Closing date: Thursday, 10 December 2020

“Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy.” Proverbs 31:8 – 9

Equally Safe, a consultation on challenging men’s demand for prostitution, working to reduce the harms associated with prostitution, and helping women to exit, has been brought forward as part of the Scottish Government’s desire to tackle violence against women and girls. 

Recognising prostitution as a form of violence against women, the Scottish Government is seeking views on changing the law to reflect this. The consultation proposes a multi-pronged approach to tackling demand, including education on what makes a healthy relationship, adjustments in law to persecute the buyer and not the individual seller, and a bid to understand what the community can do better to support women and children both active in and seeking to leave prostitution. 

The prosecution of the purchase of sex rather than the sale is commonly known as the ​‘Nordic model’. Already adopted by countries such as Sweden, France, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, the desired outcomes of this approach are that: 

  1. By tackling demand there will be a drop in supply, making Scotland an unattractive option for traffickers (who often supply women and children to meet demand).
  2. A clear message will be sent to those who currently buy sex from vulnerable people that this is not acceptable.
  3. The burden falling on the buyer will enable those trapped in prostitution to exit safely, without fear of arrest.
“He saves the needy from the sword in their mouth; he saves them from the clutches of the powerful. So, the poor have hope, and injustice shuts its mouth.” Job 5:15 – 16

At the Evangelical Alliance we would agree that commercial sexual exploitation is a form of violence against women and girls and that the Nordic model provides a better solution to this than our current laws. 

As Christians we believe that all of us were made in the image of God with inherent human dignity. Everyone in society should experience an environment where they are loved and respected, not treated as a commodity that can be preyed upon when vulnerable. 

But sadly, that isn’t the experience of many women and children in Scotland today. Commercial sexual exploitation literally treats people as commodities, making sex a transaction, and creates an environment that promotes coercion and trafficking. More than two thirds of women are trafficked to Scotland solely for the purpose of sexual exploitation (Equally safe consultation table 2.1).

The reality for those trapped in prostitution is that they are not only vulnerable but voiceless, stuck in cycles of abuse and poverty and not having the means to speak out and ask for help. Responding to this consultation is one of many ways we as Christians can speak up and take action, making it clear that it is unacceptable to buy access to vulnerable people for unwanted sex.

Responding to the consultation

The consultation will close on Thursday, 10 December. The Evangelical Alliance will respond and we would encourage our members and the wider Christian community to respond while it is still open. 

There are nine questions in total, but you don’t need to answer them all. If possible, we would encourage you to answer questions 1, 3, 4 and 7. Please see the drop box below for a few key points on the relevant questions. Our friends and member organisation, CARE for Scotland, has also produced an excellent briefing which we would highly recommend. Further briefings can be found below.

As always, please use your own words to highlight your concerns. 

You’ll need to respond directly on the consultation webpage.

I agree that the Scottish Government’s approach to tackling prostitution should be driven by and in accordance with the Equally Safe strategy which requires policies for “supporting individuals to exit prostitution and challenging demand” for prostitution. We recommend that you ask the Scottish Government to go further by making purchasing sex a criminal offence and providing assistance to those seeking to exit prostitution, following through on the motion for the Scottish model of legislation on prostitution adopted by the SNP Party conference in March 2017.

Evidence of the harm caused by prostitution shows the current policies and laws are not sufficient to help people exit prostitution and challenge demand. The police need to recognise that violence and sexual victimisation are still common for women in prostitution, but rates of reported crime by these women are low compared with the real risks. Plus, there is still evidence that women in prostitution in Scotland face a range of risks and adverse impacts associated with prostitution in the short and longer term in relation to general and mental health, safety and wellbeing, and sexual health.

I support an approach which makes paying for sex a criminal offence, targets those who profit from or exploit others in prostitution, and provides services and assistance to help people to exit prostitution. A report for the Scottish Government in 2017 noted the positive evidence for making paying for sex a criminal offence in reducing prostitution and demand for prostitution, even with the limited information available, stating: “The overall picture appears to be one of continued, but decreased demand for prostitution in countries where the purchase of sex has been criminalised.” (Scottish Government Evidence Assessment of the Impacts of the Criminalisation of the Purchase of Sex: A Review published in February 2017, pages 23, 27 and 38). The official evaluation of the Swedish law in which paying for sex is illegal notes that the law has limited the involvement of organised criminals in prostitution in Sweden.

Research of men in Scotland who have paid for sex indicates that making purchasing sex a criminal offence is likely to be the most effective way of challenging demand. The men surveyed gave the following top deterrents: being added to the sex offender register (89 per cent); spending time in jail (79 per cent); increased criminal penalties (72 per cent); having their car impounded (70 per cent); higher fines (69 per cent). These deterrents should all be considered in developing the new law against purchase of sex (Challenging Men’s Demand for Prostitution in Scotland, Women’s Support Project 2008, page 27). The 2017 report for the Scottish Government noted that changing the law has been shown to impact attitudes to paying for sex in Sweden and Norway with fewer men reporting paying for sex in anonymous surveys after the change in the law.

Providing support to help women exit prostitution should go hand in hand with criminalising the purchase of sex and has been part of the Nordic approach since it was first introduced in Sweden, and has since been recommended by the European Parliament. Studies of women exiting prostitution have shown that a ‘case management’ approach – which provides women with a single point of contact where both the emotional and practical issues related to exiting can be addressed in an individualised, targeted and coordinated manner – is most effective, and that support which does not offer exiting as an option has the effect of keeping women in prostitution when in fact they want to leave (Matthews, R. Easton, H. Young, L. & Bindel, J. Exiting Prostitution – a study in female desistance Palgrave Macmillan 2014. pp140-141).

The consultation paper notes that existing services available in Scotland’s major cities place varying degrees of emphasis on exit (page 20). The Scottish Government should ensure that all services receiving public funds include programmes to offer women meaningful opportunities and support to exit prostitution.

Further reading

Prayer

Lord, we lift up this consultation and all those whose lives it will impact. May you use it as an instrument of healing and peace in a broken and hurting area of our society. Would you stir the hearts of many in this nation to speak up for the voiceless as you have commanded us to, giving us the words to respond with wisdom and clarity and firmly rooted in your love. Amen