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That’s pretty much the position of Scarlet Alliance, the Australian sex worker peak. They argue that a lot of “sex trafficking” is actually about discriminatory migration and foreign worker practice.

And I’m with Jason – I think there are good reasons to be sceptical of most claims of “white slavery”. The economics are against it, especially where prostitution is tolerated. After all, slavery is notoriously less efficient than paid labour. Women who have just been arrested, who are seeking permanent residence, who have fallen out with their employer or who just want a free trip home after having made their money all have an incentive to lie about how they came to be in the game. I’m not saying it never happens – just that it’s rare where prostitution is legal and regulated.

And I’d echo Yobbo’s observation above about completely legalising all forms of sex bisnis that involve consenting adults and that don’t involve arson or nuclear devices.

Throughout history any attempt to criminalise any victimless vice or consensual sensual practice has ALWAYS done more harm than good. Exhibit A: Prohibition. Exhibit B: this current ludicrous and futile war on drugs.

“Except for the teeny problem that 95% of men aren’t homosexual, and propositioning a man on the street would more likely lead to you being bashed than laid.”

But in the showers after cricket practice…? “Mate, you looked real hot out there coming slowly over the wicket.”

The only difference between men and women is that men who crave sex have to pay for it. Women can just ask the first man they see and get a positive response.

er Yobbo – Men can ask the first (or second) man they see too and get it free.

Before moving to Australia in the early 1990s, she lived most of her life in the United Kingdom.

and again – a statement from VicPlod on drugs and illegal brothels usually causes a severe case of involuntary raised eyebrows down here in Melbourne.

Don’t mention Paul Mullett and the Vic Police Association – defenders of straight police and fearless on helping rid the force of corruption and the brotherhood.

Prostitution should be fully legalised. Constraining it to brothels is an unfair imposition on sex workers.

There is absolutely no practical reason why buying sexual services should be a crime. It is a purely religion-based objection based on outdated notions of sexuality left over from the Victorian era.

Every culture on Earth has had prostitution in some form since humans walked the Earth. And there is simply nothing at all wrong with men who use the services of prostitutes. Men need sex. Some simply don’t have time to meet or attract women. Some work 100 hours a week and have more money than time. Some are simply not interested in a relationship at the current stage of their lives.

The only difference between men and women is that men who crave sex have to pay for it. Women can just ask the first man they see and get a positive response.

A statement so redolent with unintended irony that it’s positively dripping.

Sheila Jeffreys Wikipedia entry runs as follows:

“Sheila Jeffreys (born 1948) is a well-known and controversial radical lesbian feminist. She is Associate Professor in Political Science at the University of Melbourne in Australia. Before moving to Australia in the early 1990s, she lived most of her life in the United Kingdom.

Some of her positions include:

* the transsexual/transgender rights movement is a reactionary movement serving patriarchy and homophobia
* lesbian culture has been corrupted by the negative influence of gay men
* women’s clothing, hairstyles and fashions are a form of submission to patriarchal sadism
* cosmetic surgery, body piercing, transsexualism and self-harm are all forms of patriarchal sexual violence against the body”

You and Sheila, Patrick, may well represent the best example of quite different ideological perspectives merging around this issue that I could envisage :)

according to Victorian Police only 500 or about a quarter of prostitutes in the state are working in the legal brothels

and

Police also claim that crime and drug dealing in brothels have increased since their presence in legal brothels has been disallowed.

I don’t know what weight to give those claims. Also there is an academic called Sheila Jeffreys who argues that legalisation does not reduce trafficking, eg here, and this article from Project Respect in the Age claims that trafficked women have been found in legal brothels.

Jason: that is more anecdotal than even I am willing to rely on. I do know that around the world human trafficking is burgeoning. The Europol rate it their greatest challenge. That is despite literally millions of desperately poor eastern Europeans – despite everything, they still seem to need false inducements and threats to convince them of prostitution’s riches.

Once again, desperate and dateless men (and women, for that matter) are people too, and I suggest that the satisfaction of their sexual preferences, and the wellbeing that derives therefrom, deserves no less consideration in a social welfare function than does the pleasure Patrick derives from having sex with his wife, or from eating candy.

in two places where prostitution was legalised–

And in any case, there is both a) their two hands, and b) women equally ‘ugly and/or devoid o[f] charisma, oral skills, sex appeal or other qualities‘.

I admit that, particularly when the maximum for ‘gross’ (ie violent) rape is 10 years, six months seems extraordinary. I would have thought prison rather excessive full stop, in fact.

Patrick said: “nor can I find merit in the ‘imagine if there were no prostitutes for all those desperate dateless young men’ argument”.

Why not? Why does the wellbeing of desperate and dateless young men not seem to have a place in your social welfare function? Why should men who are ugly and/or devoid or charisma, oral skills, sex appeal or other qualities that can facilitate horizontal integration with the tender gender be denied an opportunity to meet their desire for sex? Desperate and dateless men are people too.

Generally I am in favour of well-regulated prostitution, largely because it is a risky industry. In the NT there is a good system of registration and police are kept up to date with goings on. There is, so far as I know, no large criminal element in Darwin’s sex industry, just a few brothels and lots of indies.