Realities & Consequences of Legalisation

Abstract

Under legalisation and decriminalisation regimes, pimps have been reclassified as managers and businessmen—with some, such as Douglas Fox , calling themselves ‘sex workers’. Abuse suffered by the women is now called an ‘occupational hazard’, like a stone dropped on a builder’s toe. Sex tourism has grown faster in Amsterdam than the regular type of tourism: as the city became the brothel of Europe, women have been imported by traffickers from Africa, Eastern Europe, and Asia to meet the demand. In other words, the pimps remained but became legitimate. There has been little or no support for women to exit prostitution, and the innate murkiness of the

sex trade has not been washed away by legal benediction.