Procuring (prostitution)

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Legal

Procuring or pandering is the facilitation or provision of a prostitute or other sex worker in the arrangement of a sex act with a customer. A procurer, colloquially called a pimp (if male) or a madam (if female) or a brothel keeper, is an agent for prostitutes who collects part of their income. The procurer may receive this money in return for advertising services, physical protection, or for providing, and possibly monopolizing, a location where the prostitute may engage clients. Like prostitution, the legality of certain actions of a madam or a pimp varies from one region to the next.

Examples of procuring include:

  • trafficking a person into a country for the purpose of soliciting sex
  • operating a prostitution business
  • transporting a prostitute to the location of their arrangement
  • deriving financial gain from the prostitution of another


Legal models of sex work
  • Decriminalization – No criminal penalties for prostitution
  • Legalization – Prostitution legal and regulated
  • Abolitionism – Prostitution is legal, but organized activities such as brothels and pimping are illegal; prostitution is not regulated
  • Neo-abolitionism – Illegal to buy sex and for 3rd party involvement, legal to sell sex
  • Prohibitionism – Prostitution illegal
  • Legality – Varies with local laws

There are a wide variety of legal approaches to regulating prostitution. NGO's, academics, and government agencies typically use five different models to organize the different approaches.

Prohibitionism

In nations that employ a prohibitionist model, all aspects of prostitution are criminalized. Those who support prohibition often believe that the sex trade is a violation of moral or religious beliefs. This is also known as criminalization.

Abolitionism

In nations that use an abolitionist approach, prostitution is legal, while third-party involvement is usually prohibited. Solicitation is also typically prohibited. Supporters of abolitionism often believe that although some sex workers may choose the career, the practice of sex work is morally wrong.

Neo-abolitionism

Neo-abolitionism, also called the Nordic or Swedish model, is used in Sweden, Norway, France and other countries. While selling sex is not criminalized under this approach, the buying of sex is illegal. Neo-abolitionists claim these models do not punish prostitutes, but instead penalize those who purchase sex from sex workers. This model is criticized for causing sex workers to do their business in areas with less police, which often makes it more dangerous.

Legalization

Legalization is also referred to as "regulationist". In countries that legalize prostitution, it is no longer prohibited, and there is legislation to control and regulate it. The extent and type of legislation varies from country to country and may be regulated by work permits, licensing or tolerance zones.

Decriminalization

Decriminalization is the removal of criminal penalties for sex work. In countries that decriminalize sex work, sex workers receive the same protection and recognition as workers in other industries.

Negative effects of criminalization

Health

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), sex workers are considered one of the key populations at risk for HIV infection, and sex workers who inject drugs are at even more risk due to unprotected sex, syringe sharing, alcohol or drug dependence, and violence. Stigma, poverty, and exclusion from legal social services have increased their vulnerability to HIV infection. Health risks and transmission of HIV as well as other sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are increased in incidences where condom usage and accessibility is limited or used to identify and criminalize sex workers. Many sex workers are managed by 'gatekeepers' who may be brothel owners, clients, or law enforcement figures, who often dictate condom usage. In Cambodia, a survey showed that 30% of sex workers who refused to put on condoms were sexually coerced. Fear of law enforcement and incarceration also discourages possession of condoms since they provide evidence for officers to prosecute and arrest. Evidence suggests that HIV risk can be sharply reduced when sex workers are able to negotiate safer sex. Decriminalization of sex work decreases the risk of HIV infection by breaking down stigma and increasing access to health services, reducing the risk of HIV/AIDS and STIs.

Discrimination and stigma

Sex workers experience significant stigma and discrimination as a result of criminalization. Though they consider sex work a legitimate income-generating activity, sex workers are viewed as immoral, deserving of punishment, and thus excluded from healthcare, education, and housing. Criminalization laws exclude sex workers from health systems that provide access to preventative care such as condoms and regular HIV or STI testing.

Human rights abuses

Sex workers, as a population that suffers disproportionately from HIV/AIDS, are often denied many human rights such as the right to freedom from discrimination, equality before the law, the right to life, and the right to the highest attainable standard of health. A study conducted in more than 11 countries by Sex Workers' Rights Advocacy Network (SWAN) concluded that more than 200 sex workers have experienced violence and discrimination. These acts of violence toward sex workers often include abuse, rape, kidnappings, and sexual violence. Sex workers also face extortion and unlawful arrests and detention, which profoundly impact their mental, physical, and social wellbeing. It is difficult for sex workers to seek criminal justice when it is reported that many police officers are partaking in the sexual and violent abuse. In Macedonia, police violence towards sex workers is particularly high: 82.4 percent of sex workers were assaulted by police in 2007. Criminalization laws such as bans on buying, solicitation, and the general organization of sex work perpetuate an unsafe environment for sex workers, provide impunity for abusers, and prevent sex workers from reporting the crime to the police.

Decriminalization and criminalization

Canada

Canada's prostitution law was challenged in 2013 by Terri-Jean Bedford, Amy Lebovitch, and Valerie Scott in the Bedford v. Canada case. The plaintiffs argued that the criminal laws disproportionately increased their risk of violence and victimization by preventing them from being able to employ safety strategies during the course of their work. In a 9-0 ruling, the Supreme Court of Canada determined that the communication provision, the bawdy house provision, and the living on the avails provision violated sex workers' rights to security of the persons. To give the Government of Canada time to respond, the declaration of invalidity was suspended for one year.

In 2014, the Government of Canada enacted the Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act (PCEPA). This legislation is modelled after the Nordic Model, and criminalizes buyers of sexual services as well as third-party supporters.

France

In 2016, the French federal government estimated that there were around 30,000 prostitutes in the country, and 93% of them were foreign. In April 2016, the French National Assembly passed a law that partially decriminalized sex work. While selling sex, loitering, and public soliciting by prostitutes is now legal, paying for sex carries a fine of around 1,500 euros. People found guilty of paying for sex may also have to complete an "awareness-raising course on the fight against the purchase of sexual acts".

The French government also attempted to fight prostitution by providing compensation to sex workers who wanted to leave the sex industry. However, although the government hoped to help 600 prostitutes by 2018, only 55 sex workers signed up for the program. Some sex workers argue that the monthly stipend, which is 330 euros, is not enough money to make ends meet.

The 2016 law has also resulted in increased violence against sex workers. Because of the heightened police presence, the sex work that does happen has been pushed off the streets and into areas with limited surveillance. This has created more dangerous conditions for prostitutes that continue to work. According to a survey conducted by the French NGO Médecins du Monde, 42% of percent of prostitutes in France say that they have been exposed to more violence since the law took effect in 2016.

Denmark

In Denmark, prostitution was decriminalized in 1999, allowing for both selling and buying of sex to be legal as long as both participants are above the age of 18. Brothels and pimping, however, still remain illegal in the country. Previously, sex workers were permitted to work as long as it was not their only source of income.

Germany

Germany legalized sex work in 2002. The 2002 law mandated that sex workers register themselves and pay taxes. In return, their employers would have to provide benefits like health care and paid leave. In addition, customers of sex workers are not allowed to deny payment because they "aren't satisfied". After the law was put in place, the German sex industry boomed. According to 2005 estimates by the German federal government, there are about 400,000 women working in the German sex industry, and over 1.2 million men pay for their services every day.

The implementation of the law was flawed because of a lack of outreach and training. As a result, the law was interpreted differently in different cities. In Berlin, the law was interpreted in ways that are favorable to sex workers; in Cologne, a "pleasure tax" that only applies to sex work was imposed.

While this law was designed to protect the rights of individual sex workers and legitimize their occupation, it has instead resulted in massive, multi-story brothels and the invention of roadside "sex boxes".

Nevada, United States

Nevada is the only state in America where sex work is not illegal. There was no state law on prostitution in Nevada until 1971, when a section of the Nevada Revised Statutes effectively legalized prostitution in counties with a population of under 400,000.

In the mid-1970s, a man named Walter Plankinton attempted to open a brothel in Nye County, Nevada. County officials initially blocked him from opening the brothel (which he planned to call "Chicken Ranch"), citing a 1948 state law that called brothels a "nuisance". However, this law was later overturned by the Nevada Supreme Court in 1978.

In 1980, the Nevada Supreme Court officially legalized prostitution in counties with a population of under 400,000. However, prostitution outside of a "licensed house of prostitution" wasn't banned until 1987, when the Nevada Revised Statutes made it explicitly illegal.

  • Prostitutes should be of legal age, working on their own will, and regularly tested for any transmittable diseases
  • Brothels should not be placed 400 yards from a school or a house of worship
  • Brothels and prostitution as a whole cannot be advertised in any place that it is prohibited
  • Condoms must be used by prostitutes

Sex work in Nevada is regulated in 10 counties and 5 cities. Prostitutes are regulated by a "patchwork" of both state and local laws that address a number of different areas. Zoning laws in Nevada prohibit brothels from being located near a school, house of worship, or main road. Brothels are also barred from advertising on public roads or in districts where prostitution is illegal. Other existing regulations mandate STI testing before prostitutes are hired, and weekly testing once they are employed. Sex workers with HIV are also prohibited from working. Sex workers who continue to work after testing HIV-positive can be punished with two to ten years in prison or a $10,000 fine.

New South Wales, Australia

Laws covering sex work in Australia are state and territory based, with different regulations in different places. New South Wales decriminalised sex work in 1995, after the Wood Royal Commission into Police Corruption showed that police were inappropriate regulators of the sex industry. A governmental review in 2016 resulted in continuing support of decriminalisation of sex work "as the best way of protecting sex workers and maintaining a more transparent sex work industry".

New Zealand

New Zealand became the first country to decriminalize prostitution in June 2003 with the passage of the Prostitution Reform Act. The purpose of this law was to "decriminalise prostitution (while not endorsing or morally sanctioning prostitution or its use); create a framework to safeguard the human rights of sex workers and protect them from exploitation; promote the welfare and occupational health and safety of sex workers; contribute to public health; and prohibit the use of prostitution of persons under 18 years of age." The PRA also established a certification regime for brothel operators".

Catherine Healy, the national coordinator of the New Zealand Prostitutes Collective (NZPC), who was part of the driving force for the original 2003 law, in an interview twelve years later, had "detected a marked change in police-sex worker relations after passage of the PRA. 'After decriminalization that dynamic shifted dramatically, and importantly the focus on the sex worker wasn't on the sex worker as a criminal. It was on the rights, safety, health and well being of the sex worker.'" Further, "sex workers in New Zealand are beginning to assert their rights now that the stigma associated with sex work has begun to decrease" as demonstrated by a sex worker successfully prosecuting a brothel owner for sexual harassment by her employer.

Sweden

Sweden partially decriminalized sex work in 1999 with the passing of an abolitionist law. While selling sex is legal, buying sex is not. Since the implementation of the law, supporters of this approach have claimed the number of prostitutes has decreased. However, this may just be a result of the increased police surveillance, as many sex workers are leaving the streets and turning instead to other spaces, including the internet.

Pye Jakobsson, a spokeswoman for the Rose Alliance and a representation for sex workers, believes that this reduction in numbers may not necessarily mean less prostitution. Jakobsson claims that "you can't talk about protecting sex workers as well as saying the law is good, because it's driving prostitution and trafficking underground, which reduces social services' access to victims."

The Swedish example is often cited as a form of partial criminalization, rather than decriminalization, since the purchasing of sex remains a crime. Both the Swedish government and sex workers agree that this model has increased stigma against sex workers. However, the Swedish government views this as a positive outcome, arguing that sending a message about sex work is more important.

Sex workers have reported a number of human rights violations as a direct result of these laws, including the deportation of sex workers, increased evictions, increased vulnerability to homelessness, and high rates of discrimination from authorities. This partial-decriminalization has also led to sex workers being used as witnesses by the police in cases that they did not want to be a part of. In addition, because police oftentimes use used condoms as evidence in these cases, condom use has gone down among Swedish sex workers and customers.

Overview

Pimps and madams are diverse and variegated, depending on the strata in which they work, and they enter and leave the sex industry for a variety of internal and external reasons, such as family pressure, interactions with the police, and in some cases recruitment from peer sex workers.

Procuring can take abusive forms. Madams/pimps may punish clients for physical abuse or failure to pay and enforce exclusive rights to 'turf' where their prostitutes may advertise and operate with less competition. In the many places where prostitution is outlawed, sex workers have decreased incentive to report abuse for fear of self-incrimination, and increased motivation to seek any physical protection from clients and law enforcement that a madam/pimp might provide.

The madam/pimp–prostitute relationship is often understood to be abusive and possessive, with the pimp/madam using techniques such as psychological intimidation, manipulation, starvation, rape and/or gang rape, beating, confinement, threats of violence toward the victim's family, forced drug use and the shame from these acts. Recent empirical research of madams/pimps, however, suggests that these assumptions about abusive relationships represent stereotyped oppression narratives that may only represent a small percentage of the relationships between madams/pimps and sex workers.

In the U.S., madams/pimps can be arrested and charged with pandering and are legally known as procurers. This, combined with the tendency to identify pimping with African-American masculinity, may provide some of the explanation for why approximately three-fifths of all "confirmed" human traffickers in the United States are African-American men. In fact, it has recently been argued that some of the extreme examples of violence cited in the article below come primarily from such stereotyping supported by Hollywood screenwriters, selective and decontextualized trial transcripts, and studies that have only interviewed parties to sex commerce in institutions of rescue, prosecution, and punishment, rather than engaging rigorous study in situ.

Legal status and debates about legality

Where prostitution is decriminalized or regulated, procuring may or may not be legal. In jurisdictions where procuring is allowed, however, the forms permitted do not involve threats or other forms of non-consensual acts towards the prostitute or other persons; all procuring regulations differ widely from place to place.

Procuring and brothels are legal in the Netherlands, Germany, Greece, New Zealand, and most of Australia and Nevada.

Canada

Fleur-12.jpg Main article: [[Bedford v. Canada]]

In [[Canada]], there was a legal challenge to prostitution laws, which ended in the 2013 ruling of [[Bedford v. Canada]]. In 2010, Ontario Superior Court Judge Susan Himel overturned the national laws banning brothels and procuring, arguing that they violated the constitution guaranteeing "the right to life, liberty and security".

In 2012, Ontario Appeal Court reaffirmed the unconstitutionality of the laws. The case was appealed by the Canadian government, and was under trial in the [[Supreme Court of Canada]] in June 2013. On 20 December 2013, the Supreme Court unanimously struck down the remaining prostitution laws. As of 2014, the Canadian government began working on replacing those regulations with ones that do not violate the Canadian constitution.

United Nations

The United Nations 1949 Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others requires state signatories to ban pimping and brothels and to abolish regulation of individual prostitutes. It states:

Whereas prostitution and the accompanying evil of the traffic in persons for the purpose of prostitution are incompatible with the dignity and worth of the human person and endanger the welfare of the individual, the family, and the community

The convention reads:

Article 1

The Parties to the present Convention agree to punish any person who, to gratify the passions of another:

(1) Procures, entices, or leads away, for purposes of prostitution, another person, even with the consent of that person;

(2) Exploits the prostitution of another person, even with the consent of that person.

Article 2

The Parties to the present Convention further agree to punish any person who:

(1) Keeps or manages, or knowingly finances or takes part in the financing of a brothel;

(2) Knowingly lets or rents a building or other place or any part thereof for the purpose of the prostitution of others.

Various UN commissions however have differing positions on the issue. For example, in 2012, a UNAIDS commission convened by Ban Ki-moon and backed by UNDP and UNAIDS, recommended the decriminalization of brothels and procuring.

Etymology

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Pandarus, center, with Cressida, illustration to Troilus and Cressida by Thomas Kirk.

Procurer

The term procurer derives from the French procureur.

Pimping

The word pimp first appeared in English in 1607 in a Thomas Middleton play entitled Your Five Gallants. Of unknown origin, but may have stemmed from the French infinitive pimper meaning to dress up elegantly and from the present participle pimpant meaning alluring in seductive dress. Pimp used as a verb, meaning to act as a pimp, first appeared in 1636 in Philip Massinger's play, The Bashful Lover. A pimp can also mean "a despicable person". The term can also be applied to a person who is considered a ladies' man.

The verb "pimping" came up in the early 17th century.

In the first years of the 21st century, a new meaning of the word emerged in the form of a transitive verb pimp, which means "to decorate" or "to gussy up" (compare primp, especially in Scottish usage). This new definition was made popular by Pimp My Ride, an MTV television show.

In medical contexts, the verb means "to ask (a student) a question for the purpose of testing her or his knowledge".

Pandering

The word "pander", meaning to "pimp" is derived from Pandarus, a licentious figure who facilitates the affair between the protagonists in Troilus and Criseyde, a poem by Geoffrey Chaucer. Pandarus appears with a similar role in Shakespeare's interpretation of the story, Troilus and Cressida.

Business of procuring

{{More citations needed section|date=May 2019}}

The White Slave statue by Abastenia St. Leger Eberle, location unknown

Template:Criminal law Pimping is sometimes operated like a business. The pimp may have a bottom girl who serves as office manager, keeping the pimp apprised of law-enforcement activity and collecting money from the prostitutes. Pimps recognize a hierarchy among themselves. In certain pimp strata, the least respected, or newer pimps, are the "popcorn pimps" and "wannabes". "Popcorn pimps" was a phenomenon which occurred among adolescent cocaine users of both sexes who utilized children younger than themselves to support their habits. A pimp who uses violence and intimidation to control his prostitutes is called a "gorilla pimp", while those who use psychological trickery to deceive younger prostitutes into becoming hooked into the system are called "finesse pimps". In addition, a prostitute may "bounce" from pimp to pimp without paying the "pimp moving" tax.

Some pimps in the United States are also documented gang members, which causes concerns for police agencies in jurisdictions where prostitution is a significant problem. Pimping rivals narcotic sales as a major source of funding for many gangs. Gangs need money to survive, and money equates to power and respect. While selling drugs may be lucrative for a gang, this activity often carries significant risk as stiff legal penalties and harsh mandatory minimum sentencing laws exist. However, with pimping, gang members still make money while the prostitutes themselves bear the majority of the risk. Pimping has several benefits to the gang that the pimp belongs to. These benefits include helping the gang recruit new members because the gang has women available for sex, and the money brought in by prostitution allows gang members to buy cars, clothes and weapons, all of which help to recruit younger members into the gang by increasing the reputation of the gang in the local gang subculture. The presence of gangs (and weapons and drugs) is a virtual guarantee when prostitutes are present, which is why many law-enforcement agencies advocate taking an aggressive stance against prostitutes. Many vice units work to ascertain if the prostitute they have arrested has a pimp, and if so, they pressure them to provide information about their pimp and the gang involved. This information can then be used to go after the more serious and violent offenders.

Some pimp businesses have an internal structure – built around violence – for dealing with rule-breakers. For example, some pimps have been known to employ a "pimp stick", which is two coat hangers wrapped together, in order to subdue unruly prostitutes. The tattoo will often be the pimp's street name or even his likeness. The mark might be as discreet as ankle tattoo, or blatant as a neck tattoo or large scale font across the prostitute's lower back, thigh, chest, or buttocks.

Internet effect

Since the Internet became widely available, prostitutes increasingly use websites to solicit sexual encounters. This has bypassed the need for pimps in some contexts, while some pimps have used these sites to broker their sex workers.

Criticism of portrayals

Some scholars and sex workers' rights advocates dispute portrayals of third-party agents as violent and extremely committed to a pimp subculture, finding them inaccurate exaggerations used to foster harmful policies. For example, one study found that pimps tend to drift in and out of pimping, with some of their goals and identities classified as predominantly mainstream, some as predominantly outside of that mainstream, and some as a hybrid of conventional and non-conventional.

Procuring and pornography

Attempts have been made in the U.S. to charge pornographic-film producers with pandering under state law. The case of California v. Freeman in 1989 is one of the most prominent examples where a producer/director of pornographic films was charged with pandering under the argument that paying porn actors to perform sex on camera was a form of prostitution covered by a state anti-pandering statute. The State Supreme Court rejected this argument, finding that the California pandering statute was not intended to cover the hiring of actors who would be engaging in sexually-explicit but non-obscene performances. It also stated that only in cases where the producer paid the actors for the purpose of sexually gratifying themselves or other actors, could the producer be charged with pandering under state law. This case effectively legalized pornography in the State of California. In 2008, the New Hampshire Supreme Court issued a similar ruling (New Hampshire v. Theriault) which declared that producing pornography was not a form of prostitution under state law.

Procuring in art

Notable pimps and madams

See also

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Portal:Torture methods and devices

References

External links

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