Excuse length of post, but I thought it was pretty relevant to the discussion.
Today's Sunday Telegraph magazine has a feature on legalised prostitution in Germany. I cannot find a link for it online as yet.
Can't quote reams from it obviously but the introduction is: "When Germany legalised prostitution it imagined a utopia where women could ply their trade safely with proper pensions and other benefits. The reality, however, has proved quite different. Nisha Lilia Diu (the magazine's assistant editor) visits the country's 'mega-brothels' to find who has profited from the softening of the law. Clue: it's not the sex workers….."
It's a 5-page article, so you need to read it for yourselves. But it's clear that the people who benefit are the mega-wealthy pimps e.g. Michael Beretin a partner in a company who runs the so inaptly named Paradise chain of brothels, which is the country's brothel equivalent of Primark or Pizza Hut (according to the article).
The idea of the law was to recognise prostitution as a job like any other the article says but it hasn't worked. Only 44 prostitutes have registered for benefits apparently.
Germany appears not to have learned from the Netherlands: that country's deputy prime minister has called legalisation "a national mistake", having made it much easier for traffickers to go to a country where brothels are legal and where it is legal to manage prostitutes.
More than 55,000 men visit Paradise Stuttgart every year paying a 79 Euro entrance fee and negotiating the sex fee with the prostitute. Apparently prices are now going down according to a prostitute who has worked there for two years "Every day less" she says.
The mayor of Saarbrucken said they had at least 100 brothels in the city and prostitutes approach men in supermarket car parks. "It is easier to open a brothel than a chip shop" she says because there are no restrictions and the prostitutes merely rent rooms. Brothel owners don't want to employ prostitutes because they don't want an employment contract. They want to save the social security contribution, according to Guntram Knop, an expert in prostitution law. Both parties cut costs by eliminating health insurance and pension contributions.
Asked if the women at his clubs were working voluntarily Paradise's Jurgen Rudloff replied "That's not my business." Strictly speaking, the article says, he's right. As long as they're just renting rooms, brothels have no accountability towards the prostitutes.
There are interviews with prostitutes. Too potentially triggering to report what they said.
Rudloff is asked if he would be happy for either of his two daughters to work at Paradise. "Unthinkable, unthinkable. I don't mean to offend the prostitutes but I try to raise my children so that they have professional opportunities. Most prostitutes don't have those options. That's why they are doing that job. Unimaginable (he repeats). "I don't even what to think about it".
Yup-says it all!