Abstract
Sex trafficking among women in today’s day and age is one of the most sick, twisted and horrifying things our world has to offer today. Europe being the hot spot for sex trafficking due to many countries having decriminalized prostitution. Romania making new strides at becoming a developed and having an independently run government has caused problems linked to this. According to Iulia Cristiana Badea Caramello’s master thesis on sex trafficking in Romaina, she states that sex trafficking in Romania is, “modern-day slavery” (A Case Study on Sex Trafficking in Romania, Caramello, Pg. iv). Building off of this quote and the idea of Romania reforming their government and country, the U.N predicted that their were roughly 140,000 women currently being sex trafficked in the continent of Europe. Putting percentages to numbers, 45% of these women who were sex trafficked came from Romania and Moldova. Nonetheless, that Romania along with the Netherlands are two countries in Europe who have legal prostitution. Thus, making sex trafficking much harder to stop, spot and prevent. All sex work including prostitution is fully legal and regulated by the government in the country of Netherlands. The hot spot of the country being in the nations capital of Amsterdam, where one street is specifically designated to Sex Work. With about 40 million prostitutes in the world today with 80% being female and 20% being male, their is a huge draw the city known for international sex tourism which is bound to bring in money.
Sex Workers in the Netherlands
Currently their are about 20,000 prostitutes in the country of Netherlands. Of these 20,000 roughly 40% work in the capital of Amsterdam which brings many people for international sex tourism. In Amsterdam, the Red Light District is known for public brothels where prostitutes line windows attempting to draw in clients. Through all of time dating back to the 1800s, being a sex worker including a prostitute has been and still is fully legal in the Netherlands. “it wasn’t until 1988 until it was considered a legal profession.”(Perrie). With prostitution being a legal and regulated job, just like any other job people who register to be a prostitute must also pay taxes and are given the same rights to health insurance, benefits and even unions. These benefits can come if they are employed by someone who runs a brothel. A brothel is a house, hotel or building where men can go and visit prostitutes. Of the 40% of prostitutes who work in Amsterdam, about 5% are employed by these brothels. Along with prostitution, pornography is also legal in the Netherlands as well. It becomes illegal when pornography displays individuals who are under the age of 18. This law is the same as the United States.
Illegal Immigrant Prostitution in the Netherlands
According to Joyce Outshroons academic article called, Policy Change in Prostitution in the Netherlands: from Legalization to Strict Control she states, “Sex workers, or prostitutes (the common term in Dutch public discourse), will be required to register with the authorities; the age to work in the sex industry is to be raised from 18 to 21 years, and clients will have to check whether the sex worker is registered and not an ‘illegal’ worker.” Due to legal prostitution being so popular and the high attraction for money many foreigners of the Netherlands go there as a way to make easy money in a legal way. Having prostitutes register as a legal worker helps protect them from poor working conditions but it also helps protect the people who are going to Amsterdam’s Red Light District for some sex tourism. Outshroons also states in her article, “The authors estimated that half of all prostitutes in the Netherlands were of ‘foreign’ descent (idem, 10) and driven to do the work by economic factors and therefore willing to work under bad conditions and for low wages.” Like stated before, many foreigners being apart or brought into the sex trafficking industry are brought into the Netherlands where it is easier to do work and not get caught due to their relaxed laws regarding sex work. Many of these foreign individuals who come into the Netherlands to preform sex work legally are brought in through sex trafficking. Many of these sex trafficked women coming from the country of Romania where prostitution is legal, but used for worse purposes than consensual.
Sex Work to Sex Trafficking in Romania:
Along with the Netherlands, the country of Romania also has legal prostitution. Though much of this legal prostitution is mis-skewed and transmitted into young women, including children to be put into the sex trafficking industry. One major factor that feeds the fire of sex trafficking/forced prostitution in the country of Romania is the vast amount of poverty that sweeps the nation. You will see in the linked video how run down and financially unstable the area is where many of these women, teenagers and some children come from. According to Cristiana, “Furthermore, these women were willing to do anything to escape their sad lives and their families where they were neglected and/or physically and verbally abused on a regular basis.” (Cristiana, Pg. 21). Cristiana’s quote and the linked video allow us to formulate and support the idea that women and young girls are brought into sex trafficking more likely in poor areas than wealthy, prosperous areas.
Judgment:
“The simplest view of deviance is essentially statistical, defining as deviant anything that varies too widely from average” (4). This quote from Becker’s Outsiders, directly relates to the topic of sex work. Sex workers are judged by many people all around the world for being trashy, whores and sluts. Being a sex worker is considered to be deviant and directly links to Becker’s definition of deviant by sex workers do vary widely from average. Having this in mind, “It is actually pretty typical in Romania to be judged versus helped in a situation like that. People would never see them as victims, but filthy whores or prostitutes.”(Cristiana, Pg 61). This idea does not only happen in Romania, it happens in the Netherlands as well, even the U.S. As we have researched into Becker, sex workers are in fact considered a stigmatized group that perform deviant behaviors that may not seem normal to many people. But when faced with adversity and different life situations, we all make poor decisions, who are we to judge that we wouldn’t do the same thing as these stigmatized individuals if roles were reversed.
Ethnic Backgrounds and Sex Work
According to Chapter 4 of our readings, “Far from feminist, queer, or economic utopia, the camming industry provided decent wages to workers in the sample.”(Jones, Pg. 62). This quote supports the fact that all walks of life can benefit from sex work, everyone who views these videos have their own preference or attractions. Everyone has the ability to benefit via the camming industry. To counter this argument, according to the article “Black Women Sex Workers: Identify, Black Feminist Consciousness, and Acculturated Stress” states, “According to Tatum, Black feminists insist Black Women experience discrimination due to their race and gender because dominant society defines the appropriate social roles for Black women, which precludes sex work.”(Feminism, Paragraph 4). Due to these concerns people have formulated advocacy groups in support for sex workers and how they are also workers in today’s day in age. In chapter 6 of Angela Jones’ “Camming” she states, “When customers select performers based soley on nationality or race, they are motivated be sexual racism.”(Jones, Ch.8, Pg 185). Jones also states, “They are not legally protected from discrimination or harassment because cam sites are not legal workplaces.”(Jones, Ch 3). All of these quotes support the fact that these sex workers are placed in a different social class than non sex workers and are in line of criticism, discrimination and harassment.
Sex Work Advocacy
When it comes to sex work advocacy the key note that all advocacy groups make is that they want to increase sex workers safety. The Netherlands did just that and allowed sex workers to feel more comfortable being able to go to the police if they have experienced some sort force against them or even violence. “Sex workers’ rights movement as it exists today has its roots in the 1970s, with the founding of groups like COYOTE (Call Off Your Old Tired Ethics) that advocated for an end to laws targeting sex workers”( North). The laws discussed that are targeting sex workers are putting them at risk of getting arrested when some are just trying to provide for a family. Along with discrimination and sex work, African American prostitutes and/or sex worker have a much high chance of seeing prosecuted than those who are white.(North). These advocacy groups have been able to make themselves heard and are beginning to see the support from some politicians.
References:
Becker, Saul Howard. (1963). Outsiders: Studies in the Sociology of Deviance. New York City, New York: The Free Press
Cristiana Badea Caramello, Iulia. A Case Study on Sex Trafficking in Romania. Dec. 2012, repository.usfca.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1046&context=thes.
Feminisms, Black. “Black Women Sex Workers: Identity, Black Feminist Consciousness, and Acculturated Stress.” Blackfeminisms.com, 4 Aug. 2017, http://www.blackfeminisms.com/black-women-sex-workers/.
Jones, Angela. Camming: Money, Power, and Pleasure in the Sex Work Industry. New York University Press, 2020.
North, Anna. “Sex Workers Have Been Fighting for Decriminalization for Generations. Now Politicians Are Starting to Listen.” 2 Aug. 2019.
Outshoorn, J. Policy Change in Prostitution in the Netherlands: from Legalization to Strict Control. Sex Res Soc Policy 9, 233–243 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13178-012-0088-z
Perrie, Stewart. “Here’s How Amsterdam Sex Workers Benefit From Their Industry Being Legal And Regulated.” LADbible, LADbible, 30 Nov. 2017, http://www.ladbible.com/community/interesting-heres-how-amsterdam-prostitutes-win-from-their-industry-being-legal-20171130.
Derek's Sociological Autobiography 