DO WE help sex workers most by legalising or criminalising what they do? This debate is occupying many Western countries, and it鈥檚 coming to a head in Scotland.
A proposed bill that would decriminalise prostitution there has just finished its consultation stage. In the UK, selling sex isn鈥檛 illegal but related acts are, such as soliciting, kerb-crawling and working in a brothel. These would be allowed under the Scottish bill.
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In 2012, the Scottish member of parliament behind the idea, , favoured a form of criminalisation. Then she went to a debate involving sex workers. What she heard that day and since has led her to 鈥渃ome full circle鈥�.
Urquhart鈥檚 bill is modelled on a 2003 , broadly deemed a success and backed by the World Health Organization.
Some of those responding to her plan are morally opposed to sex work. They invoke God, or can鈥檛 imagine why anyone would want to be a sex worker unless forced into it. But existing laws address coercion, and modern governments tend not to moralise on consensual adult sex.
Opponents also cite health risks and violence that sex workers can face. Yet a review of 800 studies and reports this year found that , not less.
鈥淎 review of 800 studies and reports found that criminalising sex workers is linked with violence鈥�
There are many reasons why: if what you do is illegal, it is harder to work with others or hire guards 鈥� that鈥檚 classed as working in a brothel. If you get attacked you dare not go to the police. And you are less likely to use services that provide free condoms and treat sexually transmitted infections.
Since recent restrictions on Edinburgh saunas used for sex work, there has been no fall in the number of sex workers, but there are , reduced visits to clinics and a small rise in sexually transmitted infections.
Some want the 鈥淪wedish model鈥�, where it is illegal to pay for sex but not to provide it, to avoid penalising sex workers. But a sex worker whose customers get arrested will quickly have no customers at all. So it still forces them to operate in secret, leading to the same problems.
As one sex worker says, the debate tends to revolve around feelings about men who pay for sex and what that says about society. She wants to scream: 鈥淲hat about our safety?鈥�
Image: Jez Coulson/Panos
This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淪afer sex work鈥�
