Working Girls

When we sit down to lunch every day, you can look out the window and see a girl sitting in a window across the street. She sits there behind a glass door with the curtains pulled back, framed by red neon tubes. She wears the same outfit every day. She works weekends. She doesn't, from what I can tell, seem to do a booming business. And really, she's not a girl now by any standard. She's probably well into her thirties.

That's the reality of legalized prostitution, which exists in Amsterdam and of which the Ouderzijds Achterburgwal, where we live, is the neon-lit throbbing heart.

I did not know that San Francisco was contemplating legalizing prostitution (hat tip Freakonomics). Interesting. Proponents say that this would improve the health and safety of 'sex workers' and cut law enforcement costs by millions. Opponents say that SF would instantly descend into a pit of sin and depravity.

Based on my experiences in Amsterdam, here is what I would expect if prostitution were legalized in some form in SF:

• Prostitutes would indeed be safer. If the well-being of the women is your main concern, as it is with organizations such as OZ100, then legalized prostitution is a good thing. The girls don't have to hide, and because they are more visible they are easier to keep track of.
• Law enforcement costs would not drop substantially. The government here in Amsterdam has spent a fair amount of energy recently trying to discourage organized crime from taking over the RLD. It's safe to say that what you gain in not having to bust prostitutes every night you lose to fighting the pimps.
• Prostitutes are not likely to be freer. A recent study in Amsterdam indicated that over 80% of girls are under some form of coercion. This most frequently comes in the form of pimps, who tend to be a cross between a bad boss and a really bad boyfriend.
• The incidence of prostitution would rise as people travel to the city to take advantage of it.
• San Franciscans are unlikely to comprise most of the prostitutes. Very few of the girls in the windows here are Dutch. They're much more likely to be Eastern European or from even further away.
• Pimps will continue to play a major role in the sex trade, whether legal or not.
• Girls will continue to find it much easier to get into prostitution than to get out of it.
  

The short version: some things would change, but not as dramatically as you might think. It appears that prostitution remains the same in its essentials whether you legalize it or not, something those who think legalization empowers women would do well to remember.

The OZ100 community has firsthand experience with this, so it bears elaboration: for whatever reason, girls seldom leave the sex industry. There's a lot of debate on why this is so. Do their pimps threaten them? Are they hooked on drugs? Are they hooked on the money? Is it the only option open to them? Or do they actually enjoy it? No one can say for sure, but the fact that even those that contemplate a career change seldom follow through should make it clear that this is not 'just a job'.

A job is something you can walk away from.