Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Southern California Law Review

Abstract

This Article argues that: 1) criminal sanctions against people who offer sex for money should be repealed, 2) legal remedies and programs to protect commercial sex workers from violence, rape, disease, exploitation, coercion and abuse should be enhanced and 3) whether or not commercial sex is prohibited by criminal law, government policy should promote decent working conditions for all workers and should not require people to engage in sex as a condition of subsistence. It further addresses how, as a practical matter, people who provide commercial sex can best be protected against exploitation, both physical and economic. This Article demonstrates that decriminalization of sexual services is a necessary first step toward creating more effective remedies against abuse, protecting vulnerable women and building a more humane society. Part I introduces the law and contested facts. Part II describes and critiques the analyses of other scholars who have grappled with the subject of commercial sex, with a particular focus on debates among feminists. Part III describes a variety of contemporary alternatives to the criminal punishment of those who provide sex for money. Part IV argues that the criminal justice system should do more to protect women who sell sex for money from violence, rape, abuse and exploitation. Part V discusses the exchange of sex for money as a form of work. “Prostitution” is the word ordinarily used to describe the behaviors addressed in this Article. This Article will avoid using the terms prostitute or prostitution, except when quoting from others or discussing criminal prosecutions. The word “prostitution” both describes and condemns. The primary meaning of the word has a sexual connotation, historically describing women who offer sexual services on an indiscriminate basis, whether or not for money, and more recently, the offer of sex for money. But a common secondary meaning of “prostitution” is any service to “an unworthy cause.” Because this Article explores whether the denunciation is warranted, it seems better to avoid words that assume the conclusion. Further, the term “prostitute” conflates work and identity.6 Women who sell sex for money typically have other identities, that is, daughter, mother, athlete, musician, et cetera. But, as John F. Decker, author of the preeminent study, Prostitution: Regulation and Control reminds us, “changing labels by itself will have little effect; what is more sorely needed is a change in attitude."

First Page

523

Volume

73

Publication Date

2000

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