Payments for sex - Focus shifts from women

The report of the Oireachtas Committee on Justice calling for the criminalisation of payments for sex through prostitution is warmly welcomed.

Current laws have been facilitating a form of slavery, because the prostitutes have essentially been compelled to turn to pimps, not police, for protection.

It is crazy that it is legal for a man to pay for sex but it is a crime for a prostitute to accept money for sex. Reversing the situation by banning the purchase of sexual services could more readily be enforced by gardaí. Decriminalising the status of prostitutes would help reduce the stigma and thus enhance the opportunities for prostitutes to seek official support against effective enslavement. It would also afford better opportunities for legal authorities to put the pimps and sex traffickers out of business.

Of course, it won’t eliminate prostitution any more than it will curb the desire for sex, but it would shift the focus from vulnerable prostitutes to those organising the vile exploitation of women. More needs to be done to prevent the grooming of children for prostitution, and the exploitation of vulnerable migrant women for sex trafficking.