October 30, 2019
There has been a small movement in the United States to legalize prostitution and acknowledge prostituted men and women as “sex workers”. Their reasoning is that legalizing prostituted men and women will provide them with safety protections and allow the prostituted men and women to seek assistance from the police if they are assaulted by buyers of sex. This thinking perpetuates the myth that “Legal Makes it Safe.” The Washington DC City Council debated a bill in October 2019 that would legalize prostitution in the District. The opponents of the bill rightfully argued that the bill would increase human trafficking. The District has decided not to vote on the bill.
At Global Hope 365, we do not endorse the legalization of prostitution. Legalized prostitution increases human trafficking. In addition, legalized prostitution essentially promotes the concept of women as objects to be bought and sold as opposed to humans that deserve respect. At Global Hope 365, we support the Nordic Model.
What is the Nordic Model? The following explanation is from an organization called Nordic Model Now based in the United Kingdom. “The Nordic Model approach to prostitution (sometimes also known as the Sex Buyer Law, or the Swedish, Abolitionist, or Equality Model) decriminalizes all those who are prostituted, provides support services to help them exit, and makes buying people for sex a criminal offence, in order to reduce the demand that drives sex trafficking. This approach has now been adopted in Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Northern Ireland, Canada, France, Ireland, and most recently, Israel.”
Germany showed a sharp increase in reports of human trafficking upon fully legalizing prostitution in 2002. In 2012, a research paper published by three economists found that on average, countries where prostitution is legal experience larger reported human trafficking inflows. Today many Germans are advocating for an end to legalized prostitution after observing the harm to society. Dr. Ingeborg Kraus, psychologist and trauma expert based in Germany, delivered a strong speech in favor of the Nordic model in 2018.
Global Hope 365 advocates for an inclusive, informed, consultative, and multi-point approach to ending Human Trafficking in California. Global Hope 365 policy positions have been made in consultation with law enforcement.
The strategy includes key points to increase penalties on those who participate in Human Trafficking:
Increase the penalty of Human Traffickers from a felony to a violent felony.
Increase the penalty of “buyers of sex” with a victim of human trafficking from a misdemeanor to a felony.
Include buyers of sex in the sex offender registry.
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