scholarly journals Out of Sight, Out of Mind: New Zealand’s Latest Attempt at Prostitution Reform

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Emma Talbot

<p>The Prostitution Reform Act 2003 decriminalised all aspects of commercial sex work. It was believed this would reduce the presence of prostitutes on the streets and the associated harms, in particular neighbourhood nuisance, increased violence and greater presence of underage persons engaging in prostitution. However, street-based prostitution and harm reduction has not occurred. This has prompted attempts to confine the parameters of the decriminalised prostitution regime: The Manukau City Council (Control of Street Prostitution) Bill, which was ultimately unsuccessful and led to The Manukau City Council (Regulation of Prostitution in Specified Places) Bill, and the recent Prostitution Reform (Control of Street-based Prostitutes and Their Clients) Amendment Bill. This paper considers how these attempts have proposed to achieve amelioration of the harms around street-based prostitution. This paper argues legislation will only further frustrate the issues because criminalisation, both in the manner proposed by these attempts, and more generally, is inappropriate for addressing issues of street-based prostitution. This paper recommends targeted social initiatives should be implemented as the best model for addressing the harms of street-based prostitution.</p>

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Emma Talbot

<p>The Prostitution Reform Act 2003 decriminalised all aspects of commercial sex work. It was believed this would reduce the presence of prostitutes on the streets and the associated harms, in particular neighbourhood nuisance, increased violence and greater presence of underage persons engaging in prostitution. However, street-based prostitution and harm reduction has not occurred. This has prompted attempts to confine the parameters of the decriminalised prostitution regime: The Manukau City Council (Control of Street Prostitution) Bill, which was ultimately unsuccessful and led to The Manukau City Council (Regulation of Prostitution in Specified Places) Bill, and the recent Prostitution Reform (Control of Street-based Prostitutes and Their Clients) Amendment Bill. This paper considers how these attempts have proposed to achieve amelioration of the harms around street-based prostitution. This paper argues legislation will only further frustrate the issues because criminalisation, both in the manner proposed by these attempts, and more generally, is inappropriate for addressing issues of street-based prostitution. This paper recommends targeted social initiatives should be implemented as the best model for addressing the harms of street-based prostitution.</p>


2020 ◽  
pp. 192-209
Author(s):  
Katie Cruz

This chapter analyses the legal treatment of sex work, and specifically prostitution, from the perspective of Marxist feminism. Here, the work of sex work must be understood in its wider structural context of gendered and racialized capitalism. The chapter argues that sex work should be understood as work. Furthermore, the features of ‘unfreedom’ associated with sex work do not vitiate its identity as a form of work, and therefore as an activity that warrants the application of protective norms of labour law. This marks an important distinction from the previous chapter’s taxonomy of commercial sex work. In fact, this chapter argues that all work under capitalism is structurally coupled with exploitation and alienation (unfreedom) that ebbs and flows according to the balance of class forces. Given this structural coupling, it is problematic to use the exploitation and alienation in sex work as a basis for excluding it from the domain of personal work relations and for barring sex workers from worker protective laws.


Author(s):  
Vipin Vijay Nair ◽  
Sandra Anil Varkey

Trafficking of persons, primarily women and children, is one of the growing social dilemmas concerning global society today. Not only is human trafficking a highly sensitive and polarizing subject, but it is also considered a common norm in many countries. Many women recruited into commercial sex work are coerced into the profession exploiting their financial and economic condition but continue to work in the profession to survive through easy money. The chapter focuses on a theoretical framework for understanding the victimization of female sex workers. It also reflects various lacuna in the present criminal justice system and law enforcement mechanism in criminalizing victims within the sex work industry. The chapter narrates the voices of commercial sex workers in India over the prejudices and criminalization by various laws and regulations towards their consensual sex work. The chapter recommends sensitization training and awareness amongst various stakeholders of the criminal justice system.


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