What if the government had to introduce a law that made paying for sex illegal? After a two-year debate, French MPs have outlawed paying for sex. They have introduced fines of up to €3,750 for anyone who is caught paying a prostitute for her services. The law does not stop there. If caught, the individual has to also attend classes to educate himself on the conditions prostitutes face nowadays.
Wondering whether this might affect Malta and the rest of Europe, I decided to ask Philip Carabot, consultant in genitourinary medicine, about his opinion on the matter. This is what he had to say:
“While I have no doubt that the legislator’s intentions are admirable, I do not see the logic of the new law. The demand for prostitutes has always existed and will always exist.
“Trying to make life more difficult will simply drive it more underground and make it uncontrollable. The ultimate victim will be the very prostitute the law is trying to protect.
“The only solution, assuming there is a solution, is to legalise and control the profession, while actively coming down hard on the pimps and other abusers.”
I happen to agree. As with most taboo subjects, forcing substances or acts into the black market will usually lead to violence, death, oppression and trafficking.
Forcing substances or acts into the black market will usually lead to violence, death, oppression and trafficking
The solution might be legalising prostitution. In the Netherlands, prostitution has been recognised by law since 1988. In October 2000, it was declared that prostitution is legal. Prostitutes even pay taxes and register themselves as ‘independent entrepreneurs’. Through this law,minors are protected, and trafficking is kept at bay.
This law is based on the Nordic model, which was established in 1999. Sweden was the first country to criminalise those who pay for sex rather than the prostitutes themselves. This law was conceived in light of viewing prostitutes as victims of trafficking and their clients as criminals who need to be rehabilitated. A good 85 per cent of prostitutes in France are currently victims of trafficking.
Lorraine Spiteri, chairwoman of the Malta Confederation of Women’s Organisations, said “the value underlying the abolition of the system of prostitution is one that aims to change mentalities on prostitution and strives for a society free from the oppression of the sex industry and of the trafficking in human beings for sexual exploitation”.
Going back to France, most prostitutes (between 30,000 and 40,000) do not approve of the new law. During the final debate in Parliament, about 60 sex workers lined up to protest, holding up banners that said: “Don’t liberate me, I’ll take care of myself.”
Yet, many advocacy groups have noted that this model makes prostitution more dangerous. Catherine Stephens, who is a sex worker activist and sex worker herself, told BBC News that criminalisation makes prostitutes “much more likely to have to accept clients who are obscuring their identity, which benefits people who want to perpetrate violence”.
Sophie Vella is a University student.