Let’s take a look at the impact of decriminalizing prostitution in New Zealand. They have allowed decriminalized prostitution since 2003. Below is a summary of recent news reports on the topic. Please go to original article to read ARTICLE LINKS:
A review of our posted articles (see Get Informed-News-Prostitution-NZ) illustrates what decriminalization of prostitution has done and is doing:
The Impact on Young women:
• Is luring increasing numbers of “desperate” young women into prostitution. article (see alternative view: article)
• Is luring overseas students studying in New Zealand legally, to engage in prostitution illegally. article
• Is luring foreign women (mostly Asian) to New Zealand illegally, to engage in prostitution. article; article
Impact on Children and youth
• Has led to a rise in child prostitution. article; article
• Has reduced the sexual exploitation and rape of children to a mere social, rather than criminal, issue. article; article
• Has not resulted in a law enforcement crackdown on child sexual exploiters, as promised. article; article; article
• Health, safety, violence and gender inequality
• Has not prevented murders of women in prostitution. article; article
• Has not prevented other forms of violence against women in prostitution. see section below or here
• Has not prevented women from being forced to “work” in slave-like conditions. article
• Requires women in prostitution who operate in unsafe or slave-like conditions to seek expensive and drawn-out legal redress against their employer through the Employment Court (personal grievance claim). article
• Has led to “bargain-basement” sex-for-sale prices in some brothels. article
• Has not deterred unsafe sex practices, with unprotected sex offered for the “right price”. article
• Has led to a broadening of genres being sought by sex buyers, and met (eg “heavily pregnant and lactating”). article
• Continues to entrench gender inequality, where the “paymaster” is dominant and young women are reduced to sexual subservience. article
The Impact on Communities
• Has impacted negatively on residential communities, where sex traders’ rights prevail over residents’ rights. article; article; article; article; article
• Has impacted negatively on business communities, where sex traders’ rights prevail over business owners’ rights. article
• Has normalised prostitution, despite politicians’ promises it would not. article
The Impact on Local councils
• Has caused ongoing bureaucratic problems for local bodies and city councils, wasting huge (ratepayer funded) resources. article; article; article
The Impact on Legal pimping/profiteering
• Has seen a big increase in Asian-run brothels relative to population size (9.2% as of 2010 source). article
• Has turned former pimps and brothel owners into “entrepreneurs”, paving the way for sex business expansions including mega-brothels. article; article; article
• Has seen a rise in non-sex businesses profiting from the sex industry (eg the New Zealand Herald, profiting from the advertising dollar, runs daily advertisements offering sex buyers a smorgasbord of mostly young women of varying ages, ethnicities, characteristics, (in)experience and breast cup size).
• Has widened the market reach to include cut-out discount coupons for sex buyers. article
The Impact on Illegal profiteers
• Has seen a dramatic increase in commercial unlicensed brothels. article
• Has seen the springing up of a large illegal sex industry. article
The Impact on Trafficking for the sex trade
Assists traffickers (actual and prospective) by removing a major obstacle within prostitution, its illegality. article
• Makes it harder for trafficking victims to be distinguished from foreign women with false passports who are committing Immigration offences. article; article
The Impact on Sex tourism
• Has seen New Zealand marketed internationally as a sex tourist destination for sex-buying retirees. article
Read Full Post here
http://www.stopdemand.org/wa.asp?idWebPage=54993&idDetails=271
