Regulating the World's Oldest Profession: Queensland's experience with a regulated sex industry

Submitted by: Charrlotte Woodward, RN MN & Jane Fischer BA MSPD, School of Public Health, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia

Input for: Expert Group Meeting: "Violence Against Women: A statistical overview, challenges and gaps in data collection and methodology and approaches for overcoming them," 11-14 April 2005, Geneva, Switzerland

Topic: Violence against women in the sex industry

The public visibility and moral context of sex work in Queensland, Australia as in other locales has changed over time. Fitzgerald (1989) has suggested that the Queensland sex industry occurred in a well controlled albeit covert manner before regulation. The Fitzgerald Royal Commission into Possible Illegal Activities and Associated Police Misconduct in the 1980s concluded: "the law had reached too far into prostitution and highlighted that, when areas related to morality and human behaviour are over-regulated, corruption can find an opening" (in Carver and Mottier, 1998:185). The 'law' in this instance were the police themselves.

During the 1990s, legislation attempted to eradicate links between organised crime, police corruption and sex work. The Prostitution Amendment Act 1992 was enacted, allowing sex workers to work alone from private premises. The Prostitution Act 1999 saw the introduction of license boutique brothels throughout Queensland. One interpretation of the prevalent legislation is that it addresses community concerns about the public visibility of prostitution rather than the occupational health and safety of workers.

In 2002, our research was funded to inform a government evaluation of prostitution laws to determine if they had reduced illegal sex work, improved the health of sex workers and were acceptable to the general community. We hoped to systematically evaluate the extent to which the changes in legislative structure had been effective in improving health and well-being of sex workers, and to determine contemporary occupational health and safety concerns of female sex workers in Queensland. Community participation and support was sought at all stages of the research process. Initial development included extensive discussion with sex workers, sex worker advocacy groups, government and non-government organisations, brothel owners, and other key individuals about questionnaire content and methods for distribution. The draft questionnaire was developed, piloted and modified in response to comments provided by sex workers.

Three female interviewers with varied and extensive knowledge of, and experience with, the Queensland sex industry recruited and interviewed all women who participated in the research. Recruitment was done through both direct and indirect strategies, with word of mouth being very effective method of recruitment. The final sample consisted of 247 female sex workers from various work settings including street-based sex workers, escorts, private sex workers, women working in legal and illegal brothels and massage parlours. Within the sample, 43 women worked illegally, of those 33 were street-based sex workers. 204 women interviewed worked in the legal sex industry, approximately half of whom worked in legal brothels.

Workplace violence and perceived safety

Women working in the illegal sector of the sex industry were much more likely to report being raped or bashed by a client, 21 per cent of illegal sex workers reported having ever been raped and 49 per cent reported having ever been bashed by a client. Unsurprisingly, almost half of illegal sex workers also reported feeling 'not safe' or only 'a little safe' on the average work day.

Police harassment

A significant proportion of sex workers indicated some form of unwanted police attention in the past five years. Illegal sex workers were more likely to report being harassed (42 per cent compared with 13 per cent of legal sex workers). Among the women who had been harassed by a police officer, verbal abuse was common. An African sex worker indicated that a police officer taunted her with racial insults. Other forms of harassment included stalking, arriving at one's private residence, repeated phone calls and requests for sexual favours. Three per cent of women working legally reported having been sexually or physically assaulted by a Queensland police officer in the past five years compared with 21 per cent of those working illegally. One third of illegal sex worker reported being propositioned by a Queensland police officer compared with nine per cent of legal sex workers.

Reporting to the police

Most women interviewed indicated they would 'most likely' or 'maybe' report workplace violence by clients or by the police. Three quarters of women indicated they would possibly report being raped or assaulted by a client. However, women working in the illegal sector of the sex industry were much less likely to consider reporting police harassment, assault or rape. Of the women who indicated they would not report harassment or assault by Queensland police officers, many suggested the police protect one another and implied continued corruption within the service.

Conclusions

There are a number of serious public health issues confronting sex workers including workplace harassment and violence from clients, police and others. Women working illegally were more likely to report being raped or assaulted by a client. Clearly this is an important health issue for sex workers that needs to be acknowledged and addressed, regardless of the legal status of the occupation.

The main issues facing sex workers continue to be legitimisation and recognition of sex work as an occupation. Making sex work subject to criminal sanctions stems from the belief that law enforcement can eradicate prostitution, a framework commonly employed in the United States of America. However, the American experience has demonstrated the ineffectiveness of such legislation (Milman, 1980). Laws prohibiting sex work do not eliminate it; they simply change the structure of the sex industry, forcing it to operate covertly and in a clandestine manner.

We found the changes in legislative framework in Queensland have not stopped the illegal sectors of the sex industry and have created an underground economy. This legislation may provide benefit for some, but overall it further isolates and marginalises sex workers. This marginalisation may strengthen links between sex work and criminal activity. Repeatedly arresting street-based sex workers for soliciting creates a 'revolving door' effect as it only temporarily removes sex workers from the streets. Additionally, it encourages faster commercial sex transactions which may increase the risk of harm as sex workers give up their safety precautions. It must be questioned whether this is good public policy and is financially viable.

Sanctions against street-based sex work also create an adversary relationship between police and sex workers. Despite this, many sex workers in this study said that they would report workplace assault or rape to the police. However, the reality of this situation may be somewhat different. Woodward (2002) found that only two per cent of women who had been sexually assaulted by a client reported the incident to the police. The most common reasons for not reporting violence were that women feared not being taken seriously by the police or did not want to bring attention upon themselves. Anecdotal evidence suggests that women are often concerned their experiences will be trivialised by the police and assailants are unlikely to be convicted.

The enactment of two successive pieces of legislation regulating the Queensland sex industry aimed to break links between police corruption, criminality and sex work. However, questions remain about the success of these laws in terms of continued reports of harassment and assault by police and continued occupational health and safety concerns.

References

• Carver, T. & Mottier, V. (eds) (1998). Politics of Sexuality: Identity, gender, citizenship. Routledge, London.
• Fitzgerald, G. (1989). Report of a Commission Inquiry Pursuant to Orders in Council — Inquiry into Possible Illegal Activities and Associated Police Misconduct. Government Publisher, Brisbane.
• Milman, J. (1980). "New Rules For The Oldest Profession: Should we change the laws?" Harvard Women's Law Journal, 16: 1-35.
• Woodward, C. (2002). "Prevalence and correlates of sexual assault among female sex workers." Unpublished Masters thesis, School of Nursing, Queensland University of Technology.

Submitted by:

• Charrlotte Woodward, RN MN & Jane Fischer BA MSPD
  School of Public Health
  Queensland University of Technology
  Brisbane, Australia