Paying for sex, should it be illegal?

catsmate

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catsmate
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After the first of June it will be illegal to pay for sex in Northern Ireland, though not in the rest of the UK, and a similar measure is being considered in the Republic.
Is this a good idea?

In one of the more novel uses of crowdfunding the law is being challenged in a case that will almost certainly be decided eventually in the ECHR.
Dublin-born law graduate Laura Lee is launching an unprecedented legal challenge that could go all the way to Strasbourg, against a human trafficking bill which includes banning the payment for sex among consenting adults.

The region is the only part of the UK where people can be convicted of paying for sex. The law, which was championed by Democratic Unionist peer and Stormont assembly member Lord Morrow, comes into effect on 1 June.

Lee told the Guardian she will launch her case at the high court in Belfast in the same month as the law comes into effect.

Lee, 37, said: “I am doing this because I believe that when two consenting adults have sex behind closed doors and if money changes hands then that is none of the state’s business. The law they have introduced has nothing to do with people being trafficked but simply on their, the DUP’s, moral abhorrence of paid sex.

“I believe that after June 1st, sex workers’ lives in Northern Ireland will actually be harder and the industry will be pushed underground.”

Lee, who lives in Edinburgh but travels to Belfast and Dublin to see clients, said her legal team would be referencing several articles of the European convention on human rights to challenge and overturn Morrow’s law.

“First of all we will need to exhaust domestic remedies starting in the Belfast high court, possibly going to the supreme court, the House of Lords and eventually the European court of human rights.
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Just as with other sorts of activities; the illegality of the practice promotes the involvement of organized crime, human trafficking, sex slavery, and all the ills that go with the "trade".
Were commercial sex a simple business proposition as it is in some areas, we might assume that many of these ills could be greatly limited or removed.

Commercial sex has been around a very long time, in all cultures, legal or not. So far as anyone knows, no amount of regulation has ever had the slightest effect.
 
Except that it is the criminal element that causes commercial sex to be criminalized in the first place. The sex trade is number one cause of human trafficking in any country you care to list, a fact confirmed by human rights groups. Mostly at risk are poor girls from Asian countries.

Legalizing prostitution doesn't seem to help, either.
 
Research from Sweden, which criminalized purchasing sex from prostitutes around 1999 (i think), has shown that the introducing said law has not significantly reduced the amount of people that have actually paid for sex or the amount of people that sell sex.

Although there has been a reduction in overt "street prostitution" there has at the same time been a huge increase in more covert forms of prostitution mainly facilitated through the internet. Consequently those prostitutes that are most vulnerable to abuse, such as those who are forced into sexual slavery through human trafficking, those that use prostitution to fund drug abuse or otherwise suffer from psychiatric problems or physical abuse are even less visible to law enforcement and social services.

Besides that the whole basis behind the law is flawed since it conflates prostitution with human trafficking, something which is obviously incorrect. Although a lot of prostitutes are victims of human trafficking not all are and considering how inconsiderate and indifferent legislators are towards said prostitutes when they actual voice their opinions it's obvious they have no real concern for them at all.

That is not to mention the feminist/christian nutjubs who seriously think paying prostitutes for sex is, by itself, abusing and violating them. In particular their disconnection from reality is obvious when they always portray prostitutes as female "victims", notwithstanding that LGTB youths (mainly teenage boys and young men) are highly overrepresented in prostitution yet hardly ever get mentioned.
 
Arcade22 said:
Besides that the whole basis behind the law is flawed since it conflates prostitution with human trafficking, something which is obviously incorrect.
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Incorrect, but not inaccurate.

Let's say that tomorrow prostitution becomes legalized in America, for example. How do you compel a moderately educated woman born in an industrialized first world nation where she has rights to rent out her body to have sex with men she doesn't know? I'd imagine most women born here wouldn't do it for any price, let alone for the prices that Johns are willing to pay.

The supply most certainly does not met the demand since I recall a recent-ish poll stating that a majority of men would be willing to pay for sex if it were legal to do so. Where do they get the women and most importantly how?
 
It makes no sense that I can pay to have someone massage my entire body, except the one place I'd really like massaged. By the way, I have never used a prostitute.

It's a stupid law.
 
Mudcat said:
Incorrect, but not inaccurate.

Let's say that tomorrow prostitution becomes legalized in America, for example. How do you compel a moderately educated woman born in an industrialized first world nation where she has rights to rent out her body to have sex with men she doesn't know? I'd imagine most women born here wouldn't do it for any price, let alone for the prices that Johns are willing to pay.

The supply most certainly does not met the demand since I recall a recent-ish poll stating that a majority of men would be willing to pay for sex if it were legal to do so. Where do they get the women and most importantly how?
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Nevada would tend to disagree with your assessment.
 
Mudcat said:
Incorrect, but not inaccurate.

Let's say that tomorrow prostitution becomes legalized in America, for example. How do you compel a moderately educated woman born in an industrialized first world nation where she has rights to rent out her body to have sex with men she doesn't know? I'd imagine most women born here wouldn't do it for any price, let alone for the prices that Johns are willing to pay.
The supply most certainly does not met the demand since I recall a recent-ish poll stating that a majority of men would be willing to pay for sex if it were legal to do so. Where do they get the women and most importantly how?
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You'd really be surprised.

Also, it's legal in Nevada. I think someone already mentioned that.

Where it isn't legal, it's mostly facilitated through the internet these days.
 
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catsmate1 said:
After the first of June it will be illegal to pay for sex in Northern Ireland, though not in the rest of the UK, and a similar measure is being considered in the Republic.
Is this a good idea?

In one of the more novel uses of crowdfunding the law is being challenged in a case that will almost certainly be decided eventually in the ECHR.

Link.
Link.
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If a woman, or a man for that matter wishes, desires or flat out likes to do so, for financial gain, then no. Let them, if that is their choice.

If a pimp desires to exploit people for financial gain, then yes it is no more than sexual slavery.

Legalisation of prostitution, in my view, would release a plethora of slaves. Outright bans make humanity illegal. I can see no justification for it other than religious prejudice.

For the record, I have never hired one. Nevertheless, I can see how traditional xian marriage is prostitution under false clothes. The fundy xian bought and paid for stay at home wife is by definition a prostitute.

I prefer my partners to have a mind of their own, TYVM.
 
*shrug* I don't see why it should be illegal. The only reason some people react negatively is only because the taboo (mostly religious) surrounding sex. Eliminate the taboo, and it is about as exciting as paying somebody to clean up your window.
 
Gawdzilla Sama said:
"Intimate" massage is a fairly safe way to avoid STDs.

By the way, I have used a *********** lot of prostitutes.
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I haven't used the services of a lot of prositute, but the few good experience I had were actually extended form of message which did not involve any penetration whatsoever and more often than not not even touching. Tantric (whatever) is the name of the outfit. Not sure if that would count as prostitution tough. Not sure if I would count it as sex either.
 
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