Decriminalisation vs. legalisation

Decriminalisation is different from legalisation. Decriminalisation (New Zealand) involves the removal of all prostitution-specific laws; sex workers and sex work businesses operate within the laws of the land as other businesses. Under legalisation (Germany, Netherlands, etc.) the sex industry is controlled by the government and sex work is legal only under certain state-specified conditions, creating a two-tier system where the most vulnerable sex workers remain illegal and outside of the protection of the law.

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Statement: We don’t want legalised brothels

Denis Hof, Nevada Bunny Ranch owner, proposes a temporary licence to run a brothel during the Olympics. Niki Adams, English Collective of Prostitutes, comments: “Sex workers don’t need or want licensed or legalised brothels so that bosses have more opportunities to exploit us. We want decriminalisation, like in New Zealand, so we can work together […]

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Daily Express: Should prostitution be legalised?

THERE are few clues as to what happens inside Stil­etto, billed euphemistically as “the world’s finest short-stay boutique hotel”. It looks like any upmarket retreat but is the latest, most ­stylish flagship for the legalised sex industry in Sydney, Australia. Inside this high-class brothel, which cost more than £7million to create, there are Dali-inspired red […]

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Statement: Decriminalisation of prostitution v legalisation

Since it was founded in 1975, the English Collective of Prostitutes has been campaigning for the abolition of the prostitution laws which criminalize sex workers and our families, and for economic alternatives and higher benefits and wages — no woman, child or man should be forced by poverty or violence into sex with anyone.  Summary: Decriminalisation […]

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Reuters: British prostitutes want their work decriminalised

British sex workers, facing the biggest shake-up of their profession for nearly 50 years, urged the government on Friday to decriminalise prostitution. Citing the example of New Zealand , which decriminalised the world’s oldest profession last year, they said the move would destigmatise sex work and make prostitutes safer by allowing them to work at home rather […]

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Statement: Legalised brothels exploit prostitutes

The calls for legalised brothels reflect increasing public concern with prostitute women’s safety and civil rights. It may also reflect the Government’s drive to cut the unemployment figures. Legalised brothels usually go hand-in-hand with police crackdowns against street workers – the most vulnerable women whose protection the police have rarely prioritised. As with other workers, […]

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Evening Standard: Should London have a red light zone like other cities?

In the past few years toleration zones have been put forward as a form of legalisation which can be introduced without changing the law. Although such a proposal may be a reflection of growing public concern for prostitute women’s legal and civil rights, toleration zones would do little to protect these rights. Where toleration zones […]

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