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You got a problem with sheep? |
Posted on 07/10/2004 1:12:48 PM PDT by wagglebee
A year after a law change designed to get prostitutes off the street, a price war driven by teenage sex workers has flared up on the streets of South Auckland.
Market forces appear to be driving street prostitution as teenagers, some as young as 12, compete alongside seasoned sex workers - with tumbling prices the result.
Rather than pushing sex workers into legalised brothels, a Weekend Herald inquiry has found the new legislation has done little to discourage street prostitution.
This is especially true in pockets of South Auckland, where the Manukau City Council has been forced to shelve plans to ban sex workers from the street because of legal advice that the move might breach the Bill of Rights and the one-year-old Prostitution Reform Act.
While there is no hard evidence of an explosion of child prostitution since the decriminalisation of the industry a year ago, there have been reports of teenagers selling themselves for as little as $20.
"We can't expect to get $100 when these young things are offering it for much less just around the corner," said South Auckland prostitute, Cindy, who has been working the streets for 15 years.
Prostitutes spoken to by the Weekend Herald on the streets of South Auckland this week say that young streetworkers are muscling in on their patch and undercutting the competition by offering sex at less than a quarter of the usual price.
Where once a sex worker could expect $100 for her services, many were having to settle for $20 - or even less for oral sex.
Mama Tere Strickland, a transgender former sex worker who runs social agency Te Aronga Hou, said the streets of South Auckland had become "a highway of cheap love" with girls being coerced into the business by "pimp" boyfriends.
"These kids know there is a demand out there so they see themselves as prized possessions," Strickland said. "I am not exaggerating. It's a virtual free-for-all in South Auckland. These kids have no hope and no futures."
Many came from backgrounds of abuse and were out there to escape domineering parents and make a few bucks to feed their habits.
Decriminalisation had done nothing to deter young sex workers. Although soliciting was still illegal for anyone under the age of 18, it was nearly impossible to know who was of age, Strickland said.
Teri, a South Auckland prostitute who has been plying her trade for 20 years, said the street scene had changed dramatically in the past 12 months. The streets were now predominantly occupied by teenagers eager to make fast money.
But Auckland Prostitutes Collective head Kate Dickie was sceptical of suggestions that decriminalisation of the industry had led to aggressive competition on the streets. "Charging less does not mean more work. It just means you work harder for the same money."
Her colleague, Annah Pickering, a spokesperson for the collective's Outreach programme, said streetworkers made up only 8 per cent of the Auckland sex trade.
However, she often saw 14 and 15-year-old girls on the streets. Most were Maori and Pacific Islanders and came from homes where there was mental, physical and sexual abuse.
"For them it is about survival. It can be safer on the streets for these kids than it is in their own homes."
Inspector Bruce Bird of the South Auckland police said there were possibly slightly more prostitutes on the streets since the industry was decriminalised a year ago. But from a policing perspective there were the same issues in terms of dealing with crime and disorder.
"Unfortunately, prostitution does attract undesirables, which in turn creates more crime and disorder," he said.
Prostitution is a victimless crime. Yea, right.
If that's her real name...
I think prostitution law *should* be an issue left to the states. It's one reason I'll likely never vote Libertarian. Some (L)'s, and perhaps even the party platform itself, support making prostituion a "constitutionally protected right" like SCOTUS did recently with sodomy.
"Decriminalisation had done nothing to deter young sex workers."
Bwahahahahahahahaaha! No sh!t!
I'm not surprised. It's a tough market down there. I mean, in some areas, they're competing against sheep.
"There will be an AIDS epidemic, if not already. I don't feel sorry for em onne da#n bit."
I do feel sorry for the situation there Gov't has put these kids in...
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You got a problem with sheep? |
"Sex Workers" I guess we now have a new euphemism. In western society great energy used to be spent on the invention, manufacturing and production of material wealth. Today, the same energy-(perhaps even more energy than formerly!)-is spent on the invention, manufacture and production of new words for vice. If it was not so tragic it would be a circus!
1 USD = 1.52114 NZD
bill clinton is probably on the first airplane heading down there as we speak.
Hmm... That's about $13.15.
bill won't be hit over the head with a sack of quarters by some two-bit whore. He'll be hit with a sack of nickels and dimes.
The world is in chaos.
In my day, all we had to worry about was setting up the lemonade stand.
This remark is not supported by AIDS data.
Men, whether homosexual or heterosexual do not get AIDS from women. There is no statistical evidence to the contrary.
Heterosexual men to not give AIDS to women.
the vast majority of AIDS infected men are homosexuals, followed by intravenous drug users and then wrapped up with hemopheliacs.
Homosexual men do not have sex with female prostitutes.
And as long as there is an age restriction on drug use, there will be an underground market among those 8-18/21.
If we "legalize it and then tax the hell out of it", the DEA then moves under the ATF and the game becomes that of the revenuers against the bootleggers.
If you can manufacture a drug in your own home (grow pot, cook up meth, etc.) you will be "denying" Uncle Sam those "high tax" revenues (even if it is for personal consumption).
And I can see no validity in legalizing these substances before the Federal social safety net has been eradicated so that those who become addicts are not permitted to become a financial leech on society.
I'm not against the legalization of these substances but some people are short sighted in what it entails (not to mention that there would be Big Crack attempting to market this now legal product in other countries just like Big Tobacco does and McCrack paying South American farmers to stop raising produce for local consumption so that they can raise a bigger cash crop of recreational drugs). If you think that the world dislikes America for our stance in the Iraq war, just wait until they spout their venom for us turning the rest of the world into "drug addicts".
Yep -- look at tobacco; it's still legal, but a huge black market has arisen in high-tax states like mine. Unless you make legalized drugs dirt-cheap, and sell them to everyone, including minors, there will always be a black market.
I don't understand how the Court's stance on same sex sodomy laws cannot apply to prostitution laws. Was it "equal protection" (men and women) or "privacy" that they ruled on?
Prostitution occurs between consenting adults and there are no more fornication or adultery laws prohibiting sex between unmarried partners. The financial aspect shouldn't change things; it is not illegal to hire someone (even a minor) to provide unlicensed child care in your home (a babysitter).
So if you can have sex with someone you meet in a bar and you can pay someone in your home, why can you not pay someone in your home who you met in a bar?
If morals laws, sex laws, privacy laws, and consenting adults are considered, there is no law.
As to "equal protection", homosexual is defined by an act, not gender. 2 men were prohibited from committing same sex sodomy just as 2 women were. Any man and any woman were permitted to have consensual sodomy with each other in Texas.
Since the Supreme Court struck down ALL sodomy laws (not just those that distinguished between heterosexual and homosexual), it wasn't on the basis of "equal protection".
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