Whenever discussion ensues about how best to advance the rights and well-being of people working in prostitution the suggestion most people come up with is to legalize prostitution. Legalization of prostitution means that the government regulates both sex workers and prostitution; and can involve laws that prohibit certain prostitution related activities (such as Sweden, who in 1999 legalized the selling of sexual services but criminalized the buying of sexual services
), which create poor and/or even dangerous working conditions (Ericksson, 2005; Jacobsson, 2006).
Although legalization of prostitution in places like Germany, the Netherlands and Nevada (in the United States) have improved the health and safety of sex workers, they have still not afforded sex workers the same rights as other employees, as sex workers are often subjected to exploitive working conditions, as well as being required to pay special taxes in addition to regular income taxes (Klinger, 2003). It is because no form of legalization has ever benefited the rights of sex workers as workers that sex worker rights activists and organization call for the decriminalization of prostitution, rather than for its legalization.
In
which makes it illegal for any residence or commercial unit to be used as place for prostitution, as well as prohibiting anyone from taking another person to a place that is used for prostitution. The second set of laws are known as the Procuring laws
(or the ‘pimping’ laws), these laws prevent anybody from earning money off a sex worker, or enticing anyone to become a sex worker. The third law is the Communication law
which criminalizes the negotiation of sex for money in a public place (a public place includes a restaurant, bar, vehicle, street, and even private residences with open windows or doors
), this law is supposed to target both the client and the sex worker equally but, the majority of the time it is only the sex worker who is charged with this offence (Betteridge & Csete, 2005).
Due to these laws it is not only extremely difficult to practice prostitution legally, but it is also difficult for sex workers to work in safe conditions. For example, the bawdy house laws prevent sex workers from being able to work in an environment that they know and feel safe in (like a brothel, house, apartment, commercial unit, etc), this forces sex workers to have to go to their clients place or hotel room (where their may be weapons, or have other people hiding inside) in order to work within the law. The procuring law prohibits sex workers from being able to hire security personal (such as a driver, or body guard), and makes it illegal for a sex worker to refer a client to another sex worker, or to arrange to have another sex worker join them with a client. The communication law prevents sex workers from being able to meet or, assess their clients in a public place before going someplace alone with them (Betteridge & Csete, 2005), leaving them in an extremely vulnerable position.
Escort services are one of the safest ways to work legally in
An escort service is a business which offers and “provides an introduction between twos person for a period of companionship for which a fee is charged, levied, or imposed” (Devine, 1999). Since escort services state that they only charge for “companionship” rather than sexual services they are not committing an illegal act (even though it is common knowledge that escorts provides sexual services), if the escort and client become sexually intimate it is considered to be private. Furthermore, if the escort decides to charge additional money for sexual services he/she is not committing an illegal act as long as the escort and client are in a private place.
Escorts can also work for themselves, instead of through an escort service, and place ads in the newspaper (so long as they do not explicitly advertise sexual services for money, and only provide “out calls” i.e. providing companionship at the client’s residence rather then at the home or workplace of the escort – this applies to escort services as well). Escort service agencies must obtain an Escort Services license, and in some municipalities (such as Vancouver, and Windsor) escorts who work for an escort service are also required to be licensed
, which can range anywhere from $105.00 a year in Winnipeg to $600.00 a year in Calgary (City of Winnipeg, 2007; Benoit & Millar, 2001). And in places like
The reasoning behind licensing escort services and escorts is to off-set the costs of law enforcement, attempt to regulate and keep sex work off the streets, and to use a portion of the money collected from licensing to provide educational support and counselling services to assist escorts who want to leave the occupation (Gardner, 2002; Kohm & Selwood, 2004; Matika-Tyndale & Lewis, 2000).
Although the licensing of escort services has afforded sex workers some level of safety (i.e. a driver drops off and picks up the escort, the agency knows the address and telephone number of who the escort will be seeing), sex workers who are working for escort services still face huge legal barriers in regards to safety and working conditions.
Escorts are typically hired as independent contractors
and as such are not eligible for unemployment benefits, sick leave, vacation pay, health benefits, injury compensation, or able to pay into pension plans (Pivot, 2006). Escorts also have to give more than 50% of their wages to the escort agency, are responsible for paying for their own ads, and must pay the escort service driver a portion of their earnings.
Although all sex workers are required to pay income taxes (whether legal or not), many are hesitant to do so they do want to declare themselves as sex workers for fear of repercussions,
while others do not feel like they should have to pay taxes on an industry for which they get little protection or rights (Pivot, 2006).
In the state of
Although these brothels provide sex workers with a safe working environment, as many employ a number of safety precautions including panic buttons, intercoms, management surveillance and security guards (Weitzer, 2005) and in the county of Lyon brothels are required to surround their property with a fence no shorter than 6 feet tall that is equipped with a buzzer and a locking device that can be opened remotely from within the brothel (Meretrix, 2000). Since there is no alternative other than to work in a brothel in
For instance, most brothels require sex workers to work in shifts that are usually 12 – 14 hours long (Meretrix, 2000), as well as require that the sex worker reside at the brothel during the duration of their work which can last from one week to a few months[12] (Albert, 2001).
All sex workers working in one of Nevada’s legal brothels must also be licensed (anyone previously convicted of a prostitution related offence is denied a license), this licensing process consists of a $50.00 licensing fee, undergoing a medical exam, and providing the county police station with a recent photograph and fingerprints.
Most brothels charge sex workers expensive fees including room and board expenses, work card, runner and house fees. On top of that sex workers must also give up more than 50% of their earnings to brothel management and 10% to cab drivers[13]. Sex workers must also be licensed and undergo mandatory testing[14] for HIV and other STI’s on a weekly basis (Monet, 2005). Although no sex worker working in one of Nevada’s legal brothels has ever tested positive for HIV since testing began in 1986 (Houge, 2004), if a sex worker did test positive while employed at a brothel the sex worker could be subject to felony charges. (Thompson, 2000) These tests are not covered by the brothel but, rather the sex workers themselves which, in 2000, costs $50.00 for the weekly exam and around $85.00 for the monthly exam (Albert, 2001). There are many critics of mandatory health checks as it promotes the myth that sex workers are vectors of the HIV virus, and may also put sex workers at risk with their clients who may refuse to use a condom after finding out the sex worker is free of diseases (Scott, 2004; Legros, 2005). Moreover since sex workers who work in
Another benefit to this new law is that sex workers are no longer mandated to undergo compulsory HIV or STI testing (Kilvington & Ward, 2001), which prior to the new law sex workers were forced to register and undergo mandatory testing which resulted in the majority of sex workers working unregistered[17], and created a two-tier system of registered and unregistered sex workers, with second having less access to health care (Mak, 1997).
In view of the fact that there is currently no model of legalization anywhere in the world that provides sex workers the same equal rights as any other employee, sex worker rights activists and organizations often call upon the decriminalization of prostitution. Decriminalization refers to the total removal of the prostitution laws, and treats the sex industry in a similar way to many other sectors in society. In contrast, legalization enforces criminal laws to regulate sex workers and the sex industry. Decriminalization on the other hand “regulates sex workers and sex work activities without using criminal law while recognizing labour rights and responsibilities” (Shaver, 2005).
In places that have decriminalized systems (such as New Zealand and New South Wales[21]), sex workers are entitled to the same workplace protections as other industries, are able to join unions, and are covered by occupational health and safety standards (Smith, 2003; Bernett, 2007). In
Sex workers must still pay income taxes but, unlike many legalized systems sex workers are not obliged to pay any special taxes; they are taxed at the same rate as any other small business owner (Scott, 2004). It is for these reasons that sex worker rights advocates and organizations promote the decriminalization of prostitution as a way to improve the health and working conditions of sex workers, as well as ensuring that sex workers have the same equal rights as other workers.
Chapter 6, section 11 of the Swedish Penal Code states: "A person who obtains casual sexual relations in exchange for payment shall be sentenced – unless the act is punishable under the Swedish Penal Code – for the purchase of sexual services to a fine or imprisonment for at most six months. Attempts to purchase sexual services is punishable under Chapter 23 of the Swedish Penal Code." (Swedish Code of Statutes, 2005)
210 Bawdy Houses : (1) Every one who keeps a common bawdy-house is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years. (2) Every one who (a) is an inmate of a common bawdy-house, (b) is found, without lawful excuse, in a common bawdy-house, or (c) as owner, landlord, lessor, tenant, occupier, agent or otherwise having charge or control of any place, knowingly permits the place or any part thereof to be let or used for the purposes of a common bawdy-house, is guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction. (3) Where a person is convicted of an offence under subsection (1), the court shall cause a notice of the conviction to be served on the owner, landlord or lessor of the place in respect of which the person is convicted or his agent, and the notice shall contain a statement to the effect that it is being served pursuant to this section. (4) Where a person on whom a notice is served under subsection (3) fails forthwith to exercise any right he may have to determine the tenancy or right of occupation of the person so convicted, and thereafter any person is convicted of an offence under subsection (1) in respect of the same premises, the person on whom the notice was served shall be deemed to have committed an offence under subsection (1) unless he proves that he has taken all reasonable steps to prevent the recurrence of the offence.
211 Transporting a person to bawdy-house: Every one who knowingly takes, transports, directs, or offers to take, transport or direct, any other person to a common bawdy-house is guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction.
212 Procuring: 1) Every one who (a) procures, attempts to procure or solicits a person to have illicit sexual intercourse with another person, whether in or out of Canada, (b) inveigles or entices a person who is not a prostitute to a common bawdy-house for the purpose of illicit sexual intercourse or prostitution, (c) knowingly conceals a person in a common bawdy-house, (d) procures or attempts to procure a person to become, whether in or out of Canada, a prostitute, (e) procures or attempts to procure a person to leave the usual place of abode of that person in Canada, if that place is not a common bawdy-house, with intent that the person may become an inmate or frequenter of a common bawdy-house, whether in or out of Canada, (f) on the arrival of a person in Canada, directs or causes that person to be directed or takes or causes that person to be taken, to a common bawdy-house, (g) procures a person to enter or leave Canada, for the purpose of prostitution, (h) for the purposes of gain, exercises control, direction or influence over the movements of a person in such manner as to show that he is aiding, abetting or compelling that person to engage in or carry on prostitution with any person or generally, (i) applies or administers to a person or causes that person to take any drug, intoxicating liquor, matter or thing with intent to stupefy or overpower that person in order thereby to enable any person to have illicit sexual intercourse with that person, or (j) lives wholly or in part on the avails of prostitution of another person, is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding ten years.
(2) Despite paragraph (1)(j), every person who lives wholly or in part on the avails of prostitution of another person who is under the age of eighteen years is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding fourteen years and to a minimum punishment of imprisonment for a term of two years. (2.1) Notwithstanding paragraph (1)(j) and subsection (2), every person who lives wholly or in part on the avails of prostitution of another person under the age of eighteen years, and who (a) for the purposes of profit, aids, abets, counsels or compels the person under that age to engage in or carry on prostitution with any person or generally, and (b) uses, threatens to use or attempts to use violence, intimidation or coercion in relation to the person under that age, is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding fourteen years but not less than five years. (3) Evidence that a person lives with or is habitually in the company of a prostitute or lives in a common bawdy-house is, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, proof that the person lives on the avails of prostitution, for the purposes of paragraph (1)(j) and subsections (2) and (2.1). (4) Every person who, in any place, obtains for consideration, or communicates with anyone for the purpose of obtaining for consideration, the sexual services of a person who is under the age of eighteen years is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years and to a minimum punishment of imprisonment for a term of six months. (Department of Justice
213 Communicating for the purposes of prostitution: (1) Every person who in a public place or in any place open to public view (a) stops or attempts to stop any motor vehicle, (b) impedes the free flow of pedestrian or vehicular traffic or ingress to or egress from premises adjacent to that place, or (c) stops or attempts to stop any person or in any manner communicates or attempts to communicate with any person for the purpose of engaging in prostitution or of obtaining the sexual services of a prostitute is guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction. (Department of Justice
Police have been known to entrap indoor sex workers with the communication offence (s. 213) by negotiating sex for money in a private residence with a window or door slightly ajar. (Matika-Tyndale & Lewis, 2000)
In some municipalities, (including
Body rub and massage parlour attendants are also required be licensed. The cost of a massage parlour attendant license in
Attendants in massage and body rub parlours are also hired as independent contractors. (Maticka & Lewis, 2000)
Revenue
[10] These counties include Elko, Humboldt, White Pine,
[11] Section 201.354 of the Nevada Revised Statutes state: 1. It is unlawful for any person to engage in prostitution or solicitation therefore, except in a licensed house of prostitution. 2. Any person who violates subsection 1 is guilty of a misdemeanor. (
[12] Sex workers are allowed fresh-air breaks in the enclosed front and back yards only. Sex workers can obtain weekend passes to leave the premises at the discretion of the brothel management. (Albert, 2000)
[13] Since section 201.430 of the Nevada Revised Statutes prohibits brothels from advertising their services in print, media, or on billboards (Nevada Revised Statutes, 2007), brothels rely on cab drivers to promote their business to their clients. In return for bringing customers to the brothel cab drivers receive 20% of what the client spent at the brothel (cab drivers can usually pick up their money the next day), 10% of this comes from the brothel and the other 10% comes from the sex workers earnings. (Albert, 2001)
[14] “Sex workers in
[15] On
[16] Since 2002 the German Unified Service Sector Union (Vereinte Dienstleistungsgewerkschaft, ver.di) has allowed sex workers to obtain membership to their union. (Lopes, 2005)
[17] Before the new law there were approximately 50,000 registered sex workers and a further 150,000 unregistered sex workers in
[18] In the