June 29th, 2007 at 8:10 am
The world’s oldest “profession” is to be stricken from the laws of Britian, if the Justice Ministry gets its way.
Instead, a new bill that the Justice Ministry has drafted refers simply to persons who sell sex persistently — defined as twice or more in three months.
Well, that will add a lot of unnecessary language to the books.
The new bill introduces measures to try to get sex workers out of the industry, and in effect decriminalises prostitution for those who are not considered persistent.
I’d say this would practically decriminalize all prostitution. Are the cops going to go up to each prostitute they catch, take their name down, run it through a database to see if their name was taken in the past two or three months, then arrest them if it is? The database will become a little black book for rogue cops. Why is something a crime if it’s legal to do once in a while but not legal say, twice a month? This isn’t like parking enforcement where a cop can walk up with chalk and mark your tires and ticket you after an hour. 
The lack of enforcement is a powerful incentive to keep “persons who sex persistently” in the market. That incentive is going to run completely counter to whatever “measures” the British government puts up.
Either decide you’re going to enforce it, or don’t. Seeking a happy middle is taking a step of way of being a nation of laws, leaving cops to harass anyone they choose.
(No Ratings Yet)
Loading ...
