Dr Susann Huschke quoted on BBC Northern Ireland.

[SteveB]

Dr Susann Huschke quoted on BBC Northern Ireland.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-29654872
Headline, "Researchers suggest 17,500 men pay for sex in NI each year"

[SteveB]

It is fairly short, so I will quote it in full

[size=+1]Researchers suggest 17,500 men pay for sex in NI each year[/size=+1]

About 17,500 men pay for sex each year in Northern Ireland, a study by Queen's University, Belfast, has suggested.
The research was commissioned by the Department of Justice in response to DUP peer Lord Morrow's proposed Human Trafficking Bill.
The bill seeks to make it illegal to buy sex.
Researchers surveyed 171 sex workers and 446 clients, looking at all aspects of prostitution, including trafficking for sexual exploitation.
The study is the most comprehensive survey of how the sex industry works in Northern Ireland. It suggests that:
• Only about 20 people still work as street-based prostitutes in Northern Ireland
• The majority of the industry advertises online and works from houses
• Between 300 and 350 people are available for sex work every day
• There is a significant number of male sex workers in Northern Ireland
• Fewer than 1% of those surveyed stated that someone had forced them into prostitution
Lead author Dr Susann Huschke said: "The sex industry has changed significantly over the last 10 years.
"People are still working on the basis of stereotypes that aren't true."
A majority of sex workers who were surveyed said they did not agree that it should be illegal to pay for sex.
Paid-for consensual sex is not illegal in Northern Ireland.
However, selling sex at a venue shared with other prostitutes, the involvement of a pimp or "booker", and soliciting for sex in a public space are criminal offences.
More than a third of men questioned for the study mistakenly assumed they were breaking the law by purchasing sex.

[Davidontour]

If by 'trafficking', you mean actions such as abduction, coercion, false imprisonment, rape and violent assault, these are already extremely serious crimes and deserve the full force of law. By any measurement though, such cases represent a tiny minority in Irish sex work. The DOJ sponsored survey published this morning backs up the PSNI assertion that the majority of local sex workers are there by choice.

Attempting to stamp out human trafficking by criminalising the purchase of sex is completely unrealistic and we only need to look at Norway, where at the govt's 'best guess', criminalisation has reduced the indoor sex trade by ''10 to 20%' in the five years the law has been in place. Even if correct, this means that 80% to 90% of sex work is still intact. In this situation, human trafficking victims will be entirely unaffected but will have less resources available for their rescue due to the police chasing consenting adults.

Let's get real here. Clause 6 won't remotely reduce human trafficking and the supporters of the bill (unless they're incredibly naive) have known this since the beginning. This is about the fact that certain politicians and fundamentalist Christians find the idea of sex work 'immoral' and distasteful, in much the same way they think of the gay community. It is about a certain brand of feminism and it is also about considerable funding for NGOs who purport to be a 'rescue' industry for a group of people who largely have no interest in 'rescue' and if they did it certainly wouldn't be from the direct descendants of the Magdalene sisters.

What is needed is legalisation of sex work, a good example being the New Zealand model (a country to which our completely unbiased MLAs failed to travel, preferring Sweden instead). Trafficking has been measurably reduced (unlike Sweden where it is rising), sex workers rights are respected and their safety made a priority.

Allow police resources to concentrate on serious crime, not wasted on apprehending adults engaged in an entirely consensual agreement.

[Sexy Sandy 69]

I think it's encouraging that Dr Susann Huschke's research is getting media coverage, her team have produced an extensive, detailed, non bias report. She is not campaigning she's stated the true facts which hopefully will halt Morrow's Bill & people will wise up to the demographics of the sex industry. The majority of sex workers are working of their own free will, this may disturb & challenge the views of many but it's a fact. We're educated & in control of our working conditions/lifestyle, we are not controlled/trafficked or victims. If anyone had had the balls to listen effectively or question sex workers then this legislation would not have got to this stage.

Sandy x

[Larrii]

Here's a real trafficking story:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...pensation.html

The girl got £100,000 in compo, but if you do the math that's less than the minimum wage.