Media coverage
A judge has ruled that a Soho brothel shut down by police earlier this month can reopen for business.Metropolitan police officers used antisocial behaviour legislation that came into effect at the end of last year to issue a closure notice on two flats in Dean Street, Soho, where sex is sold. But yesterday Mr Justice […]
Keith Dovkants The working girls of Soho were in jubilant mood today after scoring a famous victory over the forces of law and order. Indeed, today may count as a significant date in the 350-year-long history of Soho as a haven for the world’s oldest profession. After all, how often has a judge ordered the police […]
Paying for sex with prostitutes who are controlled by pimps will be made a criminal offence in England and Wales, the government has said.Two women with experience of the sex industry gave the BBC News website their contrasting perspectives on the planned changes to the law.SUE, 48“I support the government on this one. Something needs […]
By Dominic Casciani BBC News home affairs reporterWhat is the current law on prostitution?The laws around prostitution in England and Wales are far from straight-forward. The act of prostitution is not in itself illegal – but a string of laws criminalises activities around it. Under the Sexual Offences Act 2003, it is an offence to […]
Letters The Guardian, Monday November 17 2008Feminist contempt for prostitutesWhat is most striking about feminist reporters who single out prostitution as worse than any other industry is their contempt for prostitute women. Zoe Williams describes sex workers as either “better at sex than they are at anything else” or “so disadvantaged that they may as well have […]
The Suffolk Murders of 2006 have yet again highlighted the problem of how to deal with ‘the oldest profession’. The government’s Criminal Justice & Immigration Bill is again reviewing the law on prostitution, but some say it doesn’t go far enough.The Criminal Justice & Immigration Bill is passing through the Houses of Parliament and it […]
Sent to the Guardian letters, 16 May 08Dear Madam/SirFrances Crook’s comment that Pauline Campbell, who died tragically on 15 May, had been the “single most effective and inspiring campaigner” against women’s imprisonment, is closest to the truth (“Prison campaigner, 60, found dead by daughter’s graveside”, Guardian, 16 May).Like the mothers of the disappeared in Latin America […]
Government feminists and Christian fundamentalists have joined forces claiming that prostitution is violence. They rightly say that attacks against prostitute women are common and that it’s only when five are murdered in one place that it starts to provoke debate.They want to criminalise men who buy sex, as Sweden has done. But prosecuting clients is […]
If we are to protect sex workers, basic human rights must be allowed to triumph over the state’s moral squeamishness. You don’t have to take a Hobbesian view of the world to conclude that one of the first duties of a state to its citizens is to keep them safe. Not just some, but […]
Joan Smith acknowledges that “women are driven into prostitution by poverty”, but doesn’t address benefit cuts, low wages, debt, lack of affordable housing, and addiction to expensive drugs. Instead, she targets clients (“Prostitutes are victims not criminals”, 13 April). She claims that police can’t deal with sex workers being beaten or raped because they are […]