Prostitution in the US and Europe - Essay Example

Introduction Prostitution is carried out when sexual acts or favors happen in exchange for payment, and has been a part of societal issues as far back as the Ancient Greece and continues to proliferate today (John Howard Society of Alberta, 2001). According to Farley (2002), the United Nations (UN) estimates that there are about 2.5 million people being trafficked around the world for prostitution; 80% of them are women and children; and that conservative estimates say that the whole sex industry has an annual income of $32 billion, but which is actually very conservative if Las Vegas’ estimated income of $5 billion from prostitution is considered. According to the ProCon.org data (2009), across one hundred countries in the world, about fifty percent (50%) consider prostitution as legal, about forty percent (40%) consider it illegal, and about ten percent (10%) have limited legality for it. This paper tackles prostitution as handled in the advanced societies of the United States of America (USA) and in Europe, particularly in the cities of Amsterdam and Paris. Prostitution in the US and Europe I- Prostitution in the US Before the period 1910, prostitution was widely legal in the US, and became illegal in almost all states only between 1910 and 1915 primarily due to the influence of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, a group that was influential in the banning of drug use and in the prohibition of alcohol (Michael, Gagnon, Laumann, and Kolata, 1994). In the year 1917, the Federal government was pressured by local objections to close down the legally defined prostitution district called Storyville in New Orleans, but it remained legal in Alaska until 1953, and has remained legally regulated in eleven out of seventeen counties of Nevada (ProCon.org, 2009). Beginning in the late 1980s, majority of the US states passed laws to increase the penalties for prostitution in cases where the prostitute engages in the trade with full knowledge of her HIV-positive condition (Weitzer, 2005). These felony prostitution laws require that anyone arrested for prostitution be automatically subjected to HIV test. Should the test turn out positive, the arrested prostitute is then charged with felony instead of a lighter misdemeanor case. Deemed a serious crime, felony prostitution is penalized seriously, with maximum sentences of typically ten to fifteen years in prison, depending on the state laws. There are about seven provisions in the US Federal Laws which detail the prohibition of prostitution, as well as pimping and the trafficking of people illegally for prostitution. Each state except Nevada also have state laws detailing the illegality and the corresponding penalties for pimping, prostitution and even living on the proceeds of prostitution, with maximum penalties of up to ten years with corresponding fines (McWilliams,1996). Further, the US has also intensified its campaign against global human trafficking which is directly and indirectly related to prostitution, especially amidst the recession. In a CNN report, Labbott (2009) reports on the 2008 US Justice Department’s report on the government’s efforts to combat human trafficking, which resulted to 139 arrests, 94 convictions and 132 investigations by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Recently, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton leads the call for a renewed worldwide partnership between countries and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to combat trafficking which, according to Clinton, thrives in the shadows and may seem a distant reality which is not, as it is a crime against every nation including the US. Considering prostitution and trafficking as a serious problem of the government, the US is making robust efforts to combat trafficking and prostitution through a more intensified advocacy campaigns with the rest of the world (Labbott, 2009). II - Prostitution in Europe On the other hand, prostitution in most of European countries is legal, which has increasingly encouraged trafficking of women for prostitution, especially from developing nations (ProCon.org, 2009). There are approximately 500,000 women who are annually trafficked into Western Europe. The same trend goes on in most of the European Union member states, where prostitution has become increasingly dominated by foreign women (Ibid.). In the Netherlands, for instance, prostitution, provided done voluntarily, has always been legal. However, brothels were deemed illegal until such time that articles 250bis and 432, which banned brothels and pimping, were removed from the Criminal Code on October 1, 2000 (The Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 2005). The Netherlands is one of the first countries to recognize voluntary adult prostitution as a normal occupation is very legal to run a brothel or a business where men and women of legal age are voluntarily employed as prostitutes or sex workers, but the business owners are required to satisfy certain conditions to obtain license from the authorities. In 1985, Amsterdam hosted the first congress of the International Committee for Prostitute’s Rights. Similarly, in France, prostitution is not prohibited unless it is forced; it causes public disturbance or public disorder; it benefits from any kind of advertising, promotion or support; and it involves minors or vulnerable persons such as pregnant women and persons with handicaps (ProCon.org, 2009). However, unlike in the Netherlands, France prohibits the operation of brothels, thus prostitution is carried out mostly on the streets, as well as in less visible forms like through discreet newspaper ads, telephone, internet, pubs, night clubs, luxury hotels and even homes (Ibid.). Although prostitutes and others involved in the trade do not benefit from any specific legal classification, they are not excluded from statutory benefits as long as they meet the necessary prerequisites (Ibid.). France’s ratification of the UN Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and the Exploitation of the Prostitution in 1949 led the country to pass national Ordinances 60-1245 and 60-1246 to ensure that French law complies with the said Convention. Consequently, all measures to control prostitution, both police and sanitary controls, were abolished. And, with the passage of said laws, persons involved in prostitution have been regarded as victims who need assistance, which paved the way to legislations that include the implementation of a program to provide assistance for prostitutes, which has been inconsistently applied across the country (ProCon.org). Conclusion Prostitution has always been a concern of societies since time immemorial, as it is a complicated concern of humankind which always challenges and poses profound questions on morality as well as on various legal aspects that seem to open doors to never-ending debates. Several groups advocate for the legalization of prostitution, like what majority of European countries have done, as the best way to solve prostitution-related concerns like violence and abuse, among others, while other groups push for the illegalization of prostitution, like what the US does. It is still hard to conclude, however, whether it is the US or Europe that is handling the issue the best way as they are still learning and continue to cope with the changing times. References Farley, M. 2002. Human Trafficking and Prostitution. Psychologists for Social Responsibility. Washington, DC 2002. John Howard Society of Alberta. 2001. Prostitution. [Online] John Howard Society of Alberta. Available at: http://www.popcenter.org/problems/street_prostitution/PDFs/johnhow.pdf. [Accessed 6 November 2009]. Labbott, E. 2009. Recession boosts global human trafficking, report says. [Online] CNN.US. Available at: http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/11/02/human.trafficking.report/index.html. [Accessed 06 November 2009]. McWilliams, P. 1996. Ain’t Nobody’s Business If You Do: The Absurdity of Consensual Crimes in Our Free Country. Washington, DC. Michael, R. T., Gagnon, J. H., Laumann, E. O., & Kolata, G. 1994. Sex in America, Boston: Little Brown. Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 2005. Dutch Policy on Prostitution: Q&A 2005. [Online] ProCon.org. available at: http://prostitution.procon.org/sourcefiles/netherlands.pdf. [Accessed 06 November 2009]. ProCon.org. Prostitution. Prostitution.ProCon.org. Retrieved 06 November 2009, from http://prostitution.procon.org/viewresource.asp?resourceID=000772. Weitzer, R. 2005. New Directions in Research on Prostitution. Crime, Law, and Social Change, v.43, no.4-5, 2005. Read More