Should Prostitution Be Decriminalized?
Alarmingly, there is a growing movement to fully decriminalize prostitution across the Nation. Even Amnesty International and The World Health Organization are getting behind decriminalization while an increasing number of states are including it in their legislative agenda. They are among a growing number of people who mistakenly believe that full-decriminalization will lead to a decrease in trafficking and exploitation and that it is the solution for increasing safety for prostituted people.
Support for this is also being fueled by “sex workers” rights groups who, although they represent the minority of people in prostitution, tend to be the most vocal. The exploited, trafficked, voiceless, marginalized and most vulnerable tend not to speak up as often or as loudly. Their voices are not being heard in this discussion and they need to be.
Sex workers rights groups in favor of full decriminalization do not represent the 89% of women who want to leave prostitution, but see no other options for survival.[1] They do not represent the majority of women who find themselves trapped in prostitution due to vulnerability and lack of viable alternatives. Those working towards legalizing prostitution also do not represent the 84% of women in prostitution who, as research shows, are under third-party control or pimped or trafficked.[2]
I recognize that some of you reading this have worked in prostitution. As a survivor of exploitation, I know what it is like to feel trapped and not see other options or a way out. I acknowledge that many of you were in positions where prostitution was the only way you could keep a roof over your head or food on the table for you and your children. My goal is not to judge that. In fact, my hope in writing this is to see systemic change where prostitution is not the only viable option for your survival. I want to see the kind of change that will enable you to pursue you dreams and passions and live a thriving life. Please hear my heart in this. If you need support, we are here for you.
For the rest of you, I want you to know that the vast majority of people working in prostitution are not consenting adults who, feeling empowered by a plethora of other employment options, decide that selling their bodies for sex is their most desirable career.
Prostitution turns people into products. Inherently, it is built on systems of gender inequality where people are dehumanized and sexually exploited for the pleasure and gratification of buyers. Highlighting issues of gender equality is the reality that a large majority of those being sold for sex are women and girls [3], while men make up 99% of sex buyers [4].
LEGALIZATION/DECRIMINALIZATION DOES NOT DECREASE EXPLOITATION AND TRAFFICKING
There are those who mistakenly believe that fully decriminalizing prostitution will actually reduce crime and provide women the rights, freedom and protection they need in order to safely work in prostitution. The truth is, in places where prostitution is legal or decriminalized, there is an exponential increase in exploitation and trafficking. In a study of prostitution and trafficking in 150 countries, it was concluded that on average, countries with legalized prostitution had greater inflows of human trafficking.[5]
Further proving this, legalized Prostitution in Nevada has led to an increase (not decrease) in the state’s illegal sex trade. In fact, Nevada has the highest rates of illegal sex trade in the country, adjusted for population. It is 63% higher than the next highest state of New York and double that of Florida.[6] This dismantles the myth that full decriminalization will decrease unregulated prostitution or sex trafficking. Wherever prostitution is legal or decriminalized, the demand for commercial sex skyrockets, which provides a great incentive to pimps and sex traffickers to push more women into the marketplace to sell.
As a survivor of sexual exploitation and the founder of Treasures, an organization that has dedicated over 15 years to serving women in the commercial sex industry and survivors of exploitation and trafficking, I believe that every single person on this planet is worth more than the objectification, sexualization and dehumanization that the industry is built upon. I want to dispel the myths surrounding decriminalization campaigns and give a voice to people whose voices you might not be hearing from—those who are being harmed by the human rights crisis that is prostitution .
So, how is this a human rights crisis? Here is what we need you to know…
THE MOST VULNERABLE ARE THE MOST SUSCEPTIBLE
Those who find themselves susceptible to prostitution are among society’s most vulnerable. Research shows that 49% of women in prostitution have histories of childhood physical assault.[8] Up to 95% were sexually assaulted as children.[9] In one study, 70% of women interviewed noted that childhood sexual abuse had an influence on their entry into prostitution.[10]
Alarmingly, early adolescence is the most frequently reported age of entry into any type of prostitution.[11] And it is estimated that between 60[12]-86%[13] of domestic sex trafficking victims have been in foster care.
Furthermore, despite the overwhelming majority of media portrayals of prostitution and trafficking being images of white women and children, the truth is, people of color are disproportionately exploited. In fact, according to the FBI, 59% of domestic minor trafficking victims in the United States are African American girls (more than any other racial group). Despite the fact that they only make up 15% of the total child population. Indigenous women and girls are also trafficked at astronomically high rates. The fetishization of Black, Indigenous and Women of Color and the adultification of Children of Color have been long-standing issues in America which continue to lead to increased vulnerability to exploitation and trafficking.
It is also well-documented that women in prostitution are disproportionately impoverished, undereducated, ethnic minorities and those with few marketable job skills.[14]
It is because of this level of vulnerability and lack of viable options for survival that some survivors of prostitution have described it as "volunteer slavery”[15]Others have called it "the choice made by those who have no choice”.[16]
Ultimately, it is not a system of empowerment, but one that exploits those with the least power.
PROSTITUTION IS NOT JUST A JOB
Some argue that prostitution is just a job and that it is the stigma and criminalization that make it harmful, not the “work” itself.
Mortality rates alone dispel this myth. Research indicates that the death rate of prostituted women is 240 times higher than any other profession.[17] During their time in prostitution, violence is the norm. 82% of women report being physically assaulted (types of assault include being punched, strangled, slashed with razor blades and burned with cigarettes), while 83% have been threatened with a weapon.[18]
Women in prostitution are “the most raped class of women in the history of our planet”, with 80% having been raped at least once[19]and 73% have been raped more than five times.[20]
In any other workplace, the sexual harassment alone would be subject to legal action. For women in prostitution, sexual harassment is a job requirement. Legalization/Decriminalization does not prevent sexual assault from happening, nor does it bring justice to perpetrators. While working in strip clubs, a legal, and therefore regulated area of the commercial sex industry, I was sexually assaulted on multiple occasions. In a few instances, law enforcement was called. Each time they looked at me like I was crazy for complaining about the assault I experienced. The message I received was, “This is part of your job. Why are you wasting our time with this?”
I have met many other women who have had the same kinds of experience in legal areas of the commercial sex industry. The fact that what they are doing is legal and regulated does not protect them from rape and assault or bring them any justice when it happens. In addition, research on legal brothels shows that “legalization does not protect prostituted women from the violence, abuse and psychological and physical injury that occur in illegal prostitution”.[21]
Furthermore, illustrating its inherent harm is the fact that women in prostitution deal with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder at rates equivalent to veterans of combat war.[22] One study revealed that 71% of prostituted women showed “clinically significant symptoms of dissociation”, a psychological defense against trauma in which a person splits or detaches from the rest of their self in order to deal with overwhelming fear and pain.[23]
Here is what one survivor explained:
There are thousands of books and classes that provide women with information on self-defense and rape "avoidance" strategies. Some of the basic lessons they teach us are not to walk alone at night on dark deserted streets, not to get into cars with strange men, not to pick up guys in a bar, not to even let a delivery man into your home when you're by yourself. Yet this is what the "job" of prostitution requires; that women put themselves in jeopardy every time they turn a trick.
And then we ask, "How do you prevent it from leading to danger?" The answer is, you can't. Count the bodies.[24]
Prostitution is not “just a job” like any other. It is an unfathomably profitable system of violence that exploits the most vulnerable in our society.
PROSTITUTION AND TRAFFICKING ARE INEXTRICABLY CONNECTED
There are more women in the sex industry than any other time in history[25], a reality that is fueled by demand.
The demand does what it promises. It demands supply. And when there are not enough women willing to become the supply, to sell their bodies for sex, supply will be created by any means necessary. Those means include everything from forcing people into prostitution through kidnapping, torture, beating and drugging to coercing them through manipulation and trickery.
Prostitution and sex trafficking are inextricably connected.[26] The commercial sex industry, including prostitution, fuels the multi-billion-dollar criminal enterprise of human trafficking. In fact, 70% of female victims who are trafficked are trafficked into the commercial sex industry, including the legal forms of it, such as porn, stripping and legal brothels.[27]
Prostitution often meets the legal definitions of trafficking. In fact, as previously mentioned, according to estimates from eighteen sources including research studies, government reports, and nongovernmental agencies, on average 84% of women in prostitution are under third-party control or pimped or trafficked.[28]
THERE IS A WAY TO PROTECT PROSTITUTED PEOPLE
There are essentially four legal approaches to prostitution.
Criminalization
All parties (buyer/john, pimp/trafficker, prostituted person) are subject to arrest. In this system, prostituted women are disproportionately arrested. For example, one study showed that about 92% of prostitution-related arrests in Boston were women and only about 8% of arrests were men. Similarly, 89% of arrests in Chicago were women, 9.6% were men, and 0.6% were pimps.[29]
The other issue with criminalization is that prostituted people are less likely to seek help for fear of legal repercussion.
If we continue with this model, we need to get better at:
Bringing buyers and traffickers to justice
Identifying victims of trafficking
Offering alternative sentencing for those in prostitution (Recovery and diversion programs as well as services to help people find a permanent path to freedom from prostitution)
Use mandatory minimum fines from convicted buyers and seized assets of pimps and traffickers to offset the costs of survivor exit services, john school and operations to stop demand.
Legalization
Prostitution is permitted and regulated such as in some counties in Nevada and red-light districts in the Netherlands. As previously noted, this leads to an increase in sexual exploitation and trafficking.
Decriminalization
Also known as the “Pro-Pimping Law” or “Pimp Protection Act”. This removes all laws against pimping, pandering, and buying and selling sex. As previously mentioned, demand skyrockets and exploitation is free to run rampant. Shockingly, this is the model that is being proposed in several states in the U.S.
One of the reasons it is so difficult to bring justice to those trapped in labor trafficking is that it is not illegal to wash dishes or clean hotel rooms. Labor trafficking is hidden in plain sight because the activities of a labor trafficking victim are legal. Decriminalization would create this same barrier for victims of sex trafficking. Sex trafficking will be hidden in plain sight since the activities of prostitution will be allowed. This combined with the fact that most victims of trafficking don’t self-identify (largely a result of trauma bonds and the coercive tactics that pimps and traffickers use to manipulate and brainwash their victims), will make it extremely difficult to disrupt trafficking.
As an example of this model, we can look to New Zealand where prostitution was fully decriminalized. Sabrinna Valisce was one of the people who campaigned for decriminalization in her homeland, but when it actually happened she saw the devastating effects and changed her mind. She has since left prostitution and today, she advocates for prosecution for pimps and johns (buyers).[30]
Equality
There is a way to protect prostituted people. The Equality Model, also known as partial decriminalization, recognizes that a person should not be punished for their own exploitation.
In this model, exploitation and trafficking, pimping, pandering and brothel keeping, as well as the purchasing of people for sex remains illegal. And this is good because we know that when traffickers and johns are actually brought to justice, demand is effectively reduced.[31]
Furthermore, this model decriminalizes the selling of sex, meaning that those who are being sold would not be criminalized for their exploitation. But it doesn’t end there. It is not enough to simply remove the criminal penalties for prostituted people. If buyers and exploiters are brought to justice and demand is effectively reduced, people who depend on prostitution for survival are then faced with the economic consequences of reduced demand. In other words, prostitution becomes less lucrative and may jeopardize their ability to produce income. As a part of the Equality model, comprehensive, trauma-informed programs that provide opportunities for people to build a life outside of prostitution are established and supported.
Essentially, the this model is what is beginning to be used in many states with regard to minors. You may remember a recent time when children were being arrested for prostitution across the nation. As a society, we are beginning to recognize that there is no such thing as a "child prostitute". Over 20 states have passed safe harbor laws which discontinue the criminalization of minors for prostitution.
The Equality Model would extend the same approach, along with opportunities for rehabilitation to adults involved in prostitution.
At the end of the day, prostitution essentially capitalizes off of people’s poverty, childhood sexual abuse and sexual harassment.
If we want to support prostituted people and elevate their rights, then we need to support legislation that provides better access to education, equal pay and health care. We need to provide programs and services for more women to work in government, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. We need to support women-owned businesses and find ways to lower costs for living. We have to tear down the systemic vulnerabilities that push people into the sex industry and support NGOs who are on the front lines them find paths to healing and freedom.
Let’s stop calling it the oldest profession in the book, and call it for what it is… the oldest “oppression” in the book.
My dream is to see a day when our children don’t have to grow up in a world where sexual abuse and sexual violence run rampant. I dream of a day when we have such a deep revelation of the intrinsic worth of every human being, that the idea of renting out bodies for the sexual gratification of another person is preposterous to us. Because I believe that every person on the planet is worth more than the violence, degradation and dehumanization that prostitution has to offer.
Sincerely, Harmony Grillo
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About the Author
Harmony (Dust) Grillo, MSW
Survivor of exploitation turned UCLA honor student, in 2003, Harmony founded Treasures to help women in the commercial sex industry find freedom. Her story has been featured on NPR, Buzzfeed, and in Glamour. Her memoir, Scars and Stilettos, gives an account of her story going from working in strip clubs under the control of a pimp, to leading an organization that reaches women on a global scale. She can be reached at @HarmonyGrillo @TreasuresLA on social media and at www.HarmonyGrillo.com.
VIDEOS
[1]Melissa Farley, from “Prostitution and Trafficking in Nine Countries: An Update on Violence and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder” www.prostitutionresearch.com
[2]FromDr. Melissa Farley, “Online Prostitution and Trafficking” inAlbany law review 77(3):1039-1094 · January 2014: To calculate the number 84% as an estimate of those who were under third-party control, pimped, or trafficked we used either whole number estimates or whole numbers based on the midpoint of a given estimated range. In the United States, 80–90%of those in prostitution had pimps. See JACQUELINE B.HELFGOTT,CRIMINALBEHAVIOR:THEORIES,TYPOLOGIES,ANDCRIMINAL JUSTICE301 (2008); Jean Faugier and Mary Sargeant, Boyfriends, ‘Pimps’ and Clients, inRETHINKING PROSTITUTION:PURCHASING SEX IN THE 1990S 119–34 (Graham Scambler & Annette Scambler eds., 1997). In New York City, a pimp estimated that “70% of women working in New York City as prostitutes are being compelled to do so by pimps who use beatings and drugs, and most importantly the threat of jail, to keep their girls in line.” Prostitution—Legalize or Decriminalize?, DAVIS2013.COM(July 30, 2012), http://davis2013.com/prostitution-legalize-or-decriminalize/. In Italy, the European Union estimated that 80 % of those in prostitution were trafficked. SCELLES FOUNDATION,SEXUAL EXPLOITATION:PROSTITUTION AND ORGANIZED CRIME 173(2012),http://www.fondationscelles.org/pdf/rapport_mondial/sexual_exploitation_prostitution_Fondation_Scelles.pdf. In Poland, 90% of prostitution along the roads was assumed to be controlled by organized criminal groups. Id.at 233. In Amsterdam 50to 90% of women in prostitution in the red-light district were considered likely victims of Turkish, Hungarian, Romanian, and Bulgarian human trafficking networks, including those working in legal clubs and brothels, according to the Dutch national police Korps Landelijke Politiediensten (KLPD). Id.at 211. In Spain, more than 90% of women in prostitution were victims of human trafficking. Id.at 268. In Bulgaria, RiskMonitor Foundation estimated that more than 95% of those in prostitution have pimps linked to organized crime. Id.at 64. In Germany SOLWODI estimated that 80% of women in prostitution are placed “under strong pressure and have no alternatives. This pressure may come from a partner or even their family, who send them abroad to work and send money 13446, at 12 (2014). In Germany, policy analyst Barbara Yondorf estimated that 80–95% of women in prostitution have pimps. KATHLEEN BARRY,FEMALE SEXUAL SLAVERY130 (1979). In San Francisco, 80% of women in prostitution interviewed by Marilyn Neckes and Theresa Lynchhad pimps. Id.at 119. In Oregon, 84% of women who had escaped prostitution had previously been controlled by pimps. Susan Kay Hunter, Prostitution is Cruelty and Abuse to Women and Children, 1 MICH.J.GENDER&L. 91, 101 (1993). In Ireland, Ruhama estimated that 80% of women in prostitution were under third-party control. E-mail from Sarah Benson, CEO of Ruhama, to Melissa Farley (April 10, 2014) (on file with the Albany Law Review). In the United States, a study of women prostituted in hotels estimated that more than 80% were controlled by pimps. ROBERT PRUS & STYLLIANOSS IRINI,HOOKERS, ROUNDERS, AND DESK CLERKS11 (1980). Kathleen Barry noted that 80 to 95% of all prostitution is pimp-controlled. KATHLEENBARRY,THE PROSTITUTION OF SEXUALITY198 (1995). Ninety-five to 99% of women in German prostitution were under the control of others. Manfred Paulus, Out of Control: On Liberties and Criminal Developments in the Redlight Districts of the Federal Republic of Germany, PROSTITUTION RESOURCES(May 6, 2014),
http://ressourcesprostitution.wordpress.com/2014/05/06/m-paulus-out-of-control-on-liberties-
and-criminal-developments-in-the-redlight-districts-of-the-federal-republic-of-germany/. Eighty-six percent of Nepali women delivered to brothels in India did not know they were going to be prostituted when they left home. LOUISE BROWN,SEX SLAVES:THE TRAFFICKING OF WOMEN IN ASIA 66 (2000). Cambodian Women’s Crisis Center found that 86% of women rescued from Phnom Penh brothels by police had been tricked or sold into prostitution. Id. At 89
[3]ILO Global Estimate of Forced Labour. Page 14.
[4]Dr. Melissa Farley http://prostitutionresearch.com and CATW http://www.catwinternational.org
[5]Seo-Young Cho, Axel Dreher, and Eric Neumayer, 2013, Does Legalized Prostitution Increase Human Trafficking? World Development
[6]https://endsexualexploitation.org/nevada/
[7]https://www.businessinsider.com/robert-kraft-arrest-sex-trafficking-ring-bust-women-sex-against-will-2019-2
[8]Prostitution, Violence, and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. Melissa Fareley, PhD, Howard Barkan, DrPH. http://www.prostitutionresearch.com/Farley%26Barkan%201998.pdf
[9]Melissa Farley, 2004, Prostitution is sexual violence. Psychiatric Times. http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/sexual- offenses/content/article/10168/48311
[10]Silbert, M.H., & Pines, A.M. (1981). Sexual child abuse as an antecedent to prostitution. Child Abuse and Neglect5:407-411.
[11]Prostitution and Trafficking - Quick Facts. Melissa Farley, PhD and Emily Butler, JD Prostitution Research & Education 2012
[12]https://www.nfyi.org/issues/sex-trafficking/
[13]2011 report by the state government of Connecticut: https://portal.ct.gov/dcf
[14]Jacquelyn Monroe PhD,Women in Street Prostitution: The Result of Poverty and the Brunt of InequityArticle inJournal of Poverty 9(3):69-88 · September 2005.
[15]INE VANWESENBEECK, PROSTITUTES’ WELL-BEING AND RISK149 (1994).
[16]CHRISTA WISTERICH, THE GLOBALIZED WOMAN: REPORTS FROM A FUTURE OF INEQUALITY 63 (2000).
[17]American Journal of Epidemiology. https://academic.oup.com/aje/article/159/8/778/91471
[18]Prostitution, Violence, and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. Melissa Fareley, PhD, Howard Barkan, DrPH. http://www.prostitutionresearch.com/Farley%26Barkan%201998.pdf
[19]Susan Kay Hunter and K.C. Reed, 1990, “Taking the side of bought and sold rape,” Speech at National Coalition against Sexual Assault, Washington, D.C.
[20]United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 2009, Trafficking in Persons: Global Patterns, Available: http://www.unodc.org/documents/human-trafficking/Global_Report_on_TIP.pdf
[21]http://www.prostitutionresearch.com/pdfs/Myths%20&%20Facts%20Legal%20&%20Illegal%20Prostitution%203-09.pdf
[22]Melissa Farley, from “Prostitution and Trafficking in Nine Countries: An Update on Violence and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder” www.prostitutionresearch.com
[23]Melissa Farley, Nicole Matthews, Sarah Deer, Guadalupe Lopez, Christine Stark & Eileen Hudon, 2011, Garden of Truth: The Prostitution and Trafficking of Native Women, Minnesota: Prostitution Research & Education and Minnesota Indian Women’s Sexual Assault Coalition.
http://www.prostitutionresearch.com/pdfs/Garden_of_Truth_Final_Project_WEB.pdf
[24]Evelina Giobbe, The Vox Fights, Vox, Winter 1991, at 34 [hereinafter Giobbe, TheVax Fights]. See also Evelina Giobbe, Confronting the Liberal Lies about Prostitution, in THE SEXUALLIBERALS AND THE ATTIACK ON FEMINISM 67, 76 (Dorchen Leidholdt & Janice Raymond eds., 1990
[25]Stripped: Inside the Lives of Exotic Dancers, Bernadette Barton, page 8.
[26]A National Overview of Prostitution and Sex Trafficking Demand Reduction Efforts, Final Report. Michael Shively, Ph.D., Kristina Kliorys, Kristin Wheeler, Dana Hunt, Ph.D. https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/238796.pdf
[27]U.S. Department of Justice, Assessment of U.S. Government Activities to Combat Trafficking in Persons: 2004
[28]Dr. Melissa Farley, “Online Prostitution and Trafficking” inAlbany law review 77(3):1039-1094 · January 2014 (see earlier citation)
[29]Donna M. Hughes, 2005, Combating Sex Trafficking: Advancing Freedom for Women and Girls, Speech at Northeast Women’s Studies Association Annual Conference, University of Massachusetts. http://www.prostitutionresearch.com/Hughes%20combating_sex_trafficking.pdf
[30]https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-evidence-about-prostitution-that-the-new-york-times-ignored/
[31]Gunilla Ekberg, 2004, The Swedish Law That Prohibits the Purchase of Sexual Services, Violence Against Women. http://www.prostitutionresearch.com/pdf/EkbergVAW.pdf