New UK Law Will Criminalize Men Who Pay for Sex with Pimped or Trafficked Women, Could Be Charged with Rape, Could Face Life
Nov 19th, 2008 by admin
New prostitution laws to be set out today will mean a plea of ignorance is no defence for men facing prosecution for buying sex from a woman who has been trafficked or is being exploited by a pimp.
Under proposals to be published today by the home secretary, Jacqui Smith, a man who pays for sex with a woman who has been trafficked or is under the control of a pimp could face a charge of rape, which carries a potential life sentence.
The new offence of paying for sex with somebody who is “controlled for another person’s gain” is to carry a hefty fine and a criminal record.
The decision to criminalise men who pay for sex with trafficked women is likely to have a widespread impact. The Metropolitan police have estimated that 70% of the 88,000 women involved in prostitution in England and Wales are under the control of traffickers.
It forms part of a wider package of reforms to tackle street prostitution, including prosecuting first-time kerb crawlers and implementing stronger police powers to close down brothels.
The package marks a sharp change of approach for Labour, which four years ago proposed a partial decriminalisation of prostitution in red-light “tolerance zones”, and then powers to allow two or three women to work together in a brothel to provide protection for each other. The first proposal, by the former home secretary David Blunkett, was blocked by Downing Street, reportedly because of fears of a hostile media response.
Despite some expectations, today’s package will not include changes to the licensing of lapdancing clubs, although Smith has indicated that proposals will be made in future to regulate them on the same basis as sex shops. This is expected to give residents stronger powers to object and to lead to the closure of some clubs, especially in residential areas.
The change in the law follows a six-month Home Office-led review of prostitution laws which included visits by ministers, including Harriet Harman and Vernon Coaker, to Amsterdam and Stockholm to see how the law worked there.
Harman has described the flow of women brought into Britain by human traffickers as “a modern slave trade”, and said that it only exists because men are prepared to buy sex: “So to protect women we must stop men buying sex from the victims of human trafficking.”
The home secretary has made clear that under the new offence it will not be enough for a man to say “I didn’t know”. The new offence will include a “strict liability” test so that police will only have to prove that the man paid for sex, and that the woman had been trafficked. There will be no need to prove he knew it at the time.
In an interview on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme this morning, Smith said this meant a man would be committing an offence even if he asked a prostitute whether she had been trafficked and was told that she had not been.
When it was put to Smith that this was unfair, she replied: “I will tell you what I think is more unfair. That’s that there are women in this country who are effectively being held in slavery. There would not be this exploitation, there would not be this slavery of women, controlled in the way that they are, if there was not the demand for prostitution.”
She said that in the past the government has concentrated on addressing the “supply side” issues relating to prostitution. Now the government wanted to curtail the demand.
“At the end what we also need to recognise is that if there is no demand for sex with women, there will be less trafficking,” she said.
Full article is here.
Unfortunately the UK government’s proposals in respect of prostitution do not criminalise men who buy women’s and girls’ bodies for the purpose of male sexual exploitation. Instead, the UK government has once again decided to adopt a half-hearted approach which is designed to appease men who fuel the demand in female sexual slavery whilst simultaneously claiming ‘yes we the government are doing something about women’s right not to be reduced to a commercial sexual product.’ Proving a prostituted woman was being controlled by a pimp or brothel owner will be very hard to prove.
Why not simply adopt the swedish model and criminalise all individuals which means it will target male Johns and send a very strong message that yes, women are human too and no women are not men’s sex slaves. Jacqui Smith claims she had to take into account the numbers of women who ‘choose’ to work in prostitution but this ignores overwhelming evidence that prostitution exists because it reinforces male supremacy and one of the reasons for the rise in prostitution is due to the commercialisation of the so-called sex industry. Enormous profits are made by companies and individuals who are not directly involved in prostitution. On the issue of ‘choice’ there is no such thing as ‘free and autonomous choice’ when it is men demanding and expecting to have the right to masturbate into women’s and girls’ bodies. The same excuses were used when first wave feminists targetted prostitution and these same excuses and justifications still abound. Bottom line is challenging male demand goes right to the root of male supremacy and domination over all women. Norway has taken a bold and right step in announcing it will criminalise all individuals (read men) who buy women for the purpose of male sexual gratification.
Arrest the men who buy the women! Simple. Make it clear that buying women for sex is a violation of women’s civil rights. Don’t explain it to these pigs, just arrest them, try them, and throw them in jail. Hmmm, these poor men will then be subject to rape and sexual colonization in prison! Pretty good punishment I’d say.
It’s just a proposal. It’ll never pass.
It has passed. In Norway Johns are subject to criminal action from january 1st 2009. The country has had a major increase in the number of trafficked prostitutes, mostly from Nigeria, in recent years and is now hoping this new law will decrease the problem. Trafficking and pimping is already illegal, but as Jennifer Drew said, hard to prove. I believe it is the right thing to do and will free many women from a terrible situation. But I also believe these women will need a lot of support and I hope action is taken to support them. Actually the organisation for prostitutes in Norway has been opposed to the law. Probably because these women have few options. Hopefully the government of Norway will provide some options in the future.
Also, Norways bold step might force other countries to follow because the a part of the group of trafficked prostitutes will move to the next country and faced with the problem might adopt the solution of the scandinavian countries.
Finally I have read that some men have argued that this law will prevent less attractive men from having sex. Handicaped or otherwise challenged men will have to forgo buying a womens body. Can you believe that there still are men who think that they have a human right to sex and that women, without rights, are bound to serve them?
Yes, Ione, men do believe they have a right to any kind of sex they want. They are the sexual entitlement class!