Prostitution is sale of sexual services for money or for a kind of compensation. Last year the national competence center, Prosenteret, claimed that 2500 persons were so-called sex-workers in Norway. In Norway prostitution is not a legal work as it is in Germany and Netherland for instance. Not a crime either. I am a social worker and have been working for women in prostitution the last four years.
In Norway it has been a quite interesting development the last three years. In the cities where prostitution is visible for everyone, the norwegian women have been out-competed of foreigners. The Norwegian women are well known as drug-users. They finance their drugs with money earned in prostitution. In just two-three years the situation is totally different in the streets. In my town, Stavanger, the number of women in prostitution has doubled and the police think that criminal networks is organizing it. Trafficking is the topic in the media, and making it a crime to buy sexual services of someone has now been suggested of a parliamentary party.
And it is true that these women are suffering. It is not easy to be in prostitution. You have to take care of your own security, and most of the women, norwegian and foreigners, experience violence of the customer from time to time. Most of the women have to cope with this post-traumatic stress disorder. To survive they develop a cynicism.
Most of the women get problems with their identity. It is not an easy task to seperate the body from the soul. This is what they try to do, but what is impossible. For most of the women i have met in prostitution, this is their main-problem. They are getting depressed of it. Feeling that they are nothing worth. But because of the money they earn, it is not easy to quit.
The foreigners are poor people. Earlier this year i was in Nigeria. I was talking to women who had been in prostitution in Europe. They talked about the routes and their journey from Nigeria to Europe, how hunger, rape and manslaughter destroyed their positive dream of getting a job and a new life. Not all of the women are travelling through the same routes. But ending up in prostitution when their dream are legal work… it is awful! More about Nigerian women in prostitution in this.
Not more talk about the women. What about the man?
He buy the newspaper and call a number connected to sale of sexual services. He phone her and make an appointment meeting her at a hotel or in an apartment. Maybe he take the car, down to the streets...
There is that man who has never had sex, and really bad experiences connected to relationship. Some don`t know how to express their own feelings and needs. "When you buy sex, you don`t need to think. Just pay!", one man told me. Some men choose to buy sex because they are not interesting in working for having sex in a equivalent relationship. And they are totally not interested in going without having sex. To do it with their own hands, is not so...? He prefer to buy.
One man told me that he wouldn`t buy sex of foreigners. He was afraid of getting envolved in trafficking. He wanted the women to be a prostitute of "free will". If she was not there of her own will, he would get a problem with his erection! So when do you have a free will?
Should it be a crime, buying sexual services?
I am really (really!) not sure, because…
What do you think?
2 kommentarer:
I think part of the pressure for criminalisation comes from panicking and choosing a seemingly easy way out. Rather than spending resources on following up a new law against prostitution, the money and focus should turn to prevention (no:forebygging :-)and help.
The trafficking problem should be dealt with directly. I think the current passivity might partly stem from our restrictive immigration policies, at least it seems that we aren't quick enough to offer victims of trafficking protection and care.
So rather than taking the easy way out and just make a new law, I think we should wait and see what can be done through other channels.
In my view, prostitution is unhealthy and degenerating both for customers and prostitutes alike. It's probably often a result of desperation on either side, and not a solution to live in for a long time, so I think traditional morality in this case has a sound basis in reality (which is always complex, though). Legislation is another matter and should be seen as a means to an end. Society might be much healthier without prostitution, but the consequences for prostitutes should go first, I think.
It`s about standards, principles and human rights. When do we become responsible for this kind of slavery? When is the consequence of prostitution so bad, that we have to act against it as a society?
But then, making it a crime will surely have negative consequences. It will become more difficult to be in contact with the prostitutes and the customer. That is the most difficult task to solve if it should be a crime! If we loose contact, the worst thing can happen!
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