way to navigate these divisions is fraught – and a recent book from British writer Julie Bindel, in my view, does little to help redress this. Bindel suggests the aim of her book, <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/The_Pimping_of_Prostitution.html?id=19o1DwAAQBAJ&source=kp_cover&redir_esc=y">The Pimping of Prostitution</a>, is to call out the “myths about the sex trade”. She presents a particular narrative that criticises the work of academics and sex work advocates whose ideas diverge from hers, particularly in relation to the decriminalisation of sex work.</p>
<p>There are <a href="https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/feminism/2015/10/difference-between-decriminalisation-and-legalisation-sex-work">key differences</a> between decriminalisation and legalisation. Decriminalisation, which I advocate, removes all laws and policies that criminalise sex work – including selling, buying, and organising. Legalisation hands control to the state to “manage” it, and can result in the further <a href="http://old.nswp.org/sites/nswp.org/files/fulltext1%20(2).pdf">marginalisation of certain groups</a>. </p>
<h2>The Nordic model</h2>
<p>Bindel argues that the “Nordic model”, under which the purchase of sex is criminalised, is far better than legalisation or decriminalisation. She <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=19o1DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA47&lpg=PA47&dq=a+handy+way+to+remove+any+notion+that+prostitution+is+based+on+the+oppression+of+women+julie+bindel&source=bl&ots=2cxKmdqbrm&sig=yU2OIYS64oMAYFaAcUgUbZNR3tU&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwivsdjw5NXbAhUhyqYKHRP4BJsQ6AEINzAC#v=onepage&q=As%20the%20evidence%20continues%20to%20mount%20on%20the%20disaster%20caused%20by%20legalisation%20and%20decriminalisation%20of%20the%20sex%20trade%2C%20so%20do%20the%20benefits%20and%20successes%20of%20the%20Nordic%20model.&f=false">notes</a>: “As the evidence continues to mount on the disaster caused by legalisation and decriminalisation of the sex trade, so do the benefits and successes of the Nordic model.” </p>
<p>However, <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Criminalising_the_Purchase_of_Sex.html?id=ZkaDBAAAQBAJ&source=kp_cover&redir_esc=y">research</a> from many activists and <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-nordic-model-of-prostitution-law-is-a-myth-21351">advocates</a> has <a href="https://genderate.wordpress.com/2016/02/21/why-the-nordic-model-sucks/">pointed to</a> problems with this kind of regime. </p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-nordic-model-of-prostitution-law-is-a-myth-21351">The 'Nordic model' of prostitution law is a myth</a>
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<p>Key research findings have demonstrated that under the Nordic model, sex workers experience substantial difficulties and dangers when selling sex, and face human rights violations as a direct result of this legislative mechanism. An <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/EUR3640342016ENGLISH.PDF">Amnesty International</a> report on Norway cited forced eviction, deportation, and the increasing abuse of sex workers from both police and clients as a direct impact of this policy. The organisation also provides some <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/qa-policy-to-protect-the-human-rights-of-sex-workers/">useful insights</a> into how criminalising clients can harm sex workers. </p>
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<p>It’s disappointing that research findings and evidence highlighting the well-documented and substantive problems with the Nordic model are not given the weight I believe they deserve by Bindel.</p>
<h2>The evidence for decriminalisation</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/qa-policy-to-protect-the-human-rights-of-sex-workers/">Decriminalising sex work</a>, on the other hand, has a clear evidence base when it comes to keeping people working in the sex industry safe. Many leading international human rights organisations, including <a href="http://www.undp.org/content/dam/undp/library/hivaids/English/HIV-2012-SexWorkAndLaw.pdf">the UN</a>, <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/qa-policy-to-protect-the-human-rights-of-sex-workers/">Amnesty International</a>, <a href="http://www.who.int/hiv/topics/sex_work/en/%22%22">the World Health Organisation</a>, and the <a href="http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/682211468331196525/pdf/NonAsciiFileName0.pdf">World Bank</a> support decriminalisation based on a wealth of empirical evidence. </p>
<p>In New Zealand, for example, the Prostitution Reform Act passed in 2003, <a href="http://www.nzpc.org.nz/The-New-Zealand-Model">after long consultations with sex workers</a>, shows that decriminalisation has yielded positive benefits for many sex workers, including enabling sex workers to speak more openly about problems they face, giving them better access to and support from police, and helping to ensure their voices are heard and that they can advocate for themselves. </p>
<p>Bindel provides some analysis of what she says are the overwhelmingly negative impacts of decriminalisation on, what she calls, “prostituted women”. She puts the terms sex worker in inverted commas throughout the text and argues the term sex work is used by the “pro-decriminalisation lobby” as it is “a handy way to remove any notion that prostitution is based on the oppression of women”. </p>
<p>However, these arguments have been contested by the <a href="https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2017/11/21/62355/nzs-approach-to-sex-work-under-fire">New Zealand Prostitutes Collective</a>. Some independent reports, such as a <a href="http://www.otago.ac.nz/christchurch/otago018607.pdf">2007 evaluation</a> by researchers at the University of Otago, have demonstrated the law’s success in reducing many of the harms associated with sex work. </p>
<h2>Listening to sex workers’ voices</h2>
<p>There are few “pro-prostitution” activists (as Bindel calls us) who suggest decriminalisation is a panacea for some of the issues that sex work presents – stigma is one of the biggest problems facing sex work and I argue that refusing to acknowledge sex work as work exacerbates this problem. Decriminalising sex work makes those working in the sex industry safer, and by listening to sex workers about what works, and what doesn’t, it becomes easier to make evidence-based policy that will yield the best outcomes for sex workers themselves. </p>
<p>The solutions to making the sex industry safer for the men, women, and trans folk who work in this industry are complex. However, we should look to approaches based on evidence that acknowledge the multiplicity of sex worker voices in different contexts to help guide decisions about what policy approaches are best placed to serve the needs of the people who are directly impacted by these laws. </p>
<p>Sex workers should lead the way in shaping legislation that fits the needs of their specific national or local contexts. Are there sex workers who experience violence and exploitation in the sex trade? Of course. There is <a href="http://virtualmentor.ama-assn.org/2017/01/sect2-1701.html">research</a> that suggests decriminalising sex work can help reduce exploitation and trafficking by ensuring those in the industry have access to appropriate services and can also help reduce stigma. Critically, many sex workers themselves have <a href="http://www.nswp.org/sites/nswp.org/files/4.%20Impacts%20of%20Other%20Legislation%20and%20Policy%20-%20The%20Danger%20of%20Seeing%20the%20Swedish%20Model%20in%20a%20Vacuum%2C%20Swedish%20Model%20Advocacy%20Toolkit%2C%20NSWP%20-%20December%202014.pdf">provided evidence</a> that <a href="http://www.scarletalliance.org.au/issues/swedish_model/">makes clear</a> that criminalising those who purchase sex puts all sex workers at greater <a href="https://www.swarmcollective.org/blog/statement-on-the-endemic-sexual-violence-perpetrated-by-police-officers">risk of violence</a> and exploitation. </p>
<p>Sex work is a human rights issue. Supporting sex workers has little to do with “choice feminism” as Bindel <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?redir_esc=y&id=19o1DwAAQBAJ&q=choice+feminism+to+defend+prostitition#v=snippet&q=choice%20feminism%20to%20defend%20prostitition&f=false">suggests</a>, but rather, a recognition that different sex workers are in different places and want, need, and desire different things. It’s far more difficult to say “it’s complicated”, to seek to explore this complexity and attempt to understand different perspectives that do not sit neatly with one’s own subjective ideas about what is right or good. But nuance is the hallmark of good research and it is the only way to come up with real, meaningful solutions for those working in this industry.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/92883/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Erin Sanders-McDonagh does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>No one legal ‘solution’ is right for all sex workers.Erin Sanders-McDonagh, Lecturer in Criminology, University of KentLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/922002018-04-05T10:07:00Z2018-04-05T10:07:00ZHow an uproar over aid and sexual exploitation ignored women’s actual experiences<p>The recent “Oxfam sex scandal” – during which some aid workers were accused of paying for sex with young women in vulnerable conditions – <a href="http://www.theweek.co.uk/in-depth/91833/oxfam-scandal-what-is-the-future-for-uk-foreign-aid">has focused almost exclusively</a> on the aid workers and aid organisations involved. But the perspectives and motivations of the young women who were paid for sex with money or material goods have hardly been discussed at all, and the contexts in which they live have been misrepresented and misunderstood.</p>
<p>The problem of transactional sex in areas hit by disaster, war, or extreme poverty is not strictly specific to the aid industry. Aid workers are not the only men who offer money and material goods in exchange for sex to impoverished young people – other foreigners, and also local men, are involved.</p>
<p>The focus on aid workers and their organisations has led to the mistaken belief that this problem can be solved mainly, if not exclusively, by punishing the culprits and the organisations for which they work. This thinking rests on the conflation of transactional sex with rape and sexual harassment – an issue that dates back to the United Nations (UN) “zero tolerance” <a href="https://peacekeeping.un.org/en/standards-of-conduct">policy towards sexual exploitation and abuse</a>, adopted in 2003. </p>
<p>That policy started with noble intentions. But it has <a href="http://www.e-ir.info/2015/10/21/the-uns-shame-sexual-exploitation-and-abuse-in-un-peacekeeping/">achieved little</a> in the way of curbing sexual exploitation by aid workers and peacekeepers. <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/237460031_Making_sense_of_zero_tolerance_policies_in_peacekeeping_sexual_economies">Some have argued</a> that the failure to distinguish between consensual and non-consensual sex is one of the causes of this inability. The zero tolerance policy has been criticised also for framing the problem as a simple question of discipline and conduct detached from the UN’s broader human rights agenda.</p>
<h2>The women’s perspective</h2>
<p>There is a long debate among feminists on whether sex work is inherently exploitative or not. But even if we concede that it is, we need to recognise one fundamental distinction: unlike other forms of abuse, many of transactional sex’s “victims” accept and even seek out these exchanges themselves as a means of improving their often dire circumstances.</p>
<p>“Transactional sex” is a catch-all term for a <a href="http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/wps/2018/02/06/shades-of-grey-in-sexual-exploitation-and-abuse/">wide continuum</a> of different relationships. At one end are relationships between adults that, even if an exchange of money and material goods take place, appear mutually beneficial; at the other end are relationships that are unambiguously damaging and exploitative. </p>
<p>The reporting on the Oxfam scandal often overlooked this distinction. Instead, the selfsame commentators who as a rule rail against the “white saviour” mentality <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/feb/20/oxfam-abuse-scandal-haiti-colonialism">reverted to exactly the same thinking</a> by portraying poor women in conflict and disaster-affected zones as helpless victims.</p>
<p>This is not to say that the worst-case scenarios aren’t real. During my own research in post-conflict Côte d’Ivoire, I witnessed cases at the extreme abusive end of the continuum. Among them were incidents where girls aged 13 or 14 were pushed by the lack of opportunities and family support to sell sex for the equivalent of less than a dollar. Their clients were not just international personnel, but also local men. I was struck by how little support and attention the aid and peacebuilding community gives to the most vulnerable girls and women involved in selling sex, and just how far down the list of priorities they seem to sit.</p>
<p>And yet, not all these contexts are alike. Many testimonies from women involved in these types of relationships in post-conflict and post-disaster settings paint a more complex picture. According to one <a href="https://www.stabilityjournal.org/articles/10.5334/sta.gf/">survey</a> of Haitian women who reported having had sexual encounters with UN peacekeepers in exchange for gifts and money, many “experienced transactional sex to be highly beneficial”. According to the author of the report, these relationships “helped them meet daily life needs and enabled them to access resources and opportunities to improve the economic status of their household”. </p>
<p>Still, many also reported serious episodes of sexual and physical abuse. The report concludes that the individual benefits are offset by the fact that transactional sex “replicates and often magnifies the power imbalance present in male/female sexual relationships” in Haiti.</p>
<p>Others from Haiti described similar complexities. The Times ran an <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/charity-scandal-he-liked-lesbian-shows-says-teenage-lover-of-haiti-director-roland-van-hauwermeiren-oxfam-r9w5tv0l3">interview with Mikelange Gabou</a>, the only young Haitian woman who agreed to talk about her relationship with a disgraced Oxfam staff member. Gabou did not describe herself as a victim; instead, she drew a distinction between her own experience and that of “other women” whom the man has, <a href="http://www.itv.com/news/2018-02-16/woman-tells-itv-news-she-began-relationship-with-orgy-loving-oxfam-ex-haiti-chief-roland-van-hauwermeiren-at-17/">in her words</a>, “done wrong”. One might argue that Gabou’s case stands at the middle of the continuum, and the case of the “other women” at the more clearly abusive end.</p>
<p>To be sure, those responsible for sexual exploitation must be punished. But whereas punishing the perpetrators of rape and sexual harassment can put an end to their abusive actions, impoverished people can simply find other men to sell to. The illusion that by simply punishing “our men” we can “save” these women is just another example of how a discourse that aims to challenge ethnocentrism actually ends up reinforcing it.</p>
<h2>How aid can help</h2>
<p>The only true solution is to transform the structural conditions of poverty, inequality and gender discrimination that push people into transactional sex in the first place. This is far more than aid can ever achieve by itself – but cutting aid, as some sections of the British right proposed in the wake of the Oxfam scandal, surely would not help. Instead, the way aid is administered must be rethought from the recipients’ point of view.</p>
<p>In post-conflict settings, the type of scenario I am most familiar with, aid agencies tend to focus on two groups: those that could disrupt the peace process, and those who can help change things for the better. Teenagers who sell sex belong to neither category. They’re also often difficult to work with; they might have substance abuse or mental health problems, making them unpredictable or even violent. But these are reasons to engage with them more, not less.</p>
<p>Even small efforts can make a difference. In Côte d'Ivoire, <a href="https://www.agi.it/blog-italia/africa/storia_di_dona_bambina_prostituta_che_sogna_di_fare_la_sarta-2082325/post/2017-08-23/">a small programme run by two Italian NGOs</a> is providing education and training to teenagers formerly involved in sex work. Programmes like this don’t just offer material support; they help their beneficiaries restore their self-respect and envisage a different life.</p>
<p>The aid industry cannot tackle these problems simply by disciplining its own workers. The international staff responsible for misconduct deserve punishment, but they don’t deserve all the attention. Attention should be given to the people who need it the most: the young women, and in some cases men, who have to make extremely difficult choices in extremely difficult circumstances.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/92200/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Giulia Piccolino has received research funding from the European Union Research Council, Compagnia di San Paolo and the Alexander Von Humboldt Foundation. She has been from September 2011 to June 2012 a United Nations Volunteer in charge of electoral assistance with the United Nations Operations in Côte d’Ivoire. She has no current affiliation with the United Nations or with any other relevant group. </span></em></p>It’s all too easy to miss the point about sex work in areas hit by conflict and disaster. How about listening to the people who experience it?Giulia Piccolino, Lecturer in Politics and International Relations, Loughborough UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/938102018-03-29T10:25:11Z2018-03-29T10:25:11ZThe Victorians portrayed paedophiles as strangers – and the myth persists today<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212426/original/file-20180328-109179-qdgiqr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/download/confirm/514093894?src=1ex8_Xx2QvZH5KV0li4wJQ-1-0&size=medium_jpg">Dm_Cherry/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Victorians portrayed paedophiles as scary strangers and social outsiders. By portraying them in this way, it was possible to avoid the unthinkable reality that children could be abused in respectable middle-class homes. </p>
<p>This myth of the stranger paedophile is still persistent today. And even though the evidence shows that most child sexual abuse is <a href="http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140673604167718/abstract">perpetrated by close family members</a>, the stranger myth continues to distract our attention from the most common type of abuse.</p>
<p>The way we understand child sexual abuse today has its roots in social and medical theories developed in the late-19th century. The stranger myth originated partly in these theories and also in sensational journalism and popular fiction. Because it was a taboo subject, it was impossible to represent child sexual abuse directly in cultural works like novels. It was even difficult to discuss it in textbooks or newspaper articles, and the focus was kept firmly on stranger perpetrators. </p>
<p>An important event that helped make the discussion of child sexual abuse public was the publication of a series of newspaper exposés of child prostitution in 1885 by the investigative journalist, WT Stead. With the sensational title, <a href="https://attackingthedevil.co.uk/pmg/tribute/mt1.php">The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon</a>, the reports described a booming London trade in providing young girls for violent sexual exploitation. </p>
<p>Another event that opened up the discussion was the <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4595948/">creation in 1896 of the medical concept of paedophilia</a>. It was publicised in a <a href="https://archive.org/details/psychopathiasexu00krafuoft">very successful textbook</a> on deviant sexuality, which focused on violent sexual crimes committed by strangers and almost entirely overlooked the act of incest. These treatments of the issue helped keep the focus off domestic problems. They allowed child sexual abuse to be <a href="https://www.crcpress.com/Child-Sexual-Abuse-in-Victorian-England/Jackson/p/book/9780415226509">portrayed as a lower-class problem of public morality</a>, associated with stereotypes of poverty, slums, substance abuse and poor hygiene.</p>
<h2>Gothic conventions</h2>
<p>In the realm of fiction, some writers got around the taboo by using the metaphors of gothic writing to sneak sexual content past the censor. In this way, child sexual abuse could be represented using the figure of the monster who preys on children. </p>
<p>For example, in Robert Louis Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886), there is a bizarre incident where Mr Hyde cruelly tramples a little girl underfoot on a nighttime London street. This has been <a href="https://books.google.ie/books?id=sK3SeTvmm7QC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false">interpreted</a> as a covert reference to the problem of child prostitution, coming just after the maiden tribute scandal the year before.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212624/original/file-20180329-189824-2wzlm6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212624/original/file-20180329-189824-2wzlm6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212624/original/file-20180329-189824-2wzlm6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212624/original/file-20180329-189824-2wzlm6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212624/original/file-20180329-189824-2wzlm6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212624/original/file-20180329-189824-2wzlm6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212624/original/file-20180329-189824-2wzlm6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The monstrous Mr Hyde, who ‘tramples’ a young girl.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10048960">National Printing & Engraving Company/Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The vampirism in Bram Stoker’s Dracula, probably the best-known Victorian gothic tale, has <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/2928560">long been interpreted as violently sexual</a>. But the fact that most of the vampires’ victims in the book are children, means it too can be read as covertly representing child sexual abuse. By showing highly sexualised monsters preying on children, Dracula and many similar popular tales may have helped to circulate the stranger myth to a wide audience. </p>
<p>Gothic writing also gave credence to the stranger myth in another important way. Because it was difficult to describe child sexual abuse directly, even the non-fiction accounts often used gothic conventions to hint at unmentionable acts. The child prostitution articles used the sensational metaphor of the “sacrifice” of girls to the “insatiable” “maw” of “the London minotaur”. And the medical textbook, which featured a number of cases that involved cannibalism, even referred to the perpetrators of sexual murder as “modern vampires”.</p>
<h2>Victorian attitudes die hard</h2>
<p>Although it is no longer taboo to discuss child sexual abuse or to describe it explicitly, it is still not an experience or issue that is easily raised, especially when it occurs in a domestic setting. The <a href="https://arrow.dit.ie/icr/vol10/iss1/1/">focus is still on extreme cases</a> committed by strangers and treated in a sensational way by the media, such as the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Madeleine_McCann">disappearance of Madeleine McCann</a>. </p>
<p>And the modern horror genre still seems to be used often to engage with child sexual abuse, with a continuing tendency to distance the perpetrators by making them monstrous. For example, in the classic 1984 horror movie, Nightmare on Elm Street, Freddy Krueger was <a href="http://www.overlookpress.com/categories/screams-and-nightmares-1.html">originally conceived of as a child molester</a>, and this is made <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/nightmare-film-casts-freddy-child-molester-70239">explicit in the 2010 remake</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212423/original/file-20180328-109196-mhjcr4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212423/original/file-20180328-109196-mhjcr4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=797&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212423/original/file-20180328-109196-mhjcr4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=797&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212423/original/file-20180328-109196-mhjcr4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=797&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212423/original/file-20180328-109196-mhjcr4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1002&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212423/original/file-20180328-109196-mhjcr4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1002&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212423/original/file-20180328-109196-mhjcr4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1002&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Freddy Krueger, originally conceived as a child molester.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=23238422">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Although we like to think we live in more enlightened times, we seem to be reproducing the unhelpful disavowal of domestic child sexual abuse that was so prevalent in Victorian times, and over-focusing on “stranger danger” and extreme cases. We are now willing to point the finger at institutional abuse, for example, but we are still unwilling to admit that child sexual abuse happens behind the closed doors of ordinary-seeming families. And this makes it even more difficult for the survivors of abuse to deal with their experiences.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/93810/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ailise Bulfin receives funding from the Trinity College Dublin Wellcome Trust-SFI-HRB co-funded Institutional Strategic Support Fund. </span></em></p>Most child sex abuse happens within families, but we still cling on to the Victorian idea of paedophiles as outsiders.Ailise Bulfin, Research Fellow, ‘Catalysing Neurohumanities research into Child Sexual Abuse’, Trinity College DublinLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/898582018-02-13T19:06:27Z2018-02-13T19:06:27ZSex and the sisterhood: how prostitution worked for women in 19th-century Melbourne<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/206094/original/file-20180213-58318-w6vydr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Little Lonsdale Street in the 1870s: a number of brothels were located in the area known as 'Little Lon'.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">State Library of New South Wales.</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Sex work was one of the major ways poor women could earn a reasonable income in the 19th century. Especially unmarried women with babies. But we don’t hear people say “my great-great-grandmother was a sex worker”. Nor do we often meet these women in our history books. Social stigma belies the importance of prostitution in providing an independent living, and even property ownership, for numerous women in this period.</p>
<p>Prostitution is often lumped together with crime and slums in the historical imagination, but it wasn’t illegal in gold rush Victoria. Nevertheless neighbours in the “respectable” suburbs complained if women danced in the streets or appeared without a bonnet or showed their petticoats, so the police tried to confine sex workers to particular areas. </p>
<p>“These women must live somewhere”, the police said in the superintendent’s 1874 report, and that “somewhere” was the <a href="https://collections.museumvictoria.com.au/articles/31">Little Lon</a> district in Melbourne CBD’s north east corner, where the “dressed girls” were kitted out and lived in the “flash brothels” under the supervision of madams, and the less expensive street-walkers took their customers to the “short-time houses” and timber cottages in the back lanes.</p>
<p>Perhaps the most famous inhabitant of this patch was <a href="http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/meet-the-real-madame-brussels-dubbed-the-wickedest-woman-in-melbourne/news-story/0dd971e5767923978db6d73d49baac12">Madame Brussels and her Bellevue-Villa</a>, still commemorated today with a bar of the same name on Bourke Street.</p>
<p>Clientele came from everywhere and every class, but proximity to the all-male enclave of parliament and treasury was a distinct advantage for these fancy brothels. Despite being legal, though, women had to keep quiet or risk arrest and imprisonment under laws against “disorderly behaviour” and “vagrancy”.</p>
<p>The area has been extensively excavated by a series of archaeological projects over the last 30 years, and our recent intensive research on the artefacts recovered (held at Museum Victoria and Heritage Victoria) is revealing much more about the brothels and the women who owned them that had disappeared from memory. </p>
<h2>Mrs Bond’s flash brothel</h2>
<p>The brothel owned by one Mrs Bond on Lonsdale Street was so quiet that no-one knew it was there until archaeologists dug up her back yard in 1988. The excavators speculated that the site had been a brothel and our work on the artefacts has confirmed it.</p>
<p><a href="https://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=320293533963920;res=IELAPA">Alicia Bond arrived</a> in Little Lon from Ireland as a widow but with a de facto husband suffering from tuberculosis. In 1862 she had three young children to support, and when her son attacked her de facto husband <a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/5714099?searchTerm=John%20Sheridan&searchLimits=exactPhrase%7C%7C%7CanyWords%7C%7C%7CnotWords%7C%7C%7CrequestHandler%7C%7C%7CdateFrom=1862-04-30%7C%7C%7CdateTo=1862-04-30%7C%7C%7Cl-advstate=Victoria%7C%7C%7Csortby">she reported at the trial</a> that “she could not see her children starve”. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/203697/original/file-20180129-100929-1l9viik.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/203697/original/file-20180129-100929-1l9viik.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/203697/original/file-20180129-100929-1l9viik.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/203697/original/file-20180129-100929-1l9viik.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/203697/original/file-20180129-100929-1l9viik.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/203697/original/file-20180129-100929-1l9viik.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/203697/original/file-20180129-100929-1l9viik.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/203697/original/file-20180129-100929-1l9viik.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Absinthe bottle recovered from Mrs Bond’s rubbish pit (Museum Victoria collection)</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Bronwyn Woff</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>She “had at first taken in washing”, she said to the court, “and then had to keep a brothel to support the family”. She started by renting a back lane cottage for a brothel, and eventually bought her own house on the main street and opened a grocery shop. She then poured her earnings into buying cottages which she rented out to other sex workers.</p>
<p>This cover was very effective and the only reason we know about her brothel is because the artefacts recovered included an uncommonly large number of bottles (champagne (77), imported spirits (4) and <a href="https://www.chemheritage.org/distillations/magazine/the-devil-in-a-little-green-bottle-a-history-of-absinthe">absinthe</a> (10)) amongst the rubbish in her back yard, together with over 300 oyster shells. Archaeological evidence shows Melburnians often ate oysters at this time, but they seemed particularly popular at brothels.</p>
<p>Such luxury items were typical of the higher class brothels, where the selection of dinner services and drinking glasses <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/25616131?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">projected middle class status in order to create a familiar environment</a> and attracted a wealthier clientele than the back lane cottages. Mrs Bond’s brothel was not in the class of Madame Brussels’, but it had at least eight rooms and a prominent Lonsdale Street frontage. </p>
<h2>Mary Williams’s disorderly house</h2>
<p>Around the corner and down a side street, Mary Williams rented two very basic, detached two-room cottages from Mrs Bond. Rubbish discarded in her cesspit indicates a very different class of brothel. There were no imported champagne or absinthe bottles here, only beer/wine bottles (90), two gin/schnapps bottles, one cognac bottle and 165 oyster shells.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/206119/original/file-20180213-44654-7ckkk8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/206119/original/file-20180213-44654-7ckkk8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/206119/original/file-20180213-44654-7ckkk8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=677&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206119/original/file-20180213-44654-7ckkk8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=677&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206119/original/file-20180213-44654-7ckkk8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=677&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206119/original/file-20180213-44654-7ckkk8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=851&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206119/original/file-20180213-44654-7ckkk8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=851&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206119/original/file-20180213-44654-7ckkk8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=851&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Mary came from Ireland via a brief marriage in Adelaide, but in 1870, when she was still in her twenties, she left South Australia with George Williams and found herself in Little Lon. Within months George was in prison for theft and in 1872 Mary was described by a policeman as a “drunkard” running one of the most disorderly houses in the lane. She had two babies while she was there, but both died in infancy. </p>
<p>Mary Williams’ brothel doubtless attracted less well-to-do clients than Mrs Bond’s and Madame Brussels’, but sex work provided her with a better standard of living than domestic service or factory work could have done.</p>
<h2>A working community</h2>
<p>Sex work in the Little Lon district was fraught with dangers, but it also had its upside. Women worked on their own, with friends, or in brothels run by madams (not by men). There was a community of support around the women, often including relatives and the publicans, pawn brokers, grocers and dressmakers they patronised.</p>
<p>Both sides of the coin are evident in the story of Mary Murray, who rented one of Mrs Bond’s cottages. She died after being badly beaten by a client, but it was a friend who took her to hospital. The women relied on each other and there are many other stories of support. For example, when Mary Williams went into labour, she was attended by a neighbour.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/203700/original/file-20180129-100926-1ancvp8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/203700/original/file-20180129-100926-1ancvp8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/203700/original/file-20180129-100926-1ancvp8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/203700/original/file-20180129-100926-1ancvp8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/203700/original/file-20180129-100926-1ancvp8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1006&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/203700/original/file-20180129-100926-1ancvp8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1006&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/203700/original/file-20180129-100926-1ancvp8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1006&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bond family tombstone, Melbourne General Cemetery.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Barbara Minchinton</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For some women in this era, sex work was about survival, but for others it was a way of life that offered a rare measure of income and independence. Wages for the kind of domestic work available to women with children (like Mrs Bond) were extremely low, and even lower for girls. In 1878 two young women earning 12 shillings a week as domestic servants told a policeman their wages “wouldn’t keep them in boots”, and they earned more from street work on their nights off. </p>
<p>After her de facto husband’s death, Mrs Bond raised her three sons on the proceeds of her brothel. At the same time, she poured her earnings into property, living and running her grocery/brothel in one house, and renting others to sex workers like Mary Williams and Mary Murray. When Mrs Bond died <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14490854.2017.1286704">her property portfolio would have been the envy of many</a>. </p>
<p>This era of relative independence for female sex workers was not to last. The idea of “respectability” was growing and groups like the Salvation Army and the church missions saw prostitution as primarily a moral issue rather than an economic one.</p>
<p>Soliciting in the streets was criminalised in 1891, and the <a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/59718604">Police Offences Act 1907</a> made it illegal for landlords and madams to profit from prostitution. This effectively put the flash brothels out of business and sent Victoria into an era of protection rackets and women working under the surveillance and control of men.</p>
<p><em>Are you an academic with an idea for our sexual histories series? Please contact suzy.freeman-greene@theconversation.edu.au if so.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/89858/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah Hayes receives funding from Australian Research Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Barbara Minchinton receives funding from Australian Research Council.</span></em></p>Rubbish excavated from brothels sheds light on sex workers’ lives in the 19th century. Despite the dangers, prostitution offered an independent living free of male control.Sarah Hayes, Research Fellow in Archaeology and History, La Trobe UniversityBarbara Minchinton, La Trobe UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/871162018-01-19T14:12:53Z2018-01-19T14:12:53ZHow trafficked children are being hidden behind a focus on modern slavery<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/202410/original/file-20180118-158528-1slfyko.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">shutterstock</span> </figcaption></figure><p>The crime of modern slavery has received much attention in the last few years. The British government introduced the <a href="http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2015/30/contents/enacted">Modern Slavery Act</a> in 2015, and the prime minister, Theresa May, <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/07/30/we-will-lead-the-way-in-defeating-modern-slavery/">said she wanted</a> “tough new penalties to put slave masters behind bars where they belong”.</p>
<p>But what exactly do we mean by “modern slavery”? According to the <a href="http://www.antislaverycommissioner.co.uk/">UK’s Anti-Slavery Commissioner</a>, modern slavery <em>is</em> human trafficking. But they are not the same thing – and putting them under the same title puts some victims at risk of being ignored.</p>
<p>The term “modern slavery” invokes a moral outrage that no one would disagree with. There are frequent <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/42719044/modern-slavery-nail-salons-using-trafficked-individuals">news stories</a> of vulnerable people being forced to work in appalling conditions and “slave drivers” being prosecuted for labour exploitation. The new focus on labour exploitation requires businesses to demonstrate supply chain transparency and produce “modern slavery statements” to show that it is not taking place in their companies. </p>
<p>But this focus also detracts from other forms of trafficking that are taking place. Child trafficking, in particular, remains hidden by all the attention focused on modern slavery. Children are not likely to be visible in labour markets, which are dominated by adults – a factor exacerbated by the clandestine operations of traffickers exploiting children within private homes, cannabis factories or brothels.</p>
<p>We already know that children and young people who are trafficked are not just exploited for their labour. Children can be bought, sold and resold by abusers who mistreat them sexually and physically, or use them to commit crime. </p>
<p>We need to uncover the exploitation and harm of children in forms which are not yet recognised as child trafficking. Children being sold the dream of modelling contracts in London, Paris or Milan, for example, who instead experience drug abuse, sexual exploitation and rape.</p>
<p>The present economic focus of modern slavery is far too narrow and adult-focused. </p>
<p>The UK has just started to make inroads into understanding what human trafficking is, how it happens, the impact on victims and the many forms it can take. So why change what we call it? </p>
<h2>An opportunity missed</h2>
<p>The Modern Slavery Act was an opportunity to make it easier for victims to come forward. But the legislation took a different direction, focusing on prosecuting those abusing labour for profit. </p>
<p>It also introduced tougher penalties for traffickers and gangmasters – yet shockingly, more <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9767000/9767836.stm">victims were being prosecuted</a> for crimes associated with trafficking than traffickers. Later, in response to concerns that victims continued to be criminalised, the Act introduced a statutory defence clause for them.</p>
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<p>Yet for children, that clause involves a “reasonable person test”, which places onus on the children themselves to provide evidence of their trafficking, in order to access protection from prosecution. But how can a child <em>prove</em> they were psychologically manipulated, coerced or sold a convincing story of the hope of better life opportunities? </p>
<p><a href="http://opus.bath.ac.uk/50783/">New research</a> with children who have been trafficked has highlighted that a system which is meant to support victims remains <a href="http://opus.bath.ac.uk/50783/1/GEARON_Alinka_PhD_Thesis_29_5_16.pdf">focused on immigration and prosecution</a>. This approach does not help children, or support them to escape conditions of slavery. </p>
<p>In some situations, when children have come forward to the police or immigration officials, they have been not been believed and instead been <a href="http://opus.bath.ac.uk/50783/">left in the hands of traffickers</a> – even when the children were explicitly stating they were being hit, beaten, used or sold for sex. Children are arrested and prosecuted for trafficking-related crimes and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2013/dec/20/trafficking-victims-forced-crime-let-down-police">some end up in adult prisons</a>.</p>
<p>Until this changes, children will remain hidden and continue to suffer multiple and repeated abuse. Urgent reform is needed. </p>
<p>The research with trafficked children also highlighted that when they approached frontline agencies for help, they were too often <a href="http://opus.bath.ac.uk/50783/">met with racism and xenophobia</a>. They felt they were not listened to and not believed in an immigration-driven system. Yet the Home Office, with its economic and immigration focus, continues to be responsible for tackling “modern slavery” including child trafficking. </p>
<p>The system is not helping. We need to listen to what victims of trafficking abuse are actually telling us. In the UK, the Department for Education should urgently take control of child trafficking as a child protection and welfare problem to better address the harm and abuse children suffer. </p>
<p>Child trafficking is not a migration or immigration issue – and the motive for dealing with it should not be economic or prosecution focused. Children need help from adults to stop abuse and exploitation. Their protection should be the priority above all other matters.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/87116/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alinka Gearon does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Young victims remain at risk because current laws are focused on concerns over immigration and the economy.Alinka Gearon, Lecturer in Social Work specialising in child trafficking and child protection, University of BathLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/881232018-01-14T23:27:27Z2018-01-14T23:27:27ZWho are we talking about when we talk about prostitution and sex work?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/201812/original/file-20180112-101495-jtxwfq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Legislative issues around prostitution have the ability to lead the conversation and determine research priorities. Here, Terri-Jean Bedford makes a victory sign with Nikki Thomas, left, and Valerie Scott, right, after the Ontario's Court of Appeal struck down a ban on brothels in 2012. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Aaron Vincent Elkaim</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/AnnualStatutes/2014_25/page-1.html">Prostitution is now illegal in Canada</a>. A criminal offence occurs every time sexual services are exchanged for compensation. </p>
<p>Canada’s new prostitution laws — which came into force in 2014 — are consistent with laws now in place in Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Northern Ireland, France and the Republic of Ireland. This approach — often referred to as <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/prostitution-laws-should-follow-nordic-model-former-sex-trade-worker-says-1.2554978">the Nordic model</a> — criminalizes the purchase of sexual services in an effort to end the practice of prostitution itself. </p>
<p>In Canada, <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3031586">four new criminal offences target prostitution</a> and the development of economic interests in prostitution. Those who exchange their own sexual services for compensation cannot be prosecuted for their participation in the commission of the new offences. </p>
<p>Is prostitution itself harmful and exploitative? Or is sex work a legitimate form of labour that people should be permitted to safely engage in as a matter of personal choice? </p>
<p>This is the polarized debate playing out worldwide as countries struggle over how to legislate the commercial exchange of sex. The arguments are largely ideological, but they lead social discourse and influence what is researched, what problems are identified and what solutions are proposed. </p>
<p>One way of reconciling this divided debate is to identify who we are talking about when we talk about prostitution and sex work. </p>
<p>Prostitution is an activity. Those who support the Nordic model see that activity as harmful and seek to end its practice. Sex work is now frequently used to describe prostitution when engaged in by a subset of participants — adults, who consent, and who have not been coerced or trafficked. Advocates argue that sex work is a matter of individual choice and it can be made safer by decriminalizing all aspects of adult prostitution. </p>
<h2>The debate over prostitution and sex work</h2>
<p>In enacting the new prostitution laws, Parliament identified prostitution itself as a problem. Parliament expressed concerns about the exploitation inherent in prostitution and the risks of violence posed to those who engage in it. Those supporting the legislation expressed the belief that prostitution could not be made safe. </p>
<p>Parliament also expressed the view that prostitution causes social harms, including the objectification of the human body and commodification of sexual activity. To protect the human dignity and equality of all Canadians, they enacted laws focused on discouraging the activity of prostitution.</p>
<p>Some scholars agree with Parliament’s assessment of the problems associated with prostitution. They <a href="http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/tpp/jgbv/2017/00000001/00000001/art00008;jsessionid=rju38wl79th3.x-ic-live-01">describe the activity of prostitution itself as a form of violence against women </a>. They describe it as both a cause and consequence of gender inequality. </p>
<p>Researcher <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/meagan-tyler-2215">Meagan Tyler</a> <a href="https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=-QTtCwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA87&dq=meagan+tyler&ots=qQVjr8qQJr&sig=La76yWjImEsCkPsPYDEm6le3N_k#v=onepage&q=meagan%20tyler&f=false.">identifies three distinct types of harm to women</a> who engage in prostitution: The increased likelihood of experiencing physical and sexual violence; the psychological harm, including post-traumatic stress and dissociation; and the harm associated with the sex of prostitution itself which, she argues, dehumanizes and objectifies women.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/201813/original/file-20180112-101511-17jabb0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/201813/original/file-20180112-101511-17jabb0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201813/original/file-20180112-101511-17jabb0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201813/original/file-20180112-101511-17jabb0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201813/original/file-20180112-101511-17jabb0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201813/original/file-20180112-101511-17jabb0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201813/original/file-20180112-101511-17jabb0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The Joy Smith Foundation works to end human trafficking in Canada.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.joysmithfoundation.com/">Joy Smith Foundation</a></span>
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<h2>Definitions: Prostitution vs. sex work</h2>
<p>Words are important in framing this debate. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.canlii.org/en/ca/scc/doc/1990/1990canlii105/1990canlii105.html?autocompleteStr=Reference%20re%20&autocompletePos=3">The Supreme Court of Canada defined prostitution in the <em>Prostitution Reference</em> case</a> as “the exchange of sexual services of one person in return for payment by another.” This definition has been consistently applied by all levels of courts in Canada. </p>
<p>Most advocates of the Nordic model or “end demand” approaches to prostitution focus on the activity of prostitution. </p>
<p>The term sex work was first used in a conscious effort to recast people selling sexual services as workers. In the 1970s, the sex workers’ rights movement began to reconstruct the problems associated with prostitution. Focus shifted from the activity itself to the individual rights of those who engaged in it. Prostitution was reframed as sex work and prostitutes as sex workers.</p>
<p>Like the general public, courts are increasingly using the term “sex work” in deference to the perceived preference of those who identify as sex workers and/or to recognize sex work as legitimate work. However, no Canadian court has to date defined the term and it’s often used interchangeably with prostitution. </p>
<p>Whose interests are included and whose are excluded when we use the term sex work? Whose rights are sex workers’ rights?</p>
<p>Over time, definitions of the term sex work have evolved. Sex work is now often used to refer to a subset of participants engaged in the activity defined as prostitution. The interests and experiences of some prostitution participants are, therefore, excluded from research and advocacy.</p>
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<span class="caption">Legislative issues have the ability to lead the conversation and determine research priorities. Here former Justice Minister Peter Mackay argues for Bill C-36.</span>
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<h2>The fight for sex workers’ rights</h2>
<p>In Canada, <a href="https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/pivotlegal/pages/1960/attachments/original/1480910826/PIVOT_Sex_workers_Report_FINAL_hires_ONLINE.pdf?1480910826">sex workers’ rights advocates recommend repealing all criminal laws that prohibit the purchase or sale of sexual services by adults</a> and all criminal laws that limit adults from working with others in non-coercive situations. They argue that Canada’s existing adult prostitution laws are unconstitutional and violate the rights of sex workers. </p>
<p>The primary problems associated with sex work are identified as the role of stigma, criminal law and law enforcement in increasing the risks experienced by sex workers. Decriminalizing and destigmatizing sex work are important goals of the sex workers’ rights movement. Advocates suggest that decriminalization has the potential to make the activity of prostitution safer.</p>
<p>Some scholars agree that criminal laws and law enforcement strategies increase sex workers’ risk of experiencing harm while engaging in sex work. For example, research suggests that criminal laws preclude sex workers from taking steps that could reduce their risk of experiencing violence. Some such measures include screening clients ahead of time and working together with others.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.canlii.org/en/ca/scc/doc/2013/2013scc72/2013scc72.html?autocompleteStr=bedford&autocompletePos=1">In 2013, in finding three criminal prostitution laws unconstitutional, the Supreme Court of Canada agreed</a>. They reasoned that the existing laws increased the risks of violence to prostitutes. They provided Parliament with 12 months to decide how to respond, and Parliament responded with the new legislation.</p>
<h2>Sex workers aren’t trafficked</h2>
<p>In recent advocacy promoting decriminalization of adult prostitution, three distinct characteristics distinguish sex workers from the broader group of people who engage in prostitution: They are not trafficked, they are consenting and they are adults.</p>
<p>A distinction is drawn between so-called forced prostitution (trafficking) and free prostitution (sex work). Advocates suggest that people have a right to choose sex work as an occupation, and that if they choose that occupation, they have the right to engage in it without violations of their human rights.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.amnestyusa.org/files/amnesty_policy_human_rights_of_sex_workers_-_embargoed_-_final.pdf">Amnesty International recently adopted a policy calling for the decriminalization of all aspects of adult consensual sex work</a>. Amnesty defines sex work to include only consensual sex. Amnesty’s definition of sex work has been adopted by sex workers’ rights advocates in Canada.</p>
<p>Sex work is most often used to refer only to exchanges of sexual services between adults.</p>
<h2>What about other prostitution participants?</h2>
<p>If the word prostitution and the term sex work do not reflect the interests of the same individuals or groups, several things might concern us. </p>
<p>Should policy be generated on the basis of the rights of sex workers alone, or should the interests of everyone who engages in or is affected by prostitution be taken into account? </p>
<p>The proposal that all adult sex work be decriminalized is in fact a proposal that all adult prostitution be decriminalized. That is - that all criminal laws prohibiting the activity of prostitution when engaged in by adults be repealed. </p>
<p>This places full responsibility for avoiding harm on the individuals who engage in prostitution. <a href="http://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/revicos18&div=12&id=&page=">This may not in all cases be reasonable or appropriate</a>. In the <a href="https://www.canlii.org/en/ca/scc/doc/2013/2013scc72/2013scc72.html?autocompleteStr=bedford&autocompletePos=1"><em>Bedford</em> case</a>, for example, the Supreme Court of Canada found that many prostitutes have no meaningful choice but to engage in prostitution.</p>
<p>Not every adult who consents to exchange sexual services in the absence of coercion identifies as a sex worker or accepts that decriminalization would reduce the risk of experiencing the harms they experience in prostitution. For example, organizations such as <a href="http://www.spaceintl.org">SPACE International</a> advocate for the rights of prostitution survivors. Many survivors describe prostitution itself as the cause of harm. They <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzC7BU6m7gg">advocate for criminalization</a> of the demand for paid sexual access to human beings, similar to the legislation in place in Canada.</p>
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<h2>Never truly consensual?</h2>
<p>When we talk about sex work, we are increasingly talking about the interests and experiences of the least vulnerable subset of prostitution participants — consenting adults who have not been coerced or trafficked. However not everyone who fits this definition identifies as a sex worker or agrees with the policy proposals put forward on behalf of sex workers. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/13/books/review/paid-for-by-rachel-moran.html">Rachel Moran is an outspoken advocate for the Nordic Model </a> who suggests that prostitution is never truly consensual. <a href="http://carolyngage.weebly.com/blog/review-of-prostitution-narratives-stories-of-survival-in-the-sex-trade">Others who identify as sex trade survivors agree</a>. </p>
<p>Should the rights claims asserted on behalf of sex workers preclude Parliament from legislating in response to the broader range of harms associated with prostitution? This is a question that should be before the court when the eventual challenge to Canada’s new prostitution laws is heard. </p>
<p>Responding only to the problems associated with the commercial exchange of sex between consenting adults ignores or disregards many of the problems associated with prostitution itself and experienced by others who engage in it. </p>
<p>Is it possible to construct a legislative response that addresses the problems of both prostitution and sex work? Clear definitions will allow researchers and legal decision makers to better consider this question. It is important that attention is paid to how words are used, and whose interests are included and excluded when they are used. </p>
<p>Legislating at the intersection of choice and inequality may be one of the greatest challenges facing lawmakers in today’s society.</p>
<p>The reality is that almost all buyers are men. Most sellers are women. <a href="https://www.nwac.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/2014_NWAC_Human_Trafficking_and_Sexual_Exploitation_Report.pdf">Indigenous women are over-represented in prostitution in Canada</a>. Most women exchange their own sexual services for compensation because they need money. Some because they lack alternatives. Not every adult who consensually exchanges sexual services for compensation does so as a matter of choice.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/88123/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Debra M Haak does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Prostitution is now illegal in Canada. Is prostitution harmful and exploitative? Or is sex work a legitimate form of labour?Debra M Haak, PhD Candidate and Teaching Fellow, Queen's University, OntarioLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.