Decriminalize sex work

ON JAN. 14, federal agents raided four houses in San Francisco they allege were brothels where undocumented Asian women were working as prostitutes, giving a large percentage of their income to the operators of a smuggling and prostitution ring. The women were brought to San Francisco from countries like Thailand, Korea, and Malaysia, the authorities claim.

Four days later the cover story in the New York Times Magazine examined what the Times said is a large and growing problem in the United States: sex slavery. Women (and in many cases, girls as young as 14) are smuggled into the country through Mexico and forced to work as prostitutes.

On the streets of San Francisco and Oakland, women and men who work as prostitutes face another set of problems: when they're assaulted, robbed, or exploited, they're afraid to go to the police, who often ignore or downplay their complaints – or wind up arresting them.

As Ann Harrison reports on page 16, an active, vocal group called the Sex Workers Outreach Project argues that the growth in exploitation and violence against prostitutes is in large measure a result of the fact that prostitution is illegal. The group's pushing a series of local ballot measures in San Francisco, Oakland, and Berkeley that would urge state lawmakers to decriminalize sex work, and it's asking Assemblymember Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) to sponsor decriminalization legislation this year.

It's not likely a Republican governor would sign a bill ending criminal penalties for prostitution. In fact, it's unlikely even most Democrats in the legislature would vote for such a bill. But SWOP has a point, and with state and local government budgets swimming in red ink, this is a great time to start pushing the issue.

As we demonstrated nine years ago (see "The New Prohibition," 10/5/94), San Francisco alone spends tens of millions of dollars a year cracking down on victimless crimes like gambling, drug use, and prostitution. The cops arrest sex workers; the Sheriff's Office has to process them and pay an average of $94 a day to keep them in jail. The District Attorney's Office has to pour resources into prosecuting the cases, and since many of the people arrested don't have the money for private lawyers, the Public Defender's Office has to defend them.

All too often, the wrong people end up in the legal system: The women and men who are trying to survive (and often, to feed their families) get criminal records that make it hard to find legal work. Undocumented workers get deported. And the crime syndicates and pimps who profit off the work walk away unscathed.

Law enforcement efforts haven't made a dent in the city's sex work industry and never will. But careful decriminalization, combined with strict regulation, could and would end much of the exploitation that takes place in the underground economy.

SWOP's current ballot proposals are largely symbolic, and the group could go further: initiatives could, for example, direct local governments to reduce or eliminate funding for vice squads and prosecution of sex workers. At the state level, Leno has offered to sponsor a bill that would grant immunity to sex workers who report abuse; that's a good start. But he shouldn't hesitate to introduce a decriminalization bill, even if he knows it will fail. He could use the bill as an opportunity to seek a legislative analyst's report on the cost to state and local government of laws against prostitution.

This movement is really only starting to gain strength. But SWOP has done a public service already by drawing attention to the issue, and in progressive San Francisco, public officials ought to make it a point to respond.