Monday, December 18, 2006

Prostitution and the law

Harriet Harman's proposal to make it an offence to use a prostitute's services won't make the problem go away - just force if further into the dingy backstreets of our towns and cities - not to mention cyberspace.

Comments by the English Collective of Prostitutes in the wake of the Ipswich murders have highlighted the effect of police "crackdowns" and the danger they represent to those working on the streets.

A response has to be properly thought through, but we've got to realise, whether we opt for toleration zones, as even David Blunkett seems to have accepted during his time as Home Secretary, or legalised brothels; prostitutes have to be protected: we might not like what they do, or accept their reasons for doing it, but prostitutes deserve protection not persecution and it's about time we accepted the simple reality that not even the threat of prosecution will stop men paying for sex, and that criminalisation won't work.

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