France
is not alone in its fresh efforts to curb prostitution. The move follows
similar bans in Sweden and Norway, while other European countries are also
scaling back laissez-faire prostitution policies. Germany is poised to change
its liberal sex trade laws, while Ireland is also debating a measure similar to
France's. Is the end of legal prostitution in Europe in sight?
It may
partly depend on how well France's new laws work. Unlike historical
prostitution bans that penalize sex workers, the new laws target customers,
making the purchase of sex illegal rather than its sale. Anyone caught paying
for sexual services in France will be subject to a fine of €1,500, rising to a
maximum of €3,750 for repeat offenders. This follows a model established in
Sweden in 1999, but no country as large as France has yet tried anything
similar.
The issue driving the recent bans, however, is really that of
human trafficking. According to a EU-funded
report, over 23,000 people were trafficked in Europe
between the years 2008 to 2010, and 62 percent of them for we're destined for
sexual exploitation. While pro-prostitution debate often focuses on a
hypothetical free woman making an entirely unforced choice, the reality is that
many European prostitutes have no such freedom. According to anti-trafficking
campaigners, legal prostitution is making this situation worse, giving pimps
and traffickers ways to operate
further and hide their victims in plain sight.
But of course, no one can verify how much prostitution and
trafficking continues undetected. The amount may have drastically fallen, but
occasional cases such as that of a judge
fined for visiting a brothel suggest that
a prostitution underworld does persist in Sweden. Meanwhile rapes and
sexual assaults (or at least, the numbers
reported to police) remain high in the country and
have increased slightly since 1999. Without truly unambiguous results, the
success of the Swedish model is still a matter of debate. This is why Europe
will be watching France's new plans especially closely. Their success or
failure will probably determine the shape of the continent's sex trade laws for
decades to come.
