Western Australia is set to legalise prostitution in a bid to improve health standards and keep brothels out of residential areas.
Hundreds of suburban brothels are expected to close when WA Attorney-General Christian Porter ends decades of “turning a blind eye” and starts regulating the sex industry next year.
Prostitution is illegal in WA but police rarely lay charges unless they are related to underage sex or unsafe practices.
Under the new legislation, brothels will be licensed and confined to designated commercial and industrial areas, and police will be given powers to investigate and forcibly close those which fail to comply.
Sex businesses will need to follow health and safety standards to obtain and maintain their licences.
Individual sex workers will need to register with a central agency and will undergo compulsory health and blood checks.
They may also be required to carry ID cards.
Mr Porter said suburban operators would be given a grace period from next year to either close or move to a licensed area.
Applications for brothels would first be put to local councils and then assessed by state regulators.
Mr Porter said the new regulations would limit problems in non-residential areas.
WA brothel madams welcomed the move over the weekend but feared the bid to register individual prostitutes would drive some underground.
A sobering opinion piece offering data about the world’s oldest profession. The author, Christine Bott Schmuker, is a psychotherapist and coordinator of the Adult Survivors of Childhood Trauma Program with Center for Child & Family Services.
Over the last few weeks the subject of prostitution has been front and center on the Williamsburg stage. The High Street apartment arrest has illuminated the underbelly of what many call the world’s oldest profession.
Most people would not be surprised to find prostitution sprinkled within Richmond, Norfolk, Newport News or Hampton. But Williamsburg? It certainly does not seem to fit Williamsburg’s quaint, historically charmed persona. Or does it?
The Gazette article stated how much the alleged High Street prostitute charges, that she was not willing to surrender her list of male clientele to police, and that neighbors report males combing through the apartment complex at differing times of day.
Her name was printed on the front page of the paper twice in two weeks. Will the paper provide comparable transparency to the male client list that police will find on her computer?
While I in no way condone her behavior, I do want to illuminate the underreported, misunderstood and tragic other side of the debate.
Here are the facts (Farley, M., 2004, Prostitution, Trafficking, & Traumatic Stress):
Nine out of 10 prostitutes were sexually assaulted as children.
Nine out of 10 will be beaten physically during encounters with their men clients.
Two out of 10 will be tortured during such encounters.
One in 10 will die prostituting within their first three years.
Eight out of 10 are teenage runaways.
Nine out of 10 had no father or father-figure living at home.
Eight out of 10 make contact with men online first.
Eight out of 10 use drugs and alcohol.
This is less about prostitution and more about untreated childhood sexual trauma.
There is hope. I run a program at the Center for Child & Family Services called the Adult Survivors Program.
The World Cup means world class opportunities for working girls. Read more at The Star…
World Cup to draw 40 000 hookers to SA
by Kenichi Serino
As many as 40 000 women are expected to arrive in South Africa ahead of the World Cup to work as prostitutes, according to the Central Drug Authority (CDA).
“Forty-thousand new prostitutes. As if we do not have enough people of our own, we have to import them to ensure that our visitors are entertained,” CDA deputy chairman David Bayever said in Pretoria yesterday at the release of the International Narcotics Control Board’s annual report.
He said the agency had been warned by the eThekwini metropolitan municipality of the possibility of huge inflows. “They got wind of it.”
Many of the women were likely to be recruited from eastern Europe.
Bayever also warned that the extension of school holidays during the soccer tournament would put children at risk of being lured into sex work.
“Our youth are going to be on holiday. They are going to be targeted to become prostitutes.”
Winter Olympics’ boost for Vancouver sex trade as business triples at brothel
By Megan Taylor
Vancouver’s estimated 1,000 sex workers agree: The Olympic Games are good for business.
Business at a brothel near downtown Vancouver tripled during the Winter Olympics, AOL News reports. But instead of the expected foreign visitors, Sexy Nina, who owns the house of ill repute, found local clients excited by the competitive spirit.
“The Games gave us the desire and willingness to connect, the energy to move,” she told AOL News. “What an amazing two weeks!”
Despite fears that out-of-town sex workers could make work riskier, some street workers reported that business was slow, said Kerry Porth, the executive director of Prostitution Alternatives Counseling & Education Society (PACE), which offered nightly outreach sessions during the Games.
Porth said the increased police presence may be to blame for some of the slowdown in street business.
“There were police on foot and in cars, all over the usual sex worker neighborhoods,” she said.
Although sex work is legal in Vancouver, some associated activities are not, such as running a brothel. But the Vancouver Police Department usually leaves sex workers alone.
It’s not the punchline to a joke. It’s true! Read the whole story at The Telegraph…
Swiss prostitutes trained to use defibrillators in brothels to prevent clients dying
Brothel owners in the Lugano area say electric shock treatment to restart customer’s hearts is needed because so many elderly customers are using their services.
The most recent victim was a pensioner, thought to be having fun with the help of anti-impotence medication.
His death followed a series of other incidents, some fatal, in which heart attacks have claimed brothel customers in the area.
The owner of one sex club said: “Having customers die on us isn’t exactly good publicity”.
There are now 38 sex clubs and brothel in the Lugano area. And more are planned, according to Italian daily, Corriere della Sera, in order to accommodate the thousands of customers who pour over the border from Italy, where brothels are illegal. Around 80 per cent of the men who pay for sex in the area are thought to be Italian.
Selling Sex to Pay the Bills SWFL Women turn to prostitution
By WINK News
It’s the world’s oldest profession, and the bad economy might be breathing new life into the seedy world of prostitution.
“I’m doing the same thing everybody else is doing, I’m sacrificing my time for money,” said “Britney”, an articulate mother of two and prostitute.
For obvious reasons she did not want to be identified by her real name or show her face on camera but she was willing to detail why she chose her profession.
“I saw that the money was real good, and i could make ends meet that way.”
“Britney” says the bad economy forced her to turn to prostitution, but police say that is an excuse.
“A lot of them don’t want to take responsibility for the decision they made, they were forced into because of the economy, forced into because of bad circumstances,” said Troy Bettencourt with the Punta Gorda Police Department.
Punta Gorda police have turned to several sites on the internet to crack down on prostitution in their area, but they can only regulate what’s within their jurisdiction.
A popular escort site has more postings for areas in Lee and Collier county than any other metropolitan area in Florida, with over 1,000 prostitutes listed.
Reports give details of undercover police raids on massage parlors
By AMY LEIGH WOMACK
Closed police files from raids at Macon massage parlors shed light on operations that undercover officers found there.
In 2008 and 2009, a series of raids targeted more than a dozen Macon-area massage parlors and spas that police suspected of being houses of prostitution. As a result, more than 20 women were arrested on various sex charges.
Seven closed Macon police case files describe how undercover police officers entered businesses and paid for massages. Costs ranged from $40 for a half-hour massage to $140 for sex.
In most cases, the officers were led to rooms where they were asked to undress. Some of them were led to showers or were bathed by women working at the massage parlors.
…
In each of the cases, the women asked the officers if they wanted additional services. In at least two cases, the women gestured that they were offering sex.
At one massage parlor, a woman asked an officer in June 2008 if he wanted other services after a 10-minute massage. When he replied that he just wanted a massage, the woman said “$40 is for the house, massage, bath and relaxation. We are extra,” according to a police report.
Some of the women touched the officers’ genitals before offering additional services.
At another massage parlor, a woman initiated a sex act on an officer against the officer’s will in July 2008. Then she stood in front of the door, keeping the officer from leaving until she was paid for the act, according to one report.
The heat is on in West Midtown, New York City. Read more at NJ.com…
West New York police to pimps and prostitutes: No more sex!
By Karina Arrue
Coy S. Gordon expected it to be a normal night of work — a transsexual sex romp with a “john” for anywhere from $100 to $180. But like his clients, Gordon got more than he bargained for one night last week.
Gordon, 42, was arrested by a West New York undercover cop.
If the 6-foot-2 Gordon — who was wearing a yellow splash negligee and 5-inch heels when she was arrested — had been reading The Jersey Journal lately, it wouldn’t have come as a big surprise.
Gordon is the latest in a string of arrests by West New York police, who received an anonymous complaint about her a few weeks ago, officials said.
The tip was corroborated by an advertisement at backpage.com in which Gordon, who goes by the name “Tasty and Silky the New Milk Ms. Society,” offered “transsexual escort” services for a steep price — $100 for 15 minutes, $140 for 30 minutes and $180 for an hour, police said.
Since Dec. 31, 25 people have been arrested in West New York as a result of eight sting operations. Of the eight busts, Gordon is the first that used the Internet to spur business. West New York police say the seven other times they received a tip about people handing out business cards in the street.
The arrests stem from “community outcry,” says Police Director Albert Bringa, who took the helm of the department Dec. 2.
Chinese students lured to become sex workers
By Lincoln Tan
Sex workers are using a bilingual sex information leaflet to recruit international students and other young Chinese women into the industry.
Speaking on the condition of anonymity, a 20-year-old Chinese international student told the Weekend Herald she decided to become a sex worker after being given the Working in New Zealand leaflet, which is produced by the New Zealand Prostitutes Collective.
“It is not easy for international students to find employment in New Zealand, and reading the brochure made me feel less afraid of getting into sex work,” she said in Mandarin.
Older, more experienced prostitutes hand the booklets to young Chinese women.
The brochure spells out, in Chinese and English, exactly how to start working in the sex industry – including advice on what to wear, getting started, how to select a working name and how to perform sex tricks.
“Young Asian girls are being recruited by older sex workers, who use us to get new customers, and work with them to provide a bi-double service to make more money,” she said.
Working privately from a North Shore City suburb, the business student, who came to New Zealand on a student permit, said she knew of at least three other Chinese students – not all on student permits – who turned to sex work after receiving the leaflets. The brochures are readily available for pickup at the reception counter at the collective’s Auckland office in Karangahape Rd, but they are also distributed by its volunteers and staff.
Prostitution racket run by ’spiritual’ centre busted
Delhi Police today claimed to have busted a prostitution racket being run at a ’spiritual’ centre with the arrest of two alleged pimps and six women, including two air-hostesses.
One of the arrested persons had set up a ‘temple’ in south Delhi’s Khanpur, police said.
Six women were arrested, including two air-hostesses, one an MBA student and an aspiring Bollywood actress.
The racket was unearthed yesterday after police received inputs about the pimps and sex workers who were to come to PVR Saket. A Sub-Inspector was sent as a decoy customer and after a deal was struck, police swooped down and arrested them.
As many as 40 000 women are expected to arrive in South Africa ahead of the World Cup to work as prostitutes, according to the Central Drug Authority (CDA).
