Police "naming and shaming" sex workers

whoops, sorry, didn't realise that list had copied through as well.

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England and Wales

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yup, in england and wales. how does that square with this photos thing?

"Section 14 of the recently enacted Policing and Crime Act 2009 creates an offence of paying for sexual services of a prostitute who has been exploited or subjected to force by someone else. It is a strict liability offence whereby it is irrelevant whether the person who pays for sex is, or ought to be aware that the prostitute has been exploited. The offence is punishable by a fine of up to £1000. The hope is that the creation of this offence will reduce the demand for sexual services and therefore help address the exploitation and trafficking of women and children etc.

Although this is clearly a step in the right direction, we want to go further than this in Scotland and offer legislation which will protect those involved in all kinds of prostitution."

I thought that the law had already changed to criminalise the punters?

we discussed it when it launched, pre-feminist topic. i know some of the people who wrote campaign, it's cool, huh? know they've been busy with other stuff in meantime, must ask them how this is going esp in light of the squirmy 'sex work is different' job centre ruling.

That campaign website is strong stuff: www.endprostitutionnow.org/myths-and-facts/job-description-.aspx

Is there a thread about this?

I agree. I will wait to see if they do, but I think it unlikely.

I hope they will intervene, because I think it is wrong. Maybe there is also a pressure group that could challenge this using human rights legislation. It seems to me that it is a form of intimidation. They want to discourage prostitution by threatening to expose the prostitutes. I think they should have more police on the streets and make more arrests. They know where it takes place, so they should take other action to stop it, such as arresting more punters.

Thank Maud for that. I have been racking my brains to wonder why no-one has succeeded in doing this before - have people tried?

news.stv.tv/scotland/west-central/142742-end-prostitution-now-campaign-to-be-launched-in-glasgow/

Do you think the government will intervene over this issue in order to defend the civil liberties of the women involved, claig?

there's a campaign up here to criminalise men who use prostitutes rather than prostitutes themselves, haven't heard anything about it for a while... wonder how theyy're getting on?

yes I think they are both wrong. A lot of ASBOs are for minor offences and they can lead to vigilantism against prostitutes and non-prostitutes and harm their employment prospects as well as their relationships. I don't think we want a society with wanted posters all over town for people who have committed minor offences. I am always sceptical, but so far I have been impressed with Clegg et al. over their civil liberties stance. I hope they keep it up and mean what they say.

Bloody hell, claig, you're more optimistic than I am!

Surely the point about distributing info about people with ASBOs (wrong as it was) was to warn about people who were a menace to the public? But prostitutes don't hurt people or make their lives a misery - they are the ones who suffer pain and trauma and abuse, and get laughed at by the police when they are victims of crime.

It seems that posting photos of sex workers is relatively rare, which is why the Guardian is reporting it. It looks like it was a specific policy started in London in 2009. They have been publishing pictures and distributing leaflets about people on ASBOs for a long while, but most people did not see the Big Brother style harm that this could do. I hope that all of these Big Brother policies will end now that Labour have been removed and people's privacy and civil liberties will be respected under the new coalition.

yes and MPs and even a former DPP paid for prostitution.

The good news is that the coalition are scrapping ASBOs, so a website with photos etc. may be a thing of the past. This policy was started in 2009 under the socialists, so it may just be a remnant of their regime.

Yes and don't forget all the pre-World Cup "be careful and don't get AIDS when you pay to rape South African women!" publicity.

I wonder if they post photos of homeless people up on a website/in the papers as an example, claig? If not, what is different here?

This seems to fit with the naming and shamimg policy of ASBOs
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/tees/5181032.stm

Makes you think of Big Brother or the Stasi.

"Harry Fletcher, assistant general secretary of the National Association of Probation Officers, said: "I suspect this is part of a pre-Olympics clean-up in east London."

I think there may be something in this. Bigwigs often do things like this before the arrival of bigwigs from foreign countries. Often homeless people are taken off the streets before visitors arrive. It is done to present a good image, and allow them to carry on lecturing other countries without being asked awkward questions about what is happening in their own backyards.

I don't know if the telephone boxes in London have been cleared of the escort adverts. If not, I expect that it will be done before the foreign bigwigs arrive, or some of the claims about women's rights will begin to look hollow.

Ignore my post. Missed the met website bit.

Vile.

What the fucking fuck are the police doing selling photographs to a tabloid newspaper???

If the police want to publish photographs of people then they need to publish them themselves- oh, but they probably can't because that would be utterly wrong

They have endangered these women. Not to mention any children they may have.

I don't get it. Is someone just trying to encourage violence against these women? Is it a pilot to see if anyone notices, before bringing back the stocks?

Does anyone know what the police hope to gain from this though?

it seems to me as if they have a website which pubishes teh details of those with asbos. is that the gist?

it's all

This is utterly outrageous.

How can the society that peddles the myth of the 'happy hooker' reconcile itself with this 'naming and shaming' crap at the same time.

Surely 'tis one of the other - either prostitution is just fine and dandy and empowering and the women 'choose' to do it and there is nothing wrong with it. Or there is a problem with prostitution and therefore there is an element of shame and stigma.

Can't have it both ways. Double flipping standards or what?

Outrageous that the stigma is being pinned on the women and not the pimps and the punters.

The woman are unlikely to sue - easy targets.

I read the article they refer to in the News of the world last week. It was about city business men who were caught at a 'brothll' and the NOTW also published pictures of the men involved but with faces obscured. Were these also on the Police site?