We have previously written with approval of Sweden’s approach to prostitution. In 1999, Sweden made it a crime to buy sex but not to sell it. The Swedes removed legal jeopardy from prostituted women but increased it for pimps and johns. After the police were trained in the implementation of the new law, the incidence […]
Ordinances and Regulations
News Roundup: Age of Entry into Prostitution Declining
Ads from the June 12 Valley Advocate: “Consenting Adults” proclaims one of the ads above. An odd phrase to apply to a legitimate massage service, but perfectly understandable for a commercial sex business. Smokescreen phrases like these are often employed by defenders of prostitution in attempts to stifle debate. They are not convincing. Studies that […]
How to Deter Johns from Buying Sex
Far from the common belief that ‘prostitution will always be with us’, it’s not that hard to deter johns from buying sex. These two articles present the results of a survey of 110 Scottish men between the ages of 18 and 77 who had paid for sex: Sex industry in Scotland: Name and shame the […]
Very Intimate Pleasures Loses Another Round in Berlin, CT
Congratulations to NO V.I.P. in Berlin, CT. The Connecticut Supreme Court just upheld Berlin’s ordinance that requires adult-themed businesses to keep at least 250 feet away from residential zones. Very Intimate Pleasures, an adult toy and video shop, had tried to argue that this ordinance was invalid because it had been passed by the town […]
Bloomberg Columnist Likes Sweden’s Approach to Prostitution
Ann Woolner applauds Sweden’s approach to prostitution on Bloomberg.com today: Legalize Selling Your Body, Criminalize Buying It: Ann Woolner …de-criminalizing the flesh business encourages human trafficking and boosts the presence of organized crime, according to studies. There is no drop in brutality, either, and some indication it increases. “Anyone contemplating such a move has to […]
The Truth About Lap Dancing: A Performer Speaks Out
Object is a UK group that challenges ‘Sex Object Culture’. They have kindly authorized us to reprint their interview with a former lap/pole dancer. The Truth About Lap Dancing A Performer Speaks OutObject 2007 Comments on this Report This testimonial is prepared from an interview with Lucy Brown, a former lap/pole dancer who approached Object […]
Profitable Exploits: Lap Dancing in the UK
Julie Bindel of the Child and Woman Abuse Studies Unit, London Metropolitan University, prepared this report on strip clubs in 2004 for the Glasgow City Council. Beyond the impact on the direct participants, the passages below suggest that strip clubs have “secondary effects” on their surroundings (e.g. blight, harassment). Club management typically maintains that their […]
Prostitution: “It is high time to expose and challenge the liberal consensus”
Roger Matthews, professor of criminology at London’s South Bank University, has studied street prostitution since 1985. Julie Bindel talks to him about his new book, Prostitution, Politics and Policy, for The Guardian: ‘It’s abuse and a life of hell’ (2/29/08) …Matthews completely disagrees with the notion of legalisation. Instead, he says, the punters should be […]
Dorchen Leidholdt, “Demand and the Debate”
Dorchen A. Leidholdt is the Co-Executive Director of The Coalition Against Trafficking in Women. Here are excerpts from her speech, “Demand and the Debate”. She provides an excellent history and analysis of the “sex-positive” spin on prostitution. “Prostitution is a job like any other job,” [Wages for Housework activists] insisted. “Some women prostitute their fingers […]
Report of assault at kink.com, a San Francisco torture pornography production company (explicit language)
This article originally appeared on January 16 on the Traffick Jamming blog at Prostitution Research & Education. We are reprinting it by kind permission. A post about a woman who’d been brutally assaulted as part of a production at kink.com in San Francisco appeared on Luke Ford’s blog www.lukeisback.com [explicit site] on January 10, 2008. […]