Prostitution Research Report
Uploaded by tyson_626 on Feb 23, 2005
Prostitution
This essay focuses mainly on the trade of street prostitution and on women (the people who practice it most often). Women prostitutes outnumber men in a ratio of four to one.
Despite the fact that prostitution is not illegal in Canada, activities closely related to the profession are penalized (i.e. procuring, keeping a bawdyhouse, communicating). This results in the infamous "Catch 22" situation, where prostitutes face a good news-bad news scenario: prostitution is legal, but it is illegal to practice.
The government's and the legal system's inability to clearly define where prostitution can take place facilitates the further victimization of women by forcing them to practice their chosen profession on the street under less than optimal conditions. Moreover, society as a whole is partly responsible for young women choosing prostitution as a career. Also, the incompetence of the law forces the police to be in a position where they have to make the laws.
In the words of an authority on the subject, John Lowman, in Canada "the legality of prostitution is rhetorical at best."
Arriving at a workable definition on what prostitution is is very difficult, since not even the government can agree on what exactly constitutes the offence. Prostitution is the exchange of sexual favours for money or other material goods, devoid of any emotional involvement.
Although prostitution has never been illegal in Canada, many of the peripheral activities intimately related with it are so penalized. Communicating for the purposes of prostitution, soliciting, keeping a common bawdyhouse, procuring, and living off the avails of prostitution are some examples of the type of activities that are criminalized.
The purpose of the "procuring" and "living on the avails" provisions in the Criminal Code is to hinder third parties from making a profit from the prostitution of others. This includes directing potential customers to the services of a prostitute, and living fully or partly off the earnings of a prostitute. In most large cities, people in the service industry such as taxi drivers, bellhops, bartenders, and hotel clerks tend to supplement their incomes by procuring.
Pimps are people who actively seek out another person to prostitute for them. In exchange for this, pimps are supposed to perform certain activities for their prostitute: administer protection from the police, customers and other prostitutes; provide a residence; and recruit customers for "their women."
Although not a great number of women enter the profession as a result of manipulation by pimps, several alleged...