Prostitution Legalization New York

Following the closure of brothels across Europe, 16 members of the German Bundestag recently supported our gender equality model and expressed hope that brothels will remain permanently closed when the country reopens. The marketing of prostitution in Germany illustrates the evils of prostitution – the “packages” of mega-brothels that advertise beer, hot dogs and women, commercialize and dehumanize women. They are humiliating, they have no power. Since 2002, when the German law was passed, sex trafficking has reportedly at least tripled – there are now an estimated 400,000 people. Most of them are women and most come from other countries, driven by desperation and some of them are traded by third-party profiteers. Now Germany and the Netherlands are rethinking because their approach to legalizing prostitution has not had the desired effect. The link between legalized prostitution and sex trafficking is obvious. Our Department of Justice told us that it had intercepted calls from traffickers who said it was not worth doing business in Sweden and that it would be better to go to neighbouring countries where the sale of trafficked girls and women would be much easier. And indeed, sex trafficking in Sweden has decreased significantly since we passed the law. Sweden is not a favorable market for sex traffickers who rely heavily on prostitution to create demand and retail for their supply chain of girls and women. Against the full decriminalization bill is the “Justice and Equality for Survivors of the Sex Trade Act,” which was introduced by Senator Liz Krueger and Congresswoman Pamela Hunter. This legislation, based on the equality model, is also known as the Partial Decriminalization Act because it only ends arrest and detention for survivors of prostitution – not their exploiters.

Unlike the Stop Violence in the Sex Trade Act, this bill includes laws against the purchase of sexual services, pimping, sex tourism and brothel ownership. In addition, the bill aims to facilitate exit from the sex trade by introducing trauma-informed services and exit strategies for prostitutes. Alexi Meyers, a former prosecutor and advisor to the Partial Decriminalization Act, told me that if the Stop Violence Act repealed a law that criminalized the “promotion of prostitution” (referring to pimps) at the level of crimes, it would take “the bread and butter out of human trafficking cases.” The bill proposes to maintain the most relevant laws at the level of crimes, such as combating trafficking in minors or promoting prostitution in school zones. For decades, Germany and the Netherlands have supported the legalization of prostitution, likely believing that this approach is beneficial to both those who sell in the sex industry and those who profit from the industry, such as pimps and brothel owners. Now that brothels have been closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the debate about the success of this approach is gaining visibility, and now is a good time to seriously address the issues raised. For too long, around the world, those who have been bought and sold in the sex trade – mostly women – have been targeted by law enforcement, while those who buy and sell them – so-called “customers” and pimps – enjoy impunity. In Sweden, we were the first to pass a law in 1999 that became the model for what is now called the equality model or Nordic model. We recognize that prostitution is an expression of inequality – inequality between the buyers of prostitution and those who are sold or sell themselves for what we recognize as sexual exploitation.

Our Swedish model has proven to be an effective exit strategy for people exploited by the sex industry, as well as an effective strategy to combat the scourge of sex trafficking. According to the New York State Interagency Task Force on Human Trafficking, there were about 1,000 confirmed victims of sex trafficking in New York between 2007 and 2019, a number that Meyers says is likely an undercount of actual victims. If the Stop Violence Act is passed, this number could increase. A 2013 study of 150 countries showed that, on average, countries where prostitution is legal reported higher inflows of human trafficking across sectors. With regard to sex work alone, trafficking in human beings in Germany gradually decreased until 2001 and then increased again after decriminalisation in 2002. “Sweden has seen a 50% drop in street prostitution. But the statement remained short on one crucial point: Although it said it would no longer prosecute those arrested for prostitution, the text of the law states that it “does not prevent us from bringing other charges that may arise from a prostitution-related arrest,” and notes the New York Times. that the office “will continue to prosecute other prostitution-related crimes. including sex worker paternalism and sex trafficking.” In other words, those who buy sex or are accused of facilitating sex trafficking will not be exempt from this policy change, says Maya Morena, a New York-based sex worker rights activist. “They will always criminalize our customers and third parties, which often means everyone we pay, including our landlords, friends, drivers and customers, will be criminalized,” she says.

In addition to direct lobbying, NYFEM has also produced reports on prostitution, including a rebuttal of an ACLU research warrant. NYFEM report “Is Decriminalizing the Sex Trade the Solution? Debunking the ACLU Report” describes the ACLU`s mission as “based on flawed research and misleading and manipulated data.” They note that “the ACLU does not cite first-hand accounts of adult survivors of prostitution” or “child victims of commercial sexual exploitation.” At the same time, the ACLU report states that “the decriminalization of sex trafficking, including sex buyers, brothel owners, and other third-party profiteers, will eliminate the violence, humiliation, stigmatization, and exploitation inherent in the prostitution system.” Other attempts to decriminalize sex trafficking elsewhere in the U.S. have been crushed through the efforts of coalitions like NYFEM. Recently, in Oregon, a campaign to create a voting initiative that would allow Oregon residents to vote on decriminalizing sex trafficking was scrapped in part because attorneys for human trafficking survivors filed a lawsuit over language allegedly appearing on the ballot. This threatened the petitioners` ability to collect more than 112,000 signatures from Oregon voters by the July 8 deadline. Petition efforts have been postponed until a court decision is rendered. In Washington, D.C., efforts to decriminalize prostitution failed after a fourteen-hour hearing filled with attorney references such as that of Yasmin Vafa, executive director of the Washington-based nonprofit Rights4Girls. Prostitution has also been widely promoted in the media, most notably in Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. In an episode on “sex work,” Oliver advocated legalizing prostitution and compared selling his own body to making sandwiches at Subway. World Without Exploitation, one of the nonprofits in the NYFEM coalition, blasted Oliver in a response video made by survivors of sex trafficking. While removing previous prostitution convictions and refusing to prosecute those arrested for selling sex shows simply doesn`t go far enough, says Dr. Jill McCracken, co-director of SWOP Behind Bars, a sex worker advocacy group.

In fact, some data suggests that in countries where the sale of sexual services has been decriminalized but the purchase of sexual services has not been criminalized – a model known as the “Nordic model” – the sex industry is driven underground, making it difficult for workers to control clients who are afraid of being arrested. As a result, marginalized people are at increased risk.