Legislating P4P

Dian Johnson is the Labour MP for Hull. She is the latest of UK politicians to propose a nasty bill criminalising men for buying sex. The parliamentary gender items reads:

SEXUAL EXPLOITATION: TEN MINUTE RULE MOTION

Diana Johnson

That leave be given to bring in a Bill to criminalise paying for sex; to decriminalise selling sex; to create offences relating to enabling or profiting from another person's sexual exploitation; to make associated provision about sexual exploitation online; to make provision for support services for victims of sexual exploitation; and for connected purposes.

The English Collective of Prostitutes have responded:

BASIC FACTS

Of the approximately 72,800 sex workers in the UK -- at least 88% are women.

Prostitution has always been connected to women's poverty -- that's why overwhelmingly clients are men and sex workers are women.

Prostitution is increasing because poverty is increasing. 86% of austerity cuts have targeted women . Child poverty has gone up: 30% and in some London boroughs and areas of the North-East and Midlands 55% of children live in poverty . Government policies of benefit sanctions and the introduction of universal credit have deliberately caused destitution and pushed more women, particularly single mothers , [ii] into prostitution to feed themselves and their families.

Since the pandemic destitution has skyrocketed and women's organisations, including sex worker organisations like the English Collective of Prostitutes, report having to organise for food vouchers and donations to keep families afloat.

ISSUES RAISED IN PARLIAMENT

The Coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated poverty, homelessness and debt. Thousands of sex workers are dependent on food banks to survive . Demands for the government to provide emergency payments for sex workers in crisis, worker status so that women could get wage relief, sick pay and the benefits that other workers can claim, healthcare regardless of immigration status, and a moratorium on arrests, were picked up by some MPs who tabled questions to the government about the lack of support.

These demands for emergency help were not supported by the proposer of this motion.

Evidence submitted to the 2019 Work and Pensions Committee Inquiry into Universal Credit and Survival Sex focused on the impact of austerity on levels of prostitution in the UK. The Committee published its findings in November 2019. It recommended action against some of the worst injustices of the benefit system such as draconian sanctions and the five-week delay to get Universal Credit which have increased destitution and pushed many more women into "survival sex".

The former homelessness tsar recently raised the alarm about growing destitution in the pandemic, warning mothers could have to "go out and prostitute themselves, so that they could put food on the table."

Evidence from sex workers was also presented to the UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty who commented on "the harsh and arbitrary nature of some of the sanctions, as well as the devastating effects that resulted from being completely shut out of the benefits system for weeks or months at a time."

The Home Affairs Committee 2016 Inquiry recommended : "... the Home Office change existing legislation so that soliciting is no longer an offence and so that brothel-keeping provisions allow sex workers to share premises." It called for "previous convictions and cautions for prostitution [to be deleted] from the record of sex workers".

THIS 10-MINUTE RULE MOTION IS WRONG AND DANGEROUS

Police have arrested more than 400 people for allegedly 'keeping brothels' since 2017, according to figures obtained by Sky News.

Sky News sent freedom of information requests to 45 police forces asking for the number of arrests for suspected brothel-keeping offences from January 2017 to the end of August 2020.

The response was that police forces have detained at least 408 suspects in England, Wales and Northern Ireland since the start of 2017.

Although there has been an 11% drop in arrests so far this year compared with 2019, officers have still been targeting brothels during the coronavirus pandemic.

In a policy of callous disregard for the safety of sex workers, keeping a brothel is defined in the UK as more than one sex worker working from premises. So even just 2 sex workers working together for safety is then construed as a brothel. The English Collective of Prostitutes explains on its website:

If you work with someone else in a flat you can be done for running a brothel, even if you are not there at the same time.

Emily, whose name has been changed to protect her identity, commented:

How can we keep ourselves safe when we're on our own? It puts you in danger on a daily basis.

She called it draconian that she could end up with at least seven years in prison for running the flat if caught by police:

You live in fear of what can go wrong -- a knock on the door can mean that you're criminalised yet what you do is spend all day trying to make people happy. We're not actually doing anything that's criminal, she said. It's the laws that are criminal.

Sky's figures revealed that at least 64 people were arrested between January and August this year. Kent Police disclosed the highest number of arrests of any force, with 99 since 2017. Other hotspots included Thames Valley (45 arrests), Bedfordshire (32) and London (27).

Many of the arrests do not result in prosecutions, with figures from the Ministry of Justice revealing that only 48 people were put on trial from 2017 to 2019.

The Scottish government writes:

Prostitution is a form of commercial sexual exploitation. Commercial sexual exploitation persists as a result of how women are viewed by society.

The Scottish Government's definition of gender based violence is clearly set out in Equally Safe, Scotland's strategy for preventing and eradicating violence against women and girls:

Gender based violence is a function of gender inequality, and an abuse of male power and privilege. It takes the form of actions that result in physical, sexual and psychological harm or suffering to women and children, or affront to their human dignity, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or private life. It is men who predominantly carry out such violence, and women who are predominantly the victims of such violence. By referring to violence as 'gender based' this definition highlights the need to understand violence within the context of women's and girl's subordinate status in society. Such violence cannot be understood, therefore, in isolation from the norms, social structure and gender roles within the community, which greatly influence women's vulnerability to violence

Equally Safe Priority 4 states the Scottish Government's priority to ensure men desist from all forms of violence against women and girls and perpetrators of such violence receive a robust and effective response. This violence includes the violence perpetrated by men in relation to acts of commercial sexual exploitation, of which prostitution is one aspect.

The consultation is being taken forward under Equally Safe and fulfils the 2019-20 Programme for Government commitment to consult on approaches to challenge men's demand for prostitution, continue to support work to reduce the harms associated with commercial sexual exploitation and help women to exit prostitution.

The aim of the consultation is to gather views on how best to challenge men's demand for prostitution in Scotland, reducing the harms associated with prostitution and supporting women involved to exit. The consultation paper invites views from a wide range of readers including key stakeholders, statutory partners, those who work in the sector to challenge men's demand for prostitution, support women and those who may have lived experience to help inform the development of future approaches to prostitution in Scotland.

The consultation closes 10th December 2020

Britain's sex industry is still far from normal as prostitutes slowly start to work the streets again and brothels begin reopening in the wake of lockdown. But demand from Brits is not what it was before the pandemic, as many appear hesitant to get their kicks.

Laura Watson has been involved with the English Collective of Prostitutes for 10 years. The group represent sex worker across the country. She explained that:

There are still clients out there -- during lockdown that obviously decreased and it is not like it is anything near normal, but there is a demand out there. It's women's need for money that fuels the industry -- women go into it for financial aid.

It was reported that just one-in-three sex workers continued to meet up face to face during lockdown. Others took their business online using web cams.

Research on one adult website showed that thousands of escorts and sex workers are now listing themselves as available. One website appeared to have 21,827 escorts on its books. And there were 10,000 in London alone, with other popular areas including 1,341 in Manchester and 1,630 in Birmingham.

Watson  said:

It hasn't gone back to normal in that women have put whatever safety procedures they can in place. All the measures that the Government have deemed safe, including social distancing when they can, and the general measures have been mainly implicated. I think women are trying their best to keep as safe as possible. It's understood that some women have used paper bed sheets and extra sanitisers in a bid to avoid contracting and spreading the virus.

Amsterdam is banning the sale of alcohol in shops in the Red Light District over the weekend, in an attempt to restrict crowds in the popular area. More enforcement officers will be deployed to make sure everyone is adhering to social distancing. And day trippers and tourists will be urged to avoid crowds with targeted ads on their social media.

Femke Halsema, mayor of Amsterdam said:

We are taking these measures because we are responsible for the health of residents and visitors. This includes an urgent appeal to everyone who visits our city, be careful, avoid crowds, and follow the corona rules. It is very important that everyone keeps their distance from each other, both the Amsterdammer and the international tourist. On the street and in the catering industry. Only together can we prevent new outbreaks of the virus. A new lockdown is the last thing we want.

The sale of alcohol in Red Light District shops will be banned from 4:00 p.m. on Thursday until midnight on Sunday. According to the security region, alcohol bought from these stores is often consumed on the street.

Wilhan Martono, the man who owned the adult classified ads website CityXGuide, has been arrested by federal authorities in the most high-profile multi-state legal action since the shuttering of Backpage.com in 2018.

Martono's arrest and the seizure of CityXGuide by authorities is the first such raid since President Donald Trump signed the FOSTA/SESTA internet censorship package into law in April 2018.

The arrest follows aTexas indictment against Martono filed June 2 and includes 28 federal charges, among them conspiracy, money laundering and promotion and facilitation of prostitution. The indictment links Martono to a network of adult-oriented websites like CityXGuide, BodyRubShop and variations on the name of the shuttered Backpage.com. Prosecutors also claim that in January 2019 Martono sent an email expressing a desire to take over from where Backpage left off.

This appears to be the first use of the criminal prohibitions on promotion and facilitation of prostitution created by FOSTA, said adult industry attorney Lawrence Walters.

Calls have been made for an emergency fund to support sex workers whose earnings have fallen during the coronavirus crisis.

A third of escorts have been continuing to offer face-to-face meetings, estimated one sex worker.

The English Collective of Prostitutes said there was precedent for a support fund and without one many had to choose between earning and risking health. There was no reason why the UK could not follow countries such as Japan and Thailand and provide emergency money.

Charlotte Rose, a former sex worker, said many women would not get any help because social stigma had put them off registering as a self-employed sex worker. She estimated a third of escorts were still offering face-to-face services. She commented:

Sex workers are predominantly single mothers and they still have to work, they still have to earn. If they're not registered, they're not applicable for the government funding. If they've got children, how are they supposed to feed their families?

The government responded in a statement: Universal Credit payments have been increased to help support people through these unprecedented times.

Most Germans are spending much more time at home due to the coronavirus pandemic. That means good news for some in the sex industry and bad news for others.

Rising sales figures at many online erotic shops suggest what some healthy Germans told to lock down at home are doing in some of their free time. But on the flip side, the crisis is hitting the livelihoods of many sex workers hard.

Sex toys, for example, are selling particularly well. The number of orders placed with the online erotic shop EIS has doubled since Covid-19 hit Germany in late January. Vibrators are particularly popular at the moment. A spokesperson for erotic outlet Orion said its online shop had also seen increased sales.

Erika Lust, a producer of feminist porn, has reported that more people are viewing her films than usual. Since the outbreak, streaming times on her platforms have increased by 20 to 30% globally.

But for many sex workers in Germany and worldwide, the pandemic has had drastic consequences. I simply don't have a job, said German sex worker Marlen, who did not want to give her full name. She has some money saved and could at least take a few weeks off. But others cannot afford to, even though the German federal and state governments have decided to close brothels.