Protecting Women

Louise Nousratpour
Tuesday March 4, 2008
The Morning Star

LOUISE NOUSRATPOUR looks at how the reform of prostitution laws has taken on an extra urgency.

DEMANDS for a universal DNA database have filled the media since the conviction of Steve Wright and Mark Dixie for the violent murder and horrific abuse of women.

Both men were convicted on the basis of previously registered genetic data. But civil rights advocates and everyone wary of a "big brother" state were relieved when the government agreed that such a database would be a step too far.

However, the cases raised another issue on which ministers must now focus - violence against women.

Wright murdered five young women, all of whom worked as street prostitutes in Ipswich, for no other apparent reason than that they were easy prey for his psychotic, misogynist impulses.

Sweden has legally recognised prostitution as a form of violence against women and children. Laws were introduced in 1999 to criminalise the buying of sex, while offering prostitutes services such as housing, education, training, drug rehabilitation programmes and welfare.

The number of people in prostitution has since shrunk by half to an estimated 1,000, compared to 80,000 in Britain, and sex traffickers are advising each other to steer clear of Sweden. As a result, the country has the lowest number of trafficking victims in Europe.

The vast majority of women in prostitution are poor, homeless and have already suffered violence and sexual abuse throughout their life. Numerous international studies have found that up to 90 per cent of them would leave the sex industry if they had alternative options.

So, why do British ministers refuse to see prostitution for what it really is and follow the Swedish example?

Drug charity the Iceni Project has shown in practice that the Swedish model can work for Britain, though it stresses that proper resources and an iron commitment to law enforcement is key to its success.

Since the Ipswich murders, the charity has spearheaded a campaign that has helped 28 of the 30 women prostitutes in the area off the streets.

"It ain't rocket science," says Iceni director Brian Tobin. Ipswich police target kerb crawlers, while the charity offers women help to beat their drug addiction and find alternative work.

Critics of the Swedish model in Britain are calling for the decriminalisation of all aspects of the sex industry as the best way to protect women from associated violence and crime.

But prostitution cannot be divorced from substance abuse, beatings or vulnerability to rape. Neither can we ignore medical evidence that the high levels of sexual activity endured by prostitutes leave their internal organs permanently battered.

Recent UN reports have found that "many of the chronic symptoms of women in prostitution are similar to the long-term physical consequences of torture."

Amsterdam City Council admits that the red light district is a "haven" for organised crime and, in New Zealand, where prostitution is decriminalised, children's charities warn of a growing number of underage prostitutes.

Some New Zealand MPs believe that the 2003 Prostitution Reform Act has "failed." Independent MP Gordon Copeland is campaigning for the Swedish model, saying: "More and more women are beginning to realise that gender equality will remain unattainable so long as men buy, sell and exploit women through prostitution."

In Britain, a new campaign, entitled the Feminists Coalition Against Prostitution (FCAP), has just been launched to promote the Swedish approach of criminalising demand and decriminalising prostitutes.

It comes at a crucial time, when the government is considering an overhaul of British laws around prostitution.

The first step, argues FCAP co-founder Finn Mackay, is for all police records of prostitutes on the sex offenders' list to be wiped out.

"Such criminal records make it almost impossible for women who want to leave prostitution to get a job," she warns.

A fleet of Home Office ministers have embarked on a six-month fact-finding mission around Europe. Their visit to Sweden in January will probably be followed by a trip to the Netherlands, where prostitution is legalised through a system of licensing.

The latter has proved to be very unpopular and the government is slowly catching up with increasing public support for Swedish-style legislation as the only way to stifle the sex industry.

Campaign Against Trafficking in Women co-ordinator and former adviser to the Swedish government Gunilla Ekberg proudly observes that the introduction of the 1999 Act "has led to better rape laws and higher sentences for offenders of domestic violence."

The opposition claims that the law doesn't work because it has driven prostitution underground and women are not benefiting from the social support promised to them.

"The problem is not the law," Ekberg retorts, "but how much energy and resources a government is prepared to invest in making it work. Also, because of the inherently criminal nature of prostitution, no law can stop underground activity without suppressing the industry altogether."

The most common argument against efforts to suppress the sex industry is that prostitution is "the oldest profession" in the world.

"Well, it isn't, agriculture is," affirms Denise Marshall of Eves Housing 4 Women. "Besides, similar arguments can be made about rape, child abuse and domestic violence. Should we legalise them too?"

Decriminalisation means treating prostitution as any other type of work.

So, where would we draw the line? Should colleges be allowed to offer vocational training in brothels? Or job centres advertise prostitution as a perfectly legitimate "choice" for young mothers on the dole?

Indeed, anecdotal stories from the Netherlands suggest that unemployed women are encouraged to enter the sex industry to get them off benefits. And British job centres sparked outrage last year for advertising £100-an-hour "escort" jobs on their website.

A society which gives prostitution employment status is sending a message that torture is acceptable, gender-specific violence is "human nature," equality unachievable and welfare on its way out.

"The left must fall behind the Swedish model as part of the wider struggle for equality," Mackay stresses.

Supporters are being encouraged to write to their MPs and put motions to their trade union during the forthcoming conference season.