Menu

Argument: Banning prostitution is a prerequisite to ending sex trafficking

Issue Report: Prostitution

Support

  • Margareta Winberg, Former Deputy Prime Minister of Sweden. Speech in Stockholm. Nov. 5-6, 2002 – “I believe that we will never succeed in combating trafficking in women if we do not simultaneously work to abolish prostitution and the sexual exploitation of women and children. Particularly in light of the fact that many women in prostitution in countries that have legalised prostitution are originally victims of trafficking in women.”[1]
  • The U.S. Department of State. “Trafficking in Humans Report”. June 2007 – “Sex trafficking would not exist without the demand for commercial sex flourishing around the world. The U.S. Government adopted a strong position against prostitution in a December 2002 policy decision, which states that prostitution is inherently harmful and dehumanizing and fuels trafficking in persons.[2]
Prostitution and related activities—including pimping and patronizing or maintaining brothels—encourage the growth of modern-day slavery by providing a façade behind which traffickers for sexual exploitation operate. Where prostitution is tolerated, there is a greater demand for human trafficking victims and nearly always an increase in the number of women and children trafficked into commercial sex slavery. Few women seek out or choose to be in prostitution, and most are desperate to leave it. A 2003 scientific study in the Journal of Trauma Practice found that 89 percent of women in prostitution want to escape prostitution but had no other options for survival.”[3]
  • Margareta Winberg, Former Deputy Prime Minister of Sweden. Seminar on the Effects of Legalisation of Prostitution Activities in Stockholm. Nov. 5-6, 2002 – “I believe that we will never succeed in combating trafficking in women if we do not simultaneously work to abolish prostitution and the sexual exploitation of women and children. Particularly in light of the fact that many women in prostitution in countries that have legalised prostitution are originally victims of trafficking in women.”[4]
  • Christine Stark, MFA, author and activist. “Justice Talking”. National Public Radio (NPR). Mar. 4, 2002 – “…[Y]ou don’t legalize organized rape. You just don’t do that. What we have found is that legalization has caused an increase in the trafficking into the area where the legalization exists. The state then becomes the pimp… Legalizing prostitution creates more demand and mainstreams abuse of women and children… [I]t also makes it difficult to hold traffickers accountable.”[5]
  • Barrett Duke Jr., PhD, Vice President for Research and Public Policy. Research Institute of The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, Southern Baptist Convention. Pakistan Christian Post. May 4, 2004 – “Instead of legalizing prostitution, they should work very vigorously at ending prostitution, which in our opinion would significantly contribute to the eradication of trafficking in persons and human sexual slavery.”[6]
  • Michael J. Horowitz, LLB. Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute. May 4, 2006 – “Germany’s World Cup Brothels: 40,000 Women and Children at Risk of Exploitation Through Trafficking” Hearing before the U.S. House of Representative’s International Relations Subcommittee on Africa, Global Human Rights and International Operations, said:
At least as importantly we now also wage intellectual and policy battles, as we must, against trafficking’s apologists and appeasers. Those adversaries, some well-meaning, believe that the fight against traffickers can never be won and can thus only be waged at the margins. They call for the legalization and regulation of the commercial sex industry, precisely as their 19th century counterparts sought to ‘reform’ African chattel slavery by seeking improved health conditions on slave ships and by calling for episodic Christmas holiday breaks for field hands…
Today’s appeasers fail to understand that legalizing prostitution always increases illegal prostitution. They fail to understand that the emotional capture of victims by brutal and experienced traffickers makes it certain that the victims will almost never feel free to testify about the lives they are forced to endure. They fail to understand that ‘Pretty Woman’ story is a lie, that the Academy Award electors who awarded this year’s Oscar to the profoundly infamous song ‘It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp’ provide cover and protection for the real world of slavery.”
  • The U.S. Department of State. “Trafficking in Humans Report”. June 2007 – “Sex trafficking would not exist without the demand for commercial sex flourishing around the world. The U.S. Government adopted a strong position against prostitution in a December 2002 policy decision, which states that prostitution is inherently harmful and dehumanizing and fuels trafficking in persons.
Prostitution and related activities—including pimping and patronizing or maintaining brothels—encourage the growth of modern-day slavery by providing a façade behind which traffickers for sexual exploitation operate. Where prostitution is tolerated, there is a greater demand for human trafficking victims and nearly always an increase in the number of women and children trafficked into commercial sex slavery. Few women seek out or choose to be in prostitution, and most are desperate to leave it. A 2003 scientific study in the Journal of Trauma Practice found that 89 percent of women in prostitution want to escape prostitution but had no other options for survival.”
  • Richard Poulin, PhD, Professor of Sociology at the University of Ottawa. “The Legalization of Prostitution and Its Impact on Trafficking in Women and Children”. Sisyphe.org. Feb. 6, 2005 – “Although there was a belief that legalization would make possible control of the sex industry, the illegal industry is now ‘out of control’. Police in Victoria [Australia] estimate that there are 400 illegal brothels as against 100 legal ones. Trafficking in women and children from other countries has increased significantly. The legalization of prostitution in some parts of Australia has thus resulted in a net growth of the industry. One of the results has been the trafficking in women and children to ‘supply’ legal and illegal brothels. The ‘sex entrepreneurs’ have difficulty recruiting women locally to supply an expanding industry, and women from trafficking are more vulnerable and more profitable.”