Sir, – Further to the article by Mia de Faoite "Law criminalising the purchase of sex is in women's best interests" (Opinion & Analysis, August 28th) and subsequent letters published in response, it is legal to sell sex but paying for sex, brothel-owning and pimping are criminal offences which are aimed at those who are exploiting not the exploited.
We do not agree with women sharing a premises for safety being prosecuted. This is of huge concern to us and clearly to those who have also written a letter referring to Ms de Faoite’s article. We can agree that everyone is concerned about the safety of people in the sex industry. It is an inherently dangerous trade.
The fact that women feel that they have to share premises for safety highlights the levels of risk involved.
In fact, there has been a marked decline in criminal proceedings against brothel keeping over the last decade or so. The most recent figures on the offence of purchasing sex (released August 29th) show an increase in prosecutions since last year.
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The harsh reality is that the majority of women and young girls in the sex trade are exploited for profit by pimps and many are forced into the sex industry by various means, including human trafficking. In 2017 the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act was introduced to tackle those that fuel this trade – the “customers”. In response, the sex-trade lobby is orchestrating a backlash against this real threat to their business and income.
Having put vulnerable migrant women in the way of harm and prosecution, they are now suggesting that the legislation is discriminatory because it disproportionately impacts on those same women – despite the fact the Act decriminalised them. More is required to ensure that the law, which has gender equality at its heart, is fully implemented. – Yours, etc,
DENISE CHARLTON,
Former Chairwoman,
Turn Off The Red Light,
Dublin 2.
Sir, – The 2017 Sexual Offences Act only serves to create a hostile environment for all who sell sexual access and services regardless of circumstances by giving them a choice between their means of livelihood and interacting with the police, whether as a victim of or witness to crime. Criminals are aware of this and ready to exploit it.
It deters the most law-abiding clients more than the potentially harmful ones.
It shrinks the market and forces those who sell sexual access and services to offer to take more risks, reduce prices or perform services with which they are not comfortable just to maintain a sufficient income.
It has personally catastrophic side-effects, such as eviction, loss of child custody and even imprisonment.
Using legislation to create such a hostile environment cannot conceivably have any positive impact on the scale and nature of trafficking for sexual exploitation, and may well serve to enable and exacerbate those issues. Those who sell sexual access and services, and particularly those who are driven to do so from economic necessity, may well be driven into the clutches of traffickers just to maintain the income they need for necessities.
It should not be acceptable to base legislation or policy on the premise of sacrificing the safety and wellbeing of those who sell sexual access and services to the supposed benefit of the wider society. This would not even be acceptable if the proposed benefit were proven, let alone in this case where any potential benefit to others remains hypothetical.
The only true “equality model” of legislation is the equal right to honest survival and quality of life, firmly denied to those who sell sexual access and services by the Sexual Offences Act 2017. – Yours, etc,
GAYE DALTON,
Wicklow.