Prostitution in the Context of the Street Offences Act (From Sex Offenders in the Criminal Justice System, P 114-120, 1980, by D J West - See NCJ-70970)

• NCJ Number: 70976
• Author(s): J Vickers
• Date Published: 1980
• Length: 7 pages
• Publication Format: Document
• Language: English
• Country: United Kingdom

Annotation

Great Britain's 1959 Street Offenses Act prohibiting solicitation by prostitutes in public merely increases the miseries of prostitution; the arguments of several groups favoring an end to all antiprostitution laws are discussed.

Abstract

Although prostitution itself is legal in Great Britain, that country's 1959 Street Offenses Act prohibit public solicitation to prevent public annoyance. However, many groups feel it does not fairly penalize men who solicit prostitutes, and really aims to eradicate a profession that neither can nor should be eradicated. Several organizations in England and Wales seek to liberalize or overturn laws restricting it. These groups of call girls and prostitutes argue that many prostitutes are poor women merely supporting their families, and that the Government fosters what it claims to prohibit. Moreover, prohibitive laws, it is maintained, do not protect prostitutes, but merely drive them underground into a criminal society. Laws against solicitation are also linked with increasing control of prostitution by organized crime and a proliferation of call girl networks. Finally, as the family and sexual mores break down, restricting prostitutes is seen as a way of limiting women's independence. Tables and four references are included.