Western Australia takes a big step. Read the whole article at The Sydney Morning Herald…

Western Australia to legalise prostitution

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.

The working girls descending on South Africa for some World Cup antics are finding things tough.

Read more at The Star…

No ‘boom boom’ for Joburg’s sex workers
By Thabiso Thakali and Candice Bailey

There’s just no “boom boom” in Joburg’s sex industry. Sex workers hoping to turn a quick buck when thousands of horny soccer fans descended on the city for the World Cup say they have been disappointed.

And while some upmarket strip clubs say business has been good, others have been forced to cancel shows.

Even metered taxi drivers delivering girls to tourists say business has died down.

In the months leading up to the World Cup, there was mounting expectation that prostitution would peak.

Reports suggested that up to 40,000 sex workers would be brought into the country to satisfy the demand for sex.

But last year, during the Confederations Cup, prostitution suffered a hammer blow when a theft from the Egyptian team’s hotel room at the Protea Wanderers in Illovo was blamed on prostitutes.

Initial reports suggested that there had been prostitutes in the players’ room, but the police later ruled this out.

Nevertheless, since then, hotels have begun clamping down on sex workers.

On the streets this week, the winter chill and increased police visibility meant fewer sex workers on the strip.

Visits during peak cruising hours, around 9pm, to the traditional red-light areas of Oxford Street, Illovo and Sandton found fewer than 10 sex workers roaming around in skimpy skirts.

Those who had braved the low temperatures to lure clients dived into bushes whenever the police patrolled.

One sex worker, in her seventh year on the streets, said the tourists were “boring”.

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.

Read the complete essay at The Virginia Gazette…

ESSAY: Prostitution victims
By Christine Bott

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 heat is on in Pasco! Read more at The Pasco Tribune…

Prostitution sting in Pasco nets 11 arrests

An undercover operation run by the New Port Richey Police Department and the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office netted 11 prostitution arrests Friday.

The sting, which ran from noon to 8 p.m., targeted people soliciting prostitution on the west side of Pasco County, according to a news release.

All were charged with solicitation of prostitution.

Read more at This Is London…

Crackdown on kerb-crawlers under new laws

Kerb-crawlers can be arrested on their first offence under new laws designed to tackle the demand for prostitution, Home Office minister Alan Campbell said today.

And a poster campaign launched to coincide with International Women’s Day will warn potential “punters” of new criminal fines of up to £1,000 for having sex with a woman forced into prostitution against her will.

Changes to the law coming into effect on April 1 will remove a requirement for police to establish that a man is “persistently” kerb-crawling before arresting him.

Mr Campbell said the reforms are intended to hit hardest the men who pay for sex, while helping often vulnerable women to leave prostitution.

“We are determined to tackle the demand for prostitution and provide help for those who wish to leave prostitution,” he said.

“These new measures build on the significant action we have already taken to tackle prostitution and trafficking for sexual exploitation. They will help bring greater protection to vulnerable people involved in prostitution.

“Alongside this we are also continuing our funding to tackle the appalling crime of domestic violence with £4.3 million to support help for victims.”

From April 1, a man paying for sex with a prostitute who is being exploited through force, deception or threats will be breaking the law, whether or not he knows that she is selling her body against her will.

Some Madison, Wisconsin hobbyists are blue these days.  Read more at The Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel…

Online prostitution forum leads to arrests of 57 people
By The Associated Press

Madison police say they’ve cracked down on the sex trade by infiltrating an online forum popular among customers of prostitutes.

The Wisconsin State Journal reported that officers have arrested 57 people following eight months of monitoring the Web site.

Police Officer Jeff Pharo said he stumbled across the site while investigating a separate tip. He said the site offered updates of which prostitutes were walking the sidewalk, updates that he confirmed by driving by.

So he created a fake profile to establish himself, then began studying the comments of other people in the forum. The information led to dozens of arrests and citations.

Read more at The Province…

64 charges against prostitutes, johns in Calgary sting
By Sherri Zickefoose

A city-wide prostitution sting has seen 64 charges laid against johns and sex trade workers.

Police also have seized 25 cars from johns caught soliciting prostitutes, a penalty provided for in Alberta law.

Police made arrests on nine outstanding warrants as they operated the two-week undercover sting.

First-time johns can get their cars back after performing community service, but those who get caught more than once could see their vehicles seized by the Alberta government and auctioned off.

It’s always reassuring to read that law enforcement is a good 10-15 years behind the newest trends! Read more at WALB.com…

Hookers are giving up street-walking for web surfing

Police say the world’s oldest profession has gone high-tech. More prostitutes are leaving the street corner and turning to the web.

“What we are seeing is just outright advertisements for sexual services,” Deputy Chief Jaime Ayala of the Arlington, TX, Police Department said.

On one website well-known for its “adult services” advertisements, one out of every five ads in Dallas-Fort Worth originates in Arlington.

“We have received a number of complaints about what appears to be obvious postings of what appears to be prostitution,” Ayala said.

The Arlington Police Department is now launching operation “You Never Know” to fight online solicitation.

Undercover officers will be surfing the web, posing as prostitutes and johns.

“If you respond to an ad or place one, you never know who might be on the other end of the line,” Ayala said.

Read more here…

Police Targeted Suspected Prostitutes, Johns
Fulton County Police Cleaning Up Fulton Industrial Boulevard
By Tony McNary

CBS Atlanta went undercover with the Fulton County Police Department’s Special Operations Unit Friday night.

They were on a mission to clean up Fulton Industrial Boulevard’s reputation for being a haven for prostitution.

“After several years of being tired of this we’ve gotten a new approach. It’s going to be a sustained effort to continue doing this day in and day out,” said Captain Wade Yates.

An undercover officer posed as a “John” and picked up three women who police said offered him sex for money.

Another undercover officer posed as a prostitute. She was on the street less than five minutes before someone tried to solicit her.

Read more at The BBC…

Romania ‘tops EU sex worker list’

Romania has overtaken Russia as the top country of origin of migrant sex workers in the EU, a survey of prostitution across the EU has found.

In 2006 the top countries of origin were Russia, Ukraine and Romania – in that order, the Tampep network reports.

But in 2008 the top three were Romania, Russia and Bulgaria. Romania and Bulgaria joined the EU in 2007.

EU-funded Tampep collects data from welfare groups and public health bodies that monitor and help prostitutes.

Tampep’s data collection is part of an effort to curb the spread of HIV/Aids and other sexually-transmitted diseases.

According to the survey, Central and Eastern Europe, including the Baltic and Balkan countries, account for around 70% of migrant sex workers in the 27-nation EU.

The next largest groups come from Africa (12%) and Latin America and the Caribbean (11%).