2012: International comparative study of the Effects of Prostitution Policy

The concept for this international comparative study evolved in close cooperation between Hendrik Wagenaar and the cities of Rotterdam, Utrecht and The Hague, which are, alongside NICIS, also the main funders of the study. The aim of the study is to compare measures in the area of prostitution policies in the Netherlands, Austria and Sweden, which are often influenced by moral impetus, and to examine their effects on the working and living conditions of sex workers. We based our work on the assumption that there are substantial differences between the formulation of policies and their factual implementation.

The starting point of the study was that so far, the – intended as well as unintended – effects of prostitution policies have not been studied on an international level. There is no knowledge about the level of efficiency of specific measures, nor do we know about the correlation of political instruments/measures, as e.g. criminalisation of clients or licencing of brothels, and their effects. We also questioned whether similar political measures have the same impact in different countries.

The study shows that the political field of prostitution is extremely resistant to political measures – independent of the respective preferred "prostitution regime" on the national level. Prostitution is a field that is to a large extent also determined by external influences like work migration or the development of communication technology. Changes thus sometimes occur at a speed which politics and administration cannot keep up with, so they often can only respond reactively. Another factor for the low and slow efficacy of legal measures is that brothels, clients and sex workers – for different reasons – continue to (have to or want to) operate for the most part in the shadowy areas of economy, in spite of their simultaneous high visibility. Information on the milieu is therefore hard to generate. This shows in the quality of existing data (in all three examined countries): data collection in Austria with health authorities, State Offices of Criminal Investigation and the Federal Office of Criminal Investigation showed that even rudimentary data like the number of enterprises and sex workers are not very trustworthy. These statistics provide no information on the ages of sex workers (with the exception of Vienna) or on the average number of women working in the sex business every day, nor on the average weekly working hours etc. This poses a problem insofar as numbers often are used as a strategic means in order to enforce a specific policy orientation. Dependable statistics are essential for policy development and effective political measures, and they could represent a counterbalance for the moralising discussion on prostitution. Until now, there has been no study on sex work in Austria that interviewed sex workers on a comparable scale. By conducting 85 interviews with sex workers, we were able to at least partly correct this lack of information. The interviews shed light on migration processes, paths into sex work (decision, motivation, supporters), working conditions (working hours, earnings, working atmosphere, obligatory health checks etc.), the (reasons for) mobility and the like.

In addition, policy development in the area of prostitution is a difficult undertaking, first because of its heterogeneity and complexity, and second because it is highly emotionally charged. This leads to extremely diverse problem definitions and measures. No matter which path is pursued, effective prostitution policy continues to be a politics of small steps, as interviews with "informed outsiders" (from the fields of politics, the executive, administration, health authorities and NGOs) impressively demonstrate.

Nevertheless, political measures have considerable influence on sex workers’ living and working conditions, especially of immigrant ones. The Dutch and Austrian interviews with sex workers (a total of 129) illustrate that the mobility of sex workers, which is often stated and rated negatively, is amongst others, but to no small extent, caused by legal measures or their implementation.

A close examination of the implementation of laws in the Netherlands and Austria (Vienna and Upper Austria) showed that prostitution policies in both countries are very similar in large areas. In our view, both countries pursue a regulatory prostitution regime. It was also shown that the impact of laws and regulations significantly depends on their local implementation, and that too little attention has been paid to the process of implementation and the careful choice of political instruments (this is true to a larger extent for Austria than for the Netherlands).

These are only some of the results. Besides a comprehensive description of sex work in the Netherlands and in Austria as well as respective national and local prostitution policies, our research report extensively deals with the conflictive area of prostitution – migration – exploitation and prostitution policy as moral politics.