1. Demand Reduction Interventions
Leslie Cyranowski | Undergraduate Research Conference | April 11, 2014

2. End Demand
Sexual exploitation “would not exist without the demand for commercial sex flourishing around the world…. Prostitution and related activities encourage the growth of modern-day slavery by providing a façade behind which traffickers for sexual exploitation operate.”
United States Department of State, "Trafficking in Persons Report June 2007,” 27.

3. How does a focus on combating the demand for prostitution reduce the prevalence of commercial sexual exploitation?
Does the legalization of prostitution have an effect on sex trafficking?
Substitution Effect: away from trafficking
Scale Effect: increasing trafficking

4. Regulation v. Abolition
Normalize prostitution
Recreation-orientated service industry
Reform program
“Prostitution and…traffic in persons are incompatible with the dignity and worth of the human person.”
Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action,” 1993

5. Case 1: The United States
Nevada: only state that sanctions legal prostitution
Statutes or ordinances at the state, county, or city levels define the legal context
Most of the voters that live in Nevada favor legalization; less that 10% don’t (Symanski)
Control
History
Image

6. The United States | Results
Positive
Negative
Testing policies
No streetwalkers or call girls
“Nevada policy represents the worst of the European system in isolating and restricting the rights of women workers. Brothels render women an ‘untouchable caste kept apart from the institutions and daily life of the permanent residents and confine them to certain sections of town.’”
Barbara Brents, and Kathryn Hausbeck, “State-Sanctioned Sex” 311

7. Case 2: The Netherlands
Normalization through decriminalization of workers and businesses
Two main aims (Kilvington)
Legalize the organization of voluntary prostitution
Increase penalties against those involved in the organization of involuntary prostitution (through violence, force or coercion, and fraud), particularly those involved in the exploitation of minor

8. The Netherlands | Results
Positive
Negative
Improved working conditions
Abuses can be prosecuted on both large and small scales
Exclusion
“Legal approval promotes a model of male sexuality that is based on the sexual exploitation of women. This model endorses a double standard for women and men.”
Janice Raymond, "Prostitution on Demand” 1183.

9. Case 3: Sweden Decriminalize sale, penalize purchase
Without demand, the global prostitution industry would not be able to flourish and expand
“Ending prostitution by ending the demand for it is what sex equality under law would look like”
Max Waltman, "Prohibiting Sex Purchasing and Ending Trafficking” 137

10. Sweden | results Very successful in reducing trafficking
Decline in the recruitment of young workers
No empirical evidence that invisible prostitution increased
Little evidence of an impact on supply or demand
Visible prostitution decreased drastically

11. The United States (Nevada)
The Netherlands
Sweden
The Law
Regulated in certain areas in Nevada
Decriminalize workers and businesses
Decriminalize sale, penalize purchase
Basic Principles
-Control, History, Image
-Tolerance
Normalization of commercial sex market
Eradication of commercial sex industry, social issue
Positive Effects
Decrease seen in HIV contraction
Improved working conditions, less underage prostitutes
Reduced trafficking, better treatment of workers
Negative Effects
Basic constitutional rights restricted
People excluded from system
Prostituted women still face economic hardships
Policy control
Local
National

12. Conclusion Addressing demand is important
There needs to be unification in prostitution policies within the United States
Social change before legal change
“The history of prostitution control shows that major reform is episodic and related to wider social transformations, to shifts in economy, culture, and nation states.” (Scoular 14)