NCJ Number
210035
Date Published
March 2005
Length
97 pages
Annotation
This literature review assesses the state of the sex industry in New Zealand in the years leading up to the passage of the 2003 Prostitution Reform Act, which repealed existing prostitution-related legislation and created a new legal environment for the sex industry.
Abstract
This study was commissioned to provide the Prostitution Law Review Committee, which was established under the act, with information to help it identify changes that have occurred in the sex industry under the new law. A review of the sex industry in New Zealand reveals that the country has had a sex industry since the early days of European colonization. One of the most significant developments in recent years has been the creation of the New Zealand Prostitutes' Collective, whose objectives are to provide support and education for sex industry workers. The main arenas of the country's sex industry are massage parlors, escort agencies, and street prostitution, with a range of other types present to a lesser degree. A rigorous assessment of the size of the sex industry in 2001 determined that there were just under 4,500 workers, with most working in licensed massage parlors. This report provides information on the characteristics and backgrounds of sex workers, their entry into the industry and related motivations, drug use and a background of child sexual abuse as factors in sex work, and management of the impacts of involvement in sex work. Other topics addressed are male sex workers, transgendered sex workers, illegal immigrants involved in prostitution, leaving sex work, characteristics and motivations of clients, worker safety and exploitation, health issues, juvenile prostitutes, and sex tourism. The second part of the report assesses overseas models of prostitution law reforms. 5 tables, 157 references, and appended methodological issues in researching clients of sex workers