Vancouver's new sex-trade strategy praised by advocacy group

[romp]

A new municipal strategy on the sex trade put forth yesterday by the City of Vancouver has won the tentative support of a prominent sex worker advocacy group.

"We feel pretty positive about it," says Kerry Porth, executive director of PACE Society, a group working on behalf of street-level sex workers in Vancouver. "Sex work issues in this city

Comments

[homasse]

"We're not entirely happy with the suggestion that the City increase enforcement on clients of the sex-trade," says Porth. "More enforcement on clients means they're more likely to want to meet in clandestine locations; that places sex workers more at-risk."

I recall reading in a post here a while back that decriminalizing prostitution but criminalizing soliciting for a prostitute caused sex trafficking to drop, whereas decriminalizing everything actually caused trafficking to increase.

[castalianspring]

I remember that one, too, but can't find it. It was comparing the strategies in Las Vegas with those in a Scandinavian country, IIRC.

[romp]

It linked an increase in sex trafficking, women being brought in to a city that decriminalizes prostitution rather than just the purchase.

That makes sense but it's not the end of the argument for me. Organized crime is a part of prostitution anyway--isn't this just changing the victim from local women to women brought in? So go after organized crime harder.

[romp]

I hear you but I don't know what kind of organized crime group functions solely or even mainly on prostitution. The argument seems to be that they'll find ever more vulnerable and isolated women but they do that now.

[romp]

I'm not sure I understand. Nightclubs and massage parlours aren't importing people themselves.

By organized crime, I don't mean drug cartels. I mean groups that make most of their money from drugs and extortion but are into dozens of other businesses.

[romp]

I was thinking of Hell's Angels, for example, which is a large organized crime group in Canada (confused me when I got here because I associated it with old guys making meth). Sadly, law enforcement calls these OMGs--Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs--and I just can't.

[luminescnece]

I don't quite understand why an increase in trafficking is a bad thing as long as it is done by willing individuals. (I don't know, there might be vocabulary nuances I don't get attached to the word 'trafficking').

There's a lot more to look at in an increase in sex trade after decriminalization than just the laws that go into it. What kind of other jobs are there out there, is there a large population of people who don't feel they can get to/through post secondary. Does a post secondary education actually help in the area that they're in? Stuff like this.

[luminescnece]

Thanks for clarifying for me.

[romp]

Here's a report that says decriminalization leads to more human trafficking. Meaning women (mainly) brought in to keep things more underground.

It smells like this stance comes from a place of straight-up prohibition of sex work to me. You can find horrible stories with sex work banned, legalized, legal only for the seller, and legal only for the buyer.

It makes sense that organized crime isn't going to give up a source of revenue easily. But if there are more options for women, I can't see that as a bad thing.

[luminescnece]

Yeah.... Bleh. It seems as long as there's significant stigma on something, organized crime will have always have a foot hold.

[romp]

Especially in BC. I'd like to have organized crime's use of intimidation and exploitation dealt with before worrying about what might happen if sex work was decriminalized. We have plenty of marginalized and impoverished women right here.

[luminescnece]

Totally agreed.