{"id":96649,"date":"2017-01-09T10:20:56","date_gmt":"2017-01-09T15:20:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/?p=96649"},"modified":"2020-09-17T10:33:29","modified_gmt":"2020-09-17T14:33:29","slug":"decriminalizing-prostitution-wont-solve-social-ethical-problems","status":"publish","type":"bu-article","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/news\/articles\/2017\/decriminalizing-prostitution-wont-solve-social-ethical-problems\/","title":{"rendered":"Decriminalizing Prostitution Won\u2019t Solve Social, Ethical Problems"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"banner-container banner-has-html\">\n<div class=\"videoWrapper\" style=\"position: relative;padding-bottom: 56.25%; \/* 16:9 *\/height: 0;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"855\" height=\"481\" src=\"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/buniverse\/interface\/embed\/embed.html?v=11ZKyG0\" style=\"position: absolute;top: 0;left: 0;width: 100%;height: 100%;frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen> <\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n<p>\n<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar sphnews-prepress-layout-metabar\">\n\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-date\">January 9, 2017<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-credits\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-share js-bu-prepress-share-tools\">\n\t\t\t<span class=\"icon-twitter\"><span>Twitter<\/span><\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"icon-facebook\"><span>Facebook<\/span><\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"icon-action\"><\/span>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/p>\n<p>As debate continues around the world about whether prostitution should be decriminalized, a School of Public Health researcher argues in the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/journalofethics.ama-assn.org\/2017\/01\/sect1-1701.html\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>American Medical Association Journal of Ethics<\/em><\/a> for a middle ground in the US that would punish buyers and brokers of sex, but not the people who sell sex (i.e. prostitutes).<\/p>\n<p>Emily Rothman, an associate professor of community health sciences and expert in sexual abuse and violence, says that both the criminalization and legalization of commercial sex have ethical pitfalls because they can \u201cdisempower and burden sellers\u201d and put vulnerable people at increased risk of harm.<\/p>\n<p>She argues that the so-called \u201cNordic model,\u201d which criminalizes only the buying and brokering of sex, \u201coffers the advantage of eliminating punishment for sellers, while potentially preventing the expansion of the commercial sex market and limiting the number of people trafficked.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Rothman says that despite global controversy about the regulation of commercial sex, there is widespread agreement that sellers, or prostitutes, are at increased risk for a host of negative health and social consequences, including assault, homicide, and sexually transmitted infections. Complicating the debate is a lack of data on the percentage of those engaged in commercial sex who sell sex willingly, or who are coerced by force (i.e. trafficked) or by financial pressures.<\/p>\n<p>Whether people who engage in commercial sex are consenting or non-consenting is important, she says, because supporters of decriminalization \u201cassume that most paid sexual encounters are entirely consensual.\u201d Problematically, she adds, some accept the argument that people living in dire poverty, with no other options, sell sex with consent.<\/p>\n<p>Rothman argues that biomedical ethics disallows the coercive practice of using financial inducements to compel people to participate in medical research, so it is \u201clogically consistent\u201d to object to the use of financial incentives to compel people to have sex.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are those who argue that people work at all kinds of jobs that they don\u2019t like because of financial pressure, and that working at sex is no different,\u201d Rothman says.\u00a0 \u201cBut that is not a universally held opinion by the people who have sold sex.\u00a0 Some feel that having their bodies penetrated by customers is fundamentally, qualitatively different than standing behind a cash register. We simply don\u2019t know what percentage of sellers enjoy selling sex, and what percentage are being assaulted or traumatized regularly.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While criminalization has the potential to reduce the likelihood that people will be trafficked, arrests can \u201ccompound adversity\u201d for sellers, especially those from marginalized populations, and enforcement can be used \u201cselectively\u201d against buyers and brokers, Rothman says. Legalization, meanwhile, may not stem trafficking and may continue to put sellers at high risk of violence and exploitation.<\/p>\n<p>She notes that, counter to expectations, the decriminalization or legalization of commercial sex in New Zealand, the Netherlands, and Germany has not resulted in uniformly safer conditions, successful unionization of sex workers, or destigmatization. She cites economists\u2019 analyses showing that countries where commercial sex is legal appear to experience higher sex-trafficking inflows.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOn the question of decriminalizing the form of commercial sex known as prostitution in the US, the potential harms to individuals and the public must be considered as carefully as the benefits of the expansion of individual rights,\u201d Rothman says.<\/p>\n<p>She says that while there is \u201cno perfect solution,\u201d the Nordic model, or any other policy changes, should be rigorously evaluated after being implemented.<\/p>\n<p>Prostitution is illegal in all 50 US states, with the exception of some counties in Nevada, where it is allowed in local government-regulated brothels.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u2014<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"mailto:chedekel@bu.edu\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Lisa Chedekel<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[VIDEO] So-called &#8220;Nordic model,&#8221; which criminalizes only buying and brokering of sex, warrants further consideration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8472,"featured_media":96694,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"bu_prepress_billboard":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term_manual":""},"tags":[2249],"bu-publication":[3516],"sphnews-article-category":[3519,3525,3531,3540],"sphnews-topic":[],"bu_edition":[],"media_type":[],"profile_tax":[295],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/96649"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/bu-article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8472"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96649"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/96649\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":175315,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/96649\/revisions\/175315"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96649"},{"taxonomy":"bu-publication","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-publication?post=96649"},{"taxonomy":"sphnews-article-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sphnews-article-category?post=96649"},{"taxonomy":"sphnews-topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sphnews-topic?post=96649"},{"taxonomy":"bu_edition","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu_edition?post=96649"},{"taxonomy":"media_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media_type?post=96649"},{"taxonomy":"profile_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profile_tax?post=96649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}