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Can't you say that buying prostitution is illegal unless you have registered with authorities as a prostitute? That way it is really hard to force people since

Can't you say that buying prostitution is illegal unless you have registered with authorities as a prostitute? That way it is really hard to force people since you'd have to force them through the entire registration process, and police can just do routine checks to see if people are properly registered.

bayesian_horse 5y ago
I doubt that it would be possible to screen trafficked women from registration. Then it would be a lot of work for the police to actually "just do routine checks", just like they don't check most businesses for illegal immigrant workers or whatever. Also, they wouldn't know where to look, because brothels would just open up and nobody would tell them, because the johns wouldn't know how to verify all the documentation. Just as with firearms in the US: the more potentially legal prostitution there is, the harder it is to sniff out the illegal ones, even when hiding in plain sight. In Germany we have exactly that situation. Prostitution is legal, though I am not sure about exactly what registration is required. It is a bloody mess, because it is assumed that forced prostitution is now rampant in Germany, to the point that men from other countries travel over the border just for the brothels...
- miracle2k 5y ago
  Registration is now required in Germany (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prostitutes_Protection_Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prostitutes_Protection_Act). > It is a bloody mess, because it is assumed that forced prostitution is now rampant in Germany, to the point that men from other countries travel over the border just for the brothels... They aren't traveling there because the sex workers are practicing under force. If Germany has a reputation it is because of its brothels with a visible presence in the public sphere. It is also a rich country, centrally located, and organized brothels allow woman from poorer European countries to outsource a lot of difficult work; security, housing, marketing. Renting an apartment in Italy, advertising on the local websites, being familiar with the laws, compounded by the language barrier, is much higher-effort. The trafficking narrative is always very thing on evidence. It is certainly assumed that there is a lot of trafficking in popular imagination though, mainly due to successful activism that seeks to exaggerate the problem in order to further the goal of outlawing sex work. This activism is, as always, the fusion of paternalism, the ring-fencing of the decent from the morally subversive, and radical feminist thought, and human trafficking is mostly a convenient public lever. You have to look no further then the United States, where police departments routinely have brain-dead local press disseminate how they are saving human trafficking victims in various raids, but half of which will face criminal charges for prostitution, and the other half will be lucky enough to be forced into mandatory diversion programs to avoid charges.
  - bayesian_horse 5y ago
    Trafficking makes sex work cheap, johns prefer cheap sex work. And then they rationalize the criticism along the lines of your comment. You don't actually have any evidence that there is no trafficking, no exploitation. You assume prostitutes are taking drugs out of their free will. That they are not abused. That they live the lives they want to live. That "radical feminists" just have some evil agenda... Well, why do you need to believe all this?

bayesian_horse 5y ago

I doubt that it would be possible to screen trafficked women from registration. Then it would be a lot of work for the police to actually "just do routine checks", just like they don't check most businesses for illegal immigrant workers or whatever. Also, they wouldn't know where to look, because brothels would just open up and nobody would tell them, because the johns wouldn't know how to verify all the documentation. Just as with firearms in the US: the more potentially legal prostitution there is, the harder it is to sniff out the illegal ones, even when hiding in plain sight. In Germany we have exactly that situation. Prostitution is legal, though I am not sure about exactly what registration is required. It is a bloody mess, because it is assumed that forced prostitution is now rampant in Germany, to the point that men from other countries travel over the border just for the brothels...

miracle2k 5y ago
Registration is now required in Germany (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prostitutes_Protection_Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prostitutes_Protection_Act). > It is a bloody mess, because it is assumed that forced prostitution is now rampant in Germany, to the point that men from other countries travel over the border just for the brothels... They aren't traveling there because the sex workers are practicing under force. If Germany has a reputation it is because of its brothels with a visible presence in the public sphere. It is also a rich country, centrally located, and organized brothels allow woman from poorer European countries to outsource a lot of difficult work; security, housing, marketing. Renting an apartment in Italy, advertising on the local websites, being familiar with the laws, compounded by the language barrier, is much higher-effort. The trafficking narrative is always very thing on evidence. It is certainly assumed that there is a lot of trafficking in popular imagination though, mainly due to successful activism that seeks to exaggerate the problem in order to further the goal of outlawing sex work. This activism is, as always, the fusion of paternalism, the ring-fencing of the decent from the morally subversive, and radical feminist thought, and human trafficking is mostly a convenient public lever. You have to look no further then the United States, where police departments routinely have brain-dead local press disseminate how they are saving human trafficking victims in various raids, but half of which will face criminal charges for prostitution, and the other half will be lucky enough to be forced into mandatory diversion programs to avoid charges.
- bayesian_horse 5y ago
  Trafficking makes sex work cheap, johns prefer cheap sex work. And then they rationalize the criticism along the lines of your comment. You don't actually have any evidence that there is no trafficking, no exploitation. You assume prostitutes are taking drugs out of their free will. That they are not abused. That they live the lives they want to live. That "radical feminists" just have some evil agenda... Well, why do you need to believe all this?