Should Sex work be decriminalized

Sex work industry:

The Sex work Industry – Prostitution, pornography, exotic dancing, phone sex, video chat, escorting agencies, massage parlors - is a term that can be defined as adults who receive money in exchange for sexual activities, whether it be occasionally or temporarily.  This blog will argue the need for decriminalizing Sex work. Three points will support this argument, the respect of sex workers human rights, the decrease in criminal activity, and increase in awareness about health risks.

In most sex worker situations, many adults face the issue of supporting their family, financially. This idea and situation is indeed the exact same reason why many others go into any work force, to support their family. In many countries, there is a law on how individuals should be treated, whether it is in a work place or in your local community. New Zealand’s Human Rights Act 1993 is similar to the act of other countries. It promises to protect people from discrimination, sexual harassment and racism.  This act applies to each individual, regardless of your cultural background, your religion or gender, your rights matter. Then why is that Sex workers are treated differently? Why are they refused access to free health checks or protection from the authority in countries such as the United States of America, parts of Australia, majority of Asia and Africa? By restricting and refusing sex workers legal rights to work, this defeats all purpose in trying to support their family or trying to pay for their education or medical bills, leaving them with no dignity. Sex worker have been an object of abuse by police. In the United States of America, a young American born Asian had gone to the police after being raped from one her escorting clients. She was judged by her appearance and her job title, she was refused service because she had “asked for it.” This is why there is a desperate call for decriminalization, so not only are we protected, Sex workers are as well.

It is a proven fact that by decriminalizing sex work, crime rates will decrease. Crime –human trafficking, murder, rape, abuse – have seen a major decrease in countries such as New Zealand and Amsterdam due to the political notion to decriminalize Sex work. In Thailand, sex work is illegal but the country has caught a bad reputation for human trafficking, drugs and prostitution. The United States of America faces the same issue. In 2012 it was estimated that annually 100,000-300,000 females above the age of 18 are brought into the United States of America as a result of human trafficking. Amsterdam paints a very different story. Most politicians believed that by decriminalizing sex work it would create a larger demand for human trafficking. By decriminalizing sex work, it allowed the government tocontrol and diminish gang-related associations.  It also helped with level of abuse and rape by bringing it to a bare minimum. Sex workers are found depending on authority. In cases where a sex worker feels she/he is being harassed by a client roughly, making her/him feel pressured, authority can and will arrest the client. Decriminalizing sex work requires a number of safeguards. In New Zealand have safe guards to protect or prevent sex workers from being exploited. For many sex workers in New Zealand, before the law had changed, saw that they had no power in the service they were providing, causing physical abuse and rape to see an increase. When the law had changed, for brothels, clubs and an agency were required to have a strong security system. Each female and male worker had to be physically capable to fight for themselves just in case. Small steps such as the providing of safeguards allowed crime to decrease rapidly. There are still issues between a persistent and dangerous client, but the amount of behavior such as that per night has decreased.

Hong Kong Sex workers put into prison
June, 2005

One important impact of sex work is the health risk that comes alongside the job description. Many people – sex workers and clients- catch or transfer a sexually transmitted disease. In the past, these diseases were of little knowledge to both parties, the effect it would have on one person were dealt with privately until the person was finally consumed by death. By legalizing sex work encourages the health risks to be promoted. New Zealand encourages safe sex. It is required in the Ministry of Health that sex workers use protection at all times. In some cases, this leads to sex workers feeling empowered. Africa has the highest percentage of HIV. Most parts of Africa have criminalized sex work. In graph A, shows a description of diagnoses of HIV in Africa starting from the year 1981-2011. It rises throughout the years 2004-2006. In most places of Africa, poverty leads to the increase in prostitution which then causes the ‘boom’ in the HIV diagnoses. By legalizing sex work, it would have provided many people in Africa- and other countries- with the equipment and the information to prevent some cases of HIV and other sexually transmitted infection from occurring.

The sex working industry consists of individuals who are exactly like anyone else. They are people who are looking for a way to pay for their bills, put food on the table, and pay for their education or their children’s education. They are females and males who work twice as hard as any person working behind a desk. Yet, in many countries protection is refused, equality is refused. They are then stuck with a stereotype and looked down upon from authority. They have higher chances of catching a sexually transmitted disease, and also put into danger at every job. I agree, that sex work should be decriminalized in most countries because not only will it decrease crime rates, protect children from exploitation, I strongly believe every person deserves their human rights

Graph A- Death by HIV and AIDS 1981-2011

Protesters in New York fighting for the right of sex workers
March 18 2011