Prostitution, Politics & Policy

Roger Matthews

• Publisher: Routledge-Cavendish
• Year: 2008
• ISBN:
  9781134046652
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Law
• Subtopic: Law Theory & Practice
• Index: Law

Prostitution has become an extremely topical issue in recent years and attention has focused both on the situation of female prostitutes and the adequacy of existing forms of regulation. Prostitution, Politics & Policy brings together the main debates and issues associated with prostitution in order to examine the range of policy options that are available.

Governments in different parts of the world have been struggling to develop constructive policies to deal with prostitution – as, for example, the British Home Office recently instigated a £1.5 million programme to help address the perceived problems of prostitution. In the context of this struggle, and amidst the publication of various policy documents, Prostitution, Politics & Policy develops a fresh approach to understanding this issue, while presenting a range of what are seen as progressive and radical policy proposals. Much of the debate around prostitution has been polarized between liberals – who want prostitution decriminalized, normalized and humanized – and conservatives – who have argued that prostitution should be abolished. But, drawing on a wide range of international literature, and providing an overview that is both accessible to students and relevant to policy makers and practitioners, Roger Matthews proposes a form of radical realism that is irreducible to either of these two positions.

Chapter 1
Why has prostitution become an issue?

Introduction

Prostitution has until recently been an ‘invisible’ issue. Despite the many thousands of women involved in the sale of sexual services, and even greater numbers of men who purchase these services, research and publications on prostitution for much of the post-war period has been relatively limited. For most of this period the street trade has been largely confined to certin red light districts and therefore out of sight to the general public. Consequently, from the 1950s to the 1980s there has been relatively little public or political concern focused on prostitution and its regulation remains largely based on reducing the visibility of prostitution and confining it to certain locations.

The focus of attention has been mainly directed at the women involved in prostitution and at street prostitution rather than the off-street trade. In many countries, including the UK there has until recently been very little interest in male clients. However, in England and Wales legislation was introduced in the 1980s to address what was seen as the increasing problem of kerb crawling, while in the same decade the sanction of imprisonment was removed for soliciting related offences (see Benson and Matthews 1996; Self 2003). A limited number of Private Members Bills were tabled between the 1960s and the mid 1980s, but the issue of prostitution remained relatively muted, except when it involved high-profile celebrities and politicians (Denning 1993).

However, in the late 1980s prostitution came increasingly to the forefront of public attention and moved up the social and political agenda in different countries around the world including most European countries, America, Canada and Australia. A number of factors contributed to the change of interest. These included the growing concerns about the spread of HIV/ AIDS, the growth of prostitute support and campaigning groups, increased public demands to control street prostitution, the declaration of the ‘war on drugs’, the growing preoccupation with trafficking and the visible increase in the number of foreign women involved in prostitution as well as greater concern for children involved in prostitution. Underpinning many of these developments has been a growing feminist interest in this issue, which has become manifested in a number of lively, and at times, heated debates among feminists of different persuasions (Ericsson 1980; Jaget 1980; Millett 1975; Nagle 1997; O’Neill 2001).

The HIV/AIDS panic

Whereas in the 1960s and 1970s prostitution in the UK had largely been conceived a problem of public order, during the 1980s it increasingly became seen as a medical issue linked to the growing concerns about the spread of HIV/ AIDS. In many respects, the shift towards the medicalisation of prostitution in this period was reminiscent of the nineteenth century debates about the spread of syphilis and other sexually transmitted diseases (Rosenberg 1988; Walkowitz 1980). As the panic about the spread of HIV/AIDS intensified during the 1980s, prostitutes were quickly identified as a potential ‘vehicle’ of transmission between marginalised populations and respectable society. Many policy makers saw prostitution as a potential ‘bridge’ between the underclass and mainstream society. As in the nineteenth century, images of dirt, disease and contagion abounded and the prostitute, through her acknowledged promiscuity, was seen as a likely carrier of contagion (Corbin 1990).

The fears about the spread of HIV/AIDS were intensified by the knowledge that there was no known cure, and claims in the media that the spread of HIV/AIDS could be more devastating than the Black Death heightened anxieties. Moreover, the increasing mobilisation of powerful medical metaphors of contagion and invasion justified the introduction of urgent and severe measures to halt the spread of the disease. Increasingly, HIV/AIDS was associated with evil and was seen to infect the body but also to exploit social vulnerabilities. As Susan Sontag (1983) has argued, the sexual transmission of this illness was considered by most people as a calamity one brings on oneself and increasingly AIDS became seen not only as a disease of sexual excess but of perversity.

Not surprisingly, the public and policy makers focused attention on the prostitute who was increasingly constructed as an object for medical investigation. Research agencies and a new body of experts emerged to soak up the funding that was being directed at the issue. Research funding, which had been conspicuously absent in previous decades, suddenly became widely available to those who were prepared to try to limit the possibilities of contamination via commercialised sexual activity, by focusing on those who were seen as potentially one of the main ‘carriers’ of the disease – the prostitute.

However, after a number of years of panic it became increasingly evident that female prostitutes had, in general, a relatively low level of HIV, unless they happened to be intravenous drug users. Research increasingly revealed that the spread of HIV/AIDS was largely concentrated amongst intravenous drug users and homosexual men, despite the repeated warnings that it would soon spread to the general population. It also became apparent in those female prostitutes who did contract HIV, that the most likely source of infection was the woman’s husband or boyfriend (Darrow 1990). By the early 1990s policy makers in Europe and America cautiously concluded that prostitution played no major part in the spread of HIV, although the emphasis on the need to practice ‘safe sex’ remained in force. By this time the distribution of condoms and lubricants by the newly established support agencies had become well established as part of a harm minimisation strategy.

In a period in which concerns about the possible transmission of HIV/AIDS were focused on prostitution it might have been expected that the dominant policy position would have been to try to reduce the number of people involved in prostitution. But many of the newly established agencies, which had been specifically set up to support and monitor prostitutes were not particularly interested in discouraging clients in this way. Rather, they argued that funding should be maintained, if not increased, and although they conceded that female prostitutes posed little risk in relation to HIV transmission, they warned that without continued vigilance there was a real danger that HIV could affect both prostitutes and their clients.

This ambivalent position is expressed by one of the leading researchers and commentators on the subject. He states:

(As noted earlier), it is unrealistic and would probably be counterproductive to attempt to discourage, reduce or even ban prostitution. Such a policy would have adverse effects for AIDS prevention, since it would inevitably deter people from seeking proper health care. Measures are needed to greatly increase contacts between prostitutes, their clients and health services. People should be encouraged to seek regular check-ups with the guarantee of a ‘user friendly’ confidential service. In areas in which prostitution is extensive, specialist health workers should be appointed who should if necessary seek out prostitutes to enlist their participation in health checks and AIDS prevention activities.

(Plant 1990:202)

Martin Plant spoke on behalf of many of the newly arrived quasi-medical agencies who wanted to maintain a well resourced but more sanitised trade in sexual services. These agencies wanted to continue to supply condoms and lubricants as well as give advice, rather than contemplate the reduction of the number of women involved in prostitution and thereby reducing the overall number of commercial sexual encounters.

There was, of course, no formal contradiction between the objectives of reducing the scale of prostitution and finding ways of encouraging women to practice safer sex. The argument that developing measures to discourage or reduce prostitution would in some way undermine the provision of health services is disingenuous and suggests that the main interest of these newly formed health agencies was to maintain a manageable, dependent and accessible clientele. There was little or no interest in addressing the often oppressive, coercive or exploitative situation in which many of their ‘clients’ operated.

It largely escaped the attention of these agencies and their funders that the focus was primarily on the female prostitutes while their male clients went largely unchecked. The ideology that the disease resided in the female body was sustained and the female prostitute continued to be seen as the ‘carrier’ of disease. This in turn fuelled the conception of prostitutes as impure and disease-ridden.

As it became increasingly evident that female prostitutes had a relatively low level of HIV infection and the HIV/AIDS panic gradually subsided in the early 1990s, the funding for these health agencies decreased. Consequently, many redefined their role and objectives. Increasingly, they began providing a different range of services and acted as representatives of female prostitutes and in doing so they rejected abolitionism and regulationism and advocated a more liberal harm reduction approach (Ward and Day 1997). Their work inspired the creation of a number of agencies providing healthcare, advice, outreach work, drop-in centres and other services for women involved in prostitution with the consequence that by the end of the 1990s over 100 agencies had been set up in the UK with nearly all urban centres having at least one specialist agency.

The growth of prostitute support and campaigning groups

During the 1970s and 1980s a number of groups emerged in Europe and America to represent and promote the rights of prostitutes. Some of these groups like COYOTE (Call of Your Old Tired Ethics) in America and the ECP (English Collective of Prostitutes) in the UK advocated the decriminalisation and normalisation of prostitution. That is, they set out to counter the stigmatisation, which was directed at women involved in prostitution and to challenge some of the popular stereotypes of the prostitute. They oppose in general any form of state interference in the operation of the sex market arguing that the state should not be involved in the legislation of morality (ECP 2004; Jenness 1990).

Although these and similar groups in other countries claim to include and represent prostitutes, the involvement of active prostitutes is very limited. One survey for example, found that approximately 3 per cent COYOTE’s members were practising prostitutes (Weitzer 2000). Interviews with active prostitutes in the UK in the mid 1980s found that the overwhelming majority of women working on the streets in London had not heard of the ECP and were not aware of the policies that they advocated (Matthews 1986a). A local survey carried out at that time with women involved in street prostitution found that approximately a quarter supported decriminalisation while almost three quarters advocated some form of state regulation (Dunn 1984).

The lack of participation of working women, however, has not detracted from the impact and publicity which these groups were able to mobilise. Through a stream of publications, radio and television appearances and exposure through other media they provide a critical opposition to government policy and regularly contributed to public and political debates on the subject.

In the Netherlands organisations such as ‘Red Thread’ (Rode Draad) have similarly been influential in challenging Dutch policy on prostitution, arguing that prostitution is a profession and should be dealt with pragmatically by the government. Its main concerns are the rights and working conditions of women involved in prostitution and campaigning for the decriminalisation of prostitution; although it appears to give some support to the policy of legalisation, which has been recently introduced in the Netherlands. Other European countries have national agencies that actively attempt to promote what they see as the best interest of those involved in prostitution. There are also pan-European agencies such as EUROPAP (European Network for HIV-STD Prevention in Prostitution), which as the name suggests is primarily concerned with health issues. It is interesting to note, in passing, that these relatively long standing organisations that advocate the normalisation and de-stigmatisation of prostitution still use the term ‘prostitute’ rather than ‘sex worker’. The term ‘sex worker’ did not become common currency until the 1990s with the establishment of a growing number of locally based agencies.

The development of locally based agencies providing a range of support and outreach work mainly for those involved in street prostitution has changed the political and organisational framework of prostitution in the UK. In contrast to the national organisations, they tend to be more ‘hands on’. Working in specific localities with identifiable ‘clients’ and increasingly in conjunction with a range of other agencies, including community representatives, these agencies are more ingrained in local politics. They advocate a predominantly ‘non-judgemental’ approach and are involved on a daily basis in the politics of prostitution and therefore have to exercise some flexibility in terms of both policy and practice.

In the UK these different local ‘sex work’ projects have organised themselves into the United Kingdom Network of Sex Work Projects (UKNSWP), which currently represents 79 projects. Its role is to coordinate activities of the various local projects and to campaign on their behalf at a national level. Recently, the UKNSWP engaged in a campaign to introduce ‘toleration zones’ in England and Wales and this option forms one of the main planks of its policy programme (Van Doorninck and Campbell 2006).

One of the most high profile campaigns, which the UKNSWP and other prostitute-orientated groups have mounted, has been the reduction of violence from clients. Although the issue of violence has been mainly client centred with only passing reference to the violence that those involved in prostitution experience at the hands of pimps or partners, campaigns such as the ‘ugly mugs’ initiative have been mobilised in an attempt to both reduce violence and simultaneously draw attention to the frequent attacks experienced by women working on the street.

The ‘ugly mugs’ and similar campaigns, which have circulated details of known offenders, have sensitised both the public and the police who are now under increasing pressure to take reports of violence against women involved in prostitution seriously. The increased concern with violence against street prostitutes, however, has had a number of consequences. First, it has increasingly identified the prostitute as a victim. Second, it has probably deterred many would-be prostitutes from engaging in prostitution or alternatively encouraged those involved in street prostitution to leave ‘the game’. Third, it has almost certainly led to greater public awareness of the association between violence and street prostitution and made some residents more reluctant to accommodate prostitution in their neighbourhoods.

How influential these local and national support groups have been in influencing social attitudes and policy making is difficult to estimate, but there is little doubt at the local level the growing number of prostitutes support agencies has profoundly altered the political complexion in many areas of the UK. This has resulted in new forms of governance and modes of regulation (Scoular and O’Neill 2007). They have probably been most influential in mobilising sympathy and understanding for the prostitute amongst local agencies and served to present a more positive image of those involved in prostitution. Working with the police and other agencies they have advocated non-enforcement policies and the impact of this strategy is reflected in the substantial decrease in the number of female prostitutes arrested in England and Wales over the past decade for soliciting (Matthews 2005).

One of the primary objectives of the i...

Table of contents

• Contents
• Preface
• Table of legislation
• Chapter 1 Why has prostitution become an issue?
• Chapter 2 Prostitution myths
• Chapter 3 Prostitution, vulnerability and victimisation
• Chapter 4 Pathways into prostitution
• Chapter 5 Desistance and exiting from prostitution
• Chapter 6 The politics of prostitution
• Chapter 7 Regulating prostitution
• Bibliography
• Index