Madam, – John Power (May 19th) seems to argue that women have the choice to become “wiling and equal” in a business based on exploitation, violence and abuse, and calls for prostitution to be legalised. He is mistaken to believe that women would ever willingly choose a life of prostitution, for any reason other than out of dire necessity.
As has been the case in Germany, the Netherlands and Australia, the legalisation and regulation of prostitution has served only to exacerbate its harms instead of alleviating them, while strengthening the power and profits of criminal enterprises; the resulting increase in the numbers of male buyers that results in legalisation serves only to increase the demand for prostitution, which is met by trafficking of women into both legal and illegal “sex work”.
It is a mistake to believe that women and men are equal in the power relations that govern prostitution, and the law should recognise this fact.
Since 1999, the Swedish government decriminalised prostitutes (as victims of abuse), and legislated in penalising pimps and the buyers of sex – resulting in prostitution being successfully curbed and human trafficking effectively eliminated. Now, Norway and Iceland have also adopted the so-called “Swedish Model”; our Government should follow their example and legislate accordingly.
– Yours, etc,