WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT SEX WORK

Q: What about human trafficking?

A. Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, UNAIDS, the Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health, the World Health Organization, and many other human rights groups support the decriminalization of consensual sex work in order to address human trafficking worldwide. Where sex work has been decriminalized, sex workers and trafficking survivors are afforded human rights. Trafficking, exploitation, and violence against women decrease sharply.

Q. How does this affect my LGBT community?

A. Many LGBT people work in the sex industry. In some cases, due to extreme and persistent discrimination often faced by transgender women, LGBT people turn to the sex industry for survival. These populations also face higher rates of assault and are often prevented from seeking help and reporting for fear of being arrested for prostitution.

Q. How does this relate to the racial justice movement?

A. As you probably know, people of color are targeted by police more often than white people for low-level crimes such as drug possession. The same is true for sex work. Women of color are especially targeted, harassed, and arrested for prostitution crimes at much higher rates than their white co-workers.

Q. What effect would this have on immigrant populations?

A. Even though prostitution is a low-level crime, it has a serious negative effect on immigration applications when people attempt to adjust their immigration status. Decriminalizing prostitution will ensure that otherwise eligible immigrants are not punished for their economic survival skills.

Q. What about spreading STIs? I’m concerned that there will be more STIs.

A. Numerous public health agencies have stated that decriminalizing prostitution is one of the most important policy shifts necessary to prevent HIV and STI infections. When sex work is illegal, police often use condoms in a wallet as evidence of prostitution, preventing some people from wanting to carry them in large numbers, even from the store to home. Also, as stigma is reduced, using and carrying condoms is known to increase.

Q. How does this intersect with disability rights?

A. Individuals with disabilities are often the consumers of professional sexual services. Some people with limited mobility or some mental health challenges depend on sex workers to fulfill their natural human need for sexual relationships. In the Netherlands, a disabled person can access the services of a sex worker once a month at the government’s expense as it is understood as a basic right. Under the current system in the U.S., a person with a disability would be arrested for paying for professional sexual services.

Q. What’s the urgency in changing sex work laws?

A. Although the well-being and human rights of sex workers is urgent, the passage of the federal laws, SESTA/FOSTA, is a threat to everyone’s liberty (including non-sex workers) and has made working conditions even worse for sex workers in this time period.

Q. How will this affect criminal justice resources?

A. In most jurisdictions, tens of thousands of dollars are spent pointlessly arresting and processing nonviolent sex workers. This money could be better spent testing stockpiles of untested rape kits and using those police hours to prevent and solve dangerous crimes such as assault and robbery.

Q. Why don’t sex workers report crimes to the police?

A. Sex workers are not guaranteed immunity from the criminal codes they have broken while working. As such, they put themselves at risk if they seek to report crimes or information they have about crimes. Decriminalization will allow sex workers to collaborate with law enforcement to the benefit of everyone’s safety.

Q. What do police think of this?

A. A lot of police support decriminalization. They see that their hard work is useless and doesn’t help anyone in the endless system of arrests and processing. In addition, they find websites and legal operations very helpful in criminal investigations. They are among the voices that cry out against the closure of sex work advertising sites such as Backpage and Craigslist, both American companies that were helpful to them in critical investigations.

Q. Do you think prostitution should be regulated?

A. No. Consensual sex between adults is not regulated in the United States. You can think of it like the homosexuality laws. When we decriminalized gay sex, we didn’t then regulate it. A person’s income from a small business source is required to be taxed by tax law and, just like people who do services like house cleaning, if you don’t claim and pay taxes on your income, you could get into trouble with the IRS. But just like in other unregulated personal care professions, the minute details of your work are not regulated.

Q. What’s the difference between “sex work” and “prostitution”?

A. Sex work includes the entire field of sexual services, both legal and illegal, including pornography, exotic dancing, fetish work, web-based work, and prostitution. Prostitution is the kind of sex work most often criminalized, and it is the direct, in-person exchange of sex for money.

Q. Will decriminalizing prostitution increase violent crimes against women?

A. There is zero evidence that prostitution causes trafficking, domestic violence, or any other crimes against women.

Q. What about the Equality/Entrapment/Nordic/Swedish/End Demand Model of governing prostitution?

A. The Entrapment Model, also known as the End Demand Model, Nordic Model, or Equality Model, refers to the theory that criminalizing clients and third parties (e.g., managers) will reduce demand in the sex trade, thereby “freeing” sex workers, who are often seen — but rarely treated — as victims. This framework has vocal proponents and bills proposing it have been introduced in a few states, but we must make laws based on evidence and fact instead of ideology. Unambiguous data shows a clear correlation between laws that criminalize clients and an increase in violence, Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs), and exploitation within the sex trade. Decriminalization is the only means of reducing violence, illness, and exploitation. This chart helps to explain the stark comparisons in the evidence on decriminalization and the Equality/Entrapment model.