Common Misconceptions About Prostitution
11.1 Coercion
11.2 Links with Crime and Gangs
11.3 Drug Use
11.4 Media Influence on Public Perception
In compiling this report, the Committee has examined common assumptions about sex workers and the sex industry. The research undertaken for the review has provided information that challenges, and in some cases refutes, commonly held perceptions about the sex industry and those who work in it. The Committee considers many commonly held perceptions have been based on stereotypes and a lack of information. The Committee wishes to point out that findings that relate to the sex industry as a whole, may not apply to individual sex workers. Similarly, findings about one sector of the industry may not always be true for other sectors.
11.1 Coercion
Despite the perception that all sex workers are made to work by someone else, only 4.3% or approximately 28 of the 656 female participants in the CSOM study reported being made to work by someone. This was twice the number of male workers (2.1%); no transgender workers reported being made to work. Of the 201 street workers surveyed, 8% (about 16 people) reported being made to work by someone. Participants who started sex work before the age of 18 (18.3% or approximately 141 people) were more likely to report being made to work by someone (9.5% or approximately 13 people), than those who started after the age of 18 (2.5% or approximately 3 people).
The Committee recognises the difficult nature of proving coercion has occurred, as well as the reluctance on the part of exploited people to lay a complaint. However, information received by the Committee suggests coercion is not widespread. The Committee also acknowledges that sex work is a job some people have chosen and are happy doing.
11.2 Links with Crime and Gangs
A Police report on the vice scene in 2001 (prior to decriminalisation) pointed to links between organised crime and the sex industry, but was unable to quantify the extent of the activity due to its covert nature. The report also pointed out that private workers were less likely to be connected to organised crime, and many commercial sex businesses had no connection with criminal activity. Police currently does not have a structured way of collecting information related to prostitution. However, anecdotal information from Police at a district level suggests the relationship between prostitution and criminal activity has not altered post PRA (NZ Police, 2007).
The Police Association told the Committee that prostitution was not a big issue for its members and evidence did not exist of a link between the sex industry and general crime. Sex workers were more likely to be victims of crime rather than offenders. On the question of gang involvement, the Association reported some under age people involved in prostitution in Auckland may have connections to ‘youth gangs’. But it was more a matter of under age people hanging around with friends who happen to be in a youth gang, rather than a pimping or coercive type relationship. The Association said there was no evidence of a linkage between under age people used in prostitution and the ‘traditional’ patched gangs. One reason given for gangs’ lack of interest is that it is high risk for little reward.
The CSOM study notes that, during the in-depth interviews, there was no mention of gang involvement or coercion. Outside observers may consider a connection with gangs, for example, as evidence that a sex worker is being made to work, whereas the sex worker in question may not perceive themselves as being coerced.
The Committee considers that the links between crime and prostitution are tenuous. The Committee could not find any evidence of a specific link between crime and prostitution.
11.3 Drug Use
The CSOM study asked participants about the reasons why they stayed in the sex industry. The most common reasons were financial. Contrary to popular perception, only 16.7% reported working to support alcohol or drug usage, whereas 82.3% reported they needed the money to pay for household expenses. But, when these findings are broken down by sector, street-based sex workers are more likely to report needing to pay for drugs or alcohol (45.1%), than managed (10.7%) or private indoor workers (13.5%)(see Table 15). Street-based workers are also more likely than other sex workers to report accepting drugs, alcohol, food or accommodation as payment for sexual services.
11.4 Media Influence on Public Perception
The debate around the law reform has raised the profile of the sex industry in the public mind. Articles about the presence of brothels, SOOBs and street-based sex workers in communities have appeared regularly in some newspapers. Analysis of newspaper articles referring to the PRA shows how media coverage can be inconsistent across different newspapers, and is dependent on the editorial approach of the particular publication.
In an analysis of media reporting on the implementation of the PRA, Nicolas Pascoe (2007) found more news articles about the PRA and prostitution appeared in the Christchurch Press than in any other publication. In addition, the Press published significantly more letters to the editor referring to the PRA and/or prostitution than any other newspaper. It was also found the Press was more likely than other newspapers to publish articles and letters containing negative assumptions about the law reform. The most common negative assumptions were that decriminalisation will increase the numbers of under age people involved in prostitution, and that there is or will be more crime associated with sex work post PRA.
The analysis concluded the way in which an issue is reported (whether negative or positive assumptions about it are made and reinforced), may prompt attention from other sectors of the media and from politicians whose involvement in turn adds weight to the perception that the matter is of grave concern. Thus, the perceived scale of a ‘problem’ in a community can be directly linked to the amount, and tone, of newspaper coverage it receives.
The Committee considers that much of the reporting on matters such as the numbers of sex workers and under age involvement in prostitution has been exaggerated.