197 – Legalization or Decriminalization: What Does it All Mean?

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Dr. Sandie Morgan and Dave Stachowiak are joined by Dr. Donna Hughes to discuss the four different legal approaches to prostitution and their impacts on society. Dr. Hughes is the founder and editor-in-chief of Dignity: A Journal on Sexual Exploitation and Violence. She shares her years of experience on this highly debated topic to better inform our community.

Key Points

• There are four legal approaches to prostitution that all have different impacts on sex trafficking: criminalization, legalization, decriminalization, and the Nordic (Abolitionist) model.
• Criminalization is the current model of the United States that criminalizes everyone involved in prostitution.
• Legalization includes removing criminal penalties and turning sex work into a regulated business.
• Decriminalization also removes the criminal penalties, however, there are no regulations put into place.
• The Nordic model holds perpetrators accountable and provides services for victims.
• Countries that utilized the legalization approach anticipated getting rid of organized crime, but only succeeded in expanding illegal, unregulated prostitution.
• We need to be aware of legislators organizing for the decriminalization of prostitution in order to raise awareness and oppose their strategies.

Resources

• Dignity: A Journal on Sexual Exploitation and Violence
• Donna’s Papers and Presentations
• Selected Works by Dr. Hughes 

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Transcript

Dave [00:00:00] You’re listening to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. This is episode number 197, Legalization or Decriminalization: What Does it All Mean?  

Production Credits [00:00:10] Produced by Innovate Learning, maximizing human potential.  

Dave [00:00:31] Welcome to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. My name is Dave Stachowiak.  

Sandie [00:00:36] And my name is Sandie Morgan.  

Dave [00:00:39] And this is the show where we empower you to study the issues, be a voice, and make a difference in ending human trafficking. Sandie, your work has really just built relationships and connections and partnerships around the globe, and today we’re so glad to be able to dive in on that first piece. We talk about in every introduction, studying the issues, and being able to bring a voice to who really just has tremendous expertise in this area. We are thrilled to welcome Dr. Donna Hughes. She is a professor and holds the Eleanor M. and Oscar M. Carlson Endowed Chair in women’s studies. She has a joint appointment with Gender and Women’s Studies and Criminology and Criminal Justice. She’s the founder and editor in chief of Dignity: A Journal on Sexual Exploitation and Violence. Donna, we’re so glad to welcome you to the show.  

Donna [00:01:29] I’m really thrilled to be here.  

Sandie [00:01:31] It’s an important topic and I would love to talk about a lot of your work, especially if people have not found Dignity: A Journal on Sexual Exploitation and Violence. We’ll have a link to that in our show notes.  

Donna [00:01:46] Thank you.  

Sandie [00:01:46] And Dr. Hughes really digs deep on these issues, but today we want to talk about a growing discussion or debate in our community about Legalization or Decriminalization: What Does it all Mean? So, can you kind of give us a primer on legalization and decriminalization with regards to prostitution and human trafficking?  

Donna [00:02:14] OK, there are four legal approaches to prostitution and all of them have a different impact on sex trafficking. The first is the one that in the United States people are most familiar with and that’s criminalization because, except for a few counties in Nevada, all states in the United States have criminalized prostitution. And what that means, is that everyone involved in prostitution whether it be prostituted woman, the sex buyer, the pimp or the trafficker, or the brothel keeper, all of those people are criminalized. It’s really a prohibitionist model. One of the other models is legalization. And you hear a lot of people saying, “well why don’t we just legalize it?” Which I can talk a little bit about why that’s not a good idea in a moment, but what legalization means is that of course you remove the criminal penalties and you turn it into a business where you have regulations. For example, where you’re allowed to have a brothel, what time it’s allowed to be open, you know those kinds of things. And the women would be taxed, and the brothel keeper would be taxed. And it really turns it into sex work rather than prostitution. And the pimps who we normally know are really often quite unsavory characters and quite cruel, are turned in to business managers. And that is the model that exists...