Stupid, Stupid Laws (part 1)

Most of the laws related to sex work that I have worked under in different jurisdictions around Australia operate in exactly the ways that anyone could least want to them to work. For example, in South Australia, where I spent most of my career to date, most activities to do with sex work are illegal, and up until the last decade or so, heavily policed. These days, the vice squad focus their policing efforts on street based sex work, mostly tolerating brothels and private in house workers. One charge related to sex work is ‘procuring’ where you employ someone as a sex worker who hasn’t sex worked, at least in SA before.

How this is policed is some police officer will pose as someone looking for a job at a brothel or escort agency, gain an interview with a business owner or manager, ask questions about the work, and get the interviewer to acknowledge that sexual services are an expected part of the job, and then they will arrest the person. I’ve never met a sex worker who was duped or deceived about the nature of the work they were entering, while it probably happens, it isn’t a common feature of the sex industry, and sex workers I have met go for their first hooking job well aware of the broad aspects of the work, if not the fine details. However, because owners and managers fear being charged for procuring, it can be really difficult to actually get clear and specific information about the work when you first start – and obviously, with sex work, as much as any work, knowledge is power. Tips and tricks of the trade, industry norms and easy ideas of how a basic sex work booking runs would be invaluable when first starting sex work.

Criminalisation gets in the way of sex workers gaining information, skills and being best able to make informed choices.

*Sigh*