Sex work isn't a victimless crime

“I am researching whether brothels should be legalised within the UK and how this would affect the hotel industry.
Please can you take 5minutes to complete my survey.
Serious participants and over 18 only!
This is for genuine research and does not require email or personal details.

http://tinyurl.com/amhxeyb

Thank you”

“What I can't understand here in your argument, Gill, is how an adult, consenting sex worker who provides sexual services for another consenting adult somehow results in children being raped.

There is no logical connection between the two.

You might as well say "marriage is not a victimless crime". After all, most women are beaten, killed and sexually assaulted by their domestic partners. Is this not true? In fact, in the country I live in 40% of women have suffered violence at the hands of their domestic partners. Using the the same sort of logic you employ re: prostitution, we must conclude that marriage is not a victimless crime and should thus be strictly prohibited.

Instead, thankfully, we look at what are the factors in marriage that create these problems. We seek to give the disadvantaged partners voice, skills, power and a means to redress their situation. We seek to create laws that promote better and more just forms of marriage.

We don't seek to jail all husbands and force all wives to go to rehab houses to learn how to "have better lives", do we? And we certainly don't deprive wives of the right to speak or to participate in the construction of laws regarding their interests.

And yet when it somehow comes to prostitution, the tables turn. The women involved (because no men are ever prostitutes) are all helpless, voiceless victims who need people like you to speak for them. They need to be forced by police to get off the streets and seek help. they have nothing of relevance to say, unless it echoes your opinion.

Fianlly, I think it's absolutely stunning how someone like yourself, who probably conceives of herself as a feminist, constantly equates the sexual and human rights and responsabilities of women with those of children, as if the two groups were essentially identical. You are basically saying here that a 30 year old escort, working independently out of her home, is the same thing - morally, intellectually, politically, economically and in every conceivable way - as a 10 year old rape and kidnap victim.

This reduction of women's rights to those of minor children is not merely rehtorical, mind you: you want it to be enforced by law.

Have you no shame at all, Ms. Brown?”

“I am sorry but the fundamental thing you are missing is legalising brothels would mean that the women working there are looked after and would have to be of legal age! It seems to work well in Amsterdam!”