An Anthology of English Pros

[Evidence to Public Bill Committee on the Policing and Crime Bill]

1 Introduction (Summary) 

1.1 This submission consists mainly of such evidence as I have been able to collate through the web to demonstrate the actual and potential aid given by ‘punters’ to victims of Human Trafficking for Sexual Exploitation (HTfSE) by identifying them to the authorities or aiding their escape.

This, in my submission, would be considerably prejudiced by the Bill in its current form, which would deem a client guilty of a strict liability offence at the point of arranging sex for payment with a sex worker ‘controlled for gain,’ which may well be by telephone or through the internet before he or she has met the sex worker concerned.

1.2 This evidence does not pretend to be comprehensive. It relies in part on local newspaper accounts, several of court cases, with all their limitations, and in part on official reports of various bodies. All net addresses viewed January 22-26, 2009. Read the rest of this entry »

WITH THE incessant fuss over human trafficking of ’sex slaves’ in the UK – the Government having pumped £5.8 million into the Poppy Project alone since 2003 to help them – you’d think the powers that be might have a clue what they’re talking about on the subject.

But no, it seems. The Government can’t quite decide what human trafficking actually is.

The confusion can be found in two very different Commons answers given by Home Office minister, Alan Campbell, to identical questions posed by two MPs 48 hours apart last month.

The question was, what was the Home Office’s ”definition..of a person who has been trafficked?” Read the rest of this entry »

THERE ARE LESS migrant sex workers in the UK than any other western European country – but from by far the largest diversity of nations, says international research.

The survey is the latest by TAMPEP, the international networking agency that charts migratory patterns in prostitution.

It shows that, despite London’s very high percentage of migrant sex workers (76%), across the nation as a whole  only 37% of sex workers are migrants.

This compares with an average of 68% in European countries surveyed, apart from the former Soviet bloc.

The low figure will be a set-back for Government ministers and national prohibitionists, who have constantly portrayed the picture in the London ‘bubble’ as being typical of the UK.

But despite small numbers, no less than 56 nationalities were counted in the UK results – way ahead of second place Germany, with 38, and third place Greece (36). The Commonwealth, links with former colonies and the success of the English language could all be factors. Read the rest of this entry »

FIGURES from BRA, the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention, show a hefty rise in sex crimes since Sweden outlawed the purchase of sex.

The figure hovered around 9,000 a year when the controversial law was adopted, but its latest stats show it has now soared to 12,100 12,600 a year. Some increase in reporting may have affected the figures, but an increase in criminal activity is likely, says BRA.

The figures include rape, sexual molestation and sexual coercion. Thirty percent of victims are under 15.

When Tokyo banned brothels 50 years ago, sex crime rocketed 125% in the following four months (scan down here).

UPDATE January 6: Latest info from BRA  shows the rocketing sex crime rate continued through 2007, now standing at 12,600 a year – 40% up on that at the point the new law was adopted.

“Almost 12,600 sex crimes were reported in 2007, which represents an increase of three per cent by comparison with the number reported in 2006. There was an increase in the number of reported rape offences, which rose by 13 percent to 4,750. In contrast, the number of reported crimes of sexual coercion, exploitation etc. decreased by eight per cent by comparison with the figure for 2006.”

England + Wales rape figures also show an increase since the Swedish law was adopted – but in the last two years they have fallen a total 13 percent.

VISITORS to the Number 10 website may know that it has a laudable facility for e-Petitions. If you have a gripe, or a constructive suggestion, you can pop it in an e-Petition and it will apparently be addressed.

Well, it’s a little tougher than that. But serious e-Petitions with 200 or more signatures are promised a response.

Visit closed petitions by size on the No 10 site and one can clearly see that No 10 or, more probably, the Government departments responsible for the policy area, do a fairly good (though far from excellent) job at responding to petitions.

And, indeed, most qualifying petitions get a response. The petitioners don’t necessarily like them, of course, but that’s politics, and at least someone in government is supposed to have considered what they have to say.

Read the rest of this entry »

FOR SEVERAL years now, the UK media has focussed from time to time on the plight of “sex slaves” – young women arriving from abroad and forced to work as prostitutes.

Sometimes we are told there are thousands, sometimes tens of thousands, of incarcerated, young foreign would-be nannies being multiply raped at gunpoint in the nation’s clandestine brothels.

That such appalling cases exist is clear from media headlines of sensational cases. But how extensive really is the UK’s population of victims of Human Trafficking for Sexual Exploitation (HTfSE)?

Does it warrant Government moves towards a permanent trade boycott of the 80,000-strong army of UK residents who, it says, make their living from prostitution, by threatening court action against millions of their British customers?

What is human trafficking?

To discuss how many trafficking victims there are in the UK, we must start by defining trafficking. Read the rest of this entry »