Sexual and physical trauma that cannot be regulated away.
Various studies, both nationally and internationally, show that women are sexually and physically traumatized from their encounters with sex buyers, pimps, or others. In one study, more than 50% of women reported experiencing violence from sex buyers including being stabbed or cut, raped, gang-raped, raped at gunpoint, forced to engage in degrading sexual acts, choked/strangled, beaten, kidnapped, stalked, held with a gun to head, tied up, tortured, beaten with objects (e.g. baseball bat, crowbar), and run over.[1] Sex buyers are a significant source of violence in prostitution, because when someone purchases sex they view that person as something to discard. One survivor of prostitution wrote: “Yes, sometimes I do feel that they think that I’m not a person. That anybody can just hurt me and just walk away.”[2]
Even in countries with legal prostitution, prostituted persons experience physical and sexual trauma. A study that included prostituted women in a country where it was legal found that, of those who participated in the study,
· 71% were physically assaulted;
· 57% were raped and of those raped 59% were raped more than 5 times;
· 64% were threatened with a weapon;
· in Germany, where prostitution is legal, 59% responded that prostitution is not safer with legalization;
· and 89% wanted to exit prostitution.[3]
An additional study found that the leading cause of death for prostituted women was homicide at 19%.[4] The study found that that actively prostituting women were nearly 18 times more likely to be murdered than women of similar age and race.[5]
No amount of regulation can prevent physical and sexual violence in prostitution, because prostitution is predicated on typically male sexual entitlement that overrides the desires or boundaries of the person being bought and used for sex. This is a dehumanizing process that encourages sexual and physical violence. For example, one sex buyer wrote: “Being with a prostitute is like having a cup of coffee when you’re done, you throw it out.”[6] Another stated, ““I paid for this. You have no rights. You’re with me now.”[7] Legalizing or fully decriminalizing prostitution only encourages these mentalities, which feed violence.
[1] Nixon, K., Tutty, L., Downe, P., Gorkoff, K., & Ursel, J. (2002, September). The everyday occurrence: Violence in the lives of girls exploited through prostitution. Violence Against Women, 8(9), 1016-1043.
[2] Shared Hope International. (2007). Demand (43-minute version). Retrieved from https://vimeo.com/70637039 Image of prostituted Nigerian woman in Italy retrieved from http://www.brimtime.com/2013/06/pictures-of-nigerian-ashawo-in-italy.html
[3] Farley, M., Cotton, A. et al. (2003). Prostitution and Trafficking in Nine Countries: An Update on Violence and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. Journal of Trauma Practice, 2(3/4), 33-74.
[4] Potterat, J., Brewer, D., Muth, S., Rothenberg, R., Woodhouse, D., Muth, J. et al. (2004). Mortality in a long-term open cohort of prostitute women. American Journal of Epidemiology, 159(8), 778-785.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Melissa Farley, Emily Schuckman, Jacqueline M. Golding, Kristen Houser, Laura Jarrett, Peter Qualliotine, & Michele Decker, 2011, Comparing Sex Buyers with Men Who Don’t Buy Sex: 'You can have a good time with the servitude' vs. 'You’re supporting a system of degradation,' Report at Psychologists for Social Responsibility Annual Meeting, Boston. http://www.prostitutionresearch.com/pdfs/Farleyetal2011ComparingSexBuyers.pdf
[7] Melissa Farley, 2007, ‘Renting an Organ for Ten Minutes:’ What Tricks Tell Us about Prostitution, Pornography, and Trafficking. Pornography: Driving the Demand for International Sex Trafficking, Los Angeles: Captive Daughters Media. http://www.prostitutionresearch.com/FarleyRentinganOrgan11-06.pdf