My research on the sex trade has taken me to a number of countries around the world, including New Zealand. Its sex trade was decriminalised in , and has since been hailed by pro-prostitution campaigners as the gold standard model in regulating prostitution.
The promises from the government β that decriminalisation would result in less violence, regular inspections of brothels and no increase of the sex trade β have not materialised. The opposite has happened. Trafficking of women into New Zealand into legal and illegal brothels is a serious problem, and for every licensed brothel there are, on average, four times the number that operate illegally.
Violent attacks on women in the brothels are as common as ever. Under legalisation, women are still murdered by pimps and punters. Services helping people to exit are irrelevant because who needs support to get out of a regular job? The practice of using human bodies as a marketplace has been normalised under the neoliberal economic system.
I have investigated the breast milk trade in Cambodia, where wealthy American businessmen recruit pregnant women and pay them a pittance for their milk. I have seen desperately hungry men outside hospital blood banks in India, offering to sell their blood in exchange for food.
In the Netherlands, which legalised its sex trade in , it is perfectly legal for driving instructors to offer lessons in return for sex , as long as the learner drivers are over the age of In other legalised regimes, such as Denmark and Australia , prostitution is available for men on the public health system. Perhaps an inevitable conclusion is that carers working with physically disabled couples, where there is a medium to severe level of mobility impairment, are asked to facilitate sex between them β for example, the carer may be expected to insert the penis of one into an orifice of the other.
