New Federal Legislation against Prostitution
Legislative Background
In 2005 the End Demand for Trafficking Bill entered into the US House of Representatives. It proposed many measures that would have been harmful to sex workers in the US, provided support for 'end demand' style programming such as Johns Schools and earmarked funds for anti-prostitution NGOs as "qualified organizations." Detailed analysis of the original bill can be found at the Bayswan website. The bill was not advancing in the House so this week in a political deal between conservatives, elements of the Bill were included in HR 972 the Re-authorization Act for fiscal years 2006 and 2007 of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA). This bill passed the House unanimously on December 14, 2005 and passed by unanimous consensus in the Senate soon after.
Policy Implications
The new legislation is worrisome because Federal restrictions on prostitution will now be imposed on States across the US intensifying policing of sex workers and low income people presumed to be sex workers. The measures included in this bill mandate new actions to "end demand for commercial sex acts" such as increased law enforcement within the United States, research, NGO service provision, conferences and police training in "the enforcement of laws prohibiting sex trafficking and commercial sex acts." The amendments in the HR 972 while troubling, are not as bad as those originally proposed in the End Demand Bill and for this we thank the advocates who provided influential analysis of the bill earlier this year.
How this legislation undermines best practice
Proponets of "end demand" style programming such as "John's Schools" or increased arrest of clients of prostitution, claim that the measures only punish the men who purchase sex and protect women who sell sex. However, programs working with sex workers across the United States have found that intensive "end demand" programs increase law enforcement activities against all people in public space. Women who are sex workers continue to be arrested but for non-prostitution specific misdemeanors such as "loitering" or "trespassing." This allows the police to claim that less women are working as sex workers due to their actions to end demand and that women are being assisted rather than arrested. "End demand" programs misinform concerned members of the community, many of whom are progressive rather than conservative, because they are pitched as "helping the most marginalized women." These progressives are not aware of the large increases in public monies made for policing under end demand initiatives. HR 972 is instructive because it authorizes an additional $25 million for law enforcement and only $10 million for programs that could perhaps help sex workers.
Johns Schools, programs that allow first time offenders caught for purchasing sex to attend a training rather than going to court, undermine health promotion strategies and fuel discrimination against sex workers. Information about STIs and HIV purveyed in the training portions of these programs often overstate risk and rely on scare tactics (ie "if you have sex with a prostitute you will get an incurable sexual disease"). These tactics negate careful community based work that promotes safe sex, risk reduction and condom use. Researchers observing Johns Schools in action found that presenters cautioned participants that “drug addicted prostitutes… have stabbed their clients with AIDS infected needles” as a way of “scaring men straight.” In this study the researchers found that program participants were less sympathetic towards women who are sex workers after they had completed the program. These stigmatizing attitudes can fuel violence towards sex workers.
"End Demand" programs that target clients of sex workers usually lead to the arrest of reliable, safe "regular clients" rather than the men who are truly violent towards male, female and transgendered sex workers. This means that sex workers' income is reduced and some may therefore take greater risks by going with clients who they do not know or who they may have rejected before as possibly dangerous. A far better use of law enforcement would be to protect sex workers, especially transgendered sex workers, from violent crime and to solve the many outstanding murder cases in order to get those perpetors off the streets. Eight transwomen of color have been murdered in the District of Columbia in the last three years and only 2 of these violent crimes have been solved.
A coalition of advocates and sex worker rights organization have prepared a fact sheet about how "end demand" style programming harms women who are sex workers. You can access the fact sheet in html and for download here.
