Monday, January 9, 2012

This house would criminalise the purchase of sex - opening speeches

First proposing speech
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for paying a visit to this website and taking time to read the first proposing speech. I thoroughly support criminalisation of sex purchase. Paying a woman to have sexual intercourse should be punished through 3000€ fines, 2 months prison sentences, and naming and shaming. [...]

by MD

First opposing speech
Dear ladies and gentlemen, this motion is a non-sense and hypocritical. The subject is composed of two important parts: criminalise, which means make illegal, and purchase of sex, which refers to the clients who pay for it. So the house’s proposal is to punish the clients of sex. Throughout the 3 opposing speeches, we are going to expose the reasons which convince us that this measure will not solve the problem; why the house aims at the wrong target and why a complete legalisation of prostitution would be a better solution. [...]

by LK

First proposing speech
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for paying a visit to this website and taking time to read the first proposing speech. I thoroughly support criminalisation of sex purchase. Paying a woman to have sexual intercourse should be punished through 3000€ fines, 2 months prison sentences, and naming and shaming.

The French bill recently proposed by the MPs Mme Danielle BOUSQUET and M. Guy GEOFFROY is no novelty. It has been tested and approved in Sweden since 1999. Indeed, under Swedish law, those who purchase sex are prosecuted. In light of the Scandinavian country’s law’s success, Norway and Iceland have followed suit. Indeed, the number of streetwalking prostitutes fell by 40% during the 1st four years when the law was implemented, according to authorities. One must notice that these countries are by no means conservative but actually progressive when it comes to social issues (they are part of the 7 countries which have legalised same-sex marriage). So what are we waiting for?

The aim of the French bill is, by and large, to improve prostitute’s living conditions.  By criminalising the client, we hope to simply change mentalities. If the client is punishable, he is committing a crime during sexual intercourse with a prostitute. Therefore, the prostitute is a victim of his crime. By shifting society’s and the clients’ perception of prostitutes to that of victims, the latter will receive more respect and better treatment by their clients. At present, a prostitute’s environment is plagued by violence.  A Dutch study shows that 60% of prostitutes are regularly physically assaulted and 40% are victims of sexual violence. It is also paramount to change the police’s mentality. In New Zealand, a country which rendered prostitution legal, studies show that clients have become much more aggressive towards prostitutes following decriminalisation. By criminalising clients, violence towards them should be driven down. Furthermore, cases of police violence against prostitutes are numerous. Getting the police to be protective rather than coercive with regards to prostitutes would allow the latter to approach them easier and, eventually, pop the lid on organised sex trafficking networks.

Furthermore, by criminalising the purchase of sex, we put an end to the belief that prostitution is inevitable. Public labelling of prostitution as “the oldest job in the world” or sayings such as “boys will be boys” emphasises that prostitution is here to stay and relieves men of the social remorse of buying sex.

Finally, I would like to precede the conclusion with a quick word on the broken window theory. Rudolph Giulliani put it into practice at the time when he was New York mayor in the 1990s and it contributed largely to the downfall of soaring crime at the time. The aim is to show zero-tolerance, and arrest the culprits of even the lightest of crimes. Those who break a window today will set fire to a building tomorrow. Same goes for prostitution. According to the broken window theory, by catching those who pay for sex you will inevitably get those who knowledgeably pay for sex with under-aged girls and other criminals. Research shows that men who most frequently used prostitutes were the most likely to have committed sexual assaults against non-prostituting women.

Prostitution puts men in a position to turn prostitutes into rented organs. Women lose their humanity and become the body part the client wants her to be. It is outrageous that, in France, the country of Human Rights, no text yet condemns the perpetuators of this act against a woman’s humanity. Furthermore, the clients make prostitution a form of organ trafficking. Ladies and gentlemen, such practices are unacceptable and the perpetuators, sellers or buyers, should be punished by law. 

MD

First opposing speech
Dear ladies and gentlemen, this motion is a non-sense and hypocritical. The subject is composed of two important parts: criminalise, which means make illegal, and purchase of sex, which refers to the clients who pay for it. So the house’s proposal is to punish the clients of sex. Throughout the 3 opposing speeches, we are going to expose the reasons which convince us that this measure will not solve the problem; why the house aims at the wrong target and why a complete legalisation of prostitution would be a better solution.

Let’s first identify the problem. The working conditions of lots of prostitutes are the real problem and NOT prostitution itself. For most of them, they work in really poor conditions, facing everyday a lot of dangers: STD, rape, violence... Although we agree there is a problem, the proposed solution is not the good one. Firstly a clear distinction should be made between two kinds of prostitution: when the prostitute is forced and when she acts of her own free will.

In the first case she is exploited by powerful networks which keep her identity papers to blackmail her. The prostitute has no possibility to quit this activity. She is then considered as a slave or even as an object. Therefore we have to fight organised networks with much more energy and punish pimps with exemplary sentences. Today the repression measures against them are ineffective and instead of trying to punish every single client, governments should be twice as strong in the fight against organised networks.

Some women choose to sell their body and to live on sex income. For them it is a choice, they are free to do what they want.  Some of them, who really need money and have no qualification, prefer to sell their body rather than to be a house cleaner for example. Prohibiting prostitution would make them lose their job and would be against their right to individual liberty.

Moreover, one should be realistic. Prostitution will not disappear if the main measure is to penalise the client. Quite the reverse, it will have fatal consequences. Hidden networks will develop and the working conditions of the prostitutes will become worse in them. And how the clients of prostitution will be caught and then what will be their sentence? Actually this measure would penalise the weakest, i.e. the poor women who prostitute to earn money to feed their family. For the “rich European client” it will only be a bill but, for the prostitute it will be one client less.

Finally we can’t prohibit prostitution because some people, women and men, have the will to make sex for money. Sexual urges are natural and we should not keep them down until the sexual act is achieved with mutual agreement and respect. In this case the protagonists can do what they want with their body because they do not cause harm to anyone.

In order to limit the problems faced by the prostitutes and at the same time guarantee their fundamental rights, a complete legalisation of prostitution would probably be the best solution. Prostitution would be an ordinary work, which would be regulated and reserved to some special places. Thanks to that, there could be a better control of the profession, clients would know which networks are legal and consequently safer, prostitutes would have the choice to change work at any time without fearing some repression and it would also bring money to the state with the taxes. The point of the complete legalisation of prostitution will be further developed in the following speeches.

Thanks for reading and vote for us!

LK

4 comments:

  1. @ LK (1st Opp)

    "Some women choose to sell their body and to live on sex income. For them it is a choice, they are free to do what they want. Some of them, who really need money and have no qualification, prefer to sell their body rather than to be a house cleaner for example."

    There is a terrible public consensus about the fact prostitution is a job. "Sex worker" is just an expression coined by the sex industry to lull the general public. How can you consider that an activity where the death rate is 200 times higher then that of women in general is a job? How can you consider than an activity where the average age of mortality is 34 years old is a job? Prostitution is not a job!

    Willingness and consent of prostitutes is just a convenient illusion. The average age of entry into prostitution in the United States is 14 years-old? Let's be realistic. Do you actually believe a girl who chooses to become a prostitute has sex with consent?

    A final word about outright legalization (a bold decision you have taken ;) ): this formula has been tested in Netherlands. The mayor of Amsterdam recently acknowledged that the Dutch got it wrong about legal prostitution. He claims it has not made prostitution safer and has increased organised crime.

    MD

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  2. @ MD
    In your speech, you said that we should protect the prostitute and being protective. So, you defend that we should take care of them when they are earning money, without prohibiting totally prostitution.
    Then, you said that a prostitute is always a victim and that prostitution is not a job.

    So, to protect a prostitute, you decide to protect her when she works (sorry whe has no job...) and unable her to earn money?

    @ LK

    I will just add two little things to MD great rebuttal:
    I really think that legalise prostitution will put the pimp and their network under the protection of law cause their final activity will be legal.
    In addition, if you really not want "to keep down you sexual urges until the sexual act with mutual agreement and respect", then try to solve the problem by yourself.

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  3. @ MD

    I am a bit surprised by the last digit you gave : "The average age of entry into prostitution in the United States is 14 years-old". That would imply there is approximately the same number of prostitutes entering at 8 and at 20...

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  4. I would like to back up my statistics with links to my sources as many seem to request them. They all come from:

    http://www.economist.com/debate/days/view/576

    60% physically assaulted and 40% sexual violence (paragraph 26 of the opening speech):
    "Sexual violence and physical assault are the norm for women in legal prostitution. In one Dutch study, 60% of women in legal prostitution were physically assaulted, 70% were threatened with physical assault, 40% experienced sexual violence and 40% had been coerced into legal prostitution."

    14 year-old entry (Taina Bien Aimé’s 2nd guest speech) : “The average age of entry into prostitution in the US is 14 years old and even lower in countries like Nepal and Cambodia.”

    death rate + average mortality age (Taina Bien Aimé’s 2nd guest speech):
    “It is hard to fathom that a "job" leading to a death rate 200 times that of women in general and with an average age of mortality of 34 is comparable to one in a retail store or a shoe factory.”

    @ RM

    I was also surprised by the number and had the same thought as you, but the stats speak for themselves


    @ FZ

    You are playing on words. I did use the term "job" because there is a public consensus around the fact prostitution is a job. All it says, is just that "job" refers to their activity as a prostitute.

    Furthermore, you are worried criminalization will cut prostitutes' source of income.
    Quick statistic from the same The Economist debate blog to start off (par. 32 of 1st opp speech): "80% of women in Dutch prostitution have been trafficked." The percentage is roughly the same in France and Europe. Why are these women trafficked? Because the money they earn goes to the pimps and the network who sell them. What happens if, as you write, these prostitutes "are unable to earn money"? The trafficker and mafiasos don't get their prostitution income either. What do they think of that? Maybe prostitution isn't such a lucrative business after all. I'll let you figure the conclusion out.

    MD

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