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As we slide election-ward (and I know many people who have already voted) I wanted to mention that I’ve gotten a number of queries about my feelings on Prop K — a San Francisco measure that would decriminalize prostitution. I’ve directed friends and readers to my in-depth piece for the SF Chronicle, Sex Work Is Not a Crime: Violet Blue explains why we need Prop K and decriminalized prostitution more than ever. But in a somehow even more timely moment of journalism about sex work, The Economist has Policing prostitution: The oldest conundrum in which they survey sex work and criminality (or not) around the globe, how that’s worked out (or not) and they’re looking very closely at what’s going to happen here in San Francisco. Read mine, and theirs, and then see what you think. Snip:
WHEN the Netherlands legalised brothels eight years ago, the mood was upbeat. Politicians thought they were well on the way to solving one of the world’s perpetual policy dilemmas: how to stop all the bad things that are associated with the sex trade (coercion, violence, infectious diseases) while putting a proper, and realistic, limit to the role of the state.
The Dutch were hoping that links between prostitution and multiple forms of crime, from money laundering to smuggling, could finally be severed. Ultimately, they believed, the buying and selling of sexual services would become a freely undertaken transaction, in which the state would only be involved as a regulator and tax-collector. The police could then concentrate on criminals, instead of harassing people engaged in exchanges that were nobody’s business but their own.
While the Dutch experiment was beginning, another European country was trying out a different approach. From 1999 onwards, Sweden began penalising people who patronise prostitutes (through fines, jail terms of up to six months, and “naming and shaming”), while treating people who sell their bodies as victims.
All over the world—especially in rich democracies—policymakers have been watching the two places to see which philosophy works best. In reality, neither is a silver bullet; neither country has found a perfect way of shielding prostitutes from exploitation and violence, while avoiding a nanny-state. So the arguments rage on, from liberal New Zealand to San Francisco, where people will vote on November 4th on virtually decriminalising the sex trade.
In Amsterdam—where the spectacle of half-naked women pouting behind shopfront windows is a city trademark—the link between prostitution and organised crime has proved durable. Efforts to break it have been a “complete failure”, says Lodewijk Asscher, a deputy mayor who has led the city hall’s effort to buy up and transform much of the red-light district. (…read more, economist.com)
This was a big clarifier to my thoughts – I had heard about the Netherlands and Sweden, and thought that both weren’t quite the right solution, especially that of Sweden.
I hadn’t heard about New Zealand, though. They do seem to have their heads screwed on right on a lot of things.
Thank you for posting this. I was honestly two minutes away from emailing you to ask you your thoughts. My wife and I both are torn on the issue and your voice helps clarify it greatly.