Prostitution as Morality Politics or Why It Is Exceedingly Difficult To Design and Sustain Effective Prostitution Policy

Wagenaar, Hendrik; Altink, Sietske

doi:10.1007/s13178-012-0095-0

Cited by 93 publications

(94 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…All policy making can be seen as the struggle over the realization of core societal values (Stone 1997), but in many of the advanced democracies of the West, prostitution is currently the subject of fierce debates and frenzied, often far-reaching, legislation. Prostitution is an archetypical example of morality politics (Bernstein 2010;Wagenaar and Altink 2012;Wagenaar et al 2017, chap. 2).…”

Section: Challenges To Prostitution Policymentioning

confidence: 99%

Why Prostitution Policy (Usually) Fails and What to Do about It?

Wagenaar

2017

Social Sciences

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This article describes and discusses the results of two comparative studies of prostitution policy in Europe that are complementary in their design and methodology. One is a comparison of 21 countries using a most different systems design; the other an in-depth comparison of Austria and The Netherlands, using a most similar systems design. The two studies found a remarkable continuity in the inherent approach to the regulation of prostitution and its effects. Despite differences in political regime, administrative organization, and national cultures, since the middle of the 19th century, the purpose of prostitution policy has been to impose strict controls on sex workers and to a lesser extent their work sites. The effects of this approach have been disappointing: despite rhetorical claims to the contrary the control of sex workers has no discernable effect on the prevalence of prostitution in society. The effects of policies aimed at control are mostly negative in that they corrode the human and labor rights of sex workers. The article discusses several challenges to the regulation of prostitution (such as its deeply moral nature and the lack of precise and reliable data) as well a number of other important outcomes (such as the importance of local policy implementation for the effects of regulation). The article concludes with the empirically substantiated suggestion that a form of collaborative governance in which sex worker advocacy organizations participate in the design and implementation of prostitution policy offers real prospects for an effective and humane prostitution policy.

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Section: Challenges To Prostitution Policymentioning

confidence: 99%

Why Prostitution Policy (Usually) Fails and What to Do about It?

Wagenaar

2017

Social Sciences

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“…Moral crusaders advance inflated claims about the magnitude and urgency of the problem, ignoring and fabricating evidence. In the absence of solid data to support their claims, the melodramatic case presented as representative of the issue as a whole is the rhetorical trope of choice (Weitzer, 2007;Vance, 2011;Wagenaar and Altink, 2012). In the Netherlands the main proponents of the trafficking crusade were politicians of the Social-Democratic and fundamentalist Christian parties and radical feminists.…”

Section: The Repressive Turnmentioning

confidence: 99%

Designing prostitution policy

Wagenaar¹,

Amesberger²,

Altink³

2017

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“…While these studies differ methodologically, a common approach is that they draw on the direct experience of sex workers in different indoor settings. Wagenaar and Altink (2012) note the need to bring together an international body of evidence on the effects of policy measures and the way in which they are designed and implemented. While we are not able to offer a systematic review of policies in the UK and the Netherlands, bringing together our separate research experience and the findings from different empirical studies enables some comparison to be made in terms of the effects of different policies on particular groups of sex workers, specifically those working independently or in collectives.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%