Prostitution

1
Prostitution
Is it sexy?
2
Prostitution
Is prostitution sexy? It might be. Or maybe
not. This is not a sociological question. You
decide. Certainly, it can seem sexy when it is
portrayed with flashy images. And prostitutes
make it seem sexy that is their job. The images
shown on the following pages, ones filmed in
Amsterdams renowned Red Light District, make
prostitution look sexy. The facts about
prostitution presented on the pages after the
images show prostitution in a different light.
3
Prostitution Images
4
Amsterdams Red Light District
5
Amsterdams Red Light District
6
Amsterdams Red Light District
7
Amsterdams Red Light District
8
Amsterdams Red Light District
9
Amsterdams Red Light District
10
Prostitution Facts
11
Prostitution Facts

• The average age of entry into prostitution is
  between 13-14 years.
• Most of these 13-14 year old girls are recruited
  or coerced into prostitution.
• The age of entry into prostitution is decreasing.
• Incest is boot camp for prostitution.
• Estimates of the prevalence of incest in the
  personal histories of prostitutes range from 65
  to 90.
• 85 of prostitutes report a history of sexual
  abuse in childhood.
• 70 report being victims of incest.

12
Prostitution Facts

• Pimps target girls that are vulnerable, naïve,
  lonely, homeless, rebellious.
• Once recruited, or purchased, prostitutes are
  kept in bondage to the pimp by verbal and
  physical abuse.
• 85 of prostitutes report being raped by their
  pimps.
• Why do prostitutes stay with pimps?
• Humans bond emotionally with their keepers in
  captivity.
• Pimps isolate prostitutes to make them totally
  dependent upon them.
• Pimps use force to hold prostitutes captive.

13
Prostitution Policy
If prostitution is sexy, then should it be
either decriminalized or legalized?
Legalized Government control of
prostitution. Decriminalized No laws against
prostitution.
14
Prostitution Policy

• If we view prostitution as violence against
  women, then it makes no sense to legalize or
  decriminalize it.
• Decriminalizing or legalizing prostitution would
  legitimate practices that are human rights
  violations, and in any other context would be
  illegal.
• In 1999, the Swedish Parliament put into effect a
  law that criminalizes the buying of sexual
  services, but not the selling of sexual services.
• Social reformists consider the Swedish law as a
  humane alternative because it places the criminal
  burden on the perpetrator rather than the
  victim.

15
A Modern Slave Trade

• Sources
• National Catholic Reporter Online
• http//www.soc.iastate.edu/sapp/SlaveTrade1.pdf
• John R. Miller, A Modern Slave Trade
• http//www.soc.iastate.edu/sapp/SlaveTrade2.pdf

16
A Modern Slave Trade

• Prostitution not only is inherently harmful and
  dehumanizing to women and children it also fuels
  the growth of trafficking in persons, or
  modern-day slavery.
• Women and girls, worldwide, are lured to foreign
  nations with promises of jobs. Then, they are
  forced into prostitution.
• With globalization and cheap transportation, you
  can move people easier and quicker than guns or
  drugs. And you can use them over and over and
  over again. You dont just sell them once and
  call it a day. Its very, very profitable.
• Joy Zarembka of the Campaign for Migrant
  Domestic Workers Rights

17
A Modern Slave Trade

• Owning a slave has never been cheaper than it is
  today. A healthy young African male can be bought
  on the Ivory Coast for 35. In London, two
  13-year-old West African girls, bought for 1,200
  each, were soon put to work as child prostitutes
  making 400 an hour each for their owner.
• The CIA estimates that young women and girls are
  being smuggled into the United States at the rate
  of 50,000 a year.
• An estimated 10,000 Asian women and girls work in
  underground brothels in the United States.

18
A Modern Slave Trade

• In what amounts to a global epidemic of slavery,
  the United Nations estimates some 27 million
  slaves are being held worldwide.
• The United States and Western Europe are prime
  destinations. In the U.S., slaves work in
  factories, fields, homes, and in every facet of
  the sex industry.
• For smuggling people, organized crime gangs use
  the same routes and methods perfected in the drug
  trade and, to a lesser extent, the arms trade.
• Many of the slaves are burdened with enormous
  contracts of 40,000 to 50,000, which the
  smugglers use as an excuse for withholding wages.

19
A Modern Slave Trade

• Slaves flown into the United States may arrive
  well-dressed, masquerading as tourists or
  students. But they are stripped of everything the
  moment they are out of the airport and into the
  waiting van.
• Gone are the clothes, the promises, the
  passports. Awaiting them are threats, rapes,
  brutality, isolation, and terror.
• Their passports are confiscated as soon as they
  arrive. There are threats of being deported or
  sent to the police, and lots of psychological
  coercion. Theyre told if they go outside theyll
  be harmed, raped, because Americans are
  dangerous, evil, crazy. Look at television,
  theyre told.

20
A Modern Slave Trade

• To counter the growing trend, the U.S. Congress
  passed its tough Trafficking Victims Protection
  Act in 2000 with bipartisan support.
• In 2001, U.S.-based advocacy groups formed the
  first national anti-slavery coalition, the
  Freedom Network.
• Underscoring the global dimension of the
  anti-slavery movement, the 180-year-old
  Anti-Slavery International, founded in London,
  has opened its first U.S. office.

21
Prostitution
Is it sexy?