Friday, July 31, 2009

Decriminalise Commercial Sex Work

The majority of Kenyans get by on subsistence work of some kind; why criminalize one form of subsistence?

In an article on the website, a South African author worries about the negative impact legalization of sex work may have on child prostitutes. Yet, she accepts that the current, illegal status of commercial sex work does not ensure that children are protected. She points out that there are children as young as seven being forced to work in the sex industry.

My objection to the illegal status of commercial sex work is that women who, for whatever reason, exchange sex for some benefit, need the protection of the law and access to health and other social services. At present, they do not have such protections and this is jeopardizing, not just their health and welfare, but also the health and welfare of others.

Sex work needs to be decriminalised so that women who are subject to abuse can report that abuse and claim the protection of the law. Women who have health problems need to be able to access health services. Then, even child prostitution and other issues can be addressed properly.

There are already laws about underage sex that criminalize the perpetrator, not the victim. There are already laws about rape and sexual assault, but few incidents are reported because of fear of stigmatization and mistreatment by the police and the legal system.

I sympathise with the author because no one wants to see people, least of all children, abused. But at present, adults and children are abused despite laws against commercial sex. It is the very laws against sex work that endangers the lives of the sex workers themselves, the victims of poverty, abuse, unemployment, crime and greed.

In order to get a job, keep a job, get promotion, get overtime or just get by in work, women often have to agree to sexual favours in exchange for things they should legally be entitled to. These phenomena are illegal, but that doesn't protect the victims because they can be accused of engaging in commercial sex work. The fact that exchanging sex for some kind of benefit is a crime means that the real crimes and abuses often go unreported.

The existence of the law does not prevent the crime from happening. The laws need to be properly upheld but that would require that police forces and other custodians of the law also be reformed. Despite the fact that there is already employment legislation that nominally protects employees, anyone suffering abuse is unlikely to seek redress from the law because of stigmatizing attitudes towards sex related crimes.

Opponents of decriminalisation of sex work argue that organised criminals involved in 'protecting' sex workers will benefit from such changes in the legal system. On the contrary, it is because sex workers currently are not protected by the law that they fall victim to pimps. Who is going to report human trafficking under current conditions? Not sex workers' customers, not the pimps and certainly not the 'competition', adult sex workers who are not (ostensibly) forced to work in the sex industry.

If people hate the idea of commercial sex work they would be better advised to advocate for employment, health services, social services and other benefits for those who currently have no alternatives for making enough money to survive. This would be the best way to promote the rights of children and adults who may otherwise be forced into the sex industry. The illegal status of sex work punishes the victims and exposes children to the dangers that it claims to protect against.


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