Cambridgeshire police smashed a “vice ring” in its university city which raked in £5 million a year. They successfully prosecuted 11 men and women who managed, or assisted, in the management of prostitution.
Only it seems nobody worked there against their will, what took place behind those closed doors was between consenting adults who agreed their own terms and conditions.
Yet trained officers from the police’s serious and organised crime squad would have spent hundreds of hours on this case, valuable time that would have been better spent on tracking down paedophiles or sex traffickers, making sure their sex register was up to date and liaising with other forces on this.
Police even admit that they turn a blind eye to small brothels run by one person operating on their own, this is plainly not being consistent. But when it’s big business, they feel forced to act.
It seems the Government has plans to legalise brothels, there are plenty of cases for them to check out, including Nevada. It is a business that needs regulating to offer protection all round, as well as a cut for the Inland Revenue.
And prostitutes are naturally keen for this too, their motto is: “No Bad Women, Just Bad Laws”. About 80,000 women in Britain work as prostitutes, and half of those are under 25.
As I said, my main concern is that police should spend their time on serious vice cases, the only apparent vice here was making huge amounts of money.
Update: 22 December, 2006, brothel keepers walk free.
If we make everything legal, vice, gambling, drugs, then I will have to go in search of new and wilder thrills to break the law.
More seriously though, legalising prostituion is a good liberal idea. Germany and many countries in Europe have not become sespits of moral failure just because they have gone down this route.
I guess that licenced brothels could generate some tax revenue, as well as providing regular health care for the girls.
I really don’t know what I think about this one, Ellee. There always hass been, and always will be, prostitution and legalising brothels would keep the activity away from residential areas. But should a modern society approve of it? Whatever the “girls” say, it is not the “profession” of liberated women. Recently I read a biography of Josephine Butler, who campaigned against the Contagious Disease Acts [under which prostitutes were forced to have humiliating health checks] in the 19th century. It is interesting to read why she did so. But we have moved on and there is no reason to suppose that the women would be treated like this today.
WL, I thought it would be interesting to throw this subject into the melting pot, it’s never going to be a priority as there are so many other urgent matters needing attention, and the fact it involves a tiny fraction of our society. But it doesn’t make sense that the police will prosecute some and not others, depending on how much money they make. They should be using more of their resources to catch paedophiles and women traffikes.
I’ve been saying for a while now that we should legalise brothels. Mainly because:
1) Working girls are less prone to violence by
pimps.
2) Less prone to drug taking
3) Less prone to violence by “clients”
4) Able to be medical screened for their own
safety and others.
5) Potential less sexual crimes – although I
understand it’s about power and not actually
sex.
The only other issue is the remaining one of husband and wife. Does a married man go off with a prostitute? Well that’s an issue between man and wife. I personally would get rid of my partner if he every did – whether with he went with a prostitute or someone he simply met at work. It’s a form of cheating to me if you’re involved. However, if you’re not then what’s the difference between going to a brothel and picking someone up in a night club?
Well, there isn’t any guareentee that the person you picked up in a club has been screened for one.
In Liverpool, they wanted to open up a brothel in the city centre next a car park and opposite a primary school. We all objected not on the basis of having a brothel full stop, but it’s location. Opposite a primary school is not on!
Teri, You raised some good points, and I agree with you totally about location, brothels should certainly not be close to schools or in residential areas.
We need to have a more grown up attitude about this whole issue.
Seems to me we should be motivated in this by how to prevent ‘too young’ girls being drafted in, plus those from Eastern Europe. Kill that market and tackle the other issues later.
The oldest profession in the world will always be with us; the trouble is, will younger girls under 16 be more able to be on it if it were legalised? It is a subject that needs to be discussed clearly.
Thanks Ellee. I do agree we should have a more grown up attitude towards the whole thing. That’s when we can discuss it with some degree of clarity and objectivity.
James, I think if we were to legalise brothels then the Eastern Europe situation that finally got publicised I think would help the situation.
Jean-Luc – I hope not. The thought of children (as they do in Holland) being an acceptable practice in this line of business, is tantamount to pedophilia and nothing else!! I really can’t stress that enough. I think the minimum age should be at least 18 – or even 21.
Whilst I know there then leaves a market for the under 18’s for these paedophiles to set up brothels for these youngsters, it elevates the pressure from trying to police the masses which is what happening now, and at least allow further resources the focus on these abusers.
Prostitution is legal in Switzerland. And funny enough, there are no street walkers, there are no drug (and crime) problems associated with prostitution and there is little trafficing of Albanian girls.
Wherever there is a demand, there will be a supply.
Alan, So how has Switzerland managed to suss this out and we haven’t?
Hi All
Following on from Alan and James, I found this site http://www.coatnet.org/en/17785.asp
Teri,
Thanks you, that’s a very interesting link with facts and figures about the sex trade in Switzerland. I have cut and paste one paragraph below, I’m wondering if the numbers of men in Switzerland who use prostitutes, estimated at 10-15% of the male population is an average figure for other countries too, is it high, or is it low?
“There are no estimates available for the whole of Switzerland for the number of women working illegally in the entertainment and sex trades. On the other hand, it is estimated that 200,000-280,000 men pick up prostitutes on the streets or visit sex salons on an average of once per month. That is 10-15% of the male population aged 20-65 years.”
Prostitution is legal in this country, if it is restricted to one person working on their own from their own premises. A brothel has to consist of two or more people. Which is why prostitutes wanted to change the law as it is obviously safer if the girls work in pairs.
I totally agree that it should be fully legalised.
Now there’s a question Elle.
I went to the CIA webiste which is usually spot on with it’s figures:
Population: 7,523,934 (July 2006 est.)
Age structure: 0-14 years: 16.3% (male 637,585/female 591,297)
15-64 years: 68.1% (male 2,585,062/female 2,539,345)
65 years and over: 15.6% (male 480,198/female 690,447) (2006 est.)
Link:https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/print/sz.html
So at an average of 13% were looking at approx 260,000 off the top of my head. I have no idea whether this is a high or low figure.
The question in my mind is, what was the rate of sex crimes against all women prior to legalisation and what is it now?
I agree with most comments. I do not like the statistics on slavery trade for brothels ( illegal)…
Teri,
What a sleuth you are, I’ve never been to the CIA website, I will check it out myself. Thanks for digging around and finding out the figures. Your question is interesting too, those figures are important to know.
Ellee
I also check out interpol and the FBI’s site Sad but true. I just like to know what’s going on. How sad am I?
Anyway I’m trying to get some idea on the figures but the only thing I could find so far was a EU commisioned PDF report that goes into domestic violence towards women. It refers to switzerland and other member states (ours included) It didn’t go into definitives (sp) about sex crimes though.
I’ll post if I find anything out.
Found this site and PDF report. it’s 2004 but I still think worth a look at:
http://www.independent.org/publications/working_papers/article.asp?id=1300
It’s by Kirby R. Cundiff who is an Associate Professor of Finance at Northeastern State University. (or at least was in 2004)
Also:
http://www.interpol.int/Public/Statistics/ICS/downloadList.asp
Teri,
Many thanks for all the links. You do intrigue me, I would love to know a little about you, your life, your work.
James Higham,
Seems to me we should be motivated in this by how to prevent ‘too young’ girls being drafted in, plus those from Eastern Europe. Kill that market and tackle the other issues later.
Legalisation would help that. If prostitution is illegal, it’s much harder to determine that which is taking place between consenting adults, and that which is not. It’s all hidden away and underground
With legalisation, consenting adult prostitutes would get licensed. Those who aren’t licensed would be those people who were not consenting adults, so would be far easier to identify.
Anon, It would make life so much easier if prostitutes were licensed and the business could be regulated in a much more open way. Let’s hope common sense prevails.
Teri,
Many thanks for all the links. You do intrigue me, I would love to know a little about you, your life, your work.
Ellee – I’ll email you.
[…] Renewed call to legalise brothels following death of prostitute By Ellee A month ago I highlighted this very subject and asked whether we should legalise brothels. That very same message is now being endorsed by a local newspaper following the death of a prostitute from Ipswich, a young woman of 25, and the disappearance of a second prostitute from the town, aged 19. […]
[…] You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. One Response to “Prostitutes plead for police amnesty aftersecond death” 1 wayne says: December 8th, 2006 at 6:07 pm This is why we should have state run brothels. it would be almost impossible to kill a prostitute and if it did happen we would know who it was. Leave a Reply […]
[…] As a solution to improve their safety, our press refers to having licensed brothels (as I have done), as well as tolerance zones, but is this what the women want? What would work best for them? Quite a few legal brothels are closing down in Amsterdam for safey reasons, will we also end up with an escalation in trafficking? […]
[…] As a solution to improve their safety, our press refers to having licensed brothels (as I have done), as well as tolerance zones, but is this what the women want? What would work best for them? Quite a few legal brothels are closing down in Amsterdam for safey reasons, will we also end up with an escalation in trafficking? […]