Prostitution in SNP Scotland
2008 08 23
In recent days articles which we have published in the Scottish Borders News section have prompted an amazing feedback. Galashiels -- if the decibels are correct -- has a flourishing sex industry. Galashiels does not sport a red light district nor a plethora of massage parlours -- but it does appear to have a sophisticated network of sex for hire via escorts which apparently are available from your friendly taxi man -- or are to be sourced via the Internet or mobile phone.
Galashiels, due to recent feedback and articles running in the national press, can now be viewed as the place to be should you require these services. The reasons on why there appears to be a network of local men joining forces to fund and develop this blossoming industry, and on why (in comparison to the population of this Borders town) there seems to be so many men in need of sex exchanged for money, have not been fully assessed nor explained. As the buyers of the service may be more than willing to both use and actively enable these business, yet less willing to openly discuss their actions. Little wonder as to why, given the interest shown.
Galashiels also seems to have the notable resource of ladies who find the sex trade not only financially rewarding but enjoyable. Some of these ladies appear to spend all of their benefit money to advertise their delights -- obviously a philanthropic service in the public interest.
A cynic, however, may suggest that when sex derived earnings of a £1,000 a week are probable -- then the £100 advertising investment is sound. But not all of these women are driven to the sex industry due to impecuniousness -- more and more female participants do it because they enjoy it -- it provides excitement and power -- such obviously not being found in their main stream occupations within the police, banking and social work services.
Challenging Men's Demand for Prostitution in Scotland
Sex industry in Scotland: Two ways to end prostitution
MARGO MACDONALD argues tackling poverty is the best way to end the prostitution.
New poster to tackle prostitution
Men's demand for prostitution (pdf)
Prostitution - A contribution to the debate (pdf)
See also
Challenging Men's Demand for Prostitution in
Scotland:
Report Based on Interviews with 110 Men
By Jan Macleod, Melissa Farley, Lynn Anderson, and Jacqueline Golding 2008
Report Based on Interviews with 110 Men
By Jan Macleod, Melissa Farley, Lynn Anderson, and Jacqueline Golding 2008
Researchers conducted in-depth interviews with 110 Scottish punters.
A few findings from the study:
80% bought sex indoors,
56% outdoors.
56% of the 110 men had bought sex outside of the UK, having traveled to 40 different countries on 6 continents.
56% outdoors.
56% of the 110 men had bought sex outside of the UK, having traveled to 40 different countries on 6 continents.
One-fourth to one-third of the men we interviewed endorsed rape-tolerant attitudes.
We asked interviewees about the extent to which their identity as men was based on valuing psychological and sexual dominance and about their suspiciousness and resentment toward women.
Taken together, these constructs constitute what might be called hostile masculinity. We also asked respondents 46 questions about acceptance of and justification for prostitution. We found that the men who were most accepting of prostitution were those who most strongly identified with hostile masculinity.
We assessed sexually coercive behaviors with nonprostituting women such as verbally or physically threatening a partner or using physical force in order to obtain sexual intercourse. 54% of the men who frequently used women in prostitution had committed sexually aggressive acts against non-prostitute partners compared to 30% of the less frequent users.
The more frequently a punter used women in prostitution, the more likely he was to have committed sexually coercive acts against non-prostituting women. We asked what would deter these men from buying sex.
Educational programs were the least effective deterrent according to these punters. Most effective deterrence methods included being labeled a sex offender and other public exposure, jail time, and high fines.
JAN MCLEOD of the Women's
Support Project puts her case to target the
punters to end prostitution.
PROSTITUTION is referred to as the oldest profession and is said to be inevitable because it's always been here. That's what people said about slavery. Surely we want a Scotland where people have the right to live in safety and respect - how can we achieve that if we are prepared to tolerate women being used and abused in prostitution? Most women enter prostitution because of lack of choice. It is the men buying sex who are exercising free choice. A Glasgow study showed that 24.5 per cent of the women surveyed had entered prostitution before the age of 18, with 8.2 per cent starting at 16 or under. The majority of women in prostitution are poor, homeless and have suffered violence and abuse.
Although they are agreeing to sexual activity in order to survive, this is unwanted sexual activity. In order to be able to do it, the women need to learn to dissociate. Dissociation can cause psychological harm. Women who are not able to "split off" will use drugs and/or alcohol to achieve the same effect.
Prostituted women are more likely to be murdered than non-prostituted women and their life expectancy is shortened. Is this areasonable price to pay so men can have sex whenever and however they wish?
A common response to this is: "Oh, but if we didn't have prostitutes there would be more rape." There is no evidence for this. Nevada has legalised brothels and the rape rate there is significantly higher than in neighbouring states where prostitution is illegal. Does anyone believe men are incapable of control and will inevitably rape if they are denied sex?
The Swedish legal framework challenges the demand to buy sex by criminalising the buyers. Two years after the law came in, a government taskforce reported a 50 per cent decrease in the number of prostitutes and a 75 per cent decrease in the number of men who bought sex. In the past few years, an estimated 200 to 400 women and girls have been annually trafficked into Sweden for prostitution, while in neighbouring Finland the number is 15,000 to 17,000. There has been much debate about whether the Swedish approach has driven prostitution underground. This is rubbish. The punters need to be able to find the women. And if they can, the police can certainly find both punters and women.
The simple fact is that if Scottish men had no interest in buying sex, we wouldn't have prostitution, or trafficking. The long-term solution is education. In the meantime, the best thing we can do is make it an offence to buy another human being to use for sex.
IN Pretty Woman, Julia Roberts - playing a fresh-faced prostitute with a sense of social responsibility - is shocked when a hooker's body is found in a skip. Her flatmate reminds her the dead girl had been a "crackhead". Her murder was the result of either being under the influence of drugs and unable to protect herself or being so desperate for a hit that she took extreme risks. Julia and her pal saw more danger in drugs than paid-for, consenting sex between adults.
Pretty Woman romanticised prostitution but has some truth in it. For example, most working girls sell sex because they're poor, have no job skills and are drugdependent. Also, it's impossible to define "purchased" sex. To get her off the game, the hero, Richard Gere, makes Julia an offer most girls would find very difficult to refuse. He offers a flat, credit cards, a car and all the goodies Rodeo Drive has to offer in exchange for her exclusive services. She tells him the job change would be "only geographical".
I raised this with the Scottish parliament committee who wanted to eliminate prostitution by making kerb-crawling illegal. Some MSPs looked as though they would have cheerfully dumped me in a rubbish skip, when it dawned on them that sexual favours and services are bartered as well as sold. The kerb-crawling law is aimed at stopping prostitution. It ignores new ways of selling sex - mobile phones and the internet. But the zero-tolerance lobby ignore the reasons why prostitution is still part of real life - and will be until poverty and inequality have been wiped out.
Policy should concentrate on prevention and management. That shouldn't start with prostitution but with anti-poverty and anti-drug policies. The new Swedish policy of criminalising men who buy sex sounds simple but it shouldn't be copied. In the first year, women were off the streets, out of sight, suffering more attacks and out of touch with police and support organisations alike. When Edinburgh's zone ended, the same happened, as Aberdeen's prostitutes will discover when the kerb-crawling law forces police and council to dump their sensible, supportive prostitution management zone.
The
peak age for men buying sex is 34, research has shown A
poster to get men to think twice about paying for sex with women who
may have been trafficked has been launched. The government pilot in
Nottingham and the borough of Westminster tells men sleeping with a
woman forced to work in the sex industry makes them a rapist. A review in January set out to examine how to reduce demand for prostitution. Home Office Minister Vernon Coaker described trafficking as "a vile and evil trade" and said sex buyers must be made to think about their actions. The poster, which will be placed in gents' toilets in pubs and clubs, will be supported by an online advertising campaign. It shows a brothel entrance with the caption: "Walk in a punter. Walk out a rapist." It also urges men who discover a woman they believe may have been trafficked: "If you're man enough, call Crimestoppers."
Mr Coaker added: "These women are being treated as commodities and are sold, controlled and exploited by others for a profit. This is totally unacceptable. "The advertising campaign we are launching today should help draw attention to the plight these women face and make men think again about what they are doing."
The peak age for men buying sex is 34, about half of whom are in a relationship, a 2007 report showed.
For further reference:
Men's demand for prostitution (497KB pdf)
Prostitution - A contribution to the debate (144KB pdf)
See also
Escort work, prostitution and the law
Selling sex
Prostitution attraction
Biting Back with Mrs Boris
Girl cop worked as a tart
Readers
please email comments to: editorial AT
martinfrost.ws including full name