Laws targeting ‘johns’ only increase dangers to prostitutes, report warns

published on June 3, 2014 in The Star

A report from a coalition of Canadian sex workers that draws on research from a British medical journal is a warning to the Conservative government, which is about to announce revised prostitution laws.

OTTAWA—A new report by a coalition of Canadian prostitutes warns the Conservative government that proposals to target “johns” — the clients who buy sexual services — will only increase danger to prostitutes and eventually be found unconstitutional.

The Vancouver-based Pivot Legal Society, along with a group from downtown eastside Vancouver called Sex Workers United Against Violence issued the report Tuesday.

It draws on a newly published peer reviewed report in British Medical Journal Open, and cites research by the Gender and Sexual Health Initiative (GSHI) of the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS and the University of British Columbia.

The British journal study said its findings “suggest that criminalization and policing strategies that target clients reproduce the harms created by the criminalization of sex work, in particular, vulnerability to violence and HIV/STIs (sexually-transmitted infections).” Its study supports “decriminalization of sex work to ensure work conditions that support the health and safety of sex workers in Canada and globally.”

The Pivot Legal Society report, released to the Star, points to the Vancouver Police Department which has gradually, over the past five years, shifted away from arresting street-based sex workers while targeting the arrests of “clients” or “johns.”

Tonda MacCharles
The Star
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Laws targeting ‘johns’ only increase dangers to prostitutes, report warns

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