Abolitionists view prostitution not as a matter of gender or sexual identity, but as a one-sided exchange of exploitation rooted in male power. They believe that the solution to sex trafficking is to help women get out and criminalize those who stimulate demand. In Sweden, where a law has been in place since 1999 criminalizing demand and decriminalizing those who sell sex, citizens` attitudes have fundamentally changed, with around 80% supporting their government`s approach. Similarly, Denmark`s official figures support the idea of a significant increase in demand after the creation of a legal market. Estimates by the Danish Social Services Agency indicate that after the legalization of prostitution in 1999, the number of prostitutes increased by more than 40 per cent between 2002 and 2009, which would correspond to a significant increase in demand. In neighbouring Sweden, where the purchase of sexual services was criminalised in 1999 (but the sale of sexual services remained legal), a comparable increase in prostitution was not observed. Using information on 161 countries from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) or a subset of European countries in the same source, Cho, Dreher and Neumayer, as well as Jakobsson and Kotsadam, published two papers in 2013. The studies are based on UNODC figures, although UNODC cautioned against this because “the report does not provide information on the actual number of victims” and due to non-standard definitions, sources and reports across countries, some mixing human trafficking, smuggling and irregular migration. The authors of both studies acknowledge that it is “difficult, if not impossible, to find hard evidence” of a link between human trafficking and other phenomena, and that “the underlying data may be of poor quality” and “in many ways limited and unsatisfactory”. Yet they treat the UNODC report as a viable source of data, concluding that countries that have legalized prostitution have higher rates of human trafficking than countries that criminalize prostitution.
The comparison suggests that there could be serious problems with unfettered decriminalization. However, the latter is quite rare worldwide. When a criminalization-based system is dismantled, a two-step process usually follows: decriminalization followed by legalization. Criminal sanctions are lifted and regulations are put in place, and again, it depends on the nature of those rules. Do they place an undue burden on sex workers and erotic business owners or improve their rights, health and safety? These are the questions policymakers face as they legalize gambling and drugs. The idea that legalizing or decriminalizing the sex trade would reduce its harms is a persistent myth. Many argue that if sex trafficking were legal, regulated, and treated like any other profession, it would be safer. But research suggests otherwise. Countries that have legalized or decriminalized the sex trade often experience an increase in human trafficking, pimping, and other related crimes.
Cho downplays the disparity in another article: “Prostitution is closely linked to human trafficking because sex trafficking for prostitution is the most common form of trafficking and accounts for the majority of trafficking victims.” Even if this were true, it still introduces an unknown number of errors into the analysis. But that`s not true. The State Department reports that “the majority of human trafficking worldwide takes the form of forced labor,” and the International Labor Organization agrees: “Forced commercial sexual exploitation accounts for 11 percent of all cases” of human trafficking worldwide. The International Organization for Migration reported an identical figure for 2016 (the last year in the chart below), let alone for the previous two years. Meanwhile, the links between organized crime, violence and prostitution in New Zealand have not been broken. Opinions differ as to whether decriminalization has improved or worsened the situation. A report released five years after decriminalization claimed that it had little impact on the number of people working in sex trafficking, but provided some protections for children and others. But the personal testimonies of women who have been prostituted prove that brothel owners and sellers have benefited more than women. The Australian state of Queensland legalized brothels and independent escorts in the 1990s. A government agency reports that legal prostitution offers a number of benefits: “There is no doubt that licensed brothels provide the safest working environment for sex workers in Queensland. The legal brothels currently operating in Queensland provide a sustainable model for a healthy, crime-free and safe licensed brothel industry” and are a “state-of-the-art model for the sex industry in Australia”.
Official corruption and organised crime “are not of great importance to the legal prostitution industry in Queensland”. Research on sex workers themselves has shown that many of them are satisfied with their work. Of the 205 independent escorts and licensed brothel workers surveyed in a study, 70 percent said they would “definitely choose” this type of work if they had to do it again, and half felt their work was a “great source of satisfaction” in their lives. Almost all (97%) of brothel workers said that one of the benefits of working in a legal brothel was the security it offers. The authors use aggregate figures on human trafficking – which combine work, sex and other types of human trafficking – to assess whether prostitution laws make a difference. The variables clearly do not match: when assessing whether a legal system is linked to the incidence of trafficking in human beings, it is obvious that only figures on sex trafficking should be used, and not totals for all types of trafficking in human beings. Let`s forget about “happy” fantasies. Most women are forced into prostitution by coercion or economic hardship. The work often boils down to bought rape. Prostitution is, by definition, humiliating for women. It reduces them to goods that can be bought, sold and misused.
Given that the vast majority of prostitutes are women, legalization would reinforce their oppression by male-dominated societies and be a clear affront to the concept of gender equality. The removal of legal barriers will send a message to new generations of men that women are mere sexual commodities. Why people are uncomfortable listening to sex workers talk about legalizing prostitution has nothing to do with concerns about women`s health and safety. If that were the real concern, prostitution would now be legal in the United States. The reason people don`t agree with legalizing prostitution is because prostitution is considered amoral because it involves (mostly) women selling their bodies for financial gain. However, telling women what they can and cannot do with their bodies does not come from a place of morality: it comes from a place of control. The opposing abolitionist position – defended by feminists, including myself, and all the survivors of sex trafficking I interviewed – is that prostitution is inherently abusive and a cause and consequence of women`s inequality. There is no way to make it safe, and it should be possible to eradicate it. Abolitionists reject the disinfectant description of “sex worker” and consider prostitution a form of violence in a neoliberal world where human flesh is seen as a commodity, like a hamburger. Proponents of legalizing prostitution believe it would reduce crime, improve public health, increase tax revenues, lift people out of poverty, get prostitutes off the streets, and allow consenting adults to make their own decisions. They say prostitution is a victimless crime, especially in the 10 counties in Nevada where it remains legal.
Legalizing and regulating prostitution will make life safer for sex workers and help crush the pimps and trafficking gangs they exploit. Traffickers thrive because the sex trade is driven underground. Legalize it, and they will disappear. Prostitutes will feel safer when they no longer fear prosecution. Police will be able to focus their resources on fighting the real bad guys – the criminal gangs that exploit sex workers. The experiences of countries such as Nevada, Switzerland and New Zealand show that legalized and regulated prostitution works. When people argue that prostitution should be illegal, in many cases, their concern comes from a place of morality described as a concern for women`s health and safety. People believe that legalizing prostitution will only abuse more women, make it harder for prostitutes to get out of the industry, or teach young women that their bodies exist only for the purpose of sexual exploitation by men. Some anti-trafficking activists and organizations argue that legalizing prostitution affects the well-being of sex workers, including their vulnerability to human trafficking. Others argue otherwise, consistent with the conventional understanding that bad actors and organized crime thrive under conditions where a good or service has been criminalized rather than legalized. Are these claims evidence-based? Does legalization affect the well-being of sex workers or the extent of human trafficking in a country, and if so, what impact does it have? When elected officials discuss changes to prostitution laws, what kind of data should influence their considerations? This article examines evidence from two sources: large multinational correlational studies and in-depth case studies.