Having sent members of her staff earlier this year to see how Sweden has been curtailing prostitution, our Home Secretary has started to unveil the Government's proposals. It seems that the emphasis is to fine heavily and criminalise the 'punter' and to 'name and shame' kerb crawlers' for even going once round the block. I find this slightly odd when the Home Secretary's aim is stated as a process "designed to crack down on pimps, drug dealers and people traffickers.' This smacks of kicking the cat when the dog messes on the carpet as the Police will find it an easier option to arrest 'punters' than investigate and arrest people traffickers, drug dealers or pimps.I utterly abhor pimping, drug dealing and people trafficking but is this the answer? Prostitution encompasses a wide spectrum of motives for selling sexual favours and perhaps the German model of licenced, safe, willing, tax-paying prostitutes plying their business in licenced brothels is perhaps a more sensible solution to the problem. If we were less hypocritical about prostitution we could perhaps eradicate the criminal involvement.
How odd it is that The Home Secretary is about to make a new category of criminal and 'name and shame' kerb crawlers', when young thugs who gang-raped a teenager in London or almost killed a young man in Ramsgate are guarranteed anonymity by the full force of the law. I would prefer to know about the violent, vicious young men in my area than the rather sad clients of prostitutes.
5 comments:
How incredible is it that, a major newspaper group is quite happy to publish adverts for foreign girls who provide massage services and in our local papers!
Should punters be criminalised for buying sex with womem trafficked from east europe and asia of course, which is part of the intention as I understand yes if stops the vile crime what's worse a criminal record or allowing rape to occur because someones paid a pimp?. A no really!
Of course licensed sex trade is good idea, but more should be done to protect those forced into the sex trade by low life pimps
Couldn't agree more, Tony but would prefer to see the real target being the traffickers and pimps. As you rightly highlight,it is quite amazing that advertisements for sexual services of 'foreign' girls are peddled by our local press!
Bertie, your sentence ". If we were less hypocritical about prostitution we could perhaps eradicate the criminal involvement." sums up the situation. I can see no rational objection to whores touting for customers provided they are not doing so under duress from pimps or any other of the criminal vermin that infest our streets.
I think the theory is that if you remove the market by criminalising the buyer the the seller packs up !
A similar principal was applied to drink driving, ie make it unacceptable and the problems lessens, of course successive governments have tried and failed with various schemes to solve this problem and indeed are they serious about it ? where would senior Tories, Max Mosely and top High Court judges get their kick ?
Smoking is another example IF Governments were serious about stopping folks smoking they would just tax tobacco out of reach of all but the richest.
The reason for this "answer" is the same reason for any such answers locally or nationally. A need to look good in the statistics while also being seen to do something.
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