Legalizing Prostitution: From Illicit Vice to Lawful Business (42 page)

8
. General Social Survey, 2008, N = 824 males, 945 females.

9
. Federal Bureau of Investigation,
Crime in the United States
, Washington, DC: Department of Justice, 2009.

10
. Bernard Cohen,
Deviant Street Networks: Prostitution in New York City
, Lexington, MA: Lexington Books, 1980,
p. 73
; John Lowman, “Street Prostitution Control: Some Canadian Reflections on the Finsbury Park Experience,”
British Journal of Criminology
32 (1992): 1–17.

11
. See Jeremy Hay, “Spread Your Legs, You Are under Arrest: A Report on the Police Abuse of Prostitutes in San Francisco,”
Gauntlet Magazine
1, no. 7 (1994): 20–32.

12
. Merit Audits and Surveys, Merit report, October 15–20, 1983, N = 1,200; Louis Harris poll, January 11–February 11, 1990, N = 2,254.

13
. “The Task Force therefore recommends that the City stop enforcing and prosecuting prostitution crimes.” San Francisco Task Force on Prostitution,
Final Report
, San Francisco Board of Supervisors, 1996,
p. 6
.

14
. See Ronald Weitzer, “Why Prostitution Initiative Misses: Measure Q in Berkeley Fails on Three Counts,”
San Francisco Chronicle
, September 26, 2004, p. E3.

15
. Prostitution Task Force,
Workable Solutions to the Problem of Street Prostitution in Buffalo, New York
, 1999.

16
. Richard Lake, “Majority Opposes Legalizing Prostitution in Las Vegas,”
Las Vegas Review-Journal
, October 30, 2003.

17
. Alexandra Lutnick and Deborah Cohan, “Criminalization, Legalization, or Decriminalization of Sex Work,”
Reproductive Health Matters
17 (2009): 38–46.

18
. Martin Monto, “Prostitutes’ Customers: Motives and Misconceptions,” in Weitzer, ed.,
Sex for Sale
, 2nd ed.,
p. 243
.

19
. Basil Donovan, Christine Harcourt, Sandra Egger, Karen Schneider, Jody O’Connor, Lewis Marshall, Marcus Chen, and Christopher Fairley,
The Sex Industry in Western Australia: A Report to the Western Australian Government
, Sydney: University of New South Wales, 2010, p. x.

20
. Wolfenden Committee,
Report of the Committee on Homosexual Offenses and Prostitution
, New York: Lancer, 1964 [1957], para. 227.

21
. Ibid., para. 14.

22
. Ibid., para. 286.

23
. The
strict liability
aspect of the law, applying irrespective of whether the client knew the prostitute had been subjected to coercion, was criticized by the Human Rights Joint Committee in Parliament:

We are disappointed that the government has failed to provide the evidence which, in its view, demonstrates the necessity for the new strict liability offense. As we have said on a number of previous occasions, legislation should be firmly based on evidence. … We conclude that the fact that the offense is one of strict liability will make it difficult for an individual to know how to regulate his conduct given that his knowledge is not an element of the offense. … In our view, the proposed offense has the potential to put women into more exploitative or unsafe situations, may not address the problem which the offense aims to target (namely exploitative prostitution), and may discourage reporting of such prostitution.

Human Rights Joint Committee,
Legislative Scrutiny: Policing and Crime Bill 2009, Conclusions and Recommendations
,
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/jt200809/jtselect/jtrights/68/6805.htm
.

24
. The policy is described in more detail in Ronald Weitzer, “Prostitution Control in America: Rethinking Public Policy,”
Crime, Law, and Social Change
32 (1999): 83–102. My discussion of indoor prostitution is restricted to workers who entered the trade voluntarily and does not pertain to those who have been coerced or deceived into selling sex. Law enforcement directed at the protection of such victims is obviously laudable.

25
. On Britain, see Catherine Benson and Roger Matthews, “Police and Prostitution: Vice Squads in Britain,” in Ronald Weitzer, ed.,
Sex for Sale: Prostitution, Pornography, and the Sex Industry
, New York: Routledge, 2000.

26
. See, for instance, the six-page investigative report on the policing of massage parlors in Louisville, Kentucky: Jim Adams and Jason Riley, “Louisville Takes Aim at Parlor Prostitution,”
Courier-Journal
, July 11, 2004. A study of 16 cities in the mid-1980s by Julie Pearl found that in three of them (Baltimore, Memphis, Milwaukee) indoor prostitution
accounted for between a quarter and a third of their prostitution arrests, and it accounted for half of the arrests in Cleveland. Pearl data cited in Weitzer, “Prostitution Control in America,”
p. 90
.

27
. Jessica Logan, “Internet Replacing Streetwalking for Inland Prostitution,”
Press-Enterprise
(Riverside, CA), January 1, 2008.

28
.
San Francisco Chronicle
, April 6, 1990.

29
. Sara Green, “Prostitution Sting Leads to 104 Arrests,”
Seattle Times
, November 16, 2006.

30
. Quoted in Mike Brunker, “Prostitution Thrives on the Net,”
ZD Net News
, June 7, 1999.

31
. Jennifer Sullivan and Christopher Schwarzen, “Did Local Vice Cops Cross the Line?”
Seattle Times
, October 7, 2005.

32
. Mike Crissey, “State Police Revising Handbook after Sex Sting,” Associated Press, September 8, 2001.

33
. Jason Riley and Jim Adams, “Officers Have Sexual Contact with Suspects,” and Jason Riley, “Undercover Methods Draw Ridicule, Praise,”
Courier-Journal
, July 11, 2004,
pp. 1
,
3
.

34
. Tom Jackman, “Spotsylvania Deputies Receive Sex Services in Prostitution Cases,”
Washington Post
, February 13, 2006, pp. B1, B5.

35
. Quoted in Mark Scolforo, “PA Prostitution Case Tossed over Gov’t-Funded Sex,” Associated Press, November 6, 2009.

36
. In some other places, including Phoenix and Houston, vice officers are allowed to undress prior to making an arrest, but these seem to be exceptions to the rule. See Robert Crowe, “Officers Disrobe to Uncover Crime: HPD Changed Its Policy to Crack Down on Spas Fronting for Prostitution,”
Houston Chronicle
, January 24, 2005.

37
. Ian Demsky, “Police Defend Prostitution Tactic: DA Says Encounters Using Informants Unnecessary,”
Tennessean
, February 2, 2005.

38
. Cohen,
Deviant Street Networks
,
p. 81
; Lowman, “Street Prostitution Control.”

39
. Vice sergeant interviewed by Julie Pearl, May 1985, cited in Weitzer, “Prostitution Control in America.”

40
. Conversation with three members of the vice squad in Washington, DC, September 14, 1992.

41
. San Francisco Committee on Crime,
A Report on Non-Victim Crime in San Francisco, Part 2: Sexual Conduct, Gambling, Pornography
, Mayor’s Office, 1971,
p. 44
.

42
. Helen Reynolds,
The Economics of Prostitution
, Springfield, IL: Charles Thomas, 1986,
p. 194
.

43
. Michael Rekart, “Sex-Work Harm Reduction,”
Lancet
366 (December 17, 2005): 2123–2134; Linda Cusick, “Widening the Harm Reduction Agenda: From Drug Use to Sex Work,”
International Journal of Drug Policy
17 (2006): 3–11.

44
. San Francisco Committee,
Report on Non-Victim Crime
,
p. 38
.

45
. Special Committee on Pornography and Prostitution,
Pornography and Prostitution in Canada
, Ottawa, ON: Department of Justice, 1985, p. 515.

46
. Federal/Provincial Territorial Working Group on Prostitution,
Report and Recommendations in Respect of Legislation, Policy, and Practices Concerning Prostitution-Related Activities
, Ottawa, ON: Department of Justice, 1998,
p. 35
.

47
. Reynolds,
Economics of Prostitution
,
p. 192
.

48
. See the discussion of Boston, Las Vegas, and San Francisco in Barton Child Law and Policy Clinic,
Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in Georgia
, Atlanta: Emory Law School, 2008.

49
. The Safe Harbor for Exploited Children Act, 2008, New York State.

50
. Michael Scott,
Street Prostitution
, Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, 2001; Ronald Weitzer, “The Politics of Prostitution in America,” in Ronald Weitzer, ed.,
Sex for Sale: Prostitution, Pornography, and the Sex Industry
, New York: Routledge, 2000.

51
. Marieke van Doorninck and Rosie Campbell, “Zoning Street Sex Work: The Way Forward?” in Rosie Campbell and Maggie O’Neill, eds.,
Sex Work Now
, Portland, OR: Willan, 2006; Hendrik Wagenaar and Sietske Altink, “To Toe the Line: Streetwalking as Contested Space,” in David Canter, Maria Ioannou, and Donna Youngs, eds.,
Safer Sex in the City: The Experience and Management of Street Prostitution
, Farnham, UK: Ashgate, 2009; Paul van Soomeren and Sander Flight, “Design against Kerb-Crawing: Tippelzones,” paper presented at the International Crime Prevention through Environmental Design conference, Brisbane, Australia, 2004.

52
. Lowman, “Street Prostitution Control,”
p. 2
.

53
. Adele Weiner, “Understanding the Social Needs of Streetwalking Prostitutes,”
Social Work
41 (1996): 97–105.

54
. For a study of one such organization, see Sharon Oselin, “Leaving the Streets,”
Deviant Behavior
30 (2009): 379–406.

55
. Marianne Hester and Nicole Westmarland,
Tackling Street Prostitution: Towards an Holistic Approach
, Home Office Research Study 279, London: Home Office, 2004; Jane Pitcher, “Support Services for Women Working in the Sex Industry,” in Campbell and O’Neill, eds.,
Sex Work Now
; Clarissa Penfold, Gillian Hunter, Rosie Campbell, and Leela Barham, “Tackling Client Violence in Female Street Prostitution: Inter-Agency Working between Outreach Agencies and the Police,”
Policing and Society
14 (2004): 365–379.

56
. Atlanta Task Force on Prostitution,
Findings and Recommendations
, Mayor’s Office, Atlanta, Georgia, 1986; San Francisco Committee on Crime,
Report on Non-Victim Crime
.

57
. Special Committee on Pornography and Prostitution,
Pornography and Prostitution in Canada
.

58
. Federal/Provincial Territorial Working Group,
Report and Recommendations
,
p. 71
; Home Office,
A Coordinated Prostitution Strategy
, London: Home Office, 2006.

59
. Angus Reid poll, October 8–9, 2009, N = 1,006. An earlier Canadian survey found much greater public acceptance of indoor than street prostitution: only 11 percent of the public found street prostitution acceptable, compared to 38 percent for brothels, 43 percent for escort services, and 45 percent for prostitution in private premises: Peat Marwick and Partners,
A National Population Study of Prostitution and Pornography
, Ottawa, ON: Department of Justice, 1984.

60
. Home Office,
Coordinated Prostitution Strategy
.

61
. Amanda Milkovits, “Legislators’ Attempts to Quell Prostitution Stall,”
Providence Journal
, May 28, 2005; Denise Dowling, “Last Call for Sin,”
Rhode Island Monthly
, June 2007.

62
. “Rhode Island Law Reform Bills, 2009,” press release, sent to all members of the Rhode Island State Legislature, July 31, 2009. The letter was coauthored by me and Elizabeth Wood and signed by scholars from throughout the United States. The press release was quoted in many media outlets, including the state’s leading newspaper: “Academics
Urge R.I. to Keep Indoor Prostitution Legal,”
Providence Journal
, August 3, 2009. See also my op-ed article, “Some Lurid Prostitution Myths Debunked,”
Providence Journal
, June 19, 2009.

63
. Donna Hughes, “R.I.’s Carnival of Prostitution,”
Providence Journal
, June 24, 2009.

64
. Carcieri and Lynch quoted in Lynn Arditi, “New RI Law Banning Indoor Prostitution Leads Some Spas to Close,”
Providence Journal
, November 4, 2009.

65
. Lynn Arditi, “RI Senate Passes Prostitution Bill, 36–2,”
Providence Journal
, October 29, 2009.

66
. Quoted in Ray Henry, “RI Lawmakers Adopt Indoor Prostitution Ban,” Associated Press, October 30, 2009.

67
. Hawaii State Legislature, House of Representatives, HB 982, “Prostitution,” 2007, §3 and §6. The companion bill in the Senate was SB 706.

68
. Herkes, quoted in Mark Niesse, “Prostitution Bill Gains Support,”
Star Bulletin
(Honolulu), February 13, 2007. The bill had 13 cosponsors in the House, one in the Senate.

69
. A very similar convergence of interests between the state and prohibitionist forces took place during the Reagan administration in the mid-1980s, when antipornography forces succeeded in shaping the “findings” of the attorney general’s commission on pornography, resulting in a major government crackdown on the pornography industry. See Carole Vance, “The Meese Commission on the Road,”
Nation
, August 2, 1986,
pp. 65
,
76
–82; and U.S. Department of Justice,
Beyond the Pornography Commission: The U.S. Response
, Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1988.

70
. Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA), 2000, Public Law 106-386, §103(8).