On Nov 23, 2004, at 2:30 PM, Dan Minette wrote:
From: "Damon Agretto" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Yup....a disproportionate number of prostitutes, and strippers for that matter, have been the victim of childhood sexual abuse.
How much of this evidence is skewed in favor of areas where prostitution os illegal? What sort of evidence do you have in areas were prostitution IS legal (such as Nevada, The Netherlands, etc)? The fact that prostitution is illegal in the US, and furthermore is stigmatized, I think it would be logical to conclude that these factors would be major contributors to the "unhealthy" aspects of prostitution.
A quick survey finds the following sites:
http://allserv.rug.ac.be/~rmak/europap/rapned.html
which is a governmental report on legalized prostitution in the Netherlands. It quotes studies, but does not quote evidence that the decriminalization has resulted in a decrease in the negative aspects of prostitution.
Actually what it does say is that the prostitutes that seem to be having the most difficulty with STDs and drug use are the ones *not* working in sanctioned venues -- that is, streetwalkers and migrant (immigrant) sex workers.
It does mention high drug use among prostitutes, with over
40% of people treated for severe drug use being prostitutes and 80% of the
streetwalkers being drug addicts.
You've failed to highlight a crucial distinction here. That's unfortunate because it undermines your argument.
Residents of brothels are said to have
lower incidence of drug use, but no firm figures were given. This is the
most positive report I found.
The reasons why no firm figures were given were listed at the beginning of the article.
This site does not provide evidence that prostitutes are abuse victims.
There is also
http://www.prostitutionresearch.com/ten-reasons.html
which gives arguments against legalized prostitution, including at least
some research to back it up. It is clearly the web site of an advocacy
group, but one can look at the studies they have quoted.
It's interesting that this advocacy group claims women who ply the sex trade don't have autonomy. This seems to be another group of people who believe that sex is something done *to* women, not *with* women. That's an amazingly phallocentric perspective from an allegedly feminist collective.
A to their arguments -- they sound very similar to reasons given by "conservatives" why drugs should not be legalized/decriminalized, or NRA people who want to show the futility of harder gun control laws. IOW, alarmism and social speculation built almost totally on conjecture.
And in any case, this site also does not provide evidence that prostitutes are abuse victims.
A site that is interlocked with this one is:
http://www.catwinternational.org/
it provides more references that can be followed.
All dealing with sex slavery ("trafficked women"), in one form or another, rather than legalized sex trade. This site also does not provide evidence that prostitutes are abuse victims.
and
Also, at
http://www.euro.who.int/document/mediacentre/fs1002e.pdf
we see that sex trafficking, which often involves actual slavery, has Germany as a prime location. Prostitution is legal in Germany.
Then we see that, where prostitution has been legalized, ties to organized
crime remains:
http://tinyurl.com/4qrq3
No argument that sex slavery is bad. I don't think anyone suggested otherwise. I wonder if you cannot see a distinction between choosing to work in a brothel or for an escort service ... or becoming a sex slave.
And where, again, is the evidence to support you claim that a "disproportionate" or "overwhelming" (your terms!) number of strippers and prostitutes are sex abuse victims?
So, I'd conclude that a preliminary review of the evidence indicates that
legalization does not remove problems with prostitution.
You weren't asked about legalization; you were asked (by me) to show support for this assertion:
"Yup....a disproportionate number of prostitutes, and strippers for that matter, have been the victim of childhood sexual abuse."
Furthermore, the sites you list above, almost exclusively, deal with the issues of *illegal* prostitution, not legalized sex trade, so even your conclusion ("...a preliminary review of the evidence indicates that
legalization does not remove problems with prostitution") is not supported by the very references you listed.
I'm not dismissing any evidence out of hand; you have yet to provide evidence for me to consider.
-- Warren Ockrassa, Publisher/Editor, nightwares Books http://books.nightwares.com/ Current work in progress "The Seven-Year Mirror" http://www.nightwares.com/books/ockrassa/Flat_Out.pdf
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