The following contribution is the first in a four-part series on anti-prostitution campaigns in South Korea and other countries. The Korea Times is publishing the stories to help its readers have better understating of domestic and global efforts against sex trade. - ED.
By Dorchen Leidholdt and Hilary Sung-hee Seo
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| Wearing baseball caps and masks to conceal their identities, sex workers stage a rally to protest against the new anti-prostitution law in Pyongtaek, 70 kilometers south of Seoul, on Oct. 11. Many brothel owners and prostitutes have recently held demonstrations to call for measures to protect their livelihood and even legalize their profession. AP-Yonhap |
Critics say that the intensity of the month long enforcement campaign begun on Sept. 23 cannot be sustained over a longer term, and that lukewarm enforcement will have the perverse effect of pushing prostitution into residential areas.
Others argue that the new law is idealistic and naive and that it will make the sex industry even more dangerous to already vulnerable women and girls.
A minority voice is calling for the outright legalization of prostitution, arguing that legalization and regulation will minimize the harm of prostitution.
Yet based on the experiences of other countries that have recently enacted new laws or policies concerning prostitution, it appears that Korea is on the right track and, in fact, those arguing for legalization or decriminalization are misguided. The approaches adopted by these countries can be divided mainly into two competing camps: the first, the Dutch model, where prostitution was legalized and second, the Swedish model, where prostitution was criminalized for the brothel owners and buyers, while new measures protecting the victims of prostitution were instituted alongside a concerted public education campaign.
In 2000, the Dutch government lifted a longstanding ban on brothels and recognized them as legitimate businesses. The government licensed 2,000 brothels and registered as prostitutes the women and girls in them. Brothel owners began to recruit women into prostitution through government-sponsored job centers for unemployed workers.
The Dutch experience, along with those of other jurisdictions that have legalized prostitution, has demonstrated just what happens when prostitution is legitimized and protected by law: the number of sex businesses grows, as does the demand for prostitution.
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| Police officers patrol a street with many brothels in a Seoul red-light district in this file photo. Police conducted a one-month special crackdown on sex trade, which began on Sept. 23. Korea Times |
The trafficked women are cheaper, younger, more exciting to customers, and easier to control. More trafficked women means more local demand and more sex tourism.
The end result looks a lot like Amsterdam where legalized brothels coexist with an ever growing, and thriving, market for illegal brothels filled with women and girls from poorer, developing countries. Many who think they are in favor of legalizing or decriminalizing prostitution think so because they mistakenly believe that legalization will limit the harm of prostitution and contain the sex industry.
In fact, it is just the opposite. Legalization fuels demand, which in turn fuels the sex industry and its influence over, and impact on, society. Moreover, numerous studies have shown that legalization does not make prostitution any less physically dangerous or less emotionally devastating to the women and girls involved in most cases. (See for example, the work of scholar and activist, Melissa Farley).
On the other hand, the Swedish government, in response to the massive movement of trafficked Eastern European women into its borders, developed an antithetical policy response.
In 1999, it passed and implemented legislation that stepped up measures against prostitution not only by directing strong penalties against pimps, brothel owners and other sex industry entrepreneurs, but by also directing criminal sanctions against customers.
The law also eliminated penalties against prostitutes, such as the penalty for soliciting. After the passage of the new law, Sweden spearheaded a public education campaign warning sex industry customers that patronizing prostitutes was criminal behavior.
The result was unexpected. While there was not a dramatic decrease in the incidence of prostitution, sex trafficking to Sweden declined while neighboring Scandinavian countries witnessed a significant increase. The danger of prosecution coupled with a diminished demand made Sweden an unpromising market for brothel owners and global sex traffickers.
The antithetical Dutch and Swedish legislative approaches to prostitution and trafficking hold important lessons for social change activists and policy makers.
The new anti-prostitution law that went into effect about one month ago in Korea imposes tougher penalties on brothel owners and buyers, while simultaneously protecting women who are deemed to be victims of prostitution. The law includes important provisions designed to chip away at the economic incentives of brothel owners and traffickers _ for example, a provision requiring the confiscation of all profits or assets accumulated through acts made criminal by the new law. The law also includes numerous protective measures for women deemed victims of prostitution.
In implementing the new law, however, it will be critically important for criminal justice authorities in Korea to understand that few prostituted women enter the industry voluntarily.
The reality is that even when overt force is not used, pimps prey on victims' vulnerable positions, such as poverty, history of prior sexual abuse, or alcohol or drug addiction. It would be unfortunate if the new law was misused to further victimize those who have already been harmed.
While it remains to be seen how the new legislation will be implemented, Korea's new anti-prostitution law appears to be a step in the right direction _ that is, in the direction of eradicating prostitution and trafficking from our society and protecting victims.
dorchen@sffny.org
sseo@sffny.org
Dorchen Leidholdt is a co-executive director of the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW) in New York City. Hilary Sung-hee Seo works as a counsel with the CATW. Seo is a human rights attorney practicing in New York, focusing on violence against and sexual exploitation of women. The CATW is a non-governmental organization that promotes women's rights. For more information, please visit the group's Web site: www.CATWinternational.org.
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