R4 NEG V. JAMES MADISON ML
TRAFFICKING
1NC TRAFFICKING DA
Legalization substantially expands abuse and trafficking – turns every part of the
case
Curva, 12 - Research Editor, Rutgers Law Review. Candidate for J.D., Rutgers School of Law - Newark, 2012 (Ione, “Thinking
Globally, Acting Locally: How New Jersey Prostitution Law Reform Can Reduce Sex Trafficking” 64 Rutgers L. Rev. 557, lexis)
Those against legalization hope to abolish prostitution, n231 and they argue that legalization has simply resulted in movement
towards private realms to avoid regulation. n232 Legalization has created a greater separation between legal prostitution and illegal
prostitution: "Legalization creates a two-tier system of prostitution since the illegal industry in all
legalized systems is hugely greater than the legal sector. The regulations ... apply only to the small legalized
sector so the vast majority of prostituted women and girls are not covered ... ." n233 Legalization in Nevada, the
Netherlands, Australia, and Germany have all "resulted in an increase in illegal, hidden, and
street prostitution." n234
Despite the legal regulations that exist, violence persists and women still feel endangered:
"When rapes occur, ... women in legal strip clubs are told to keep silent or be fired. Women in
prostitution speak constantly of its violence." n235 Violence remains while parties' [*587] roles may change. n236 "Sexual
violence and physical assault are the norm for women in all types of prostitution... . whether it
is legal or illegal." n237 While women in both legal and illegal prostitution are subject to the same type of violence, for women
in legal prostitution, the violence "is viewed as sex and often tolerated as part of the so-called job." n238
In order for individual prostitutes to make money (since they must give a portion of their earnings to the brothel
owners), they
must see as many clients as they can each night to earn a profit. n239 Teri, a prostitute
from a Nevada brothel stated, "The brothel owners are worse than any pimp. They abuse and
imprison women and are fully protected by the state." n240 The legislation seems to have the
opposite effect of deterring pimps and traffickers. Moving prostitution indoors makes it more
invisible so that women can be controlled in more violent ways. n241 "Indoor prostitution, above all,
protects the trick. Men are physically and psychologically safer when prostitution is indoors." n242
Legalization has not resulted in a decrease of trafficked women, which was one of the law's objectives; to
the contrary, rates of trafficking have increased in places where prostitution is legal: "The
European nations that have legalized, the Netherlands and Germany, have the highest
numbers of trafficked women... . The increase in numbers of male buyers that results from
legalization increases the demand for prostitution, which is met by the trafficking of women into
both legal and illegal sectors ... ." n243
[*588] In addition to an increase in the number of trafficked women, rates of child prostitution
and child trafficking have flourished since legalization. Interpol, the British police, and the
Dutch police all agree that the Netherlands is "a prime destination and home for child sexual
abusers, also known as pedophiles." n244 Arguments that legalization would help to "control and reduce child prostitution have not proved
true, with police suspecting that child prostitute abusers choose the Netherlands because of its prostitution-promoting environment." n245 Similarly
there are high rates of child prostitution and trafficking in Nevada, prompting various groups - including police,
the FBI, juvenile court system, and advocacy groups - to unite to aid child victims. n246 Nevada police have estimated that approximately 400 children
are forced into prostitution each year, though "former prostitutes say the number of children is much higher and pimps much [sic] are more devious."
n247
In sum, though
places with legalized prostitution have done so in an effort to decrease sexual
exploitation, in reality the opposite effect has occurred. In fact, female prostitutes believe that
legalized prostitution benefits the state above all. n248 There is no evidence that legalization
protects victims of trafficking and forced prostitution; the opposite has been shown to be true.
n249 In reality, "legal prostitution is "state-sponsored prostitution" with "legal brothels" akin to
"little prisons." n250
Cross-national data prove the link
Cho et al, 13 - SEO-YOUNG CHO, German Institute for Economic Research-DIW Berlin,
Germany; AXEL DREHER Heidelberg University, Germany; ERIC NEUMAYER London School
of Economics and Political Science, UK (“Does Legalized Prostitution Increase Human
Trafficking?” World Development Vol. 41, pp. 67–82, 2013 http://prostitutionresearch.com/wpcontent/uploads/2014/03/LegalizedProstitution-Trafficking-Rel-2013WorldDevel.pdf)
This paper has investigated the impact of legalized prostitution on inflows of human trafficking. According to economic theory, there
are two effects of unknown magnitude. The scale effect of legalizing prostitution leads to an expansion of
the prostitution market and thus an increase in human trafficking, while the substitution effect
reduces demand for trafficked prostitutes by favoring prostitutes who have legal residence in a
country. Our quantitative empirical analysis for a crosssection of up to 150 countries shows that the
scale effect dominates the substitution effect. On average, countries with legalized
prostitution experience a larger degree of reported human trafficking inflows. We have corroborated this
quantitative evidence with three brief case studies of Sweden, Denmark, and Germany. Consistent with the results from our
quantitative analysis, the legalization of prostitution has led to substantial scale effects in these cases. Both the cross-country
comparisons among Sweden, Denmark, and Germany, with their different prostitution regimes, as well as the temporal comparison
within Germany before and after the further legalization of prostitution, suggest that any compositional changes in the
share of trafficked individuals among all prostitutes have been small and the substitution effect has
therefore been dominated by the scale effect. Naturally, this qualitative evidence is also somewhat tentative as there is no “smoking
gun” proving that the scale effect dominates the substitution effect and that the legalization of prostitution definitely increases
inward trafficking flows. The problem here lies in the clandestine nature of both the prostitution and trafficking markets, making it
difficult, perhaps impossible, to find hard evidence establishing this relationship. Our central finding, i.e., that countries with
legalized prostitution experience a larger reported incidence of trafficking inflows, is therefore best regarded as being based
the most reliable existing data, but needs to be subjected to future scrutiny. More research in this area is definitely
on
warranted, but it will require the collection of more reliable data to establish firmer conclusions.
Trafficking is a system of slavery and structural violence for millions – victim
testimony
George, 12 – Associate Professor of Law at the Lincoln Memorial University-Duncan School of
Law in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Cheryl, “JAILING THE JOHNS: THE ISSUE OF DEMAND IN
HUMAN SEX TRAFFICKING” 13 Fl. Coastal L. Rev. 293, lexis
The unending and consistent struggles of the United States and most of the world with sex trafficking are
intimately tied to questions concerning the "rule of law" and "good governance." n336 Many have called
this fight against modern-day slavery the "new abolitionist movement." n337 As a caring, compassionate global
community, we should all be encouraged and strongly motivated to join in this fight to save countless,
faceless, nameless victims. n338 The goal should be to dismantle the demand and end this
system of slavery forever. n339
In the end, global sex trafficking or "slavery is a moral [dilemma] that forces confrontation with
one's commitment to human dignity." n340 As such, we must recognize that as a global community we will be able to
significantly decrease the number of victimized sex slaves if governments institute stringent
enforcement policies, punish [*334] "Johns," and create penalties to decrease the demand for
the services of those trafficked by "Johns." n341
Demand is the grease that spins the wheels of a well-oiled and operating sex trafficking
machine. n342 This demand is creating a living hell for innocent women and children around
the globe; society can no longer turn a deaf ear to their plight and the brutality to which they are subjected. n343
We must remember that the victims are real people who deserve recognition and protection. n344 To illustrate this point,
one victim's letter pleads with Pastor Chun Ki-won and implores, "I want to live like a human being for one
day. I am a human being. How can I be sold like this? I need freedom." n345 Another child victim recalls how scared and
alone she felt when "clients" raped and brutalized her. n346 In testimony given to a Senate Committee, Luis CdeBaca
reasoned, "With all of us, and those who we will touch, young people need to know that they are not alone: that we will not
turn a blind eye to their abuse." n347
That outweighs claims of empowerment
Hunt, 13 - SWANEE HUNT is the Eleanor Roosevelt Lecturer in Public Policy and founder and
director of the Women and Public Policy Program at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.
(“Deconstructing Demand: The Driving Force of Sex Trafficking”, 19 Brown J. World Aff. 225
2012-2013, Hein Online)
An individual who purchases the body of another for sexual gratification is participating in, and
fueling, an industry that is overwhelmingly destructive not only to hundreds of thousands of
sellers, but also to society as a whole. The industry attracts profit-motivated traffickers,
incentivizes organized crime, feeds an appetite for illicit sex, and perpetuates an unjust genderimbalanced society. While some sex workers say that they are freely choosing to sell and their
right to do so should be protected, solid public policy is not built around a small
number of exceptions, given the great harm to the majority. And, as shown below, that
harm, much of which is psychological, cannot be significantly assuaged by legalization, which
actually increases the number of women and girls exploited. Echoing Supreme Court Justice
Oliver Wendell Holmes ("The right to swing my fist ends where the other man's nose begins"),
the buying and selling of bodies constitutes a situation of "exception," says esteemed sociologist
Orlando Patterson, whose key work is on historical slavery." One person's pursuit of happiness
must not be at the expense of another's life and liberty.
2NC TRAFFICKING IMPACT
Aff authors represent prostitutes of privilege – not the victims of trafficking which
are far more numerous
Bota, 14 – Rapporteur for the Committee on Equality and Non-Discrimination, Portugal,
Group of the European People's Party (Jose, “Prostitution, trafficking and modern slavery in
Europe” 3/20, http://assembly.coe.int/nw/xml/XRef/X2H-XrefViewPDF.asp?FileID=20559&Lang=EN
118. While I have listened carefully to the representatives that I met, I believe that most sex
workers’ organisations no longer represent the world of prostitution in Europe. Their
membership and leadership is largely composed of sex workers conducting their activity in
relatively safe and stable conditions and they are mostly citizens of the country where they work.
Today, the vast majority of sex workers both in the streets and in brothels are of foreign origin.
De Roode Draad (The Red Thread), once the main sex worker organisation in the Netherlands,
was often criticised as being too focused on creating a positive image of sex work and too distant
from the real problems of sex workers, particularly foreign ones.52 In 2010, Karina Schaapman,
a former sex worker and subsequently a member of the Amsterdam City Council, declared that
75% of prostitutes in Amsterdam were foreign born.53
119. It seems to me that this estimate may apply roughly to the rest of Europe. The challenges
that prostitutes of foreign origin face are different and more severe. Many of them are victims of
trafficking. They are generally more vulnerable, as they suffer from isolation and a lack of
personal connections. Some of them face the risk of deportation by the migration authorities,
which is often used as leverage by their pimps to keep control over them.
120. Legislation on prostitution should be designed and enforced taking into account the impact
on the situation of sex workers, their health and safety and their freedom of choice.
Representatives of sex workers should have their say on relevant regulations, and should be
consulted in the course of their elaboration. The stances of organisations assisting victims of
trafficking for sexual exploitation and forced prostitution should also be taken into account, as
these victims are not represented by sex workers’ organisations. The ultimate choice
on the legal approach to be adopted should not respond only to the interests and needs of a
small minority. Human rights should be the first priority in making policy choices on
prostitution and trafficking.
This is the card handed from Ellis in the 1nr:
It’s linear – and the demand args come first because they expand illegal sector
Hunt, 13 - SWANEE HUNT is the Eleanor Roosevelt Lecturer in Public Policy and founder and
director of the Women and Public Policy Program at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.
(“Deconstructing Demand: The Driving Force of Sex Trafficking”, 19 Brown J. World Aff. 225
2012-2013, Hein Online)
Legalizing the selling and buying of bodies does not have the dignifying and regulating effect for
which proponents may hope. Instead, it gives license to a practice overwhelmingly destructive to
those caught up in the system. Legalizing behavior normalizes it. Stockholm Police Inspector
Simon Hlggstr6m tells how in the Netherlands, the number of men who say they would or do
buy sex is multiple times higher than in Sweden, where buying is illegal and enforced
through arrests. 22 The drive to legalize prostitution is a misplaced effort spearheaded, in part,
by a small group of feminists worried about the unjust stigma heaped on those being bought.
They make a valid point that laws and law enforcement should be transformed so that individual
prostitutes receive care, not punishment. But rather than aiding prostituted women with
regulations such as health check-ups, legal prostitution attracts illegal prostitution (such
as with children) because traffickers and buyers recognize an environment where buying is
acceptable and in which they likely will not face criminal consequences.
AT: WEITZER INDICTS OF FARLEY
Weitzer’s wrong – strict social science methods are untenable given the
underground nature of the industry but our author minimized selection bias with
independent replication and diverse sampling
Farley, 5 - Melissa Farley is a research and clinical psychologist at Prostitution Research & Education, a San Francisco nonprofit organization (“Prostitution Harms Women Even if Indoors: Reply to Weitzer” Violence Against Women 2005 11: 950, DOI:
10.1177/1077801205276987)
Weitzer charges that research exploring the harms of prostitution is riddled with methodological
flaws. In fact, our research is methodologically sound and has been replicated. For example,
we used a standardized and validated test of post-traumatic stress disorder. We also asked about
respondents’ histories and demographics with a number of true-false questions. In peer- reviewed psychology
journals, questionnaires are rarely included in their entirety, although the lead author’s contact information is publicized. I have
been contacted by numerous researchers, some of whom have independently replicated the
methodology I used and subsequently published the results (Baral et al., 1998; Valera, Sawyer, & Schiraldi,
2001; Zumbeck, Teegen, Dahme, & Farley, 2003).
Weitzer bemoans our lack of a random sample. As other researchers of prostitution have noted,
it is not possible to obtain a random sample of people currently prostituting (McKeganey & Barnard,
1996). Investigators, therefore, use a variety of techniques to learn about the experience of
prostitution for those in it. Generally, smaller numbers of interviewees limit the generalizability of results. We have
reported data from a large number of respondents in different countries and in different types of prostitution.
We described in detail where and how we located respondents. We attempted to reach as diverse a
range of
people in prostitution as we could, including people of diverse races, cultures, ages, locations of
prostitution, and genders. We observed, as others have, that those who were the most harmed or the most vulnerable were
not available to us to interview (Vanwesenbeeck, 1994). They are either imprisoned or kept indoors and out of public view.
But there are additional difficulties in conducting research on prostitution. Although it is likely that funding will be more accessible
in the next decade, at this moment in time it is extremely difficult to obtain funding that would permit the expense of adequate
sampling of either women in prostitution or their tricks. Therefore, one must interview whomever one can access.
Adam Ruiz, Odette Levy, Barbara Strachan, and I have conducted research interviews with tricks and have faced problems with
obtaining representative samples. Although some U.S. research on customers of prostitutes interviewed men in diversion programs
who solicited prostitutes (Monto & Hotaling, 1998), we interviewed men who had not been arrested, in part because we wished to
interview men who bought women in indoor prostitution. Customers who are not in a police-sponsored program tend to exhibit
more “john-like” behaviors. All four interviewers encountered verbal sexual harassment from the nonarrested johns while
conducting the interviews.
We encountered other difficulties. Publishers of sex industry magazines such as the Bachelor’s Beat in Phoenix are reluctant or
unwilling to permit advertisements regarding research on prostitution. For example, I attempted to place a classified advertisement
in Bachelor’s Beat (January 2005) seeking interviews with customers of prostitutes. The advertisement was refused by the editor.
The announcement I was seeking to run in Bachelor’s Beat was perhaps considered a threat to the ongoing business of advertising
prostitution.
Weitzer states that I have “simply decree[d] that prostitution is violence, a proclamation that is
neither verifiable nor falsifiable” (Weitzer, 2005, p. 942). He appears not to have read the series of
studies that permit me to conclude, “Our findings from 9 countries on 5 continents
consistently indicate that the physical and emotional violence in prostitution is overwhelming”
(Farley et al., 2003, p. 55). The 2003 study described the frequency of six types of lifetime violence, the number of types of lifetime
violence, and rates of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in nine countries. Weitzer states that he is unclear
if my work includes male and transgender prostitution in spite of the fact that I
have described inclusion of both these groups in publications (Farley et al., 1998; Farley et al., 2003).
Weitzer mischaracterizes the abolitionist argument – the argument that violence
is intrinsic to prostitution doesn’t mean all prostitutes experience violence
Dempsey, 10 - Associate Professor of Law, Villanova University School of Law; Research Associate, University of Oxford
Centre for Criminology (Michelle, “SEX TRAFFICKING AND CRIMINALIZATION: IN DEFENSE OF FEMINIST ABOLITIONISM”
158 U. Pa. L. Rev. 1729, May, lexis)
Examples of this interpretation can be found in a recent critique of feminist abolitionism offered by Ronald Weitzer. Professor
Weitzer criticizes feminist abolitionists for claiming that prostitution is violence against women
and dismisses this claim as a conceptual one - rather than a claim about what is typically or often the case. n53 His criticism is
particularly perplexing and unjustifiable given the weak evidentiary support he offers to sustain it. Weitzer
singles out a quote [*1748] from Janice Raymond, a feminist abolitionist, in which she claims that "the sexual service provided in
prostitution is most often violent." n54 Of course, the fact that a practice is most often violent is perfectly consistent with a
conceptual claim that the practice is not necessarily violent (i.e., that it does not, as a conceptual matter, count as violence itself). So,
the nonconceptual interpretation was open to Weitzer. Yet, instead of interpreting Professor Raymond's words in a way that would
have aligned her conceptual account of prostitution with one he finds more plausible, Weitzer opts for the uncharitable
interpretation. He does so by seizing on Raymond's use of the word "intrinsic" in her claim that "violence is intrinsic to prostitution."
n55 Weitzer, presumably, took Raymond to mean "intrinsic" in the sense of "by its very nature; ... essential." n56 If that was her
intended meaning, then her account of prostitution differs from both Weitzer's and mine. Of course, it is entirely possible that when
Raymond claimed that "violence is intrinsic to prostitution" she meant "intrinsic" in the sense of "situated within" the practice of
prostitution. n57 Indeed, given that the point of Raymond's discussion was to illustrate the violence that often occurs during the very
performance of commercial sex acts, the latter definition seems more plausible.
On this account, we can understand the feminist-abolitionist claim that "violence is intrinsic to
prostitution" to mean that violence occurs within the practice of prostitution (i.e., within the very
performance of the commercial sex act). And of course it does. Even Weitzer does not deny that. n58 Now,
whether this intrinsic violence occurs often might remain an issue that Weitzer and Raymond still have to debate - but Weitzer
avoids this substantive debate by mischaracterizing the feminist-abolitionist claim about prostitution as one that alleges all acts of
prostitution are, as a matter of conceptual necessity, violent.
In sum, Weitzer's interpretation of feminist abolitionists' claims about prostitution should be rejected because it ignores
the target of the feminist critique: the social practice of prostitution in the real [*1749] world. n59
As a social practice, rather than an abstract concept, prostitution is subject to the feminist critique because violence is
typical of its practice. The feminist claim that "prostitution is violence against women" can
therefore be more charitably understood as a claim that treats violence against women as an umbrella
concept, extending over a number of related social phenomena, such as domestic violence, rape,
sexual harassment, and stalking. Each phenomenon bears salient resemblances to the others, in virtue of the tendency
each has to sustain and perpetuate patriarchal structural inequalities. n60 In this sense, each phenomenon is properly categorized as
violence against women.
AT: UN PROTOCOLS FAIL/ CHUANG
Chuang doesn’t think the aff’s criticism addresses trafficking – she equally
criticizes legalization
Chuang, 10 – assistant professor law at American University. From 1998 to 1999, the author represented the U.N. Special
Rapporteur on Violence Against Women - an expert of the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights - during the
U.N. Trafficking Protocol negotiations in Vienna (Janie, “RESCUING TRAFFICKING FROM IDEOLOGICAL CAPTURE:
PROSTITUTION REFORM AND ANTI-TRAFFICKING LAW AND POLICY” 158 U. Pa. L. Rev. 1655, May, lexis)
If anything, the
comparison of the Swedish and Dutch approaches illustrates that prostitutionreform strategies generally - whether abolitionist or not - are ill suited as solutions to the
problem of human trafficking. On the one hand, clamping down on street prostitution may actually strengthen demand in
other segments of the sex industry where trafficking can occur (for example, in pornography, escort-agency prostitution, and
stripping). n285 On the other hand, regulating the sex sector (or any other sector, for that matter) "does
nothing, in itself, to counter-act racism, xenophobia and prejudice against migrants and ethnic
minority groups" in the industry and can actually "reinforce existing racial, ethnic and national
hierarchies" in the sector. n286
Neither the Swedish nor Dutch prostitution-reform strategy addresses the complex mix of
socioeconomic factors, including poverty and discrimination, that leads people to undertake
risky labor-migration projects in an atmosphere hostile to migrants' rights and labor
protections. Neither strategy addresses the exploitation of migrants, who are, regardless of industry, invariably at the lower end
of the labor-market hierarchy and thus the last to benefit from labor protections - to [*1725] the extent such protections even apply.
n287 And neither strategy ultimately addresses the demand for trafficked or easily exploited services or labor.
Supply-side approaches reinforce colonial practices that associate trafficking with
Third World culture – focus on demand changes the character of trafficking
leadership
Adelman, 4 - J.D. Candidate, University of Southern California Law School (Michelle, “INTERNATIONAL SEX
TRAFFICKING: DISMANTLING THE DEMAND” 13 S. Cal. Rev. L. & Women's Stud. 387, lexis)
In response to increased recognition of the violence associated with international trafficking, "governments, such as the United
States, and international organizations, like the United Nations, have begun to focus financially and strategically on combating this
immense human rights problem." n10 United States efforts at countering international and domestic
trafficking have focused on the prosecution of traffickers and the aiding of victims, with increasing
success. n11 Both United States and international legal efforts have diluted the illegal sex industry's stream of supply by increasing
the number of traffickers prosecuted and broadening the scope of political forums in which victims can vindicate their rights. n12
However, as this paper will examine, the United States regrettably does so by defining victims as women
who are trapped in seemingly repressed economic and social conditions, which are a function of
their cultural heritage. n13 The relative factual foundations of such portrayals and the ability of such realizations to fuel
effective efforts at combating "the supply," the U.S. legislative efforts, scholarly debates, and mass media
depictions have exaggerated the extent of such cultural oppression. This, in turn, enforces
racist beliefs and overshadows the extent of American cultural oppression, which fuels the
demand for illegal sex workers. U.S. legislation ignores the cultural foundations that support an
increasing demand for illegal sex workers in America. Although current U.S. law provides a strong foundation
from which to build, new regulations and legislation must be drafted that contend with the increasing U.S. demand for illegal sex
workers.
This note will examine the extent to which growing international concern has fostered racist "images of
the 'Third World' subject - in particular, the female subject - " in the developed world, despite having also facilitated
the conviction of countless traffickers and continued [*390] protection and empowerment of some victims. n14 Part II of this note
addresses the current international and U.S. efforts at combating the international sex trade by examining the present state of
international and U.S. laws. Current legal efforts have successfully increased the numbers of traffickers prosecuted and have secured
greater legal protection for victims of the sex trade who are subjected to traffickers' coercive tactics of "sexual abuse, torture,
starvation, and imprisonment." n15
Part III uncovers the extent to which current
U.S. legal efforts, although affecting progress towards the elimination of the
racist imagery that thwarts
suppression of the growing sex trade in the United States. Legal discourse focuses on the
tendency of traffickers to "exploit poverty, disparate female rights, and emergent political
situations." n16 Sex trafficking allegedly "thrives upon the powerlessness of women and girls to change the conditions of their
supply of the illegal commercial sex industry, have, in so doing, established
existence" and exploits the power imbalance that exits within developing countries. n17 This view has aided the empowerment of
victims. Yet, U.S. legislators rely on data suggesting that as women migrate to urban areas, "traffickers use this migration to supply
the demand in industrialized countries for...sex." n18 Rather than considering [*391] the root of such demand,
U.S. law continues to emphasize the helplessness and vulnerability of the victim. The Office of
Violence Against Women identifies trafficking victims as women who are "poor, frequently unemployed or underemployed" and
"who may lack access to social safety nets." n19 This type of analysis, while enabling international efforts at empowering victims,
provides a racist foundation from which to build an effective solution, barring efforts at defeating the demand that sustains U.S. sex
trafficking rings.
Their indict doesn’t account for the CP that decriminalize the prostitute – their
offense is a caricature at best – our CP eliminates retrafficking
Whisnant, 7 - Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Director of Women's and Gender Studies Program at the University of
Dayton (Rebecca, Review of “Trafficking and Prostitution Reconsidered: New Perspectives on Migration, Sex Work, and Human
Rights,” Hypatia, Volume 22, Number 3, Summer 2007, pp. 209-215, DOI: 10.1353/hyp.2007.0039)
Some issues the essays raise are worth taking seriously. As several contributors observe, many
countries treat “trafficked
persons” as criminals and deport them back to their home countries. Often, these women are vulnerable
to retrafficking or to whatever family-based abuses may have partially motivated them to leave in the first place. The authors
are also critical of antitrafficking methods such as police raids on brothels—and of “rescue” efforts more broadly—which, they claim,
harass and traumatize the women. We can all agree that, however trafficking is defined, its victims should
not be treated as criminals; and there are legitimate questions to be raised about the costs and benefits of various police
tactics. Yet the contributors to this collection distort via omission the position of their feminist
opponents who, virtually without exception, support the decriminalization of all prostituted and
prostituting persons, but not of pimps or buyers.
AT: ABOLITIONIST RHETORIC K
Their rhetorical criticism is based on a caricature of our position – they have a
simplistic view of agency that ignores how people respond to abuse
Whisnant, 7 - Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Director of Women's and Gender Studies Program at the University of
Dayton (Rebecca, Review of “Trafficking and Prostitution Reconsidered: New Perspectives on Migration, Sex Work, and Human
Rights,” Hypatia, Volume 22, Number 3, Summer 2007, pp. 209-215, DOI: 10.1353/hyp.2007.0039)
Certain rhetorical devices frequently serve to mask the paucity of argument. One such device is
to characterize one’s own approach as nuanced and complex in contrast to what is presumed to be the
rigid ideology and totalizing simplicity of competing views. Another is the use of catchphrases, such as “global
justice” and “rights-based approach,” to which well-intentioned progressives can be expected to respond positively, while competing
approaches are tagged with such progressive bugaboo terms as “policing,” “state power,” and “moral panic.” To
distort and dismiss contrary feminist views as antisexual hysteria, veiled conservatism, and
“imperialist bourgeois logic” (Kempadoo, xi) is inexcusable at this stage of the debate.
Particularly significant in many of these essays is their authors’ rejection of the term “victim” in favor of
“trafficked person.” (Similarly, they eschew “slavery” to refer to debt bondage and forced labor, preferring the Orwellian
“slavery-like practices.”) Kempadoo sounds this theme in the introduction, criticizing “the dominant trafficking discourse [for] the
idea that those who are subject to violence and slavery-like practices are ‘victims’ ” (xxii). Such a characterization, she explains,
objectifies such persons, portrays them as “helpless and pitiful” (xxiv), and “sustains an image of women as pure, unblemished, and
innocent prior to the trafficking act” (xxiii). (The assumption that only the pure and innocent can be
victimized is a wild leap of logic, one that echoes any number of screeds against “victim feminism.”) Many “affected
women,” Kempadoo points out, do not identify as victims, but rather see themselves as having
made poor choices; that the same is true of many rape victims seems not to occur to her.
Here, as in many other contexts, the preferred frame to replace victimization is “agency.” While agency is a
useful concept, it is not incompatible with victimization, and it is deployed here in a simplistic and naïve way. To give just one
example, several authors point out that some trafficked women return to their “employers” (pimps)
even after undergoing programs of rescue or counseling; we are expected to respect this as a
manifestation of prostitutes’ “agency.” To anyone familiar with the range of threats and
manipulative techniques that pimps use to control women, what is surprising is that most
women manage not to return. For example, Nigerian women and girls trafficked to Italy frequently endure forced “juju
rites” in which they swear never to report to the police and to pay off their (as yet unspecified) debts to the traffickers. According to
Esohe Aghatise, who has worked with many such women, “These rites have great significance for the victims because they strongly
believe that harm will come to them or their families if they do not repay their debts.”5 To interpret such a woman’s
return to her pimp as an expression of her “agency” displays stunning ignorance at best, and at
worst, deliberate collaboration with the interests of exploiters.
We don’t endorse the rescue model of trafficking – our CP represents a human
rights approach
Todres, 13 - Jonathan Todres is Associate Professor of Law at Georgia State University College of Law (“Human Rights, Labor,
and the Prevention of Human Trafficking: A Response to A Labor Paradigm for Human Trafficking” 60 UCLA L. Rev. Disc. 142 (
2013)
Second, her article argues that a human rights approach focuses only on the rescue of passive victims. This is a key point for Shamir:
"One of the two prin- cipal lines of divergence between the labor anti-trafficking framework and the human rights framework relates
to how they construe the trafficked person—as a passive victim (the human rights approach) or as an agent who can change her
situation (the labor approach)."52 Human rights scholars would disagree with the assertion that a human rights approach sees
individuals as passive victims; in fact, the idea that victims are passive individuals without agency has been
a target of human rights critiques of the current approach to human trafficking.53 Human rights
are really about empowering individuals 54 The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
Against Women requires states parties to take steps to ensure the "advancement of women, for the purpose of guaranteeing them the
exercise and enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms on a basis of equality with men."55 An arguably more striking
example is the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child, which recognizes children's right to participate in decisions that affect
their lives.56 These examples, and others, contemplate individuals as agents, not as passive victims.57 In
other words, the
dominant rescue narrative that fails to recognize the trafficking survivor's agency,
which some may argue is human rights based, is antithetical to the core principles of human rights.
Some abolitionists go too far, but tarring the entire movement as “hateful” and
one that “does violence to women” goes too far- it’s a tactic to shut down debate
Lacles 11
(This is a French acronym, google translates it as “Concentration of struggles against sexual exploitation”, this is an open letter
signed by 50 group members, 6-23, http://www.lacles.org/letter-to-the-feminist-movement)
In the wake of a series of targeted attacks–sometimes subtle, other times blatant–aimed at abolitionist feminists,
we call on you, as members of the feminist movement in Québec, to react. Abolitionist feminists address the
fundamentally patriarchal but also racist, capitalist and colonialist nature of the institution of
prostitution. The purpose of their political education, prevention and intervention work is to equip feminists
with information and tools to enable them to argue that the sex industry is illegitimate and must
be eradicated. They also seek to ensure that women have the right to extricate themselves from the
exploitative conditions inherent to this industry. They work with women who are or were in the sex industry to
organize, pool experiences and act for social transformation. They know that all feminists do not agree
with their analysis. But they demand the right to exist, think and work from this perspective. Abolitionist
feminists are publicly denigrated, and, in diverse settings such as universities (including professors) and the
social media (individuals’ and group Facebook pages, blogs, websites), are characterized as: « moralizing Christians; old, fat
and ugly women who have nothing to do; crazies; sluts and Nazis. » Activities addressing young audiences that
are designed to publicize resources for preventing young people from entering into prostitution are
criticized, even though these resources are aimed at women who could benefit from these same prevention resources. Ads or
announcements about helping services for women who are being sexually exploited in the sex industry are boycotted.
Abolitionist feminists are explicitly combatting male violence, yet they are told they are «
endangering women in prostitution, » and–the ultimate insult–that they are « committing
violence against women in prostitution! » Feminists who take the risk of naming and
denouncing men’s violence, and feminists who have endured the violence of thousands of men in
prostitution for periods of 10, 20, even 30 years or more–sometimes from the age of 2–are accused of
committing violence against other women. Regardless of our past or our experience as feminists, we believe that it
is always, and has always been, unacceptable to tolerate feminists’ use of tactics designed to silence
other feminists, even when we are in disagreement. Yet, that is exactly what is happening right
now. These strategies are unbefitting a movement that seeks collective debate and
thinking that will lead to new actions and an enhanced feminist practice. It is unacceptable to
say that abolitionist feminists are committing violence against women in prostitution. It is even more
unacceptable when it is directed against feminists who have a past experience of prostitution! The
purpose of these tactics is to silence women and it also means that some women, especially feminists, are
reluctant to take a position because they don’t want to be caught up in this pressure cooker . The
same tactics also prevent women in prostitution from having access to another perspective and other choices
. Of course, abolitionist feminists have no intention of shutting up. In fact, for the last 20 years in Québec, it has been very difficult
to find space in which to present abolitionist feminist analysis. Some women object that abolitionist feminists are too
radical or « aggressive » in defending their ideas. Others think that the debate is too emotional and don’t want to have to take a
position for various reasons: fear of conflict and possible divisions in their group and/or the movement, fear of not respecting
women with past experience of prostitution, etc. Even though abolitionist feminists deplore this situation and hope, through their
actions, to enable increasing numbers of women to understand that abolitionist feminist analysis is most consistent with their
principles of liberty, equality and solidarity, they respect the right of individual women and groups to arrive at their own position.
As signatories, we would nevertheless like feminists to exhibit feminist solidarity by opposing
the tactics of denigration and boycotting. We reiterate our respect for the fact that
some feminists do not share the analysis of feminist abolitionists. But to call
abolitionist feminists names, to « study » them as a phenomenon of violence against women, and to
call for a boycott of groups like the Concertation des luttes contre l’exploitation sexuelle on the pretext that
abolitionist feminists are a danger to women far exceeds the threshold of fair and
reasoned debate. The feminist movement is not homogeneous in its thinking, priorities or
actions. But unlike any other subject that could ostensibly divide us as a feminist movement, prostitution seems
to elicit an enormous reaction on one side and devastating silence on the other. This is why we are
calling on you today to help put an end to these tactics so that we can debate freely. This is particularly important in the context of
the Estates General of Feminism process. We are asking you to refuse to tolerate or endorse this denigration or to
participate in any way in silencing feminist abolitionist discourse. Whatever the analysis of certain feminist
groups or the issues at stake, we are asking you to act when these groups are treated as « crazy » or « violent. »
Some women may not like to hear the feminist abolitionists talk. Abolitionists, for their part, do not enjoy hearing feminists
defending the sex industry. But, abolitionist feminists cannot prevent women from talking and acting
on
their convictions and they are entitled to be treated likewise. Our discussions need to centre on
ideas.
AT: CHO INDICTS
Cho’s study accounts for data weakness – she distinguishes forms of trafficking
and uses multiple databases that all support her argument
Cho, 15 - Faculty of Business and Economics, Philipps-University of Marburg (Seo-Young,
“Modeling for Determinants of Human Trafficking: An Empirical Analysis,” Social Inclusion,
http://www.economics-human-trafficking.org/mediapool/99/998280/data/Modelling_ChoSI_final.pdf
One of the challenges of investigating human traffick-ing is the lack of reliable data (Kangaspunta,
2003). As human trafficking is a clandestine, illicit criminal activi-ty, the true magnitude of the problem is still unknown.
Furthermore, despite the international definition of human trafficking adopted by the United Nations (UN)’ Anti-trafficking
Protocol (2000), it is hard to clearly distinguish this phenomenon from illegal migration and forced
labor in practice, with many countries using dif-ferent variations of the definition (for instance, includ-ing sex trafficking only,
or applying the ‘forced labor’ concept). In fact, at present, there is no internationally comparable official statistics capturing the
magnitude of human trafficking (van Dijk, 2008). The United Na-tions Surveys on Crime Trends and the Operations of Criminal
Justice Systems (UNCTS) provide police statis-tics on the reported number of human trafficking cases for the period of 2005–2008,
covering a maximum of 80 countries.1 However, these statistics hardly reflect the true extent of the problem, with variations in statistics across countries and time instead capturing the level of law enforcement and differences in the defini-tion of human
trafficking between countries (Harren-dorf, Heiskanen, & Malby, 2010).
Despite the problems of human trafficking data collection mentioned above, there are several
interna-tional attempts to quantify the level of human traffick-ing by utilizing various sources,
including media reports, expert judgments, and qualitative information from fieldwork. Among
them, three datasets provide quantitative information on the magnitude of human trafficking which
is comparable across countries. First, the United Nations Office on Drug and Crime (UNODC, 2006) proposes an incidence
reporting index, grading the level of human trafficking in/outflows on a scale of 0 to 5 based on incidences coded in international reports and media. This index covers up to 161 countries and aggregates numbers over the period of
1996–2003. Second, the United States Department of State (2001–2014) categorizes countries into major destinations/origins based on the classification of whether a country experiences more than 100 reported cases of in/outflows in a given
year. The US annual data is a dummy variable covering up to 190 countries from 2001 to 2013. Third, the
International Labor Organiza-tion collected information on incidences through its global reporting system and
provides the aggregate number of cases during the period of 1995–2000, covering a maximum of 74
countries.2
These selected datasets have several advantages. First, they are gathered by a single collection body
under a unified definition of human trafficking, minimizing noises caused by disparities in
collection methods and definitions. Second, as they are not police statistics, these datasets are
comparatively less susceptible to biases caused by law enforcement efforts. However, these data have
some shortcomings as well. First, they are still subject to biases in data collection because they depend on reported incidences.
Second, the UNODC and ILO data provide aggregate quantities without variations over time, while the panel data pro-vided by the
US Department of State is a dummy varia-ble with few variations. With the constraints of the available data in mind, I employ each
of the three da-tasets in my analysis and compare the results in order to reduce any biases and fragmentation each dataset has.
Furthermore, I include control variables capturing as many reporting biases as possible in my
estimation model. In doing so, the UNODC dataset serves as the main measurement and the other two as check for the
robustness because the UNODC data follows the defini-tion of human trafficking suggested by the UN Anti-trafficking Protocol
(2000), and thus, the collected in-formation reflects the internationally accepted scopes of human trafficking most precisely. The
definitions of human trafficking adopted by the ILO and the United States are widely similar to that of the UNODC with minor
variations—ILO not specifying forms of human trafficking and the US specifically mentioning commer-cial sex as a cause of human
trafficking. The detailed definitions of human trafficking and information on the three datasets are provided in Appendix A.
Even if imperfect, the overwhelming preponderance of cross-national data goes
neg – plus our DA is consistent with theoretical modeling too
Jakobsson and Kotsadam, 10 - Department of Economics, School of Business, Economics and Law at University of
Gothenburg (Niklas and Andreas, “The Law and Economics of International Sex Slavery:
Prostitution Laws and Trafficking for Sexual Exploitation” Working Papers in Economics,
http://andreaskotsadam.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/trafficking.pdf)
Acknowledging that trafficking for sexual exploitation is an economic activity driven by profit motives and that state action and
inaction is decisive for structuring profit possibilities we develop theoretical predictions. Most importantly, we propose that
slacker prostitution laws make it more profitable to traffic persons to a country and that the
amount of trafficking will rise accordingly. Using cross country data we find clear support for our
theoretical predictions: trafficking of persons for commercial sexual exploitation is least
prevalent in countries where prostitution is illegal, most prevalent in countries where
prostitution is legalized, and in between in those countries where prostitution is legal but procuring illegal. We then proceed
to look at case studies of countries that have changed prostitution laws in order to investigate the causal claims. We look at
Sweden and Norway who have introduced harsher laws. As predicted trafficking was reduced in
these countries. The case studies also support the proposed causal mechanisms. This suggests
that harsher prostitution legislation may reduce the amount of trafficking to a country.
Another important step would be to investigate the mechanisms in the sending countries of this market which would enlighten the
ongoing debate and policy process in the attempts to reduce human trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation. It is likely that
factors such as poverty, inequality, and the social and economic marginalization of women play a significant role. That people have
to flee, that immigration is not free, and racist politics in building a fortress around Europe probably also facilitate the existence of
profiteers from trafficking. Until these factors are resolved we argue that attacking the market for prostitution is sensible.
It should though be noted that the data quality is far from perfect and we strongly recommend more data collection. We
argue, however, that since
both our cross-country analyses with different data as well as the case
studies point in the same direction, and since the results are supported by theoretical reasoning
and the mechanisms are found in the case studies, the results should be taken seriously.
CASE
1NC SOLVENCY
Empirically legalization won’t change social mores
Post, 10 - Dianne Post is an international human rights attorney who has worked for over 30
years in 14 countries on gender based violence and women‘s rights (Diane, “THE
LEGALIZATION OF PROSTITUTION: A Violation of International Law”
http://www.womenlobby.org/spip.php?action=acceder_document&arg=1058&cle=3582a7f496
0b7d17372a27f2cf9ac05670af1f68&file=pdf%2Fprostitution_as_violation_of_int_l_law__dianne_post.pdf)
The acceptance of the myth of men’s uncontrollable sexual urges, and the institution of
prostitution as a way to prevent men from raping innocent women is seen as the ultimate
justification for prostitution.215 The Whore/Madonna dichotomy then continues; some
women can be raped, others cannot. “Prostitution exists in and is maintained by a male-controlled society where
violence against women and children is pandemic and racism flourishes.”216 Prostitution functions in tandem with
racism and sexism and reduces women to objects.217
The fact that prostitution is harmful to women is ignored. Instead male privilege is reinforced through the masculine entitlement to
sexual access to and power and control over women, in a situation where men create the market and where customers contribute to
the maintenance of a system of slavery at the expense of women‘s bodies. Legalized prostitution allows males
unconditional sexual access to females and turns women into second-class citizens.
Customers, pimps, police and governments are perpetrators of violence against women. The
situation where some women shall be completely sexually available to buyers constitutes nothing less than paid rape.
Diane Matte, Coordinator of the International Secretariat of the World March of Women outlines the four institutions that maintain
the patriarchal system of exploitation of women:
marriage, maternity, heterosexuality and prostitution. 218 While challenges exist in all four, the least strides have been made in
prostitution. In fact, it seems that the more strides women make in one area of freedom, the more we are pushed back in another.
Ownership and use of women‘s bodies by men is the clearest example that women do not have freedom. Yet instead of the practice
declining, it is actually increasing, and women who speak out against it are pilloried. ‖ If we truly want to address the issue of
violence against prostituted women, then, we must tackle inequality between women and men in a much broader way. We must
above all challenge the demand, i.e., the fact that men want to purchase sexual services, and make the necessary links with the
maintenance of women's inferior status. Remember, too, that the institution of prostitution concerns all women. Under patriarchy,
the man/buyer does not wonder if the woman wants to be a prostitute. He prostitutes her.‖ (Matte)
CONCLUSION
The research has clearly shown that the women who are exploited in prostitution suffer the same kind of acts suffered by torture
victims, have the same kind of injuries and the same harms. The victims of prostitution not suffer the injuries daily and over time.
In locations where prostitution is legalized, women suffer these injuries with the permission
of the State. The State, by its acquiescence in the legalization and its support of the direct actors, bears responsibility and
must be held accountable.
The behaviors rise to the level of torture under international law and are certainly crimes for which on defense of consent is allowed.
For consent to be valid there has to be informed choice. In this situation, there is neither accurate information nor actual choice.
Approximately fifty percent of those sold into prostitution are minors, and the issue of choice is not even applicable.
Research in the communities where prostitution has been legalized proves that it
does not eliminate the problems of violence or trafficking but in fact escalates illegal
prostitution, crime and the degradation of women in general. As prostitution grows so does trafficking as the
method to procure sufficient numbers of prostituted women.
1NC ADVANTAGE
Legalization is state-sanctioned gender violence that affirms patriarchal
subjugation
Molisa, 13 - PhD student School of Accounting and Commercial Law Victoria University of Wellington (Pala, “ACCOUNTING
FOR PORNOGRAPHY, PROSTITUTION
AND PATRIARCHY”, http://www.apira2013.org/proceedings/pdfs/K251.pdf)
The industrialization and expansion of the global sexual-exploitation industry cannot have
developed, and cannot be sustained, without the active participation of the state. While trafficking in
women and girls were becoming an increasing concern among international bodies and NGOs, some states from the 1990s
onwards were busy legalization and decriminalizing their prostitution industries. Australia too this
path in the 1990s; the Netherlands, Germany and New Zealand followed in the 21st century. States facilitate the development of
national and international sex industries in various ways. The Japanese state, for instance, acted as pimp for both its own military
and for the occupying US forces after World War II (Tanaka, 2002); the Irish, Japanese, and Canadians governments have, until
recently, had special visa categories for ‘entertainers’ which enabled trafficking in women for strip clubs and prostitution (Jeffreys,
2009, p. 173; Macklin, 2003); and states in South East Asia, such as the Philippines have special training programmes for
‘entertainers,’ although none of these states have officially legalized prostitution. States that have legalized and decriminalized
prostitution are actively creating the conditions for the rapid expansion and development of prostitution industries.
States that legalize prostitution overlook its obviously gendered nature, the fact that it is
overwhelmingly women who are prostituted for men. Legalizing states argue that they are acting in the interests
of prostituted women since those who pass through the legal sector will not be so vulnerable to severe violence, but they overlook the
fact that legalized systems affect the status of all women, not just those who are prostituted,
in negative ways (Jeffreys, 2009, p. 177). It is telling that there is no literature arguing that prostitution benefits women as a group.
And, as Sheila Jeffreys has pointed out, there is a good deal of evidence that the opposite is the case (ibid.). The harms that
prostituted women suffer in prostitution both in terms of physical violence and its psychological
effects under legalized prostitution point to it being a form of male violence against women
(Jeffreys, 1997/2008, 2009). Other social and political harms include harms to good governance, such
as the encouragement of organized crime, the undermining of local democracy, harm to the
status of all women, and harm to neighbourhoods (Jeffreys, 2009, p. 188). States purport to serve “the
public interest” but insofar as they facilitate and legalize prostitution, they are acting in the
interests of power, and they are dealing in the degradation of women.
The state’s role as pimp in facilitating the development of the prostitution industry involves different processes that accounting
could be playing a role within: state prostitution policy formulation, select committee submissions, parliamentary hearings, policy
implementation, and monitoring and review activities; financial and economic analysis of the size, worth and growth of the sector
that could be used to justify or challenge the legitimacy of the industry, amongst others.
The global sexual-exploitation industry is an area in dire need of being researched, and the previous section has sought to identify
some of the key areas in which accounting practice is playing a role within it that need to be researched. I am not interested,
however, in simply discussing new research opportunities. The women and children and the men who are being
killed, harmed and exploited within it and by it do not need “new” research; what they need is
for sexual exploitation to end. They need pornographers, prostitutors and pimps to get off them, for the global sexualexploitation industry to be rolled back, for prostitution to be made illegal, and ultimately for it to be
abolished. What they need, in other words, is not research that simply describes the global sex industry, leaving all its
inequalities and oppressions in place through their mystification, naturalization and universalization; what they need is research
that can actually help in changing the world by demystifying the global sex industry, by making its harms and inequalities visible,
and that can be put in the service of social movements aimed at bringing prostitution to an end. What would accounting research
look like if it were of this kind? To explore this question, we need to consider the theoretical underpinnings of accounting research
and its political basis – its relationship to the wider world of material practice and what this (political) practice might look like.
The impact is widespread victimization and global gender violence—it turns their
transgender arguments
Farley, 13 - Melissa Farley is a research and clinical psychologist at Prostitution Research & Education, a San Francisco nonprofit organization (“Prostitution, Liberalism, and Slavery” Logos: A Journal of Modern Society & Culture,
http://logosjournal.com/2013/farley/)
Former Swedish Minister of Gender Equality Margareta Winberg noted that in prostitution, certain women and children, often those
who are most economically and ethnically marginalized, are treated as a caste of people whose purpose is to sexually service men.
Sardonically noting the refusal to recognize prostitution as sexual violence, Andrea Dworkin said, “Hurting women is bad. Feminists
are against it, not for it.” Yet liberals, including people who describe themselves as liberal feminists, have avoided acknowledging
that prostitution hurts women. In their acceptance of the institution of prostitution, they have condoned harm against those most
vulnerable. Far from liberating women from restrictive social roles, prostitution locks them into
sexist and racist role playing that is often slavery and always a slavery-like practice. Liberals agree about the
oppression of race, class, and religious fundamentalism. But liberal men have assumed that their entitlement to sexual access should
be more protected than women’s right to survive without prostitution.
In rape cultures, the sexual terrorism of rape and prostitution are downplayed, underestimated, or
denied. A prostituted woman explained, “What rape is to others, is normal to us.” Prostitution is a cornerstone of
rape culture. Rape cultures normalize the objectification and commodification of women as sex
and blame victims for their own victimization. The global finding that women aged 15-44
are more likely to be injured or killed by male violence than from cancer, malaria, traffic
accidents and war combined – only makes sense when understood as a result of cultural
acceptance of sexual violence. Prostitution is a commodified form of violence against women, a
last-ditch survival option rather than a job choice. The lies that prostitution is a victimless crime, that she chose it, or even that
prostitution isn’t really happening at all –enable people to avoid the discomfort of knowing about the brutal realities of prostitution.
And sex businesses rely on social, political and legal denial of denying the harms of prostitution.
In prostitution, johns and pimps transform certain women and girls into objects for sexual use. Many research studies provide
evidence for the harms caused by this process. The emotional consequences of prostitution are the same in widely varying cultures
whether it’s high or low class, legal or illegal, in a brothel, a strip club, a massage parlor, or the street. There is overwhelming
psychological damage from sucking ten strangers’ penises a day, from getting raped weekly, and from getting battered if you don’t do
whatever pimps or johns want. While sweatshops are exploitive and vicious, they don’t involve invasion
of all your body’s orifices on a daily basis for years or having to smile and say “I love it” when a foul-smelling man
your grandfather’s age comes on your face. Symptoms of emotional distress resulting from prostitution are off the charts:
depression, suicidality, post-traumatic stress disorder, dissociation, substance abuse, eating disorders.
Two-thirds of women, men and the transgendered in prostitution in a 9 country study met
diagnostic criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This level of extreme emotional
distress is the same as that suffered by the most emotionally traumatized people ever studied by
psychologists – battered women, raped women, combat veterans, and torture survivors.
Survivors tell us about the psychological devastation caused by strip club prostitution. A woman who worked as a lap dancer at a
strip club said,
“I can no longer tolerate the touch of a man, any man. A man’s touch has come to represent labor and degradation, and a sad, sick
feeling of desperation and despair. Every sort of hateful, spiteful, rude, venomous remark, I have endured. Vile anger, vomited from
the crude, the resentful, the desperate and desolate, has been heaped upon me until I have choked on it. I have come away with, not
hate, but worse, a numb disinterest.” (Jordan, 2004)
Legalization substantially expands the illegal market – turns the case
MacKinnon, 11 – Elizabeth A. Long Professor of Law at the University of Michigan Law School (Catharine, “Trafficking,
Prostitution, and Inequality” 46 Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review 271)
By contrast, although it may seem counterintuitive, experience shows that when prostitution is
legalized, trafficking goes through the roof.113 This has been documented in the Netherlands,
Germany, Victoria in Australia, and elsewhere.114 As a business decision, it makes sense to traffic
women and children where business is legal because once you get them there, the risks to sellers
are minimal even if trafficking is formally a crime, and the profits to be made from operating in
the open are astronomical. Illegal prostitution more generally explodes under
legalization.115 If authorities pursue harm reduction, legal brothels require condom and other
restrictions; many johns (perhaps most, research is showing) do not want to use them,116 and they are there to do what they
want. This raises the price on sex without condoms, a potentially lethal demand satisfied by
the illegal industry, often populated largely by illegal immigrants, that springs up all around the legal ones.117
When men’s belts and shoelaces and ties and cigarette lighters have to be confiscated at the door, when
lamps and phones can’t have cords, johns who want to use those for sex—and they do—go elsewhere. The upshot
is, far from making life safer, across-the-board decriminalization can make it even more
dangerous, and certainly no less so, for those women who have the fewest options to begin with. The German
government has concluded that legalizing the sex industry has failed to deliver any of the
promised tangible benefits to prostituted people:
The Prostitution Act has . . . up until now . . . not been able to make actual, measurable improvements
to prostitutes’ social protection. As regards improving [their] working conditions, hardly any measurable, positive impact
has been observed in practice . . . . The Prostitution Act has not recognisably improved the prostitutes’ means for leaving
prostitution. There are as yet no viable indications that [it] has reduced crime [or] contributed . . . transparency in the world of
prostitution . . . .118
In other words, legalization is a failed experiment.119 What even pimps sometimes acknowledge about prostituted sex
is exactly what is denied by those defenders of legalization who maintain that the harm of prostitution can be eliminated bit by bit
while the industry itself remains. One Dutch pimp at an indoor brothel complained about an ordinance that required brothels have
pillows in the rooms: “It’s a murder weapon.”120 So now, what about the sheets?
Most women in prostitution do not want to think that this is all their lives are ever going to be. To become legal requires disclosure
of a real name, registration, going to a hospital to get cleaned up, which in turn relies on and creates records. This in turn means
deciding that prostitution will be part of your official life story. Most prostituted women, even if they have to do this now, have
dreams.121 So also for this reason they resort to the illegal prostitution that flourishes under legalized schemes, receiving few of its
purported benefits. As the illegal market explodes, the governmental apparatus to address it erodes
because the industry is decriminalized, no one sees any harm in it, and the illegal market
intersects and overlaps the legal market. Only the stigma stays the same.122 Except for not being
arrested—in general, a real improvement, although brief jail time can, some say, be a respite from the pimps and the street123—the
promised benefits of wholesale decriminalization do not come to pass.124 And meantime the legal system tells
society what the sexually abused child is told: for some women, there is nothing wrong with
being treated this way. This is how the world, for you, is. To her, it says this is what you deserve.
This is who you are. This, for you, is the best it is ever going to be.
In light of this investigation, the moral distinctions that
organize the debate on prostitution, examined in
as ideological, functioning to make more socially tolerable an industry of
viciousness and naked exploitation. Most adult women in prostitution are first prostituted as girls and are just never
light of reality, emerge
able to escape. As they age out, they retain the adult vulnerabilities of class, sex, and often race. Traffickers are incentivized to grab
girls when they are most desirable to the market; then, with each day that passes, their exploitation is more blamed on them. When
prostituted women are used indoors, they are industrially accessible to pimps and johns and invisible to everyone else. Legal and
illegal regimes inflict the same harms and pathologies on prostituted people, many of which get
worse with across-the-board legality. The forms of force that impel entrance into the sex industry, that are endemically
visited upon those used in it, and that operate to keep them captive produce a circumstance that, once revealed, it is difficult to
believe a free person with real options would voluntarily elect. Perhaps the deepest injury of prostitution, with material basis in the
converging inequalities of which its unequal concrete harms are irrefutable evidence, is that there is no dignity in it.125
Attributing agency here as if it means freedom, ignoring the unequal and violent material
conditions of the life, can be a desperate grab toward lost dignity, as well as a cooptation of the humanity
that the exploited never lose.
2NC STIGMA
Non-criminal laws block social change
Lutnick and Cohen, 9 - Public Health Analyst, Research Triangle Institute International, San Francisco CA, USA AND
Associate Professor, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences, University of California San Francisco
(Alexandra and Deborah, “Criminalization, legalization or decriminalization of sex work: what female sex workers say in San
Francisco, USA” Reproductive Health Matters 2009;17(34):38–46)
Even if sex work were to be decriminalized or legalized, many things might not change. If
prostitution codes were removed, there are still other legal codes such as loitering, trespassing,
public nuisance and narcotics which could be used to target sex workers. Additionally, given the
deep cultural beliefs about sex work, decriminalization or legalization would likely not eliminate
the stigma associated with prostitution. A change in the criminal code would also not guarantee access to
the health and social services the women want. Incarceration should not be the only way for the women to stop
using/drinking or accessing vital services such as health care, drug treatment or housing. Any future work towards decriminalization
will need to be coupled with a commitment that the health and social services sex workers want will be available.
Stigma comes from male supremacy – means abolition is a prereq to solving it
Molisa, 13 - PhD student School of Accounting and Commercial Law Victoria University of Wellington (Pala, “ACCOUNTING
FOR PORNOGRAPHY, PROSTITUTION
AND PATRIARCHY”, http://www.apira2013.org/proceedings/pdfs/K251.pdf)
Sheila Jeffreys, in The Idea of Prostitution, draws on radical feminist insights to analyze what actually goes on during the “sex” of
prostitution and its effects (Jeffreys, 1997/2008). Drawing on theorists such as Catherine MacKinnon, Ethel Spector Person and
John Stoltenberg, she show that in order to understand the “sex” of prostitution we need to understand a few things about male
sexual desire under male supremacy. In order for prostitution to work requires the existence of a
politically constructed male desire which is excited by objectification. That which is understood to be
sexual in male-supremacist society is “whatever gives a man an erection” (MacKinnon, 1989, p. 130). This turns out to be
“Hierarchy, a constant creation of person/thing, top/bottom, dominance/subordination relations does (ibid., p. 137). In this light,
prostitution rather than being a form of “natural” sex, is actually simply an efficient way for men
to achieve the excitement of eroticized hierarchy and objectification. The feminist psychoanalyst Ethel
Spector Person explains in a similar way that the high male sex drive, the uncontrollable urge to “fuck” isn’t the result of biological
instinct but rather “the curious phenomena by which sexuality consolidates and confirms gender” (Spector, 1980). Men’s need to
sexually act out, to “fuck,” comes from their need to reassure themselves of their masculine dominance. They need to fuck – that is,
to dominate a women in sex and through sex, to make them into an object – so that they can confirm their masculinity and reassure
themselves of their membership in the male sex class. Through this process of masculine dominance, the person who is “fucked” is
made not a real person (Jeffreys, 1997/2008, p. 219). In this light, prostitution could be seen as the purest form of objectification
(ibid.). If it’s not just “sex” for men (i.e. for johns), it’s even less for women. Studies show that prostituted women do not do their
work for the sex or that they enjoy the sex (McLeod, 1982; Hoigard and Finstad, 1992). This research is supported by the many
reports on the techniques that prostituted women use to numb themselves and to dissociate so that they can protect their sense of
self (Hoigard and Finstad, 1992; Jeffreys, 1997/2008). One of the effects that prostituted women suffer from is stigmatization.
Proponents of prostitution such as prostitutes’ rights lobbyists and academics argue that this stigma arises from antiquated
prejudices left over from the 19th century, and that removal of this stigma would cause the conditions and status of prostituted
women to immediately improve. This idea that stigma is the problem is idealist though. The stigma is the product of
power relations between men and women, the hierarchy of male supremacy; its origins do not lie in oldfashioned cultural attitudes (Jeffreys, 1997/2008, pp. 223-226). This means that if we want to get rid of the stigma, it’s
not by making prostitution more acceptable and normalizing it; it’s by abolishing it and by
abolishing the wider system of male supremacy that prostitution itself arises from and helps to
reinforce and reproduce.
AT: REGS
Regulating facilitators just fuels the illegal sector
Raymond, 3 - professor emerita of women's studies and medical ethics at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst ;
lesbian feminist activist(Janice, “Ten Reasons for Not Legalizing Prostitution And a Legal Response to the Demand for Prostitution”
Journal of Trauma Practice, 2, 2003: pp. 315-332)
The argument that legalization was supposed to take the criminal elements out of sex businesses
by strict regulation of the industry has failed. The real growth in prostitution in Australia since
legalization took effect has been in the illegal sector. Over a period of 12 months from 1998-1999,
unlicensed brothels in Victoria tripled in number and still operate with impunity (Sullivan & Jeffreys,
2001). In New South Wales where brothels were decriminalized in 1995, the number of brothels in
Sydney had tripled to 400-500 by 1999, with the vast majority having no license to advertise or operate. In
response to widespread police corruption, control of illegal prostitution was removed from police jurisdiction and placed under the
control of local councils and planning regulators. However, the local councils do not have the resources to investigate illegal brothel
operators (Sullivan & Jeffreys, 2001).
New Zealand model fails—Swedish Model is better
Kaplin, 11 - Sinclair Kennedy Traveling Fellow, 2011-12; Harvard Law School, J.D. 2011 (Lauren, “WHEN MONEY CHANGES
HANDS: "UNWELCOMENESS" IN SEX FOR MONEY” 33 Women's Rights L. Rep. 43, Fall, lexis)
Studies of cities and countries that have decriminalized prostitution (such as New Zealand)
have shown that violence against prostitutes continues n73 and that legalization does not erase
the stigmatization associated with prostitution. n74 Research has also shown that legalization of
prostitution removes important protections of children, n75 does not reduce the rate of rape
among other women, n76 and increases the overall prevalence of prostitution, both legal and
illegal. n77
When prostitution is abolished, however, the findings are reversed: the Swedish law prohibiting
prostitution has been credited with a decrease in demand for prostitution and in the overall
number of people involved. n78 Moreover, abolishing prostitution changed public attitudes toward
prostitution as well, leading to increased support for laws criminalizing purchasers of sex. n79
2NC PATRIARCHY TURN
Analogizing sex work to other work also assumes sexual violence is the same as
other violence—they neglect the reality of gender violence
MacKay 13 – PhD candidate, University of Bristol (BA, First Class Honours, Lancaster
University), Gender, Culture & Modernity (MA, Goldsmiths) and Policy Research (MSc,
Distinction, University of Bristol). (Finn, June 24, “Arguing Against the Industry of Prostitution
– Beyond the Abolitionist Versus Sex-Worker Binary”
http://feministcurrent.com/7758/arguing-against-the-industry-of-prostitution-beyond-theabolitionist-versus-sex-worker-binary/)
What is wrong with defining prostitution as work like any other?
Abolitionist feminists view the industry of prostitution as a cause and consequence of inequality, not as work like any other[9]. There
is of course, the familiar anti-capitalist argument that all of us are coerced to work, regardless of what job we are in. This
argument asks what choice or consent any of us can really have or give, in a world blighted by
inequality, by sexism, racism and homophobia. Ours is a world scarred by the masculinisation of
wealth and power, where all too often women and children pay the highest price. In such a world
there is certainly a question over the extent of our agency, when the vast majority of us have to
work for a living at best and survival at worst, whether we like it or not.
Some sex industry lobby groups that subscribe to this valid anti-capitalist stance then use this argument to classify
prostitution therefore as work like any other. They argue that all workers sell their labour, whether they are
journalists, waiters, academics or prostitutes. To argue in this way removes any gendered
analysis from debate about prostitution; which is wrong, because prostitution is
markedly gendered. The vast majority of those in prostitution are women, and the vast
majority of punters are men. This, and other signs of the symptoms of structural inequalities, cannot be
overlooked.
What is the difference between selling one’s labour to earn money or being in prostitution to earn
money?
It is worth exploring further this common refrain that prostitution is work like any other. Feminist
arguments against the
that there is a difference between selling one’s labour, and selling
access to one’s body. Survivors of prostitution often say the same[10]. A builder or plumber labours
with his or her body, she sells her labour which is a product of her physicality, including her
mind. A journalist or academic labours with their body too, thinking, writing, delivering lectures, travelling to conferences etc. But
this is not the same as selling access to one’s body. Goods are produced by labourers through the labouring of
their body – their body is not the good itself. Some would then point to dancers, or artists who use their own
bodies in their art. But the same argument can apply, as dancers produce dance, and artists produce art with
their bodies – their body is not the good in itself.
The boundaries of the body are enshrined in law, our bodily integrity is universally understood; everywhere
but in debates about prostitution it seems. Most of us would understand that there is a difference between
being punched in the face and being raped. Our law treats these two violent assaults differently, because the
latter is understood to have breached bodily integrity, it is a violation of bodily boundaries. This is
industry of prostitution hold
partly why labouring with one’s body and making one’s body into a good itself, are two very different things. To put it bluntly, being
a builder does not involve making one’s body sexually available to one’s employers; the same is true of journalists, academics,
waiters etc.
AT: IT’S A CHOICE
The free choice trope promotes victim blaming and locks in patriarchy—this card
directly answers Grant
Fivek, 13 - Taryn lived and worked in Palestine 2009-2011 over the Arab Spring. She has an
academic and professional background in development and was involved in Occupy London.
She is a revolutionary anti-imperialist (Taryn, “Postfeminism”
http://dgrnewsservice.org/2013/05/22/taryn-fivek-postfeminism/)
What is postfeminism? Allegedly it is the space where we can move past feminism, where feminism no longer holds appeal to women and where it can
even be harmful to women. As Melissa Gira Grant writes:
The patriarchy’s figured out a way to outsource hatred of prostitution. They’re just going to have women do it for them.
Grant, who is a former sex worker (to be specific: not a pimp/madam) claims that patriarchy, an amorphous “they” not
rooted in material reality, has outsourced the oppression of women to women themselves. This is an argument
made by many who claim that women are the ones who cut other women in other parts of the world, who participate in forcing early marriage or abuse
other women in the family. Then Grant gets more specific:
I wouldn’t advocate for a feminism that’s buttoned-up and divorced of the messiness of our real lives. Your feelings are your feelings, but you’re not
going to litigate your feelings about my body. The feminist ethics that I signed up for were respect for my bodily autonomy, that my experience is
my experience, and that I’m an expert in my own life.
What is postfeminism? It is a desire for control over one’s destiny. It is the hope that someday, no one will call you any names or discriminate against
you based on your sex. Yet, when this individual oppression ends – the oppression against prostitutes, against trans women, against my right to choose,
against me, will this have achieved female liberation?
The postfeminism of today is deeply rooted in neoliberal atomization. A single female’s experiences are just as
valid as any other female’s experience. A wealthy white woman who “makes the choice” to become a prostitute
– her choice is equally valid as the poor woman of color who “makes the choice” to become a
prostitute. Postfeminism promises the liberation of individual women, but not females.
These individuals are fighting against “patriarchy”, a concept that is not individualized or even
rooted in material manifestations. Rather, it is as amorphous as its own concept: a male slapping a
woman, a man cat-calling a woman, or a man who makes a sexist remark at work is patriarchy rearing its ugly head from the aether. Yet a
culture of objectification, where women are plastered up like slabs of meat for sale in phone booths, where women dance for money,
where women continue to make $.70 on the dollar; this is not considered a war against women. After all – a
woman may now make the individual “choice” to engage in these acts, in these careers, may make the individual
“choice” not to bear children to get ahead in business. Acts of violence against my body are crimes against women – but larger systems of oppression
suddenly become more complex, more bogged down in uncertainty as we must learn to understand that these systems are made up of individuals who
have the capacity to make “choices”.
It astounds me that leftists who might otherwise deride the idea of free choice under a
capitalist system make all sorts of room for women like Grant to write privileged accounts
of the system of oppression called the “sex trade”. Broader women’s movements such as the Aboriginal Women’s Action
Network might feel as though an abolitionist stance on prostitution is right and good, but, as Grant would say, they are “privileged” in that their voices
are louder than hers – the voice that enjoys prostitution believes that sex work is feminist work. Indeed, the
other voices aren’t heard as loudly as the abolitionists “because they’re working”. This amorphous group of women who are pleased as punch to be
working as sexual objects for sale are quiet, a silent majority cowed into silence by angry groups of feminist women who claim that 90% of women want
out of prostitution.
If the voice of a “queer woman who dates women in her non-sex-work life and has sex with men
for work” is not heard as much as the loud majority of feminists who want an end to
prostitution, this is because women who “choose” sex work, who come at it from a political perspective
of “empowerment” are in the extreme minority. But the individual reigns supreme over the masses in postfeminism
just as it does in neoliberalism. When a woman demands her “right to choose”, she is demanding her right.
She is situating feminism in a sphere where she does not feel fettered by her sex, where she
personally has the ability to pursue whatever she wants. If she is a stripper and a man touches her
inappropriately, this is a battle in the war against male domination – but the very institution that shapes his thinking is not in and of itself oppressive.
Male domination is boiled down to the individual, becomes a question of one human exerting his will over another’s in an
unfair way. It is no longer about systems of oppression, cultures of abuse, or industries of suffering. We are boiled down once again to our individual
experiences.
A single person cannot change the world because change is the prerogative of the people. There
is no such thing as a mass movement of individuals – they might all be walking in the same direction, but
they are checking their smartphones and turning off onto a side street the moment they are required to check their egos at the door.
Melissa Gira Grant’s
views are not just dangerous because they blame women themselves for their
own oppression – either as angry sex-negative feminists or individuals who just make “bad
choices”. They are dangerous because they shift the blame away from male violence and
domination and continue to trump the experiences of a privileged few over the many. Why won’t these
leftist blogs and magazines run a counter article to this kind of perspective? Anything else would be hypocritical. Perhaps it is simply not what leftist
men want to hear: that their individual enjoyment is not the purpose of female liberation.
Choice is an illusion manufactured by liberal mythos – for the vast majority it’s
coerced
Farley, 13 - Melissa Farley is a research and clinical psychologist at Prostitution Research &
Education, a San Francisco non-profit organization (“Prostitution, Liberalism, and Slavery”
Logos: A Journal of Modern Society & Culture, http://logosjournal.com/2013/farley/)
Just when I think I’ve heard the most horrific example of the liberal denial of sexual
exploitation, up pops another: impoverished Vietnamese, Chinese, Thai, and Korean women are
enslaved and transported by organized criminals to San Francisco for men’s sexual use. Yet
these women have been renamed ‘migrant sex workers.’ From a neoliberal perspective these
trafficking victims are just women in the world’s marketplace struggling to cross a border for a
better wage. No sexism or racism is understood in this analysis which views immigration policy as the bogeyman.
And another devastating example of the denial of sexual and racial violence: writing about the “paradox of pleasure and violence in racial subjection,”
postmodern film professor Celine Shimizu (1999) discusses the rapes of slaves by their masters and recommends that we not prematurely dismiss “a
telling of slavery from the point of view of slave sexual contentment.” These examples are reminiscent of the 18th century propaganda released by the
British West India Committee – slave traders and ship owners who kidnapped and sold slaves from Africa to British colonists in what we now call the
Caribbean. The proslavery disinformation disseminated by the Committee included renaming slaves “assistant planters.”
The fantasied “high class independent escort” facilitates liberal denial of the harms of prostitution; it’s good for business. In that phrase, the
implication is that she chose prostitution, that she’s making lots of money, and she certainly isn’t being pimped. These
may be true for 1% of the world’s women in prostitution, but they do not reflect the reality of
most prostitution. Third-party control is common in prostitution, with some estimates of
pimping as high as 80% of all prostitution. Pimping and other coercive control meet most legal
definitions of trafficking. Elliott Spitzer bought a woman from the Emperor’s Club VIP (described in the media as a high class escort
agency) who was from an abusive home, had been homeless, had a drug problem, had pornography made of her when she was 17 by Joe Francis,
producer of Girls Gone Wild with convictions for prostitution, child abuse, assault, and witness tampering. The pimps at Emperor’s Club VIP took 50%
of her earnings. Spitzer most likely refused to use a condom, thereby threatening her life according to several women he bought for sex.
Commodification
Commodification is a cornerstone of sexism and of prostitution. Once a young woman is “made into
a thing for others’ sexual use” as the American Psychological Association’s Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls has defined sexual
objectification, then the stage is set for sexual violence. Men’s dominance over women is established
and enforced by the dehumanizing process of sexual objectification that is the psychological
foundation of men’s violence against women. In prostitution, sexual objectification is
institutionalized and monetized. Yet when liberals confront this commodification, only racism and classism are addressed. In
justifying women’s commodification, groups such as the International Labor Organization point out that between 2 and 14% of the GDP of Thailand,
Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines is based on prostitution. South Korea’s sex industry generates 4% of its GDP while the Netherlands nets 5% of
its GDP from prostitution.
Liberalism today subordinates all of us to the corporations. Wages offered women by
corporations such as Gap, WalMart and Nike are so low that they actually drive women into prostitution.
Especially vulnerable to corporate control are poor women and girls of color who are the supply side of the sex trade but who have been called “erotic
entrepreneurs.” The
branding of any and all consumerism as hip, fun, and even democratic has
contributed to the acceptance of prostitution.
The Liberal Belief in Choice and the Denial of Victimization
Only a tiny percentage of all women in prostitution are there because they freely choose it. For most, prostitution is not a real choice because physical
safety, equal power with buyers, and real alternatives don’t exist. These are the conditions that would permit genuine consent. Most
of the 1%
who choose prostitution are privileged because of their ethnicity and class and they have escape
options. Poor women and women of color don’t have these options.
“We want real jobs, not blowjobs,” said a First Nations survivor of prostitution in 2009. Prostitution exploits women’s lack of survival options.
Research conducted in nine countries found that 89% of all those in prostitution said that they
were in prostitution because they had no alternatives for economic survival and that they saw
no means of escape. In Indonesia another study found that 96% of those interviewed wanted to
escape prostitution. Sex discrimination, poverty, racism and abandonment drive girls into
prostitution. Women in prostitution were sexually abused as kids at much higher rates than other women. So they are defined as ‘whores’ by
rapists when they are little and they then end up in prostitution – getting paid for the abuse they have grown up with and believing that’s all they are
good for.
Here are four examples of invisible coercions that drive women into prostitution. In each case, the woman said that she consented to prostitution but
her living conditions made prostitution impossible to avoid. An Indian woman said since women in most jobs in West Bengal were expected to tolerate
bosses’ sexual exploitation, prostitution was better pay for what was expected of her in her last job, anyway. A woman in Zambia, which had a 90%
unemployment rate at the time, stated that she “volunteered” to prostitute in order to feed her family. A Turkish woman was divorced, and had no
means of support in a fundamentalist state that strongly discouraged women from working outside the home. She prostituted in a state-run brothel
guarded by police. A sixteen year-old was sold by her parents into a Nevada legal brothel. Ten years later, she took six different psychiatric drugs that
tranquilized her enough to make it through a day selling sex.
Survivors have described prostitution as ‘paid rape,’ and as ‘the choice that is not a choice,’ while liberal
sex industry apologists
insist that prostitution is ‘sex work,’ unpleasant labor much like factory work. The fetishized and objectified woman
in prostitution is seen by postmodern liberals as benefiting from her own exploitation and
commodification. The disappearance of the harm of prostitution is not an abstraction. At a Left/Labor conference in Australia, speakers who
offered an analysis of prostitution as a violation of women’s human rights were denied the right to speak. A pseudofeminist speaker who was employed
by the sex industry’s Eros Foundation spoke instead about prostitution as sexual freedom. We can’t let these logical absurdities disappear the truth of
Each act of violence that has been made visible as a result of the
women’s movement—incest, sexual harassment, misogynist and racist verbal abuse, stalking,
rape, battering, and sexual torture—is one point on prostitution’s continuum of violence. This
violence is denied by liberals who support prostitution as a choice made by consenting adults .
women’s experiences in prostitution.
Liberal sex business apologists declare that opposition to trafficking is “sex-slave panic,” and that since many trafficking victims knew they would be
prostituting, they therefore consented to trafficking. “I’ve never met a Thai woman smuggled in for sex work who didn’t know that’s what she’d be
coming here to do,” wrote Debbie Nathan. Nathan implies that if a woman knows she will be prostituted, she deserves whatever she gets.
People who are horribly harmed “consent” to lesser harms in order to survive for example in totalitarian regimes, battering relationships, slavery, and
The appearance of consent is actually a creative survival strategy. But that doesn’t
mean that those of us who are able to avoid prostitution should then become passive bystanders
and watch the predatory institution flourish. The agency of a prostitution survivor in avoiding
starvation is not the same as the agency of a white European American middle class academic.
Agency and oppression coexist in women’s lives. Both should be named.
Harm reduction programs that offer support groups and condoms but fail to offer exit programs contribute to a denial of
the harms of prostitution. While free condom distribution (of female as well as male condoms) can save lives – harm reduction programs’
in prostitution.
advocates often suggest that this bandaid solution is sufficient. While accepting condoms and support, almost all women in prostitution seek the option
of escape as well. They deserve the right to harm elimination (by leaving prostitution) as well as the option of harm reduction.
Again and again women and men tell us that in order to turn tricks they must go numb or split off from their real selves or dissociate. Yet the
liberal opines that this destructive removal of the self is an individual’s free choice. The
payment of money hides the erasure of self that is required for survival in prostitution.
Aff caters to a harms reduction ideology that pressures sex workers to accept their
lot in life
Grant, 14 - A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULLFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS
FOR THE DEGREE OF Doctor of Philosophy in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND
POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES (Educational Studies) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH
COLUMBIA (Erin, “MORE THAN CONDOMS AND SANDWICHES: A FEMINIST
INVESTIGATION OF THE CONTRADICTORY PROMISES OF HARM REDUCTION
APPROACHES TO PROSTITUTION” August,
http://elk.library.ubc.ca/bitstream/handle/2429/50163/ubc_2014_september_graham_erin.p
df?sequence=1
In his submission to the subcommittee, Lowman acknowledged that “consent” is shaped by the actor’s social locations and life
conditions. However his submission to the Subcommittee did not describe the ways in which consent is shaped, or the coercive
forces constraining the possibilities for consent, nor does he acknowledge gendered power inequities in prostitution. In more recent
writing, this failure to acknowledge inequities has become a passionate defense of prostituted women’s “agency” and a
misrepresentation of feminist recognition of power imbalances and demand--‐focused proposals. He claims the feminist
abolition position infantilizes and ignores women in prostitution:
By denying their agency, demand side prohibition36 effectively places sex workers in the same category as children and the mentally
ill, i.e. persons who are unable to give consent. It creates a double jeopardy. Already denounced by society at large, sex workers who
refuse to embrace the victim paradigm are cast out [by feminist anti--‐violence services]. Rape relief will not be extended to them.
(Lowman, 2011, November 6).
On the contrary, I argue that “the double jeopardy” here is not that women in prostitution who refuse “the victim paradigm” are then
denied the support of feminist anti--‐ violence services. Instead it is that, when these women take up prostitution in
the absence of other ways to earn money, they are encouraged, even pressured, to frame their
experience as free choice, an economic transaction, an expression of their agency. If they have unpleasant
feelings or experiences about their “choice”, Lowman’s
version of harm reduction ideology urges them to
their lot. The pro--‐ prostitution advocates then
disguise their abandonment of prostituted women as valorizing their choices.
supplant those memories and feelings and accept
SWEDISH MODEL
1NC SWEDISH MODEL CP
The United States should:
--remove penalties on prostitutes but enforce penalties targeted at customers of prostitutes,
requiring that customers convicted of non-violent prostitution charges enter education and
rehabilitation programs instead of incarceration
--expand social services including but not limited HIV/AIDS treatment options for all
prostitutes to allow voluntary exit from prostitution
--ban forced rescue of prostitutes
--train relevant law enforcement personnel to implement these changes
--propose the counterplan in international fora as a viable way to reduce sex trafficking.
The counterplan decreases prostitution and trafficking through demand
reduction—it’s the best way to address violence as well as patriarchal norms
Curva, 12 - Research Editor, Rutgers Law Review. Candidate for J.D., Rutgers School of Law - Newark, 2012 (Ione, “Thinking
Globally, Acting Locally: How New Jersey Prostitution Law Reform Can Reduce Sex Trafficking” 64 Rutgers L. Rev. 557, lexis)
B. Approach #2: Follow the Swedish Model - Increase Penalties for Johns
This Note's second proposed amendment to New Jersey's prostitution laws would be to increase
prosecution of and penalties for consumers of prostitution, otherwise known as "johns." Sweden has
adopted this approach, which recognizes that prostitution could not exist without demand for it.
Although the majority of states impose the greatest penalties on pimps, only five states punish pimps most severely, followed by
johns, then prostitutes. n157 The majority of states impose equal penalties on prostitutes and johns , n158
and there are eight states that impose greater penalties on prostitutes than johns. n159
This examination of states' prostitution laws shows a tendency against punishing consumers of prostitution, and it also
demonstrates states' ignorance that demand drives prostitution and sex trafficking. n160 Prostitution and sex trafficking are so
lucrative because of the basic economic principles of supply and demand. n161 "Traffickers choose to trade in humans
... because there are low start-up costs, minimal risks, high profits, and large demand... . human
beings have one added advantage ... they can be sold [*578] repeatedly." n162 Though it may be common sense that an economic
industry could not succeed without demand, the majority of states' legislation do not target demand.
Though penalties exist in all states to punish johns, courts often avoid giving them jail time, and instead order them to go to "Johns'
School." n163 The curriculum made available to johns at these programs has the potential to be beneficial, but more often than not,
such programs are not considered seriously and are more of a slap on the wrist than serious punishment. n164
Many johns who have been arrested fail to appreciate their own responsibility in the exploitation of women, even sometimes arguing
that they themselves were victims - victims of entrapment by law enforcement. n165 Johns often deny responsibility for being part of
a system that exploits women, claiming that prostitutes chose to enter the sex industry: "They deny the fact that they should be able
to recognize forced prostitution ... and they deny the fact that they are among the forces that create a demand for trafficked
prostitution." n166 Since johns deny responsibility, and most states have failed to adequately punish johns, demand for prostitution
as well as the cycle of exploitation continue.
Sweden's laws on prostitution may be used as a model for state legislation that targets
demand. On January 1, 1999, Sweden passed a law that proscribes the purchase of sexual services. n167 The "law recognizes
that it is the man who buys women (or men) for sexual purposes who should be criminalized, and not the woman." n168 The
Swedish law only punishes consumers of prostitution and [*579] decriminalizes the provider of
such services. n169 The law also provides various forms of assistance to those seeking to escape
prostitution. n170
Sweden views prostitution as "male sexual violence against women and children. One of the cornerstones of Swedish
policies against prostitution and trafficking ... [is] the recognition that without men's demand
for and use of women and girls for sexual exploitation, the global prostitution industry would
not be able [to] flourish and expand." n171 Women are viewed as victims of abuse in a male-dominated society, n172
and as such, the Swedish law does not punish the women in prostitution. n173 The Swedish legislation analogizes prostitution to "a
form of rape because the women were "forced' rather than exercising free choice." n174 The law reflects the idea that those in
prostitution do not have a genuine choice in entering the profession because they live in a male-dominated world with various types
of oppressive conditions, so while women may make decisions, they do not have true choices. n175 By choosing to punish consumers
of prostitution rather than the women engaged in it, Sweden has rejected "the idea that women and children, mostly girls, are
commodities that can be bought, sold, and sexually exploited by men. To do otherwise is to allow ... a separate class of female human
beings." n176
[*580] Swedish law acknowledges the indubitable connection between prostitution and trafficking, and believes such issues
"cannot, and should not, be separated; both are harmful practices and intrinsically linked." n177 Unlike its neighbor, the
Netherlands, which has very different legislation relating to prostitution, Sweden has taken the position that
legalization of prostitution will result in a normalization of sexual violence and
discrimination, and will strengthen male domination over females. n178 "Legalization of
prostitution means that the state imposes regulations with which they can control one class of
women as prostituted." n179
Since the law was passed, there have been mixed assessments as to its effectiveness. Approximately 400 to 600 people are trafficked
into Sweden each year. n180 Since the law's passage, the number of victims has been fairly constant, with no significant increase in
the number of trafficking victims. n181
Two years following the passage of the law, "a government taskforce reported that there was a
fifty-percent decrease in the number of women prostituting and a seventy-five percent
decrease in the number [of] men who bought sex." n182 Street prostitution has decreased
throughout the country, and the majority of johns have disappeared as well. n183 Thus, while the
number of people brought into the country for trafficking has remained level, there have been reported decreases in the number of
people engaged in the act and purchase of prostitution. n184
Critics claim that since the Swedish law passed, prostitution has not decreased, but rather it has gone underground so that it has
[*581] become more difficult to regulate. n185 While it is difficult to make a finalized determination (with empirical evidence) as to
whether the decrease in prostitution is real or attributable to change in form, it is important to realize that another purpose of
Sweden's legislation is normative. n186
One of the main aims of the law is preventative - to have the police enforce the law and intervene before a john purchases someone
for sexual services rather than to wait to punish them after the sexual act has occurred. n187 Testimonies from
victims suggest that the law has had a positive impact on reduction of trafficking for two main
reasons that are closely connected: (1) buyers' fear of getting arrested, and (2) increased
difficulty for pimps in operating their businesses. n188
Since the Swedish law was passed, Swedish men who wished to purchase women for sexual services have "expressed serious fear of
being arrested and prosecuted under the Law and hence demand absolute discretion from the pimps/traffickers." n189
Research confirms that legislation penalizing the purchase of sexual services is the number
one cited form of deterrence for men. n190 The new law makes it much "more difficult to sell
women as commodities," since the pimps must be in contact with johns, who are afraid of being
arrested. n191 Because of the fear of detection, traffickers and pimps have been forced to run
brothels in multiple locations and to avoid certain locations on a regular basis. n192 "The mode of
operation is [*582] expensive and requires that the pimp have local contacts. The necessity of several premises is
confirmed in almost all preliminary investigations ... ." n193 Furthermore, "prostituted women must be escorted to
the buyers, therefore giving less time to fewer buyers, and gaining less revenue for pimps." n194
The inconvenience to pimps and the fear of johns have been effective barriers to traffickers in
Sweden, as "Sweden is no longer an attractive market." n195 Human traffickers' goals are to make a profit, and
since demand is lessened because of consumers' fears of getting caught, traffickers have felt compelled to take their business
elsewhere. n196 Swedish police investigations both within the country and internationally confirm that traffickers have moved to
other countries. n197
Additionally, since Sweden's new legislation also mandated training for police officers, n198 there have been improvements in law
enforcement investigations. n199 One year after the law was passed, there was an increase in arrests of
johns by 300 percent, which has been attributed to police officers' increased understanding of the legislation's purposes,
improved investigation methods, and a better understanding of the plight of the victims of prostitution and trafficking. n200
There have also been beneficial prosecutorial changes due to Sweden's targeting buyers. The police and prosecution have been able
to find pimps by using information from buyers. n201 Since the law's passage, buyers are prosecuted at the same trial as the
traffickers and pimps. n202 This procedure not only helps to alleviate some pressure off of the victim, but the prosecution is also
able to cross-examine the buyers and obtain some information that the women may not have, such as the pimps' contact
information. n203 Through this trial, "police and prosecutors are making it really clear [*583] to the buyers that they are intimately
connected with organized crime." n204
While numbers of victims, johns, and traffickers in Sweden are uncertain, there have been various benefits as a result of Sweden's
passage of its legislation. Furthermore, the legislation demonstrates Sweden's firm stance that women and
children are not commodities for sale, and the law rejects "men's self-assumed right to buy
women and children for prostitution purposes and questions the idea that men should be able to
express their sexuality in any form and at any time." n205 Women who have escaped from prostitution and those
attempting currently to leave prostitution support the law, claiming the law incentivizes women who want to escape by providing
various forms of assistance. n206 Prostitution impacts all women, not just those who are engaged in
it;
Sweden's law is innovative in that it takes a strong stance against "the idea that men have the
right to buy and sexually exploit not just a particularly marginalized subclass of women, but all
of us." n207
Only the CP solves global sex trafficking
Yen, 8 - JD-MBA, May 2008, Northwestern University School of Law and Kellogg School of Management (Iris, “OF VICE AND
MEN: A NEW APPROACH TO ERADICATING SEX TRAFFICKING BY REDUCING MALE DEMAND THROUGH EDUCATIONAL
PROGRAMS AND ABOLITIONIST LEGISLATION” 98 J. Crim. L. & Criminology 653, lexis)
VII. Adopting a Comprehensive Demand-Oriented Approach to Fighting Sex Trafficking
Given its low labor costs, minimum legal barriers, billion-dollar profits, and abusive working conditions, sex trafficking is an
example of unfettered free-market capitalism at its worst. If the global sex trade is
allowed to operate unhindered by moral or ethical considerations and legal restrictions, the
trade will be regulated only by the market forces of supply and demand. n219 Given the multibillion dollar profits of the international sex trade industry, a growth in demand often results in an increase
of sex [*683] trafficking if there is insufficient local supply. n220 Sexual exploitation of women and girls
provides handsome profits for the traffickers and instant sexual gratification for the johns, while the victims are the ones who pay
the steep price of sex trafficking with their freedom, their health, and sometimes even their lives. n221
In the arduous and ongoing war against sex trafficking, there are glimmers of hope and victory: more traffickers
are being investigated and prosecuted in every country, and vulnerable girls and women in
developing countries are receiving critical economic and educational opportunities. n222 While
commendable, efforts that solely address the supply side of the sex trafficking equation are
insufficient and ultimately ineffective to stop the rapid growth of the sex trade n223 because it is the
male demand for commercial sexual services that stimulates, sustains, and expands the sex trade. n224
Contrary to the defeatist attitude that "men will be men," this Comment has argued that it is both feasible and effective to reduce
male demand by changing the attitudes and behaviors of boys and young men towards prostitution and sex trafficking. n225 As
rational persons, johns will make different decisions if they learn that the financial, legal, and health costs of their actions outweigh
the momentary physical benefit they gain from prostitution. n226 Therefore, if the United States is serious about
eradicating sex trafficking, the most effective way is to adopt a comprehensive, multi-stage,
demand-oriented strategy that includes both educational programs and legal incentives. n227
[*684] The first stage of this demand-oriented strategy is for the United States to enact a federal
abolitionist law similar to Sweden's Prohibition Act. The immediate and long-term results of
Sweden's Prohibition Act prove that criminalizing the purchase of commercial sex and
vigorously enforcing this criminalization statute is a strong deterrent to johns and traffickers:
within two years of passing the Prohibition Act, Sweden experienced a 75% decrease in the john
population and 50% decline in the number of female prostitutes. n228
Furthermore, the legalization of prostitution is a failed policy and not one the United States should
consider. In stark contrast to Sweden's success in curbing prostitution and sex trafficking, n229 Victoria's experiment
with legalizing prostitution has only served to facilitate and stimulate the rapid growth of the
commercial sex industry in the state. n230 Moreover, domestic supply shortages but increased
demand has precipitated an increase in sex trafficking of foreign women to Victoria. n231
The second stage of the strategy is to combat male demand through the re-education of johns and the reshaping of male norms in
general. Innovative male-oriented educational programs such as CATW's educational workshops in the Philippines and various
john schools such as FOPP in San Francisco have revealed some promising preliminary results
in effecting changes in male attitudes and behaviors. n232 Graduates of john schools typically
have recidivism rates around 1% or less, which is significantly below the average recidivism rate for misdemeanors.
n233 These success rates prove that education and rehabilitation are an effective deterrent , at least for certain
segments of the john population. n234
The U.S. government should also implement a high-profile, nationwide public awareness
campaign. n235 Sweden launched a nationwide [*685] public education campaign in conjunction with their passage of the
Prohibition Act. n236 As a result of the Prohibition Act and the public awareness campaign, the
number of Swedes who support the law has increased, and there is now heightened national
consciousness about the harmful effects of trafficking. n237 To influence a positive change in male attitudes and
norms among impressionable teenaged boys, the United States should consider incorporating age-appropriate discussions of sex
trafficking and exploitation into high school sex education curriculums.
In addition to its domestic efforts to address male demand, the United States must initiate and
lead a global effort to combat sex trafficking through demand-oriented measures. The
main drawback of Sweden's law has been the negative externality effect of increasing sex
trafficking and prostitution in neighboring countries. n238 Since no country is immune from the harms of sex
trafficking, n239 it is imperative that every country stands firm and united in a global commitment
to eradicate sex trafficking. n240 A first step in this endeavor would be for the United Nations to adopt a revised protocol,
one that accurately reflects the significance of the demand factor by requiring Member States to adopt abolitionist legislation and to
ensure its enforcement.
AT: PERM/TURNS COME FIRST
It’s mutually exclusive and our offense outweighs
Monasky, 11 - J.D., 2011, William Mitchell College of Law. The author will present this paper at the 2011 Interdisciplinary
Conference on Human Trafficking at University of Nebraska-Lincoln (Heather, “ON COMPREHENSIVE PROSTITUTION
REFORM: CRIMINALIZING THE TRAFFICKER AND THE TRICK, BUT NOT THE VICTIM - SWEDEN'S SEXKOPSLAGEN n1 IN
AMERICA” 37 Wm. Mitchell L. Rev. 1989, lexis)
From a public policy perspective, the United States must prioritize either sex workers' rights or
rights of prostituted people. Prioritizing the rights of both groups negates government's
ability to respond effectively to either. Adverse consequences stem from both: prioritizing
sex workers complicates helping those that cannot escape prostitution, while prioritizing victims
marginalizes sex workers' ability to work legally and to exercise agency. n141
Partial decriminalization properly places victims before sex workers. This system weighs the costs
and decides that the human right to live free from violence and fear trumps the privilege
of choosing one's occupation. Pimps often force, lure, and threaten individuals into prostitution. n142 The high risk
that a pimp will harm a person in prostitution implicates the sex buyer in endangering that person. n143 The sex purchaser,
by generating demand for [*2012] prostitution, contributes to the harm done to individuals by
traffickers or abusive pimps. n144 While the sex buyer does not directly inflict the harm, the sex purchaser nonetheless
sexually exploits the victim via the sex act. n145
Legalization fuels demand and wrecks any enforcement efforts that they reform
Swanson, 14 - J.D. candidate, University of Georgia, B.B.A., University of Georgia, cum laude,
2011 (Chelsea, “They Can’t Have it Both Ways: Why States Cannot Fight Sex Trafficking While
Simultaneously Legalizing Prostitution” http://www.lexisnexis.com/legalnewsroom/cfsfile.ashx/__key/telligent-evolution-components-attachments/01-129-00-00-00-57-0413/Swanson_2D00_Why-States-Cannot-Fight-Sex-Trafficking-While-SimultaneouslyLegalizing-Prostitution.pdf.
A choice must be made- legalized prostitution cannot coexist with efforts to substantially
diminish demand. This is not a moralist argument- whether or not prostitution should be permitted for other reasons is
completely separate, and would invoke further analysis. Rather, copious empirical and anecdotal evidence shows
that the commercial sex market and prostitution fuel demand.195 In our current day and age, where it is
unclear who is voluntarily in the market and who is trafficked196 and when there is a tremendous global
epidemic of child sex trafficking,197 serious steps taken to eradicate modern day slavery must address
demand.
Under the current TIP Report ranking regime, there are no standards on how states must work to reduce demand. Since the
language is limited to evaluating whether a government has “made serious and sustained efforts to reduce the demand for
commercial sex acts…” it allows diversity in how states deal with demand.198 As such, even though nations like Italy allow legalized
prostitution, they may technically remain in Tier 1. However, Italy, and all other countries that have legalized prostitution, should
not be placed in such high standing, regardless of how friendly their relations with the United States. The United States Government
Accountability Office was correct when it expressed that tier rankings by political considerations hurt the credibility of the
Trafficking in Persons Report.199 Greater transparency on the methodology to tier placements of each specific nation would be
helpful to doing this, especially if the United States wants to rebut claims of political favoritism (for all of Western Europe and other
common trading partners are historically placed in Tier 1, or more generously than a country’s narrative indicates it should be).200
The factor concerned with minimizing demand should also be weighed more heavily than others, for plentiful evidence shows this is
the factor that addresses long-term eradication of sex trafficking from the ground up.201 Other factors, like those involving
punishment, prosecution, etc., are on a case-by-case basis slowly addressing supply. Supply is, and likely will stay, almost
infinite.202 To truly progress in abolishing modern day slavery, as the United States and many ratifying States of the Palermo
Protocol and Trafficking Protocol claim they are striving to do, demand must not only be recognized as a root cause, but also
sufficiently targeted.203
By criminalizing the purchase of sex, States can begin to do just that. Economist and Nobel Prize winner Gary Becker’s findings on
organized crime provide support to the mental rationale of criminal actors.204 One day when he was late for an exam he debated
breaking the parking regulations to illegally park next to the building.205 Becker’s intellectual reasoning laid the foundation for
furthering the study of economic theory in crime:
I started thinking about my chances of getting caught. As I walked over to the exam—it took me about 10 minutes—I'm realizing that
if I'm thinking about my chances, the police, if they're being rational, must also be thinking about that. What's the likelihood, the
chance of catching somebody? They don't want to spend every minute looking, so they do some kind of a probability analysis. And so
they're kind of in a war against the offenders.206
Just as Becker analyzed his odds of getting away with the forbidden parking spot, sex offenders probably calculate their chances in
conducting underground businesses undisturbed. When prostitution is legal, the difficulties of separating
those who are truly
consensual prostitutes from the mass quantity of victims in the sex
industry is immense, and a barrier to catching traffickers or buyers of minors and/or victims . But,
if prostitution is illegal and the purchase of sex criminalized, not only would commercial demand for
sexual services probably decrease, the “war against the offenders” could also be more strongly fought.
The price for buying would increase dramatically from a mere surface charge to a risk of jail time and/or a steep fine, which would
likely deter many buyers.207
While States are fighting criminals and corruption hiding in the shadows, there are ways that can bring this sexual exploitation to
light and identify victims. Criminalizing the purchase of sex and banning prostitution might do that, for countries with
harsher laws against prostitution are less subject to trafficking.208 This suggested measure could
create some hardship
for voluntary sex workers in commercial markets;209 however, a choice has to be made between
continuing to allow prostitution as a viable occupation and seriously trying to eradicate
trafficking. With the overwhelming number of estimated victims of sexual servitude in our world today,210 and the need to add
“teeth” to measures like the Palermo Protocol that numerous States have voluntarily adopted,211 the move to criminalize the
purchase of sex is not as radical as it may appear on first glance.
2NC SOLVENCY TOP LEVEL
Prefer our ev:
1. Empirical data says it cut street prostitution by 50% and male demand by 75%,
and made Sweden impractical for trafficking—that’s Curva, who also says it
changed culture in favor of gender equality.
2. Backed by telephone interceptions of traffickers
Waltman, 11 - Max Waltman is a PhD Candidate at Stockholm University, Department of Political Science, studying legal
challenges to pornography and prostitution as practices violating equality and other human rights in democratic systems, focusing
on Canada, Sweden, and the United States (“PROHIBITING SEX PURCHASING AND ENDING TRAFFICKING: THE SWEDISH
PROSTITUTION LAW” 33 Michigan Journal of International Law 133)
In 1995, the government estimated that there were approximately 2500 to 3000 prostituted
women in Sweden, of whom 650 were on the streets.62 In contrast, a study published in 2008 estimated that
approximately 300 women were prostituted on the streets, while 300 women and fifty men were
found in prostitution being advertised online.63 Comparable methods of approximation have been used in
Denmark, where sex purchase is legal. Even though Denmark only has a population of 5.6 million64 while
Sweden has 9.4 million,65 Sweden’s prostituted population is approximately one-tenth of
Denmark’s. Approximations suggest that at least 5567 persons are visibly in prostitution in Denmark, among whom 1415 were
on the streets.66 A Danish nongovernmental organization (NGO) claimed street numbers were exaggerated, but even without street
numbers, the difference in prostitution between Sweden and Denmark is staggering.67 Using similar methods of approximation in
Norway (population 4.9 million),68 there were 2654 prostituted women, of whom 1157 were on the street in 2007 when purchasing
sex was still legal,69 which is well over eight times more per capita than in Sweden. Although the Nordic numbers are not exact, as
comparative approximations they are more than sufficient.
According to both NGOs and government agencies in Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö, briefly after the law’s
enactment “the
sex trade virtually disappeared from the street,” although it did later return, “albeit to
Stockholm, the number of purchasers was reported by police to have decreased
by almost eighty percent in 2001.71 As reported in 2007, social workers in Stockholm encountered only fifteen to twenty
a lesser extent.”70 In
prostituted persons per night, whereas they encountered up to sixty per night prior to the law.72 In Malmö, social workers
encountered 200 women a year prior to the law, but a year after the law, they encountered 130, and in 2006, only sixty-six.73 In
Gothenburg, data indicate that street prostitution declined from one hundred to thirty persons a year between 2003 and 2006.74
Despite the misinformation (discussed further below) spreading what is sometimes simply rumors of how, after the
law’s enactment, there was a stronger move from street prostitution to internet or other indoor, allegedly
“hidden”
prostitution venues in Sweden as compared to elsewhere, no information, empirical evidence, or
other research suggests that this has actually occurred.75 Concurring with these observations, the National
Criminal Investigation Department states that its telephone interceptions show that
international traffickers and pimps have been disappointed with the prostitution market in
Sweden.76 Consequently, the latter’s clandestine brothels in Sweden are fairly small enterprises, with
police operations rarely finding more than three or four prostituted women at one time,77
compared to the twenty to sixty women commonly included in certain criminal activities in the
rest of Europe.78 These international traffickers and pimps avoid conducting prostitution for too long in any one apartment or
location in order to calm customers’ fears of getting caught.79 This “necessity” for “several premises” has been corroborated in
telephone interceptions, testimonies from prostituted women, police reports in the Baltic states, and in almost all preliminary
investigations of procuring or trafficking charges.80
3. Multiple datasets and cross-national comparisons establish causality—police
interviews, Swedish scholars, the NetSex project, survivor testimony
Jakobsson and Kotsadam, 10 - Department of Economics, School of Business, Economics and Law at University of
Gothenburg (Niklas and Andreas, “The Law and Economics of International Sex Slavery: Prostitution Laws and Trafficking for
Sexual Exploitation” Working Papers in Economics,
http://andreaskotsadam.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/trafficking.pdf)
In Sweden, it has been illegal to buy sex, but not to sell, since 1999. According to the Swedish government
trafficking was reduced following this criminalization (Friesendorf 2007). Ekberg (2006) argues that the Swedish law
decreased the demand for buying sex and thereby made the Swedish market less lucrative for
traffickers. She has interviewed, among others, the Director for the Anti-trafficking group at the
Swedish Police and leading Swedish scholars and concludes that the number of women
involved in street prostitution has declined by between 30 % and 50 % since the law was passed
until she wrote her article in 2006. The number of buyers is said to have decreased by as much as 75 % to
80 % and the number of women in street prostitution is said to be only 500 in Sweden, whereas
in Denmark, where prostitution is legal, it is up to 7800 (and Denmark has only half of the
Swedish population). Ekberg (2006) also refers to police reports and to the NetSex project at
the University of Gothenburg arguing that the number of people selling sex on the Internet
is a stable figure and that it has not increased like in other countries. Based on this it is very plausible that
the quantity of prostitution has decreased in Sweden, but what about trafficking?
The prostitution group in Stockholm argue in their evaluation that there are almost no foreign women seen in street prostitution in
2001 and the National Rapporteur for Trafficking in Women in Sweden writes in her reports from 2003 and 2004 that it is clear that
the law has limited the amount of trafficking to Sweden (Ekberg 2006). In 2004 it was estimated that between 400
and 600 women are trafficked to Sweden every year (The Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention 2008).
Comparing these figures to those in neighbouring Scandinavian countries, which are similar to Sweden but where buying sex is legal,
the law clearly seems to have reduced trafficking. In Denmark at least half of the prostitutes
(between 5500 and 7800) are said to be victims of trafficking and Finnish criminal intelligence estimate
that between 10 000 and 15 000 women are trafficked there each year. While these countries
have experienced an increasing trend in the number of trafficked women, Sweden has not.
The Swedish case thus seems to confirm the causal link from law to reduced trafficking.
Furthermore, the causal mechanisms are also confirmed. There are indications of that traffickers
consider the legal rules surrounding prostitution when choosing destination country. For
instance, Swedish police investigations with taped phone conversations show that traffickers have
problems due to the Swedish law which criminalizes buying sex since; i) Time is lost since street prostitution is not
viable. ii) Swedish men express fear of being arrested which requires a lot of (costly) discretion. iii) To avoid detection several
apartment brothels have to be used, this is costly and often requires more local contacts. Furthermore, victim testimonies
have shown that traffickers prefer to operate in countries where prostitution is tolerated or
legalized and the Latvian police have concluded that Latvian traffickers avoid Sweden due to
the effect the Swedish law has on the profitability of their business (Ekberg 2006).
4. Their claims are ideology, not data—on balance we’re best because demand is
key to violence—underground turns are false
Sto and Haland, 13 – Feminist, aktivist og superbyråkrat. Leder i Kvinnegruppa Ottar. AND
Asta Håland founded the Feminist Group Ottar in 1991 (Ane and Asta, “The Crusade of the ProProstitution Lobby” http://lawc.on.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/2013-The-Crusade-of-thePro-Prostitution-Lobby.pdf
In November 2010, the Swedish government’s evaluation of the Sex Purchase Act was released: “Förbud mot köp av
sexuell tjänst. En utvardering 1999–2008” (“Ban on Buying Sexual Services. A Survey, 1999–2008”). The evaluation was conducted by a committee led
by Swedish Attorney General Anna Skarhed. The rest of the committee consisted
concerns the effects of the ban during its first nine years.
of various experts on the field. The evaluation
The main conclusion is that the law has had its intended effect and is an important tool in
preventing and reducing prostitution. Today there is broad political unity on the importance and effects of the law. Police
representatives state that Sweden has become a less attractive country for human traffickers as a
result of the law. Street prostitution has been reduced by 50%, and there are fewer men buying sex
than before. In 2013, 8% of Swedish men responded that they had bought sexual services; the
figure for 1996 was 13%. This decline is attributed first and foremost to an increased awareness
among Swedish men that buying sexual services is fundamentally wrong.
Despite the propaganda efforts of the pro-prostitution lobby internationally, there are no signs
that violence against prostitutes has increased, or that prostitutes are experiencing worsened
living conditions. Prostitutes are experiencing a situation in which they have more power over
their own lives, as they are now able to report threatening customers to the police. The law
has also made it easier for the women in prostitution to seek help to get out of their situation. It has not become more difficult
for social services to establish contact with prostitutes, contrary to what many opponents of the
law claim.
Interviews conducted among individuals who are still in prostitution and individuals who have gotten out of prostitution show that those who are still
in prostitution are sceptical about the Sex Purchase Act and believe that their opinions go unheard. They also feel stigmatised as a group and need the
protection of society. Those who have gotten out of prostitution have a consistently more positive opinion on the ban and believe it has given them the
strength to leave prostitution, eliminating the blame for all the abuse they might have experienced.
As for the scope of prostitution, the evaluation states that, unlike
in most other European countries, the prostitution
trade in Sweden has stagnated, or even decreased slightly. Prostitution has been reduced by 50%, and there is no
evidence pointing in the direction of it having moved to different arenas such as the
indoor market. Further, there has been no increase in the number of brothels. All in all, there is
nothing to suggest that the prostitution market has moved underground, and the police
report having a good overview of the prostitution scene. The Sex Purchase Act gives the police better opportunities to take action against brothels,
against human trafficking, and against the prostitution of minors.
The Swedish Debate
Even though 70% of the Swedish population supports the law, and the support is highest among the youngest segments of the population, it also has its
enemies. Sweden has their own pro-prostitution lobby, represented by SANS (Sex Workers and Allies Network in Sweden), and the Rose Alliance
(Sweden’s national organisation for sex and erotic workers), who are part of the international pro-prostitution organisation Network of Sex Work
Projects. Together with researchers such as Susanne Dodillet and pundits such as Petra Östergren, they energetically claim that sex work is like any
other occupation. This position is also held by several right-wing politicians, as well as the think tank Timbro and the postmodern, left-wing journal
Arena. The youth organisations associated with the Centre Party (Centerpartiet) and the liberal People’s Party (Folkpartiet) have also embraced the idea
that prostitution is really just another exciting occupation.
Östergren and Dodillet are very active in the Nordic prostitution debate and are working with pro-prostitution activists all over Europe to hinder the
spread of the Nordic model. The Swedish writer Kajsa Ekis Ekman writes about how Petra Östergren’s book Pornography, Whores and Feminists5 pits
“whores” and “feminists” against each other—the “whore” as the active subject, and the feminist as the puritanical oppressor.6 Östergren interviewed 13
women in her book, all of whom claim to “love the role of the whore,” have chosen to get into prostitution to avoid “dependency on men,” “are breaking
with the old female (gender) role,” take “command over men,” and have “a well-developed power analysis,” according to Östergren. She claims that
feminists, on the other hand, only want to protect and punish, and the resistance against the sex industry is only “about censorship and control.”
According to this perspective, the prostitute is not a victim—she is a strong person who knows what she wants. This view of prostitution builds the
foundation for Susanne Dodillet’s 2009 PhD thesis in the History of Ideas, Är sex arbete? (Is Sex Work?). Dodillet believes that “the ban on buying
sexual services gives sex sellers the role of passive victims, without the ability to make independent choices.” Dodillet quotes Kirsten Frigstad,
Norwegian PION’s leading spokesperson, who says: “Most prostitutes are strong women who have taken responsibility for their situation, and they
don’t want to be described this way, for they are not victims in a traditional sense.” Dodillet’s claim is that in Sweden, unlike in Germany, “it is not the
prostitutes themselves who have described their role,” but politicians and social workers who have seen the prostitutes as “more or less helpless.”
Östergren and Dodillet collaborated on the article “The Swedish Sex Purchase Act: Claimed Success and Documented Effects,” which they
have presented at several international conferences on prostitution. They dismiss existing research on the causes and effects of prostitution and instead
continue their drama of good against evil. On one side they place “those women who have sexual relations with many men, and who sell their bodies for
money,” and on the other side they place “radical feminists and politicians.”7 They conclude
that the law “has to do with a
desire to create and uphold a national identity of being the moral consciousness in the world; with notions of “good” and “bad”
sexuality; with the whore stigma; with creating new forms of sexual deviancy; with a communitarian, rather than liberal, political culture; and
perhaps above all, a stereotypical and uninformed understanding of prostitution.”8 In other words, they are incapable of showing
where the Sex Purchase Act fails, and instead choose to question the motivation behind it.
The Norwegian
Debate
We could never have imagined how strong the opposition to the Norwegian Sex Purchase Act would be when it was first implemented on January 1,
2009—by the police, who hardly enforce it; by politicians, who have made lifting the ban part of their election promises; and by the media, who are
providing a platform for opponents of the act and for those who praise prostitution.
Again and again, articles reproduce the myth of “the world’s oldest trade,” “the happy hooker,” and the prostitute as a “sex worker.” In June 2013,
Norway’s largest newspaper, VG, presented the “sex worker” as an intelligent woman who has chosen everything herself.9 She is safe and sound, her
work is exciting and lucrative, there are no problems what-so-ever, and she can easily earn a lot of money! She practices good hygiene as well, and she
dreams of future bliss with children and a faithful husband. What more can any sex buyer dream of, other than that once again it will be as legal to buy
a woman as any other product?
The Politics: Leadership and Grassroots Movements
The Red/Green government coalition of 2005–2013 can at best be characterised as political paralysis, and at worst as downright sabotage of the Sex
Purchase Act. It is no secret that the Sex Purchase Act was implemented against the will of the leaders of both the Labour Party and the Socialist Left
Party. Minister of Justice at the time, Knut Storberget, was a strong opponent of the new act and the one who was set to implement it. Knowing this, it
might not come as a surprise that the law has been enforced in a very lax manner. The result of this is that the situation in some cities and
municipalities is about the same as before, whereas the situation in others has actually wo00rsened since the act’s implementation.
Strip clubs and various “massage parlours” are now opening up in locations around the country. Advertising online is increasing, and trafficked women
from Nigeria are a common sight on many Norwegian streets. The current situation, in which the purchase of sexual services is common and the police
rarely interfere, creates contempt for the Sex Purchase Act and has led leading local politicians in Stavanger, one of Norway’s largest cities, to claim that
the act is ridiculous, and that it does not work. The front pages of newspapers scream about “the whore shock in Stavanger” and that “the whore traffic
is back,” while the role of procurers and sex buyers goes nearly unmentioned in the discussion. Several debaters are speaking up for banning not only
the act of buying sexual services, but also selling.
This is in contrast to the position of many national politicians who wish to legalise prostitution. They are led by the “facts” presented by the Pro Centre,
the Norwegian authority on prostitution, and research reports from Fafo, the unions’ research institution. Most of the information on the Norwegian
Sex Purchase Act that is spread internationally is coming from one of these two institutions. Because of this, it is important for the international public
to know a little bit more about these two actors.
Ideological Research and Other Propaganda
Fafo is the Norwegian unions’ research centre that mostly engages in research on labour and international solidarity. The sociologist May-Len Skilbrei
has been a central part of Fafo’s efforts to build up an academic environment within the organisation, where they also research the sex industry from a
labour perspective. To Fafo prostitution is work, not violence.
All reports on stripping and prostitution coming from Fafo have a very clear political agenda. In 2009, only a few days after the act was implemented,
May-Len Skilbrei concluded that the Sex Purchase Act had failed. She wrote a column for the newspaper Klassekampen in which she noted that the act
was ineffective. Skilbrei is not the only researcher at Fafo who holds this opinion. During a panel discussion in 2008, Guri Tyldum at Fafo drew the
same conclusion. But these researchers had arrived at their conclusion a long time before. Already in 2006, Guri Tyldum and May-Len Skilbrei,
together with Anette Brunovskis, had concluded that the Swedish Sex Purchase Act had no effect, and thus should be overturned.10
In May 2013, Fafo presented a report entitled “Organisation, Conditions and Everyday Life in Norwegian Strip Clubs” that is representative of the kind
of ideological “research” that has been conducted by them in the last five years. We will now take a closer look at this report, which was ordered by the
Norwegian Ministry of Children, Equality, and Social Inclusion as part of a study on a possible ban on strip clubs, and was written by Ingunn
Bjørkhaug, May-Len Skilbrei, and Kristin Alsos. Over a period of seven months, the researchers questioned 30 informants—both strippers and other
participants—in the Norwegian strip industry. They concluded that the strippers are resourceful “dancers” who are not suffering any kind of
exploitation; quite to the contrary, they make good money and live very well during their stay in Norway. The authors did not see any link between the
strip clubs and prostitution.
The researchers at Fafo say they have not studied the strip clubs from a social perspective, and they have chosen not to ask about, or research in any
other way, where the money from the strip clubs goes. When they also chose not to ask about or research how close the private dancers are to
prostitution, what kind of individuals make up the customer base, which long-term effects the strippers experience, and what it means for those
involved and those around them that women’s bodies and sexuality are turned into sexual entertainment for men, it burdens their research with a
major weakness. We know absolutely nothing more about Norwegian strip clubs since this report was presented. In addition to the above-mentioned
weaknesses, the researchers continuously use politically charged language by which strippers are rewritten as “dancers” and facilitators are called
“agents,” and whereby the nomadic life of a stripper, because of the clients’ demand for a constant stream of new women, is a consequence of tax
conditions. All of these factors combine make the report a political document rather than a well-crafted piece of research.
The report “Experiences from Five Prostitution Measures During Six Months”11 by Fafo’s Anette Brunovskis continues on the same track. On page 35
the report describes how vulnerable women in prostitution are—not because they are exploited by procurers and customers, or because prostitution in
general might be bad for them, but because the police are fighting the sex industry and arresting procurers and facilitators. And now the Sex Purchase
Act is no longer the only law under attack. The Procuring Act, which is more than 100 years old and which makes profiting from other people’s
prostitution illegal, is being attacked. According to the report, violence against prostitutes in Oslo has spiked as a result of strong police enforcement of
the Procuring Act, and the report concludes that the act thus should be “softened up.” Brunovskis claims that not only should women be prostituted at
the brothels; they should be able to live there, too. This gives Fafo’s critique of the act an almost racist tone. Most prostitutes in Norway are not
Norwegian but are rather trafficked in from poorer countries. Instead of suggesting the government come up with better assistance strategies to help
those who want to leave prostitution, as well as measures such as housing, social benefits, and job placement assistance, the demand from this research
institution is that the police should leave these women in peace at the brothels.
The Norwegian National Centre of Expertise: The Pro Centre
The Pro Centre is both a national authority on prostitution and a low-threshold centre for people in prostitution. Their role in spearheading the
Norwegian pro-prostitution lobby is thoroughly documented in several chapters in this book, but judging from propaganda that we observe being
spread internationally, we feel compelled to write something about their 2012 report, “Dangerous Liaisons, A Report on the Violence Prostitutes in Oslo
Are Subjected To.”12
It is natural to assume that as a national centre of expertise, designed to be a governmental tool in this area, the Pro Centre would evaluate their
priorities when the act that prohibits buying sexual services became law. But in this case, the institution continued on the same track as before. The Pro
Centre does not seem to think it is their main task to help women leave prostitution, but rather to fight Norwegian legislation.
Ulla Bjørndahl at the Pro Centre delivered the “Dangerous Liaisons” report in June 2012. Several newspapers made room for this on their front pages,
with the claim that “the Sex Purchasing Act is to blame,” and the Conservative Party made it clear that they would start to work toward repealing the
act. The headline declared that violence against prostitutes had increased after the act was implemented. The report had already been distributed to
many countries as the truth about the Norwegian Sex Purchase Act, even before we were given the chance to read it and debunk it. The entire report is
humbug and unscientific through and through. The Pro Centre was met with facts and arguments, and in Norway the report fell to the ground without
making much of an impression on public opinion. It has, however, done much harm internationally. In many countries, “Dangerous Liaisons” is still
portrayed as the truth about the Norwegian Sex Purchase Act.
What the report does show, however unintended, is that the Sex Purchase Act does, in fact,
work. The report’s own data tell us that the incidence of grave violence has been reduced since
the act was implemented. On page 26 of the report, one reads that rape has declined by almost half, down from 29% of prostitutes to 15%; “hit by fist”
has decreased from 29% to 18%; and “hit by flat hand” has gone down from 27% to 19%. The
increased violence the Pro Centre
was referring to turns out to be in the categories “groped,” “called abusive names,” “pulling
hair,” and “being spat at.” Either way, this is a curious way of tabulating violence, as prostitution
has always been violent. The report also explicitly states that the reason why prostitutes are
displeased is that there are fewer customers, and thus poorer conditions for prostitution.13
2NC SOLVES PATRIARCHY
We access their broader patriarchy args better—that’s Curva on social norms and
Yen on international effect—we’ll also win prostitution is key to male domination
so the CP is key to challenge patriarchy writ large
Sto and Haland, 13 – Feminist, aktivist og superbyråkrat. Leder i Kvinnegruppa Ottar. AND
Asta Håland founded the Feminist Group Ottar in 1991 (Ane and Asta, “The Crusade of the ProProstitution Lobby” http://lawc.on.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/2013-The-Crusade-of-thePro-Prostitution-Lobby.pdf
The evaluation of the Sex Purchase Act shows that since
its implementation, Sweden has become less
attractive to organised crime. Street prostitution has been reduced by 50%, and fewer men now
buy sex. In the same way that the common Nordic ban on physical punishment of children has led to a collective awareness
among Nordic parents that hitting children is unacceptable, the Sex Purchase Act has led to an increased
awareness among Nordic men that buying sexual services is inherently wrong.
According to Interpol, illegal trafficking alone brings in around €11 billion yearly. Both Swedish and Norwegian police believe that
the Sex Purchase Act is a good tool for fighting organised crime. The act expedites their ability to intervene in brothels and to wage
the battle against human traffickers and the prostitution of minors.
We are fighting a patriarchal system, and a ban on the purchase of sexual services
challenges the prevailing gender order. The Sex Purchase Act is part of a struggle against structures and
attitudes that reduce women and our sexuality to a product, and it establishes the fact that prostitution is about the
society’s attitude toward women, social development, and gender equality. The Nordic model is an
alternative to treating prostitution with a conservative double standard, that is, seeing it as a problem of public order, and to
relegating the trade in humans to certain parts of town. The act is also unique in that it acknowledges the unequal power balance
between supply and demand.
Many countries impose a ban on both buying and selling sexual services, but the sole result is that prostitutes become more helpless
and lose yet more legal protection. Men being bothered by desperate and aggressive prostitutes can be a problem, but criminalising
the victims of human trafficking is not the solution. A ban on selling sexual services affects those who are already victims. This
knowledge is the basis for the choice to ban purchasing of sexual services, not the sale of them, as reflected in the Sex Purchase Act
implemented in Sweden, Norway, and Iceland. The Nordic model stands in solidarity with all women, and it
is based on human rights and the knowledge that prostitution is violence against women.
The act of passing the law itself is key to change male culture—empirics
Waltman, 11 - Max Waltman is a PhD Candidate at Stockholm University, Department of Political Science, studying legal
challenges to pornography and prostitution as practices violating equality and other human rights in democratic systems, focusing
on Canada, Sweden, and the United States (“PROHIBITING SEX PURCHASING AND ENDING TRAFFICKING: THE SWEDISH
PROSTITUTION LAW” 33 Michigan Journal of International Law 133)
Moreover, the
passing of the law, in and of itself, seems to have changed public sentiment. In
1996, only forty-five percent of women and twenty percent of men in Sweden were in favor
of criminalizing male sex purchasers.81 In 1999, eighty-one percent of women and seventy percent of men were in
favor of criminalizing the purchase of sex; in 2002, eightythree percent of women and sixty-nine percent of men were in favor; and,
in 2008, seventy-nine percent of women and sixty percent of men favored the law.82 Furthermore,
the number of men who reported, in the national population samples, having purchased sex seems to have
dropped from 12.7% in 1996 83 (before the law took effect) to 7.6% in 2008.84 The method used for
approximation, self-reported anonymous crime surveys, has repeatedly been proven
reliable in a number of scientific reviews.85 Asked about the law’s effects on their own purchase of sex in
2008, respondents stated they had not increased their purchase of sex, had not started purchasing sex outside of Sweden, and had
not begun purchasing sex in “non-physical” forms.86
The changed circumstances in Sweden after the law’s enactment, especially compared to its neighbors,
highlight the strong deterrent effect of the law, even if conviction rates have not been
staggering. Convictions went from 10 in 1999 to 29 in 2000, 38 in 2001, 37 in 2002, 72 in 2003, 48 in 2004, 105 in 2005, 114
in 2006, 85 in 2007, 69 in 2008, 107 in 2009, and 326 in 2010.87 However, in 2010 there was a dramatic increase in crimes
reported to the police, the customs authority, and the prosecution service— 1251 reported sex purchases—compared with the
previous highest annual number of 460, reported in 2005.88 In 2010, there were also 231 reported “purchases of a sexual act from a
child” (under age eighteen), a crime for which the maximum penalty is two years.89 The reasons for this increase in 2010 appear to
be due to particular funds allotted by the Government’s Action Plan against “prostitution and trafficking” and one large, local case of
organized pimping in Jämtland in northern Sweden.90
They’re wrong on stigma—in no way do we vilify or victimize prostitutes
themselves—this is warrantless aff spin
MacKay 13 – PhD candidate, University of Bristol (BA, First Class Honours, Lancaster
University), Gender, Culture & Modernity (MA, Goldsmiths) and Policy Research (MSc,
Distinction, University of Bristol). (Finn, June 24, “Arguing Against the Industry of Prostitution
– Beyond the Abolitionist Versus Sex-Worker Binary”
http://feministcurrent.com/7758/arguing-against-the-industry-of-prostitution-beyond-theabolitionist-versus-sex-worker-binary/)
Are Feminists stigmatising people in prostitution?
No. Patriarchal society, obsessed as it is with a fear of and fascination with women’s sexuality,
attaches a stigma to those in prostitution. It is a form of what Mary Daly would call a ‘patriarchal reversal’ that this
stigma is not also attached to those who buy sexual services in prostitution – punters, men. Within patriarchy men’s
sexuality is not degraded by buying sexual access to others, whereas women in prostitution are
degraded. Patriarchy has constructed women generally as object to men’s subjectivity, and
associated women with nature, with the body and with sex. Women in prostitution are forced to
bear the brunt of this dualism. This is not a construct of feminists. Feminists
oppose such patriarchal constructs. Feminists do not support campaigns that stigmatise or
attempt to shame women in prostitution. Feminists do not think that being in prostitution or
having once been in prostitution is anything to be ashamed of.
Men who choose to buy access to women in prostitution are stigmatising people in prostitution
by commodifying another human being. In fact, punters themselves often report feeling ashamed of buying sexual
services in prostitution[13].
Are Feminists suggesting that women in prostitution should be criminalised?
No. Feminists are not arguing for those in prostitution to be criminalised . This is just one matter on which
I’m sure there is agreement, regardless of political stance. I’m sure we can all agree that those involved/exploited/working in this
industry should not be criminalised. Feminist groups are calling for decriminalisation of those in prostitution; for the crimes of
loitering and soliciting to be removed from the statute and for any records for these offences to be wiped, as having such a record
only further inhibits women from entry into the formal labour market, training or education and unfairly brands them a criminal.
Feminist groups are not calling for women in prostitution to be criminalised, and feminist groups do not
support the fining or imprisoning of women or the serving of anti-social behaviour orders on women in prostitution.
We solve stigma better and the benefits of demand reduction outweigh
Longworth, 10 - Corinne E. Longworth received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and Women’s Studies from Simon
Fraser University in 2004 and a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Victoria in 2009. She wrote this paper as a second
year law student under the supervision of Professor Gillian Calder (“MALE VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN IN PROSTITUTION:
WEIGHING FEMINIST LEGISLATIVE RESPONSES TO A TROUBLING CANADIAN PHENOMENON” 15 Appeal 58-85,
http://journals.uvic.ca/index.php/appeal/article/download/5401/2315)
Since the law was implemented in Sweden in 1999 and backed up by a well-funded law enforcement regime,144 the
country has reported excellent results and a majority of the Swedish public, approximately 80 percent, are still
in support.145 The law’s success is based on several factors. First, the law has significantly reduced
prostitution: the number of women involved in street prostitution has decreased by an
estimated 30 to 50 percent, prostitution in general has dropped approximately 40 percent and
recruitment has become almost non-existent.146 Second, some suggest that men have been
significantly deterred from purchasing sexual services.147 Third, the market has become far less
lucrative and, as a result, prostitution, child sexual exploitation and trafficking have been
deterred.148 Fourth, the law has significantly reallocated stigma to the buyers of sexual services
instead of prostitutes, 149 who are regarded as “victims”150 rather than criminals. Fifth, the law has given prostitutes the upper hand
over abusers since they can now report instances of violence, exploitation, or even simply prostitution to the police. Lastly, Sweden’s regime is
buttressed with social services, exit programs, and drug and alcohol rehabilitation,151 allowing prostitutes to access support and leave prostitution if
they wish.
The Swedish model has also been critiqued. Critics
suggest that the decrease in prostitution, particularly street prostitution,
is exaggerated, arguing that the sex trade has simply moved “underground” and is now
occurring primarily over the internet and indoors.152 Yet, this argument fails to recognize that
women are often involved in street prostitution precisely because they lack the economic
ability to move indoors. Furthermore, even if some street prostitutes have moved indoors, the
same critics recognize prostitution is safer there. The movement indoors and reduction in
prostitution generally both surely mean that fewer women are subject to violence. As well,
the demand and exploitative side of indoor and underground prostitution can be targeted by law enforcement. Although admittedly resource intensive,
this different approach would be more beneficial since it would target exploitation, trafficking and organized crime.
AT: UNDERGROUND/BAD JOHNS
Their sources recanted and the turn is baseless speculation
Waltman, 11 - Max Waltman is a PhD Candidate at Stockholm University, Department of Political Science, studying legal
challenges to pornography and prostitution as practices violating equality and other human rights in democratic systems, focusing
on Canada, Sweden, and the United States (“PROHIBITING SEX PURCHASING AND ENDING TRAFFICKING: THE SWEDISH
PROSTITUTION LAW” 33 Michigan Journal of International Law 133)
Unfounded rumors have circulated internationally about Sweden’s law, surprisingly often attributed to
one Swedish prostitution commentator, Petra Östergren, and an old unpublished English-language piece of hers.103 For instance,
the Sex Worker Education and Advocacy Taskforce (SWEAT) promulgated her claims to the South African Law Reform Commission
(SALRC) in 2009, but never referred to any published research from Sweden. 104 Östergren argues, inter alia, that “[a]ll of
the authorities say that there is no evidence that prostitution was lower overall” and that “hidden
prostitution had
probably increased.”105 However, none of the reports Östergren cites were published more
than two years after the law took effect. Data before and after the law took effect, as well as
comparative data from other Nordic countries, undoubtedly show Östergren’s claims are not
correct.106 Moreover, Östergren claims that women in street prostitution faced a tougher “time”
after the law’s enactment with, inter alia, more demands for unsafe sex and more violent
purchasers.107 Not surprisingly, the National Board of Health and Welfare’s 2000 report that
Östergren cites is, according to the Board’s own homepage, “not valid anymore.”108 Already in 2003,
the Board expressed doubts about such claims:
While some informants speak of a more risk-filled situation, few are of the opinion that there has been an increase in actual violence.
Police who have conducted a special investigation into the amount of violence have not found any evidence of an increase. Other
research and the responses of our informants both indicate a close connection between prostitution and violence, regardless of what
laws may be in effect.109
Additionally, in a 2007 report, the Board noted that opinions vary among prostituted women, with some still preferring the street
over restaurants, nightclubs, and the Web. One woman likened “making contact online” to “buying a pig in a poke” while another
said it makes dismissing an unwanted purchaser harder.110 Although Östergren may have been correct that some purchasers
stopped testifying against traffickers once they were criminalized, 111 the Gothenburg Police report having “received anonymous tips
from clients who suspect human trafficking.”112
Furthermore, few people outside of Sweden appear to know how Östergren selected her sample of
twenty prostituted women-interviewees to whom she refers frequently. Clues are given in a book published by her in
Swedish in 2006, in which Östergren explicitly says she did not attempt to contact or hold interviews with “sellers of sex” who had
“primarily bad experiences of prostitution,”113 but, rather, intentionally sought women with “completely different experiences” since
the former were claimed to be “the only ones heard in Sweden.”114 Similarly, her 2003 graduate thesis refers to interviews with
fifteen female “sellers of sex” of whom “most . . . have a positive view of what they do.”115 Thus, when mentioning “informal talks
and correspondence with approximately 20 sex workers since 1996”116 in her English-language piece, she apparently refers
to persons selected because they had positive views of prostitution. Evidently, she should have
informed readers that critics were excluded. Scholars like Jane Scoular have referred to
“Östergren’s interviews with women, who reported experiencing greater stress and danger on the streets” after the
1998 law took effect, without noting this selection bias.117 In 2009, Ronald Weitzer cited Scoular in order
to support the claim that Sweden’s law has not been effective.118 Janet Halley and others have also
cited Östergren’s unpublished piece to support the claim that the law has made prostitution
more hidden and dangerous.119 The Swedish government’s latest inquiry report, of course,
establishes that these claims are baseless.120
Violent johns already exist – this can’t be offense for them, but decreasing overall
prostitution solves better
OTHER
1NC POLITICS
California climate legislation is being successfully pushed by Governor Brown –
but it’ll be a fight
Mark Baldassare 3-25-2015; Climate Change and California’s Future President and Chief Executive Officer, Public Policy
Institute of California http://www.ppic.org/main/blog_detail.asp?i=1727
Today, California climate change policy has reached another pivotal moment. Last year, the state
Air Resources Board declared that California is now on track to achieve its greenhouse gas emission goals by 2020, just five years
from now. Earlier this year, Governor Brown and state legislators proposed that California recalibrate its
climate change policies with a new set of goals reaching farther into the future. As before, the
new goals are ambitious and contentious. In January, Governor Brown proposed three new
goals to be accomplished in the next 15 years: increase the amount of electricity produced from renewable
sources from one-third to 50 percent; reduce today’s petroleum use in cars and trucks by up to 50 percent, and;
double the energy efficiency of buildings and make heating fuels cleaner. SB 350 by Senators Kevin de Leon and Mark
Leno reflects the governor’s new goals for 2030. And SB 32 by Senator Fran Pavley would set California’s greenhouse
gas emissions in the year 2050 at 80 percent below the level reported in 1990. There is much to consider in setting these goals and
we know that change of this magnitude is not easy. Governor Brown said in his inaugural address: "Taking significant amounts of
carbon out of our economy without harming its vibrancy is exactly the sort of challenge at which California excels. This is exciting,
it is
bold, and it is absolutely necessary if we are to have any chance of stopping potentially
catastrophic changes to our climate system.”
Plan’s controversial
Scott R. Peppet 13, Professor of Law, University of Colorado Law School, “PROSTITUTION
3.0?” Iowa Law Review, Vol. 98, No. 5, 2013, available at
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2196917
The last objection is most difficult. The United States has no recent history of prostitution legalization,
decriminalization, or even liberalization. It is exceedingly difficult to imagine garnering political
support for such reforms.324 In some instances, the prostitution status quo benefits local economic
actors in ways that incentivize them to combat legalization.325 In others, the political
sensitivity of the topic of prostitution makes political reform unlikely.¶ Many countries have pursued sound
prostitution reforms in the last decades, liberalizing and regulating various forms of indoor prostitution—such as brothels—while
continuing to prohibit street walking.326 For the most part, however, these debates over prostitution reform have
been largely academic in the United States. There has been no political will to improve
prostitution markets.327
Brown’s PC secures passage – solves clean tech leadership
Bruce Lieberman 2-4-2015; Bruce Lieberman is a freelance writer covering science and environmental topics. He has more
than 20 years experience in the news business. “California Governor Brown Outlines Bold New Agenda”
http://www.yaleclimateconnections.org/2015/02/california-governor-brown-outlines-bold-new-agenda/
Few who have watched Jerry Brown’s assertive climate initiatives have doubted he would go full-bore throughout this new and final term in office. He
doesn’t disappoint. They have long led the nation and the world in their strength and commitment to cutting greenhouse gas emissions, but California’s
progressive and closely watched efforts are not enough. Not enough, at least for California Democratic Governor
Jerry Brown, who is
determined to make climate change among his signature legacy issues as he embarks on his
fourth and his final term as Governor. Brown says he wants more aggressive emission reductions beyond 2020, the current year
for which the state’s reduction targets are set. With California’s major energy utilities and other industrial sectors on track to meet the goal of reducing
greenhouse gases to 1990 levels by 2020, and with gasoline prices at the pump lowered to prices not seen in a decade or more, Brown
appears
determined to keep the pedal to the floor on the climate issue. In his January inaugural address opening his
new term in office, Brown outlined three new objectives for California to reach by 2030: Increase from one-third
to 50 percent the state’s electricity derived from renewable sources (known as the “Renewables Portfolio
Standard”); Reduce current petroleum use in cars and trucks by up to 50 percent; and Double the efficiency of existing buildings and make heating
fuels cleaner. Brown: Business of Transformation ‘A Very Tall Order’ Brown also called for a reduction in methane emissions, black carbon, and other
“potent pollutants across industries,” and for better management of farm and rangelands, forests, and wetlands so they can store more carbon. “All of
this is a very tall order,” Brown acknowledged. “It means that we continue to transform our electrical grid, our transportation system, and even our
communities.” In his speech, Brown
cited the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) goal of limiting global
warming to 2 degrees Celsius by the year 2050, through sweeping reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. Brown accepted
that challenge on behalf of the nation’s most populous state. If we have any chance at all of
achieving that, California, as it does in many areas, must show the way. We must demonstrate that reducing
carbon is compatible with an abundant economy and human well-being. So far, we have been able to do that….But now, it is time to establish our next
set of objectives for 2030 and beyond. Business Rep Questions ‘Reality and Practicality’ Brown in advance of his inaugural speech apparently had
shared with few outside his inner circle details on his new climate agenda, and reactions followed a predictable pattern. “He took folks by surprise,” Rob
Lapsley, president of the California Business Roundtable, told Los Angeles Times columnist George Skelton. “He never talked to anyone. It’s almost as
if he were speaking to [hedge fund billionaire and climate change activist] Tom Steyer in the balcony. We can’t figure where that was coming from in
terms of reality and practicality.” Skelton’s insightful column discusses how Steyer has won over state Senate leader Kevin de Leon (D-Los Angeles) —
through generous campaign contributions to Democrats and through his own personal commitment to the climate issue: de Leon is expected to be an
important Brown ally as the governor pushes new climate legislation. Lapsley, meanwhile, told Skelton that California businesses interests had
expected that Brown would want to move more aggressively on climate change — beyond the requirements of the state’s landmark 2006 legislation, AB
32. That law set the greenhouse gas emission goal of 1990 levels by 2020. “Our economy won’t be able to absorb” Brown’s more aggressive goals,
Lapsley told Skelton. “It’s going to drive industries out of here.” It’s a frequently heard refrain from business interests facing prospects of more
stringent California regulations. Collaboration Yes…But Only with Strong Brown Leadership Not surprisingly, Mary Nichols, Brown’s longtime adviser
who heads the California Air Resources Board, had a different take. “It’s time to move on to our next target,” and look beyond 2020, she told Skelton.
Skelton wrote that despite
the divisions, collaboration will offer the only way forward, a point Brown
too had made. “Yes, collaboration,” Skelton wrote, “but especially gubernatorial commitment and
leadership to bring business on board. Compromise will be essential if California is to be
unified in leading the country — perhaps the planet — in containing global warming.” The Natural
Resources Defense Council was among several environmental groups (see here and here) that praised Brown’s new goals. NRDC blogger Peter Miller
wrote: “This impressive agenda builds on California’s strengths of technology and innovation. More generally it provides a road map to a growthoriented economic policy by providing a path for California companies to invest in new products in a growing market that leads the world.” And the San
Jose Mercury News praised Brown in a January 6 editorial, writing: “Brown is positioning California to remain the nation’s most visionary and energyefficient state without breaking the bank.” Soon after his inaugural speech, Brown released his proposed 2015-16 budget. It includes $1 billion in capand-trade expenditures for the state’s continuing investments in low-carbon transportation, sustainable communities, energy efficiency, urban forests,
and the state’s high-speed rail project. “The successful implementation of these projects and continued and even steeper reductions in carbon
pollutants are necessary to address the ongoing threat posed by climate change,” according to a statement released by the governor’s office. Reaction to
Budget Proposal…and Competing Priorities Despite California’s national reputation as a leader in actions on climate change, and Brown’s bold new
agenda and Democratic majorities in the legislature, the road toward more cuts in emissions will be rocky, suggests a roundup by the Sacramento Bee.
State lawmakers, political appointees, educators, union leaders, trade and professional representatives, and others all offered their views of what
budget priorities the Governor should follow — and hardly any mentioned investing in climate change mitigation or adaptation. Sure there were a few.
State Senator Lois Wolk, D-Davis, a key Budget Subcommittee on Resources, Environmental Protection, Energy and Transportation, said: “I am
pleased that the Governor’s budget prioritizes significant investment in water and flood management. The current drought demonstrates the need to
invest in reliable, climate-resilient water supplies to sustain our economy, communities and ecosystems.” But most said nothing positive, if anything at
all, about the Brown climate initiatives announced just a few days earlier. To the contrary, a few Republican lawmakers chastised the governor for
earmarking funding from the state’s cap-and-trade program to a controversial high-speed rail project. “We cannot continue to invest, as the Governor
proposes, in radical environmental policies like cap-and-trade and boondoggles like High Speed Rail if we want to turn the corner on the recession,”
said Assemblyman James Gallagher, R-Yuba City. California, like other states, faces numerous competing challenges. The new budget restores few
recession-era cuts to social services, including public health care, higher education and programs to help the poor. University of California President
Janet Napolitano, for one, told the Sacramento Bee she is “disappointed” by Brown’s budget proposal. In the same story, Sen. Holly Mitchell, D-Los
Angeles, said it is “frankly beyond me” how Brown can propose far-reaching carbon-reduction measures “and not understand that the state can play an
equally critical and pivotal role in setting stretch goals for itself to reduce the number of kids in California who live in poverty.” Reinvigorating
Renewable Energy Industries The Los Angeles Times reported that Brown’s
initiatives “could reinvigorate the state’s
utility-scale solar and wind industries, as well as launch another land rush in the Mojave Desert.”
The reasoning: state utilities have had little incentive to invest in new wind and solar energy projects — simply because they’re already on track to meet
the state’s Renewables Portfolio Standard of 33 percent by 2020. “ Without
contracts to sell power, it’s been difficult for
clean-energy developers to cobble together financing for large-scale projects,” the Times reported. “As a
result, the initial flurry of interest in permitting solar and wind projects in the state has stalled.”
“There has been a dramatic slowdown — or almost freezing out,” Jerry R. Bloom of the Los Angeles law firm Winston & Strawn, who guides renewable
energy developers through the financing and permitting processes, told the Times. “There are no utility-scale contracts. There’s no real market. The
utilities’ position is: ‘We’ve reached the 33 percent and we’re done.’” “ Fifty percent is a game-changer,” Bloom says. Governor
Brown could, if he so chooses, adopt the 50-percent standard simply by issuing an executive order. “The California Public Utilities Commission has the
authority,” The Times continued, “to compel the state’s three big utilities — Southern California Edison, Pacific Gas & Electric and San Diego Gas &
Electric — to procure 50 percent of their energy through renewables.” Such an order wouldn’t apply, however, to large municipal companies like the Los
Angeles Department of Water and Power. Even so, with Democrats controlling both the Assembly and the Senate, Brown
and his backers
in Sacramento might yet prevail on legislation to expand the reach of a 50 percent standard.
“Many thought the initial 33 percent goal was too challenging, yet California will readily surpass
that number,” Martín Múgica, president and chief executive of Iberdrola Renewables, which is developing wind and solar projects in the state,
told the Times. “The governor’s plan will spark innovation across the electricity sector and clearly
encourage large-scale renewable energy development.”
Extinction
Klarevas 9 –Louis Klarevas, Professor for Center for Global Affairs @ New York University,
12/15, “Securing American Primacy While Tackling Climate Change: Toward a National Strategy
of Greengemony,” http://www.huffingtonpost.com/louis-klarevas/securing-americanprimacy_b_393223.html
As national leaders from around the world are gathering in Copenhagen, Denmark, to attend the United Nations Climate Change Conference, the time is ripe to
re-assess America's current energy policies - but within the larger framework of how a new
approach on the environment will stave off global warming and shore up American primacy. By not
addressing climate change more aggressively and creatively, the United States is squandering an opportunity to secure its
global primacy for the next few generations to come. To do this, though, the U.S. must rely on innovation
to help the world escape the coming environmental meltdown. Developing the key technologies that
will save the planet from global warming will allow the U.S. to outmaneuver potential
great power rivals seeking to replace it as the international system's hegemon. But the greening of American
strategy must occur soon. The U.S., however, seems to be stuck in time, unable to move beyond oil-centric geo-politics in any meaningful way. Often, the
gridlock is portrayed as a partisan difference, with Republicans resisting action and Democrats pleading for action. This, though, is an unfair characterization as there are
Students of realpolitik, which
discount environmental issues as they are not seen as advancing
numerous proactive Republicans and quite a few reticent Democrats. The real divide is instead one between realists and liberals.
still heavily guides American foreign policy, largely
national interests in a way that generates relative power advantages vis-à-vis the other major powers in the system: Russia, China, Japan, India, and the European
Union. ¶ Liberals, on the other hand, have recognized that global warming might very well become the
greatest challenge ever faced by [hu]mankind. As such, their thinking often eschews narrowly defined national interests for
the greater global good. This, though, ruffles elected officials whose sworn obligation is, above all, to protect and promote American national interests. What both sides need to
by becoming a lean, mean, green fighting machine, the U.S. can actually bring
together liberals and realists to advance a collective interest which benefits every nation, while at the
same time, securing America's global primacy well into the future. To do so, the U.S. must re-invent itself as not just your
traditional hegemon, but as history's first ever green hegemon. Hegemons are countries that dominate the international
understand is that
system - bailing out other countries in times of global crisis, establishing and maintaining the most important international institutions, and covering the costs that result from
free-riding and cheating global obligations. Since 1945, that role has been the purview of the United States. Immediately after World War II, Europe and Asia laid in ruin, the
global economy required resuscitation, the countries of the free world needed security guarantees, and the entire system longed for a multilateral forum where global concerns
could be addressed. The U.S., emerging the least scathed by the systemic crisis of fascism's rise, stepped up to the challenge and established the postwar (and current) liberal
order. But don't let the world "liberal" fool you. While many nations benefited from America's new-found hegemony, the U.S. was driven largely by "realist" selfish national
interests. The liberal order first and foremost benefited the U.S. With the U.S. becoming bogged down in places like Afghanistan and Iraq, running a record national debt, and
failing to shore up the dollar, the future of American hegemony now seems to be facing a serious contest: potential rivals - acting like sharks smelling blood in the water - wish to
This has led numerous commentators to forecast the U.S.'s imminent fall
from grace. Not all hope is lost however. With the impending systemic crisis of global warming
on the horizon, the U.S. again finds itself in a position to address a transnational problem in a
way that will benefit both the international community collectively and the U.S. selfishly. The current
challenge the U.S. on a variety of fronts.
problem is two-fold. First, the competition for oil is fueling animosities between the major powers. The geopolitics of oil has already emboldened Russia in its 'near abroad' and
a nasty zero-sum contest could be
looming on the horizon for the U.S. and its major power rivals - a contest which threatens
American primacy and global stability. Second, converting fossil fuels like oil to run national
economies is producing irreversible harm in the form of carbon dioxide emissions . So long as the global
economy remains oil-dependent, greenhouse gases will continue to rise. Experts are predicting as much as a 60% increase in carbon
dioxide emissions in the next twenty-five years. That likely means more devastating water shortages, droughts,
forest fires, floods, and storms. In other words, if global competition for access to energy resources does
not undermine international security, global warming will. And in either case, oil will be a culprit for the
China in far-off places like Africa and Latin America. As oil is a limited natural resource,
instability. Oil arguably has been the most precious energy resource of the last half-century. But "black gold" is so 20th century. The key resource for this century will be green
Climate change leaves no alternative. And the
sooner we realize this, the better off we will be. What Washington must do in order to avoid the traps of petropolitics is to convert the U.S.
into the world's first-ever green hegemon. For starters, the federal government must drastically increase investment in
energy and environmental research and development (E&E R&D). This will require a serious sacrifice, committing upwards of $40
billion annually to E&E R&D - a far cry from the few billion dollars currently being spent. By promoting a new national project, the U.S. could develop new
technologies that will assure it does not drown in a pool of oil. Some solutions are already well known, such as raising fuel
gold - clean, environmentally-friendly energy like wind, solar, and hydrogen power.
standards for automobiles; improving public transportation networks; and expanding nuclear and wind power sources. Others, however, have not progressed much beyond the
batteries that can store massive amounts of solar (and possibly even wind) power; efficient and cost-effective
photovoltaic cells, crop-fuels, and hydrogen-based fuels; and even fusion . Such innovations will not only provide
alternatives to oil, they will also give the U.S. an edge in the global competition for
hegemony. If the U.S. is able to produce technologies that allow modern, globalized societies to escape the oil trap, those nations will eventually
have no choice but to adopt such technologies. And this will give the U.S. a tremendous
economic boom, while simultaneously providing it with means of leverage that can be employed to
keep potential foes in check. The bottom-line is that the U.S. needs to become green energy dominant
as opposed to black energy independent - and the best approach for achieving this is to promote a national strategy of greengemony.
drawing board:
1NC PROSTITUTION COURTS CP
The United States should adopt a rehabilitative approach to prostitution,
substantially expand social services to allow exit from prostitution, and require
that persons arrested for prostitution be diverted to newly created prostitution
courts that offer these services as an alternative to incarceration.
Prostitution courts eliminate stigma and solve the aff
Jacobson, 14 – JD Candidate, Seattle University (Brynn, “Addressing the Tension Between the Dual Identities of the
American Prostitute: Criminal and Victim; How Problem-Solving Courts Can Help” 37 Seattle Univ. L. R. 1023, lexis)
B. Advantages of Using a Prostitution Court
A problem-solving court, such as the one proposed here, works within the preexisting system to
create a
pathway to social services, helping to prevent recidivism by giving participants the skills
necessary to make a life outside prostitution. As outlined above, police are already the most effective
first responders, and they would continue to be, allowing for more victims of prostitution to be
identified. However, unlike the current system, prostituted persons would not sit in jail,
labeled as criminals and unable to access services. Their discovery by police would serve as a
catalyst for access to services to help rebuild their lives. The court would be transformed into a
less adversarial environment to provide the appropriate setting for recovery and facilitating
services. The system would ensure that all prostituted women have the option to access services, while still maintaining the
accountability that the criminal justice system provides. By providing the opportunity to remove the charge from a participant's
record upon successful completion, the court would allow participants to move forward with their lives without the black mark of a
criminal record that can inhibit their ability to obtain employment and housing. The model also protects victim
autonomy by allowing them to opt into the court as opposed to simply forcing services on them.
Such a court would help bridge the gap between the "victim" and "criminal" labels that currently
exists. Presently, prostituted persons are victimized by those around them, and as a result, the
system criminalizes them. The proposed model recognizes that while participants need to be
held accountable, they also need help to move past the abuse and gain control over their lives.
This model also encourages, or even requires, participants [*1052] to cooperate with the prosecuting of pimps in order to ensure
that pimps are held legally accountable for exploiting women.
Law enforcement serves as first responders for prostituted youth and separates
victims from third-party exploitation to allow prosecution of pimps – the CP solves
trafficking
Jacobson, 14 – JD Candidate, Seattle University (Brynn, “Addressing the Tension Between the Dual Identities of the
American Prostitute: Criminal and Victim; How Problem-Solving Courts Can Help” 37 Seattle Univ. L. R. 1023, lexis)
[*1034] B. Benefits of the Current System
There are a number of benefits posed by the current system that should not be overlooked. First, law
enforcement
currently occupies the role of first responder for victims of commercial sexual exploitation. Law
enforcement has the ability to physically go out, locate victims, and arrest and remove them
from their current situation. Second, the current system allows for critical separation from thirdparty exploiters, which can allow for victims to gain access to services. Third, criminalization debunks the
myth of choice, which risks gaining acceptance if prostitution were to become legal. Finally, criminalization leaves all possible tools
available to those who assist victims. Each victim is different and requires a unique approach, even if that involves arrest.
1. Law Enforcement As First Responders
Law enforcement officers fill the first responder role, a role other social service organizations
could not fill. Organizations such as Child Protective Services (CPS) may not be able to respond adequately to the needs of child
sex-trafficking victims if not all workers are knowledgeable about human trafficking. n98 CPS can only respond when the case fits
within the carefully defined criterion, which prostitution cases likely do not. n99 CPS investigates crimes that are referred to them as
opposed to going out and locating victims. n100 Victims of sexual exploitation have too often been failed by the social systems
designed to protect them, n101 and thus such systems should not be left solely responsible for protecting them from sexual
exploitation. The greatest chance for victims to be identified is through arrests made by law
enforcement pursuant to state prostitution and commercial vice statutes. n102 Law enforcement
officers are more likely to come across victims of prostitution than most people because they are
out on the streets actively patrolling for criminal activity. n103
Ultimately, eliminating police jurisdiction over potential trafficking victims, particularly minors, prevents the victim's escape from
prostitution. While a criminal conviction is not ideal, it is only when the victims are arrested and detained that
they have a chance to receive the help they so desperately need. n104 Vednita Carter, founder and
executive director of [*1035] Breaking Free, a program that helps women leaving prostitution, noted
that if the sale of sex were decriminalized, then some prostituted women would lose a valuable
intervention point with law enforcement. n105 Carter noted that while intervention in the form of law enforcement is
only effective for some women, until a better solution is put in place, it is the only form of assistance that many of the women
receive. n106
2. Critical Separation from and Prosecution of Pimps n107
By discovering and detaining victims, police are able to separate victims from those who exploit
them. Pimps are master manipulators who seek out vulnerable young women, often come from broken homes, and convince them
that he--the pimp--is the only person who will love, care, and provide for them. n108 Sometimes, arresting a minor for
prostitution and putting her into the system separates her from her pimp long enough for her to
realize she needs help. n109 While a detention center or prison may not be the ideal environment for prostituted persons,
organizations specializing in serving child victims of prostitution collectively have fewer than fifty beds across the country, and other
facilities are inadequate for meeting the needs of victims or keeping them secure from pimps. n110 Minors with multiple arrests will
likely remain in a juvenile detention center because past experience has shown that pimps will send girls to foster homes and group
homes to recruit others. n111 Law enforcement is concerned not only with protecting current victims of
sexual exploitation, but also with preventing pimps from creating new victims, which is
primarily accomplished by prosecution of the exploiter.
Ultimately, cases against third-party exploiters rise or fall based upon the testimony of the woman or girl who was subject to the
exploitation. n112 Maintaining police jurisdiction allows officers to glean information about the pimps for prosecution and
encourage the victim to testify, without which it is unlikely that any pimps would ever be successfully identified and prosecuted. n113
Prostitution cases are unlike drug trafficking cases where the contraband itself is proof of the illegal activity; n114 the [*1036]
prostituted person must testify to convince a jury that a crime occurred. Because pimps can keep re-selling women
and make more money, they must be arrested and prosecuted, otherwise they will simply find
another woman or child to exploit. The critical separation between pimp and victim created
through the actions of law enforcement officers is essential for these prosecutions to take place.
The separation allows police to break the bond between the pimp and victim so she can be
convinced to testify. n115
1NC NEOLIB
Legalization relies upon a contractual paradigm of disembodied agency that posits
individuals as free to buy and sell whatever they choose in the market. The illusion
of individual choice prevents collective resistance against market commodification
Miriam, 5 – assistant professor of philosophy at the University of New Hampshire (Kathy, “Stopping the Traffic in Women:
Power, Agency and Abolition in Feminist Debates over Sex-Trafficking” JOURNAL of SOCIAL PHILOSOPHY, Vol. 36 No. 1, Spring
2005, 1–17.)
Pateman focuses particularly on the contractarian tradition of liberalism, a tradition in which the concept and practice of contracts is
central. Pateman shows that contractarian liberalism has significant political and conceptual force in
contemporary understandings of freedom, agency and power and how these understandings are
presupposed and embedded in a range of institutions, including (post)modern forms of prostitution. For this reason,
contractarian liberalism, and Pateman’s critique of it, will be central to my own criticisms of the pro-sex-work position. For
Pateman, the social/sexual contract is an organizing “principle of social association.”10 In other words,
although we think of contract as an “exchange” of pieces of (material) property between two parties, the kinds of contracts that
interest Pateman are those that “create relationships (such as that between worker and employer, or wife and husband).”11 In these
kinds of contracts (e.g., employment) what is exchanged is a special kind of property, namely, “property in the person.”12 Pateman
argues that the core liberal notion of freedom—the freedom to be left alone—is derivative of, rather
than preceding, the proprietary concept of the individual.13 In other words, freedom for the individual- as-owner-ofproperty-in-his-person includes the freedom to have this property left alone. As a principle of social association, contract structures
those relations through which the property of one person/owner can be legitimately used by other individuals/owners without
violating the individual’s basic freedom, that is, his/her freedom to own property in his person. The individual, defined as
an owner of property in his person, is constructed as “free” to trade/sell his capacities through
the contract relation in exchange for some benefit. Note that this “exchange” presupposes that a person’s
capacities are separable, like pieces of (material) property, from the “self.”14 As Pateman notes, a powerful “political
fiction” masks the fact that a person’s capacities are not separable from her self like pieces of
property.15 In the context of the employment contract, for example, this political fiction is the fiction of “labor power” and allows
for the story of employment as an “exchange”: according to this story, the worker sells her “labor power” in exchange for some
recompense. As Pateman shows, this story of the employment contract masks the real transaction at stake in the contract
is not in fact an exchange but a practice of alienation. In turn, since the worker’s capacities cannot in fact be
alienated from his person, what the worker is really offering (surrendering) to his/her employer, through
the contract, is her/his (situated, embodied) autonomy.16 That is to say, the real transaction in this
contract is defined by the worker’s freedom to be subordinated to an employer/boss.
With respect to prostitution, the central political fiction of prostitution-as-an-exchange is the story that
through the prostitution contract, a woman sells “sexual services” for money, as if sexuality were
not actually embodied, as if there existed a subject who, magically, was capable of separating
her physical/sexual capacities from her “self.” This “conjuring trick” (to use Pateman’s phrase) called
“sexual services” obscures the real meaning of prostitution as “an institution which allows
certain powers of command over one person’s body to be exercised by another.”17 Thus Julia O’Connell
which
Davidson, closely following Pateman’s analysis here, describes the transaction:
The client parts with money and/or other material benefits in order to secure powers over the prostitute’s person which he (or more
rarely she) could not otherwise exercise. He pays in order that he may command the prostitute to make body orifices available to
him, to smile, dance or dress up for him, to whip, spank, massage or masturbate him, to submit to being urinated upon, shackled or
beaten by him, or otherwise submit to his wishes and desires.18
In sum, what is really sold in the prostitution or the employment contract is not some fictional
“property,” but a relation of command: the prostitute/employee sells command over her body to
the john/pimp/employer in exchange for some recompense. It is this fundamental relation of domination and
subordination that is mystified, if not denied, by the pro-sex-work position on “free
prostitution.”
The “Agency” of “Sex Work”
The category of “free prostitution” depends on “the invention of sex work,” that is to say, it
depends on the crafting of “sex work” as a new descriptive and normative category for theorizing
prostitution as a form of “labor.”19 The pro-sex-work position is not theoretically or politically homogenous and is
defended by a range of arguments. At its most persuasive, the argument for defining prostitution as a form of labor importantly
undercuts the fallacious and misogynist notion of prostitution as either “easy money” and/or as evidence of women’s moral lassitude
and “promiscuity.” By legitimizing the “labor” of prostitution, pro-sex-work advocates aim to restore dignity to those decisions that
enable women to survive within the constraints of the current global economy.20 Given conditions of extreme poverty for women,
pro-sex-work advocates claim that women choose prostitution to survive, and that recognition of this choice as a form of labor is
essential to the goal of securing health and safety standards for women in an industry that otherwise remains unregulated and
unprotected, leaving sex workers particularly vulnerable to such “work hazards” as violent assaults, rape, and sexually transmitted
diseases. Following upon this goal, and against abolitionism, pro-sex-work activists advocate for political strategies of
decriminalization, regulation, and/or unionization of sex-work-labor.
For abolitionists, a sanitized, regulated sex industry begs the moral question of whether regulating
men’s access to women is better than not regulating it. The strategy also begs the political question of whose
interests are best or most served by such an approach.21 Since the pro-sex-work position depends on a definition of prostitution as
work, one key philosophical issue for my defense of abolitionism concerns the very intelligibility of the category “sex work”: What
assumptions are required by the argument that prostitution is a form of work? What philosophically and politically has enabled the
“invention of sex work”? While some philosophers have tackled the issue by comparing prostitution, unfavorably or favorably, to
(other forms of ) labor, my approach is somewhat different.22 My aim is limited to arguing that the category of “sex work”
depends on a contractual model of agency and its central notion of the proprietary self, and
thus a model that both presupposes and conceals the social relations of domination that obtain
for prostitution.
I see two variations of the contractual model of agency and of the proprietary notion of self that is assumed by the pro-sex-work
argument although the same prostitutes’ rights advocates often oscillate between both variations. I call these the “economist” and
“expressivist” models of agency. The economist approach to “sex work” begins from the empirically sound claim that many women
sell their bodies as a way to secure means of subsistence for themselves and their children. However, the argument then shifts from
this descriptive claim to a normative claim that therefore selling sex is or ought to be a legitimate economic choice for women. This
economist view is advanced by a major player in the trafficking debate, namely the pro-sex-work Global Alliance Against Trafficking
in Women (GAATW).23 In its description of the “causes and factors of trafficking,” GAATW lists “the desire for a better life, poverty,
gender and other forms of discrimination, family disintegration, negative cultural and religious practices, and the substantial profits
that can be made from the trade.”24 Strangely, although GAATW opposes trafficking, in this passage it fails to differentiate here
between conditions of the emergence of traffickers and the trafficked—as if both parties, for example, made “substantial profits . . .
from the trade.” The report also mutes the factor of gender, for example suggesting that “The low social value given to girls can
contribute to trafficking as girls are often educated to [a] lower level than boys and have fewer work opportunities in skilled
professions.”25 However, the gendered/sexual specificity of the “work opportunity” offered by trafficking is not given any more
ethical or political weight than any other factors in the discourse. Most importantly and strangely, men’s demand for commodified
sex is not even listed as one of the conditions of trafficking.
GAATW’s distinction between coerced and free prostitution depends on a blind spot to the
relation of demand undergirding prostitution, and seems to make the liberal assumption
that freedom is essentially a state of being “left alone”— or the state of not being forced to do something. From
this perspective, “free” prostitutes are economic agents like Kafui, a single mother and low income clerk from Togo who, according to
GAATW voluntarily migrates to Lagos, Nigeria, to increase her income through work as a prostitute: “Kafui could freely choose
her clients and where and when she wanted to work. She sent money home to her family. After one year Kafui had saved US$1000.
She returned to Togo and used this money to buy her own home there.”26 Replete with such American-dream icons as homeownership, a very Western, individualist script is super-imposed upon the practice of prostitution in this account. This script, I
suggest, assumes a notion of the proprietary individual, the sex worker as an agent who strategically and instrumentally uses
property in her person (e.g., her sexuality) to further her economic self-interest.
The pro-sex-work camp, however, often ascribes a set of values to the economic choice of sex work that exceeds a purely economist
view and aims at investing prostitution with new cultural—and feminist—meaning. One of the premises of this approach—advanced
by writers such as Wendy Chapkis, Josephine Chuen-Juei HO and Kamala Kempadoo—is that the radical feminist view of
prostitutes as victims is a distorting ideology rather than a social analysis, and as such, calls for new interpretations of the practice of
prostitution. Thus Chapkis reinterprets prostitution as “erotic labor;” and claims that “like other
forms of commodification and consumption, practices of prostitution can be seen as sites of ingenious
resistance and cultural subversion.”27 In this light, “the prostitute cannot be reduced to one of a passive object used in
male sexual practice, but instead it can be understood as a place of agency where the sex worker makes active use of the existing
sexual order.”28 An interpretation of sex work as “active use” of the existing order requires that feminists see “sex work not only as
‘work’ but maybe even as a ‘profession’ (both in appearance and spirit),” an attitude that “could prove to be most useful and
beneficial for sex workers.”29 Thus argues HO, emphasizing that the selling of sex to male customers requires enormous creativity
on the part of prostitutes who, she also claims, often feel “professional pride” in their “work.”30
Theories of sex work advanced by writers like HO, Chapkis and Kempadoo presuppose an expressivist (in
contrast to economist) model of individual freedom. I use Charles Taylor’s term “expressivist” to refer to a specific heritage of
Western Romanticist thought that
defines individual freedom in terms of a “poeisis,” an activity of selfcreation.31 For expressivist/Romanticist philosophers, individual self-definition is a process that unfolds from within the deep
interior of self, a process of both creating and discovering one’s authentic identity. Although essentially an idealist conception of
freedom (freedom is in change of consciousness) inherited from Hegel, the expressivist model of the self-ascreative- activity did
influence Marxist notions of work as (ideally) a form of self-actualization essential to human development.32 Through work, the
laborer externalizes her/his “species-being” as human; alienation refers to the way in which this process of self-externalization is
appropriated by capitalists. A similar expressivist model of work is applied by Kempadoo to sex work, although she omits the part
about alienation and appropriation. Kempadoo includes prostitution under the category of “reproductive labor”: Like “reproductive
labor,” sex
work is interpreted as “human activity,” specifically “the way in which basic needs are met and human life produced
and reproduced.”33 Sex work specifically involves “activities involving purely sexual elements of the body.” If we take out the
word “purely,” this last point is uncontroversial. And I would not object to the point that “[S]exual energy should be considered vital
to the fulfillment of basic human needs: for both procreation and bodily pleasure.”34 The leap in logic comes with the conclusion
that because (1) sex work involves sex and (2) sex is or rather ought to be a vital activity then therefore (3) sex work itself is or ought
to be considered vital to the fulfillment of human needs. But whose basic human needs are “fulfilled” by sex work? And is men’s
demand for commercial sex any more a “basic human need” than, say, Americans’ “need” for SUVs? What is omitted is any
critique of the power relations defining the practice of prostitution, in other words how women’s
“sexual energy” is appropriated by johns, pimps and traffickers for the latter’s profit and
pleasure, analogously (although not perfectly so) to the way in which (according to Marxist theory) the worker’s “energy” is
appropriated by the capitalists for the latter’s profit. Without this critique of the actual material, power
relations defining prostitution, it becomes possible to cast the “agency” of prostitution as no less
than a form of self-actualization, a space for “ingenuity” and creativity. In this vein, HO can claim that sex workers
“experiment with various cultural resources” that in turn “empowers” them as not only workers, but as sexual agents.35 The
“freedom” implied by this view of sex work is an idealist and “expressivist” notion of freedom as existing in an interior process of
self-definition and value-creation— “freedom” pictured as “in the head.”
A main political strategy that follows from this expressivist conception of sex work is one that casts sex workers’ rights in terms of a
politics of “recognition.” A politics of recognition pivots on “identity” as its moral/political fulcrum and
aims at redressing injuries to status, for example stigma and degradation, as a basic harm or
injustice inflicted on certain identity-groups—Jews, Blacks, gays and lesbians, transgendered people, etc.36
Applied to prostitution, then, the stigmatization of prostitutes—rather than the structure of the
practice itself—becomes the basic injustice to be redressed by pro-sex-work advocates who now
construe prostitutes as “sexual minorities” to use Gayle Rubin’s now widely circulated term.37 With the identity-concept of the
prostitute as a “sex minority” (as Rubin specifically argued), we have traveled full circle from the argument that as “work”
prostitution has nothing to do with the prostitute’s own sexuality but is purely a means for a woman’s economic gain, to arrive at the
notion that selling commercial sex is fundamentally an expression of an individual’s own style and desire.
The circle is logical despite an apparent dissonance between notions of embodiment underlying the two models of sex work. The
economist model assumes a starkly instrumental notion of the body and agency. To use Pateman’s
description of the proprietary individual, this version pictures a disembodied, Cartesian subject who
can stand in the same external relation to her body and capacities as she can to other (material)
objects.38 In contrast, the claim for sex work as “expression,” namely as creative expression of identity
and sexual agency, appears to affirm an embodied autonomy for the sex worker. But the contrast
is deceptive. The expressivist model of sex work affirms a contract structure of sex work and its central fiction of exchangeable
sexual services, a structure and fiction that precludes the conception it wants to affirm—of an expressive, situated, embodied subject.
This expressivist model of sex work still presupposes the proprietary individual who can stand
back, as an abstract self, from her “sexual energy” and from this abstract position alienate this
“energy” as a “service” to circulate for customers in return for payment. Thus, the expressivist
and economist models of the sex worker are two versions of the same contractual paradigm of
disembodied agency.
The convergence of the expressivist and economist models of sex work is at once perfected and perfectly concealed by a postmodern
theoretical approach to sex work that construes the latter as a purely discursive construction “produced” by modernity, and as such
an “empty symbol.” Thus Shannon Bell, taking this approach, argues that “the referent, the flesh-and-blood female body engaged in
some form of sexual interaction in exchange for some kind of payment, has no inherent meaning and is signified differently in
different discourses.”39 Seen as contingent in meaning, prostitution is illimitably open to re-interpretation, including feminist
reinterpretations of prostitution as empowering for women. Thus Bell affirms the emergence, in the United States, of new prostitute
performance artists who have reinvented “the prostitute” as a “new social identity”: the “prostitute as sexual healer, goddess,
teacher, political activist, and feminist.”40 From this vantage point, the body of the prostitute is infinitely “protean,” a text that
accommodates “endlessly shifting, seemingly inexhaustible vantage points” of interpretation, and thus exemplifying what Susan
Bordo criticizes (referring to what she considers to be a postmodern notion of the protean body) as a traditional, Cartesian “fantasy
of transcendence” in its “new, postmodern configuration.”41 Rather than owner of property, singular, in one’s person, the protean
postmodern self is owner of properties, plural, in one’s (fragmented) person.42 In this version, freedom is the ability to circulate
among multiple “identifications,” allowing then, for an interpretation of prostitution that abstracts the institution from any
particular, historical situatedness in patriarchal capitalism. However, the proprietary concept of the (unified) self, remains the
hidden precondition of this semiotic free play of interpretation. What is still presupposed is the (invisible) liberal Cartesian
standpoint of a “self” free to stand back from its determinants and thus free to pick and choose those determinants it desires to be
affected by and thus play with. But what is the real “identity” of this “double agent”? Is it coincidental that this is “a discourse about
prostitution promoted by a handful of relatively privileged white American women as though it carries a weight equal to any other
discourse” as O’Connell Davidson argues?43 The sex worker as postmodern text issues from an elite vantage point, the abstract
intellectual projecting its own version of abstract individuality onto prostitutes in general, the vast majority of whom lack a fraction
of the mobility enjoyed by the privileged group who craft the theory.
I do not deny that women make real choices in some or many of the cases in which they enter
prostitution for their economic survival. What I am contesting is a fantasy of “free” prostitution,
insofar as this freedom is inscribed within expressivist and economist models of sex worker agency. For such “freedom”
serves to mystify the actual conditions that determines this “economic” option, selling command
over their bodies, as an option for women (and children) specifically, not for “any” (abstract and/or
textual) body. The “sex work” model of agency occludes the reality that it is men’s demand that
makes prostitution intelligible and legitimate as a means of survival for women in the first
place. In my next section I turn directly to the issues of “demand,” the concept of domination at stake in the abolitionist critique of
men’s demand, and questions of women’s agency and freedom raised by this conception of (male) power.
The impact is extinction
Nhanenge 7 [Jytte Masters @ U South Africa, “ECOFEMINSM: TOWARDS INTEGRATING THE CONCERNS OF WOMEN,
POOR PEOPLE AND NATURE INTO DEVELOPMENT]
There is today an increasing critique of economic development, whether it takes place in the North or in the South. Although
the world on average generates more and more wealth, the riches do not appear to "trickle down" to the
poor and improve their material well-being. Instead, poverty and economic inequality is growing. Despite the
existence of development aid for more than half a century, the Third World seems not to be "catching up" with
the First World. Instead, militarism, dictatorship and human repression is multiplied. Since the mid
1970, the critique of global economic activities has intensified due to the escalating deterioration
of the natural environment. Modernization, industrialisation and its economic activities have been
directly linked to increased scarcity of natural resources and generation of pollution, which increases
global temperatures and degrades soils, lands, water, forests and air. The latter threat is of great
significance, because without a healthy environment human beings and animals will not be able to
survive. Most people believed that modernization of the world would improve material well-being for all. However, faced with
its negative side effects and the real threat of extinction, one must conclude that somewhere
along the way "progress" went astray. Instead of material plenty, economic development generated a
violent, unhealthy and unequal world. It is a world where a small minority live in material luxury,
while millions of people live in misery. These poor people are marginalized by the global
economic system. They are forced to survive from degraded environments; they live without personal or social security; they
live in abject poverty, with hunger, malnutrition and sickness; and they have no possibility to speak up for themselves and demand a
fair share of the world's resources. The majority of these people are women, children, traditional peoples, tribal peoples, people of
colour and materially poor people (called women and Others). They are,
together with nature, dominated by the
global system of economic development imposed by the North. It is this scenario, which is the subject of the
dissertation. The overall aim is consequently to discuss the unjustified domination of women, Others and nature and to show how
the domination of women and Others is interconnected with the domination of nature. A good place
to start a discussion about domination of women, Others and nature is to disclose how they disproportionately must carry the
negative effects from global economic development. The below discussion is therefore meant to give an idea of the "flip-side" of
modernisation. It gives a gloomy picture of what "progress" and its focus on economic growth has meant for women, poor people
and the natural environment. The various complex and inter-connected, negative impacts have been ordered into four crises. The
categorization is inspired by Paul Ekins and his 1992 book "A new world order; grassroots movements for global change". In it,
Ekins argues that humanity is faced with four interlocked crises of unprecedented magnitude. These
crises have the potential to destroy whole ecosystems and to extinct the human race. The first
crisis is the spread of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction, together with the high level of
military spending. The second crisis is the increasing number of people afflicted with hunger and
poverty. The third crisis is the environmental degradation. Pollution, destruction of ecosystems and extinction
of species are increasing at such a rate that the biosphere is under threat. The fourth crisis is
repression and denial of fundamental human rights by governments, which prevents people from developing their
potential. It is highly likely that one may add more crises to these four, or categorize them differently, however, Ekins's division is
suitable for the present purpose. (Ekins 1992: 1).
Alternative: reject contractual agency in favor of a collective challenge to
neoliberal governance
Miriam, 5 – assistant professor of philosophy at the University of New Hampshire (Kathy, “Stopping the Traffic in Women:
Power, Agency and Abolition in Feminist Debates over Sex-Trafficking” JOURNAL of SOCIAL PHILOSOPHY, Vol. 36 No. 1, Spring
2005, 1–17.)
Conclusion: Beyond a Contractual Model of Agency and Freedom
In defense of a radical feminist abolitionist position, I have argued that coercion, consent and agency are intricately bound together
in a shared paradigm of domination. Domination can be best described, not as coercion or force, but as a relation of access, a
relation that is embedded within a range of institutions that tacitly presuppose the legitimacy of this relation. I refer specifically to
men’s (and other dominant groups’) politically and tacitly legitimized demand to have physical, sexual and
emotional access to the capacities and bodies of other (e.g., gendered) groups of people. As I see it,
this legitimized and entrenched relation defined by men’s right to demand access to women is the central conception of
male power at stake for the feminist movement to abolish prostitution. Moreover, this relation of
power/access constitutes the hidden political conditions of women’s “sexual agency” as the latter is affirmed by the pro-sex-work
position. I conclude that this view of male power, rather than foreclose female sexual agency or
empowerment challenges
feminism to conceive of agency and empowerment beyond a
contractual model. Briefly, this involves, at the least, recognizing that victimization and
agency are not mutually exclusive conditions.
The pro-sex-work theory assumes that victimization and agency are mutually exclusive, and points
to prostitutes’ ability to negotiate over aspects of their work conditions as evidence that prostitutes have agency. The expressivist
version of this theory interprets prostitutes’ practice of negotiation as in and of itself constituting a creative reworking of the existing
sexual order. But from this same theoretical vantage point, one aspect of the sexual order remains
nonnegotiable and thus unworkable, namely, men’s right to be sexually serviced. There is a blind
spot in the pro-sex-work theory where this “right” remains invisible as such, partly because male
power is invisible to it as domination and only intelligible as coercive force. Thus blinkered, the
theory construes sex workers as “free” unless forcibly coerced into prostitution: the theory
argues that if prostitutes have this “freedom,” they cannot therefore be said to be “victims .” The
pro-sex-work position assumes a contractual model of freedom: it construes the consent to be
subordinated as exemplifying freedom.
The abolitionist position that prostituted women are victims is not one that denies that these
same women—any less than other victimized, oppressed, and/or enslaved peoples throughout history—have also
employed numerous stratagems of resistance to their situation.60 Even if these stratagems amount to
negotiating the terms of their unfreedom, many victims can also be said to have “agency.” Indeed, the question is not
whether sex workers have agency. The question is, what is the meaning of an agency—and indeed
“empowerment”—when these terms are defined as a capacity to negotiate within a situation that
is itself taken for granted as inevitable? It is only when we radically interrogate the
meaning of “empowerment” in a social order structured through both liberalism and male
dominance that we can conceive of power as power to, because it is only then that we can
conceive of freedom—freedom beyond the sexual contract.61
To conceptualize freedom beyond the social/sexual contract requires that feminists first,
demystify the expressivist model of sexual agency assumed by many proponents of the “sex
work” model in order to expose its fundamentally contractarian liberal conception of the self and embodiment. Secondly,
feminism should lay bare the ontological and political assumptions of contractarian liberalism that make the selling of sex legitimate
and intelligible. Finally, and most importantly, radical feminism must be expanded to theorize freedom
in terms of women’s collective political agency (power to): this task requires an understanding
that freedom is not negotiating within a situation taken as inevitable, but rather, a
capacity to radically transform and/or determine the situation itself.