Lane: Legalizing prostitution doesn’t make it safer

In 2001, the German parliament almost totally deregulated prostitution. The majority, left-wing coalition of Social Democrats and the Green Party trumpeted the new law as a reform that would end prudishness about sex work and bring the business into the open so prostitutes could bargain for higher pay and claim social insurance.

Things havent quite gone according to plan. Large brothels have popped up in various cities, packed with women and girls lured by human traffickers from poverty-stricken Eastern Europe and handed over to pimps upon arrival.

Charles Lane

Lane is a Post editorial writer, specializing in economic policy, financial issues and trade, and a contributor to the PostPartisan blog.

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Sex tourists from around the globe flock to German establishments that offer unlimited sex for a flat rate of 100 euros (about $135) or, sometimes, gang-bang parties, according to extensive exposs of what some in the German press call modern slavery. Meanwhile, there has been no increase in prostitutes signing up for social benefits.

Amid a growing backlash from womens rights advocates, Chancellor Angela Merkel is promising tougher rules. A likely reform is the elimination of flat-rate brothels, though how that would be enforced is anyones guess.

Now the Supreme Court of Canada is trying its hand at prostitution reform. The justices unanimously struck down the countrys prostitution laws and ordered parliament to rewrite them within a year. Will this experiment end better than Germanys, or will it confirm that theres something inherently exploitative about prostitution that neither market forces nor enlightened legislators and judges can eradicate?

Prior to the courts ruling, Canadian law took a characteristically middle-of-the-road approach. Performing sex acts for money was not a crime. But it was illegal to solicit customers, operate a brothel or live off the avails of prostitution Canadian for pimping. Basically, prostitution was permitted but contained.

To the Supreme Court, however, this arbitrary scheme imposed dangerous conditions by preventing prostitutes from working indoors, from hiring drivers, receptionists or bodyguards, and from talking to would-be clients ahead of time to screen out potential abusers.

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Lane: Legalizing prostitution doesn’t make it safer