Länderberichte GROSSBRITANNIEN:

[Aoife]

Hier eine amüsante Arbeit über die schottischen Sexclubs des 18. Jahrhunderts.

Sollte sich jemand daran stören, dass ich das unter GB eingestellt habe können wir gerne auch einen eigenen thread zu Schottland eröffnen.

Liebe Grüße, Aoife


Sex and the Celestial Bed: the lives and lusts of Scotland’s libertines

By Elizabeth McQuillan

The lords, lairds, nobles and wealthy libertines of 18th-century Scotland, supplemented by a few customs officials and smugglers with gold coin, had ample opportunity to have their fancy tickled in the East Neuk of Fife.

Anstruther was home to the Beggar’s Benison – or The Most Ancient and Puissant order of the Beggar’s Benison and Merryland, to give it the full title – a gentlemen’s sex club which opened in 1732. This was a place where the chaps could play in Merryland, “merry” being the popular euphemism for sex at that time.

Sex was obviously on offer, with veiled dancing girls and game strumpet doing the 18th-century equivalent of a lap dance with “extras”. Lewd and libidinous behaviour was positively encouraged – young ladies, for example, were paid to position themselves naked for examination.

For all the lusty goings-on, in a climate where masturbation was considered morally questionable, this particular activity seemed to be enjoyed and the club’s members embraced their, erm, members in a big way.

“The novice was ‘prepared’ in a closet… [by three other Members] … causing him to propel his penis until full erection,” writes history professor David Stevenson in The Beggar’s Benison: Sex Clubs of Enlightenment Scotland and Their Rituals. “He then came out of the closet, a fanfare being provided by ‘four puffs of the Breath Horn’, and placed his genitals on the Testing-Platter, which was covered with a folded white napkin. The Members and Knights two and two came round in a state of erection and touched the novice penis to penis.’

After some pseudo-religious mumbo-jumbo, booze-quaffing from phallus-engraved drinking vessels and the reading of seemingly titillating verse from the Song of Solomon, the initiated were blessed with the words: “May Prick nor Purse ne’er Fail You”.

But these chaps apparently enjoyed wanton “frigging” as a two-fingered salute to the Establishment, and considered it representative of intellectual enlightenment. Some might postulate, however, that they just enjoyed getting their bits out.

A snuffbox gifted to the club by honorary member George IV is said to have contained pubic hair from his mistress. Perhaps they used it for fly-tying.

Having said that, the Wig Club in Edinburgh, founded in 1775, also had a fixation with pubic hair. The wig, after which the club was named, was reputedly woven from the pubic hair of courtesans and had been in the Moray family for three generations. Nice. The elected president even got to wear the fabulous pubic relic at meetings.

According to Old and New Edinburgh (Volume 5), the Wig Club members “generally drank twopenny ale, on which it was possible to get intoxicated for the value of a groat, and ate a coarse kind of loaf, called Soutar’s clod, which, with penny pies of high reputation in those days, were furnished by a shop near Forrester’s Wynd, and known as the Baijen Hole.”

There was also some quite explicit literature on the go during this time of Scottish enlightenment. Fanny Hill, written in the 1700s by John Cleland – son to the Commissioner of Customs in Scotland – was a lusty piece of erotica that covered all manner of sexual encounters, including homosexuality and prostitution.

Shocking for its time, the book had its first public reading at the Beggar’s Benison. It was likely well received. Cleland, clearly libertine in his thinking, was arrested and the book removed from sale.

The libertine code by which Rabbie Burns lived his life is well recorded, and Lord Byron (the son of an Aberdeenshire heiress) famously liked to put it about a bit, fill his senses, and had lovers wherever he went.

He started with a shocking affair with the married Lady Caroline Lamb, then Lady Oxford and sundry others. He hung out with poets and writers in Switzerland and Venice, and made love to the beautiful women he met.

Byron was very close to his half-sister, Augusta Leigh, and is said to have had an incestuous relationship with her. He was considered to have been fairly liberated, and – having ticked off adultery, incest and sodomy – didn’t have much left on his “to do” list.

Our very own Doctor of Love, sexologist James Graham, was born in Edinburgh in 1745. He raised a few eyebrows and skirt hems in his time. Having dropped out of medical school, Graham travelled in America and Europe learning about electricity, magnetism and other “new sciences”.

On his return to the UK, he set up practice sequentially in London, Bristol and Bath, and advertised his skills in Effluvia, Vapours and Applications aetherial, magnetic or electric. He offered lectures and advice on sexual health, positioning and all baby-making matters.

Graham also advocated very specific care of the male genitalia for best results, which included washing with very cold water which would “lock the cock and secure all for the next rencontre”. This would also much improve the testicular condition: “certain parts which next morning after a laborious night would be relaxed, lank, and pendulous, like the two eyes of a dead sheep dangling in a wet empty calf’s bladder, by the frequent and judicious use of the icy cold water, would be like a couple of steel balls, of a pound apiece, inclosed in a firm purse of uncut Manchester velvet!”

Graham even invented a Celestial Bed, which had all manner of electrical gadgetry, magnets, mirrors, perfumed gases – as well as a pair of turtledoves within the domed structure.

The device was specifically angled for maximum penetration and was linked to organ pipes (of the musical variety) that would play a celestial tune as the couple banged away. The harder a couple went at it, the greater the intensity of the music.

Graham must have been getting something right, as he had a following of aristocrats and female admirers – including Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire – and wealthy couples paid handsomely to have a session on the bed to make babies.

Suffering with a Messiah Complex, in debt and committed to an asylum for a time (he took to wandering around naked but for clods of earth about his person), Graham died without receiving medical-establishment endorsement for his techniques.

Little can be found about his actual electrical appliances, though some were phallic in shape and one might guess that he came up with the precursor to the modern vibrator. However, you don’t need to be a qualified medic to figure out that the application of high voltage would be better suited to raising Frankenstein’s monster than genital stimulation.

Source (with clickable links): http://heritage.caledonianmercury.com/2 ... nes/002843

[Marc of Frankfurt]

Stop the criminalisation of sex workers

Oppose the Policing and Crime Bill








http://www.prostitutescollective.net/Po ... Oppose.htm

http://www.womeninlondon.org.uk/2009/11/notice-ecp-2/

http://sexworkblog.wordpress.com/2009/1 ... -in-lords/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Policing_a ... ostitution

[Marc of Frankfurt]

Authorities failing to enforce law aimed at tackling sex with trafficked women

Only 40 cases have been prosecuted since new offence came into effect in April 2010, Home Office strategy reveals


Alan Travis, home affairs editor
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 19 July 2011


The Home Office strategy says targetting those who pay for sex from trafficked women is a key element in disrupting the market for human trafficking.

The failure of police and prosecutors to enforce a law that criminalises men who pay for sex with trafficked women is jeopardising the attempt to tackle human trafficking into Britain.

A Home Office strategy published on Tuesday says that only 40 cases have been prosecuted since the new offence came into effect in April 2010 and that includes prosecutions of kerb crawlers.

"Enforcement of this offence would be a key part of the chain that leads to women being trafficked into the country and help deter those that may consider paying for sexual services from someone who may be trafficked, thereby reducing demand," says the strategy.

The document calls for a greater effort to target the demand for "inexpensive, unprotected and often illegal labour" and to create a business environment where it is neither considered desirable or readily available.

"There is growing awareness amongst consumers of the harm caused by unethical business practices. But more needs to be done to increase understanding and encourage greater corporate moral and social responsibility within the private sector," the strategy acknowledges.

Home Office minsters are to review by the end of this year the current legislation on trafficking to ensure that it supports the effective prosecution of human traffickers.

The strategy recognises that there are some problems caused by the fact that trafficking for sexual exploitation is prosecuted under the 2003 Sexual Offences Act while labour trafficking comes under the 2004 Asylum and Immigration Act which has a different standard of proof.

"While there have been successful prosecutions under both, there are some disparities which make the legislative framework less straightforward than it could be for prosecutors. In addition, the different levels of proof mean that it is more difficult to prosecute for labour exploitation," says the new strategy.

Crown Prosecution figures show that just 48 people were prosecuted over trafficking offences in England and Wales.

The official strategy says a key element in disrupting the market for trafficking and reducing its profitability is to target those who pay for sexual services from trafficked women. In particular it cites the 2009 Policing and Crime Act which introduced an offence of paying for the sexual services of a prostitute subjected to force, deception, threats or any other form of coercion.

"This means that someone who pays for the sexual services of a woman (whether or not they know the woman has been trafficked) can be arrested and prosecuted," says the strategy.

It notes that as of June only 40 offences have involved somebody being charged since April 2010 and that includes cases of kerb crawling.

The strategy confirms that from this month the Salvation Army will play a central role in the £2m-a-year programme to support the adult victims of trafficking.

It also advocates a more targeted focus on the countries that are the major source of trafficking; extending the use of powers to seize the assets of traffickers and establish closer relationships with overseas law enforcement agencies.

The immigration minister, Damian Green, said the new strategy would send the message that Britain was not a soft touch for traffickers. "We will pursue and disrupt trafficking networks overseas wherever possible to stop them before they ply their trade in the UK and then bring them to justice," he said.

Human rights charities have criticised Britain's human trafficking strategy in the past, arguing that it has backfired, increased the suffering of victims and undermined attempts to prosecute the criminal gangs who abused them.

The Crown Prosecution Service earlier this month issued new guidance that women and children who were suspected of having been trafficked should no longer be treated as criminals.


www.guardian.co.uk/law/2011/jul/19/sex- ... g-strategy

[fraences]

HERSTELLER LIEFERT NICHT
In England werden die Kondome knapp

Kondome werden in Großbritannien aktuell knapp.

LONDON –
Oh, no! In Großbritannien gehen die Kondome aus. Die Lieferungen der Verhütungsmittel könnten sogar um bis zu 50 Prozent einbrechen.
Hintergrund ist ein Rechtsstreit des Kondom-Herstellers Reckitt Benckiser (gehört zu Durex) mit seinem indischen Zulieferer TTK. Der Zulieferer stelle jährlich rund 1,3 Milliarden Gummis für den britischen Markt her, berichtet die "Financial Times Deutschland" (FTD) auf ihrer Internetseite.
Jedes zweite Kondom im Handel auf der Insel stammt von Reckitt Benckiser. In dem Streit geht es um den Preis der Gummis. Bis der Zwist nicht vor Gericht geklärt wurde, wollen die Inder nicht liefern.
Ob es schon Kondom-Hamsterkäufe zwischen Dover und Glasgow gibt, ist unklar. In der Bredouille ist aber insbesondere die staatliche Gesundheitsbehörde, die umsonst Kondome verteilt - nicht zuletzt um die dramatisch hohe Zahl der Teenager-Schwangerschaften auf der Insel einzudämmen.

http://www.express.de/news/politik-wirt ... index.html

[Zwerg]

Großbritannien: Polizei soll Domains beschlagnahmen dürfen
Wenn es nach dem Willen des britischen Domain-Registrars Nominet geht, soll die Polizei zur Sperrung von Domains bemächtigt werden. Eine entsprechende Gesetzesinitiative hat der Registrar gefordert. Zumindest bei ernstzunehmenden Straftaten soll die Polizei schnelle Möglichkeiten zur Reaktion haben.

In der jüngsten Vergangenheit wurden vermehrt Domains seitens der Polizei beschlagnahmt. Oft genug geschah dies auf einer fragwürdigen rechtlichen Basis. Eine gerichtliche Anordnung ist häufig nicht vorhanden. Der britische Domain-Registrar Nominet hat sich nun dafür ausgesprochen, dass diese Praxis zumindest bei ernsten Straftaten beibehalten wird. Man begrüße nicht nur entsprechende Gesetzesinitiativen, sondern passe auch die eigenen Richtlinien entsprechend an.

Die britischen Vollzugsbehörden müssten stets in der Lage sein, Domains im Falle eines Falles schnell zu beschlagnahmen. Wenn es nach Nominet geht, soll das Ausfüllen eines simplen Formulars reichen. Darüber hinaus müsse die Maßnahme angemessen, notwendig und dringend sein.

Einer der möglichen Gründe, bei denen diese Eilbeschlagnahmung zum Einsatz kommen darf, sieht man beispielsweise bei Webseiten, die Urheberrechte verletzen. Darüber hinaus sollen Webseiten davon erfasst sein, die in die Kategorie Produktfälschung, Betrug, Prositution oder Geldwäsche eingeteilt werden können.

"Das soll nicht der Weg des geringsten Widerstandes sein. Das ist für solche Fälle gedacht, in denen es einfach Zeit braucht einen Gerichtsbeschluss zu erwirken und der Schaden am Verbraucher bereits geschehen wäre. Wir legen nicht nahe, dass dieses beschleunigte Verfahren für die private Durchsetzung von urheberrechtlichen Ansprüchen genutzt wird", so Alex Blowers von Nominet.

Insbesondere letzteres dürfte jedoch für Rechteinhaber ein reizvoller Weg sein, um Filesharing-Websites aus dem Netz zu werfen. Auch wenn dies nur temporär gelingt.

http://www.gulli.com/news/17051-grossbr ... 2011-09-06

[Marc of Frankfurt]

Greater Manchester police chief backs brothel debate


Dep Ch Const Simon Byrne Dep Ch Con Simon Byrne said there was "no perfect solution"

Decriminalising brothels could solve problems linked to prostitution, says a Greater Manchester police chief.


Deputy Ch Con Simon Byrne said he would welcome a debate about alternative approaches to policing prostitution and sexual exploitation.

Mr Byrne, who leads the policing of prostitution for the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo), made the comments on the Police Chiefs blog.

He said there was "no perfect solution" but it had helped in other countries.


'Considers risk'

Mr Byrne said: "There is a great amount of academic research available, much of which supports the view that an alternative approach is needed."

While the decriminalisation and regulation of brothels in Australia and New Zealand was not an answer to all related issues, he said it was "certainly a solution to some".

He added: "More of those involved in sex work [there] can now access health services with ease, whilst maintaining more personal security."

"An approach like this would help to bridge the gap between tackling neighbourhood nuisance and the exploitation of sex workers by organised criminals and gangs."

Mr Byrne added that policing prostitution needed effective partnerships to support victimised individuals and communities with appropriate legislation and enforcement resources in order for it to work long term.

The Home Office is yet to comment on Mr Byrne's blog.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-15558800





Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO www.acpo.police.uk) release Strategy for Policing Prostitution and Sexual Exploitation

Sexworker blog:
http://harlotsparlour.wordpress.com/201 ... loitation/

[Marc of Frankfurt]

Verfahren gegen Sheila Farmer eingestellt


Sept. 2011
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRR_BXXpPgg[/youtube]

Jan. 2012
www.prostitutescollective.net/Sheila_Fa ... PDATED.htm

[Marc of Frankfurt]

Forts:


Life is hard enough for prostitutes without our work being criminalised

The government claims it needs to make cuts but squanders huge amounts of money prosecuting women like me

Sheila Farmer
guardian.co.uk, Friday 6 January 2012


This week charges of brothel-keeping against me were dropped.

It's enough for two prostitutes to live or work together for us to be illegal. To be within the law we must work alone.

After 18 months of campaigning to stop my prosecution, it was suddenly claimed there was not enough evidence to proceed. I think this is because I was on the verge of opening a can of worms and the authorities wanted me to go away.

I didn't plan on becoming a prostitute. I had an abusive and violent childhood leaving me with night terrors and a stammer. As the eldest child I looked after my mother and younger siblings and I learned to be strong. From the age of 11 I worked in a burger bar to pay for bus fares to school, dinner money and school uniform. Like most victims of domestic violence, we had no help to escape.

I became pregnant at 21 and a single parent at 23. I trained to become a computer programmer. This meant leaving the house with my three-year-old at 6.45am arriving home at 7pm and doing three hours' nightly study. It was very hard but it paid off: I got a good job, bought a house, learned to drive and took my son out of poverty.

All this changed when I lost my eyesight in 1992 and developed a brain tumour as a result of childhood diabetes. I rented a flat to work as a prostitute so I could pay my debts. My son became my carer. After surgery I regained some sight in my right eye.

I worked alone. Within months, I was attacked, raped repeatedly, tied up, held hostage, and nearly strangled. I gave evidence against my attacker but he got off. I suffered years of nightmares and panic attacks and decided never to work alone again.

Using my prostitution earnings I trained for five years to become a counsellor, only to have my chances of getting a job scuppered by a CRB check exposing my prostitution.

By this time I was working with friends because it was safer. We kept our own money but jointly paid towards the rent, bills and advertising. We only found out later that it was illegal to work together.

That's when I suffered my second major attack. We were robbed at gunpoint by a gang who had targeted hundreds of flats in the south of England. Most victims would not go to the police for fear of being prosecuted. Despite threats to my life and my flat being petrol bombed, I gave evidence and was commended by the judge for my bravery.

We moved to another flat and within a few months were raided. I was arrested and charged with brothel-keeping. My friend, who is Albanian and was worried about being deported, was pressured into signing a statement.

I decided to fight the case as my tumour is now malignant and my time is running out. Who has a right to judge me? People have sex for all kinds of reasons. My reason was to escape the poverty trap. I've been told that prostitution is degrading and self-abuse, but how many other people feel abused by their jobs?

The English Collective of Prostitutes www.prostitutescollective.net worked with me on my defence and spearheaded a support campaign. More than 1,000 people wrote to my MP to protest. I spoke at SlutWalk in Trafalgar Square to the cheers of 5,000 people (siehe Video oben); I spoke at Occupy LSX and on their live stream. I tell my story hoping that other women and men will recognise some of their life in it and support our fight against criminalisation.

The police use trafficking as an excuse to hound prostitutes. But in my experience, victims of trafficking are rare and don't get the support they need. Most working women are like you and me, trying to earn a living.

Since the 2002 Proceeds of Crime Act, which allows police to seize our money and our goods, arrests have skyrocketed. The police are just pimping.

I'm relieved not to face trial but angry that I was prosecuted. The government claims it needs to make cuts but squanders huge amounts of money prosecuting women like me.

Duwayne Brooks, Stephen Lawrence's friend, said that the police who were first on the scene treated them as if they were guilty of something. When sex workers report attacks, we face prejudice too. Police may arrest us rather than our attackers. Violent criminals know they can get away with it and attack others, prostitute or not. Don't the police know this, or don't they care?

I should be able to work in the job I choose without being victimised – life is hard enough. Prostitution has been decriminalised in New Zealand: sex workers can go to the police and insist on their right to safety.
www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2003 ... 97815.html

If such changes were made here it could save many lives. And it could make it easier to leave prostitution if we wanted to.


Mit den original Links
www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/j ... iminalised

[Marc of Frankfurt]

Und noch ein Prozess gegen male Sexworker and Pornographer Michael Peacock von www.sleazyMichael.com:

BDSM/Pornographie-Verbot beim DVD-Versand


The first contested obscenity trial in the digital age.

Obscene Publications Act 1959 (OPA)

“four finger rule” with fisting scenes

Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 shifts the burden from the producers and distributors of "extreme pornography" to the viewers who merely have such images in their possession.

House of Lords' judgment in R v Brown [1992, the "Spanner case"] ruled that individuals cannot consent to sexual assault which is greater than transient and trifling (essentially the drawing of blood). Judge Lord Templeman: "Cruelty is uncivilised".



Obscenity trial: the law is not suitable for a digital age
I welcome the jury's verdict but the OPA means the state is still capable of acting as a voyeur in the bedroom
von Myles Jackman, solicitor at Hodge Jones and Allen who specialises in extreme pornography and obscenity offences
www.guardian.co.uk/law/2012/jan/06/obsc ... igital-age

Obscenity Trial of the Decade
von Myles Jackman
http://obscenitylawyer.blogspot.com/201 ... ecade.html

Kanzlei
http://www.hja.net/meet-our-people/staf ... man&id=202


Marlon Brando's character in Apocalypse Now:

• "We train young men to drop fire on people. But their commanders won't allow them to write "fuck" on their airplanes because - it's obscene!"

.

[Marc of Frankfurt]

Auch diesen Prozess gewonnen:


Not guilty verdict in gay escort’s obscenity trial


by Staff Writer, PinkNews.co.uk
6 January 2012, 3:33pm

Peacock was found not guilty on all counts

A jury in London has returned a unanimous not guilty verdict for a man charged under the Obscene Publications Act 1959 for distributing DVDs containing scenes of extreme gay sex acts.

Michael Peacock was cleared of six charges earlier this afternoon at Southwark Crown Court, in what has been described as “the most significant obscenity trial of the decade”.

The legal test under the Act is whether any images would “tend to deprave and corrupt” those who saw them.

The acts contained within the DVDs in the case had included fisting between men, urination, and incidents of sado-masochism.

Myles Jackson, a lawyer specialising in the obscenity laws whose firm was representing Peacock, had written: “Perhaps illogically, of these sexual acts, fisting and urination are completely legal to perform in real life; and thus it is only the representation of these acts on film which may be considered obscene and therefore attract criminal liability.”

If the jury had found Peacock guilty of possessing material which would “deprave and corrupt”, he could have faced up to 5 years’ imprisonment.

In an interview in 2010, Peacock, now 53, said he came out as gay in 2004 and had begun work as an escort one month later.

Dr Brooke Magnanti, the author of the Belle du Jour blog, is personally acquainted with Peacock.

She wrote on her blog today that the “thought that he corrupts or defiles anyone who doesn’t want said treatment is frankly ridiculous”.

Magnanti added there was a need to clarify issues of consent in the depiction of such acts: “This failure to distinguish consensual and nonconsensual sex acts is something that must be addressed.

“Not only because is an important point as regards sex and kink, but also because making this point crystal clear in guidance on law would help to shape discussion of issues around sex in a way that is more reasonable and less anachronistic.”

The Crown Prosecution Service guidelines list images of “sadomasochistic material which goes beyond trifling and transient infliction of injury”, “torture with instruments”, “activities involving perversion or degradation” and “fisting” as possibly being suitable for prosecution along with non-consensual acts.

The jury determined the acts in question did not “tend to corrupt or deprave those who are likely, having regard to all relevant circumstances, to read, see or hear the matter contained or embodied in it”.

www.pinknews.co.uk/2012/01/06/not-guilt ... ity-trial/


www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/libert ... nity-trial


IUSW Sexworker Gewerkschaft Presseerklärung
http://harlotsparlour.wordpress.com/201 ... release-2/

[fraences]

UK: Bildungssystem treibt Studentinnen ins Bordell


Gestiegene Studiengebühren schuld - Jobs zudem schlecht bezahlt


Birmingham/Hamburg - Laut einer Studie der University of Birmingham http://birmingham.ac.uk steigt die Zahl der Studentinnen, die ihr Studium als Prostituierte finanzieren. Jeder zehnte Student kennt eine Kommilitonin, die nebenbei im Bordell arbeitet. 2002 waren es noch vier, 2006 bereits sechs Prozent. Inzwischen ist die Zahl auf zehn Prozent gestiegen.

Oft einzige Möglichkeit

Daniela Doleschall von der Stabsstelle Gleichstellung der Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften in Hamburg http://haw-hamburg.de kann solche Tendenzen nicht feststellen. "Wir kommunizieren mit sämtlichen Hochschulen in Deutschland und die Thematik ist noch nicht vorgekommen", sagt sie gegenüber pressetext. "Ich denke, das Thema wird von den Medien aufgebauscht", sagt Doleschall.

In Großbritannien sieht man eine Korrelation zwischen gestiegenen Studiengebühren und dem Vorkommen von Prostitution an der Universität. Eine Vereinigung Prostituierter aus Großbritannien, die English Collective of Prostitutes (ECP) http://prostitutescollective.net , verzeichnet ebenfalls höhere Zahlen von Prostituierten in Studentenkreisen. "Prostitution ist für viele die einzige Möglichkeit, finanziell zu überleben. Traditionelle Studentenjobs werden immer schlechter bezahlt", sagt ein ECP-Sprecher.

In Deutschland kein Thema

Das dramatische an der Entwicklung ist, dass Studentinnen denken, sie hätten keine andere Wahl als sich zu prostituieren. In deutschen Hochschulen gibt es derweil weder Studien noch offizielle Zahlen zu Studierenden, die ihren Körper gegen Geld verkaufen. Im Vergleich zu England sind die Studiengebühren in Deutschland gering. "In vielen Bundesländern gibt es keine Studiengebühren, außerdem gibt es noch die Unterstützung durch BAföG", sagt Doleschall.

http://www.pressetext.com/news/20120229032

[Marc of Frankfurt]

Met police sex trafficking investigations criticised

Report accuses officers of 'heavy handed' approach to brothel raids and of failing to find trafficking victims


Diane Taylor
guardian.co.uk, Monday 19 March 2012

An elite Metropolitan police squad has come under fire in a highly critical report commissioned by the London mayor, Boris Johnson, for its investigations into sex trafficking in the runup to the Olympics.

The report accuses officers of a "heavy handed" approach to brothel raids and of failing to find victims of trafficking.

The report, Silence On Violence (link below), from London assembly member Andrew Boff, is being considered by Johnson. It criticises the police performance and estimates that they have a success rate of less than 1% in finding trafficking victims during brothel raids.

Police had predicted an increase in sex trafficking in the runup to the Olympics, but they have admitted that they have failed to find any evidence of a rise in the five Olympics host boroughs. That is despite a cash injection of £500,000 from the Government Office for London to specifically target the crime.

Both local police officers and the Met's specialist SCD9 unit, which focuses on human exploitation and organised crime, carry out brothel raids. Both are condemned in the report for failing to adopt an intelligence-based approach to trafficking and for looking in the wrong place to find victims.

"The information I have gathered … demonstrates that police have been proactively raiding sex establishments without complaint nor significant intelligence that exploitation is taking place," writes Boff in the report.

He adds that the attitude of some sections of the Metropolitan police to policing sex trafficking "appeared to be based on little or no evidence".

Of particular concern is the failure of police to find girls and women trafficked from west Africa, thought to be the largest group of victims. They are rarely found in brothels and are more likely to be exploited in closed communities.

The Poppy Project, which works with victims of trafficking, said that women from west Africa are the largest group they work with. Of 197 Nigerian women [21 Frauen pro Jahr] they have worked with since 2003 just nine were referred to them by the police.

"These women are not coming forward to the police so the police need to be more creative about how they find them," said Abigail Stepnitz Poppy's national co-ordinator.

The experience of one 15-year-old girl who was trafficked from west Africa is typical.

"I was locked in a house in London by my trafficker. He brought so many different men there to rape me. I was never allowed to leave the house and was never taken to a brothel. The police didn't interview me until a few months after I escaped. I was very scared of them and didn't want to tell them anything."

Georgina Perry, manager of Open Doors, an NHS project in east London working with sex workers, condemned the policing of sex work in the capital.

"There has been a sharp increase in raids and brothel closures in the Olympic boroughs. As a result, women have been displaced to areas where they have no access to support and services. The police approach has been very heavy handed and mistrust and fear of them amongst sex workers is at an all time high.

"Women are terrified to report violent crimes that take place against them for fear of being arrested. This situation neither helps to bring real criminals to justice nor gives intelligence that may combat trafficking."

Boff said: "I believe the police have spent a lot of time trying to find victims of trafficking in the places where they are unlikely to be. The political drivers have been wrong on this. SCD9 is barking up the wrong tree.

"One of my starkest findings was the absence of west Africans among the women found by SCD9. These victims won't be found by going into a massage parlour and asking everybody whether they have been trafficked.

"By going in, in this way they are driving some of these women further into the shadows. There is evidence of increasing fear of the police amongst sex workers which has resulted in a reluctance to report crime."

He called on the police to rethink the way they investigate sex trafficking and to build better relations with sex workers.

A spokesperson for the mayor said: "The Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime (MOPC) has commissioned an independent study into sex trafficking and prostitution in London. Andrew Boff's report has been received and will be considered as part of the MOPC's study, which will be published later this year."

A Metropolitan police spokesman said: "In general terms SCD9 has had significant success in saving people who have been trafficked and forced into prostitution. Although we have not seen any evidence of an increase in trafficking of sex workers so far in the Olympic host boroughs officers will attempt to identify and assist victims of human trafficking and sexual exploitation and seek the prosecution of those responsible."





Case study: Fatima, (changed name) 18, west Africa

Fatima grew up in a remote village in west Africa. She does not know what happened to her parents but she was informally adopted by a childless couple soon after birth. The couple used her as a domestic slave and her body is covered with scars from beatings with various implements which she received from a very young age. The couple did not allow her to go to school and she is illiterate. At the age of 15 the couple sold her to a man she had never seen before. She has no idea what price she was sold for but was happy to leave her village with the man.

"The man was very nice to me. He gave me good food to eat and told me that he was going to take me to Saudi Arabia to look after children. He also said I could go to school. I was very happy to be leaving my village and hoped that my life was going to improve. I had always wanted to go to school and at last I was going to get the chance."

But instead of taking her to Saudi Arabia the man took her to Sierra Leone, where he obtained a false passport for her. For the first time in her life she saw electricity and television. From Sierra Leone she and the man flew to London. Here he locked her in a house and invited men from many different backgrounds round to the house to rape her.

"I don't know if the men paid money to do this. I never saw any money," she said.

"I was very frightened when I was locked in that house. I didn't want to go back to my country. All I wanted to do was die. I used to stand by the locked upstairs window and thought about jumping out and killing myself so that I could end my nightmare."

After a few months Fatima's trafficker allowed her to go outside to put the rubbish out.

"He told me to come straight back inside but I ran away. I stopped two people in the street and asked them to help me. They gave me some food and took me to the Home Office in Croydon."

Home Office officials placed her in a hostel with people from other countries.

"It was very noisy and people were drinking alcohol. I'm a Muslim and I didn't like this. I was scared."

She claimed asylum and was given accommodation in London. She was taken to see a doctor for a check up and to her horror was told that she was pregnant as a result of one of the rapes. It was not until a few months after her escape that she was interviewed by police.

"I was very unhappy because the police asked me questions and filmed me. I thought they were like journalists and would put the film about me on TV so I didn't want to talk to them."

www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/mar/19/met-p ... criticised

Poppy Project
www.eaves4women.co.uk/POPPY_Project/Out ... ervice.php

• Report on the Safety of Sex Workers:
  
  Silence on Violence
  
  The policing of off-street sex work and sex trafficking in London
  
  A report by Andrew Boff AM
  March 2012
  
  http://glaconservatives.co.uk/wp-conten ... olence.pdf

.

[Marc of Frankfurt]

Silence on Violence

The policing of off-street sex work and sex trafficking in London

A report by Andrew Boff AM
March 2012

http://glaconservatives.co.uk/wp-conten ... olence.pdf

In dem Bericht wird insbesondere auch das vorbildliche Modell aus Liverpool beschrieben und gefordert:

Policing of sex work - The Merseyside model p. 36.







Bericht von Shelly Stoops 2010:
www.sexworker.at/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=81953#81953
Presse 2009:
www.sexworker.at/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=59442#59442

[Marc of Frankfurt]

Launch of new safety info for sex workers

Denis Hof, Nevada Bunny Ranch owner, proposes a temporary licence to run a brothel during the Olympics in London.


“Sex workers don’t need or want licensed or legalised brothels so that bosses have more opportunities to exploit us.

We want decriminalisation, like in New Zealand, so we can work together collectively and independently and to be in control of our earnings and working conditions.

“And we want street work decriminalised so our fragile security networks aren’t constantly broken up by police crackdowns and we aren’t forced to work into more isolated and dangerous areas

“Raids, prosecutions and imprisonment of sex workers are on the increase. Most recently there’s been a pre-Olympic crackdown in some London boroughs.

Approximately, 200 street workers are arrested each year.

Many hundreds more are given “prostitute cautions” and/or anti-social behaviour orders.

Prosecutions for brothel-keeping, the charge most often used against women working together consensually from premises, have skyrocketed from four in 2003 to over 80 in 2010.

Our Know Your Rights – A-Z for Sex Workers, published last week, which was written by sex workers in response to this increased criminalisation, is being snapped up by women desperate to know their rights. It explains the prostitution laws in simple terms and helps us work out how we can protect ourselves from arrest, how we can defend ourselves if charged, and where to get help.

Some people have criticised Hof for wanting to use sex workers as a “money-making opportunity”. True. But what of the money that is taken from us by the courts in fines, or the seizure of our homes, savings and assets by ruthless police and prosecutors under Proceeds of Crime legislation.

Like the old joke says: what do you call men who take money from prostitutes -- magistrates. Who will condemn these state sanctioned pimps and profiteerers?


English Collective of Prostitutes
www.prostitutesCollective.net


[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhJb9LA-NhY[/youtube] www.prostitutesCollective.net/2012/05/1 ... ers-guide/ Filming members of the audience was not permitted to protect their identity.





At a meeting in North London 3 May 2012 the English Collective of Prostitutes (ECP) launched a new document for sex workers in England and Wales:

"Know Your Rights"

It is an A-Z on how to defend a person against unjust policing and legal issues.

Developed with Nigel Richardson, Solicitor, Hodge, Jones & Allen.

[Marc of Frankfurt]

Prostitutionsdebatte im traditionellen Debattierclub Oxford Union im Zentrum der altehrwürdigen Universität


Rede von Bordellbetreiber Dennis Hof der Bunny Ranch in Nevada USA
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAW3KSXv89k[/youtube]

Rede von Male Sex Worker Johnny Anglais:
http://johnnyanglais.blogspot.de/2012/0 ... peech.html

...

Veranstaltungsprogramm mit Liste aller 8 Redner_innen von der Pro- und Contra-Partei:
www.oxford-union.org/term_events/prosti ... 2012-05-17


Die Veranstaltungen sind so organisiert wie Parlamentsdebatten, damit die Studenten praktisch lernen können Politiker zu werden. Leider haben die Prostitutionsgegner diese Debatte gewonnen. Aber irgendwie verständlich beim Auftritt von Dennis Hof, oder? Auch wenn seine Argumente rational die unsrigen sind, das Bauchgefühl bei diesem Typ sagt mir etwas anderes...

Wie geht es Euch?

[Aoife]

          

Auch wenn seine Argumente rational die unsrigen sind, das Bauchgefühl bei diesem Typ sagt mir etwas anderes...

Wie geht es Euch?

Kann ich jetzt nicht so nachvollziehen.

Zwangsuntersuchungen und Zuhälter Staat als strahlender Gegenentwurf zu "diesen Kriminellen" - auch rational sind das nicht meine Argumente, da braucht es gar kein Bauchgefühl um die Schwachstellen der Argumentation zu entdecken.

Liebe Grüße, Aoife

[ehemaliger_User]

24.07.2012 im "Tagesspiegel"

Zu den Sommerspielen will sich die britische Hauptstadt von ihrer besten Seite zeigen – und Prostitution gehört für die Behörden nicht dazu. Allein im Stadtteil Newham nahe dem Olympiapark wurden deshalb 80 Bordelle geschlossen.

http://www.tagesspiegel.de/sport/video- ... 16352.html

[Marc of Frankfurt]

Das ist eine erschreckende Zahl.

(Newham 249.500 Einwohner / 80 geschlossene Bordelle - Ein geschlossenes Bordell auf 3.000 Einwohner)

Aber in London herrscht Kriegszustand/Belagerungszustand. Tausende Soldaten, Luftabwehrraketen auf Hausdächern... Und Migranten-Arbeiter hausen in unmenschlichen Blechkontainerbaracken...





www.moratorium2012.org

Diese Kampagne der Sexworker Interessenvertreter hat weniger als 250 FB-friends erreicht. Außer eine kleine öffentliche Wahrnehmung vermochte sie vermtl. nicht viel auszurichten gegen das staatliche Kontrollbedürfnis beim Megaevent.

[Marc of Frankfurt]

Schottland:

Gesetzesinitiative um Freier zu kriminalisieren wurde im Parlament eingebracht


Criminalisation of the Purchase of Sex

An MSP (member) in the Scottish Parliament is proposing a change to legislation which if passed, means that clients of sex workers will be criminalised. This proposal would make it illegal to purchase sex in Scotland.



Rhoda Grant MSP believes that ‘prostitution in Scotland is a form of sexual violence against women and sexual exploitation.’ She believes that ‘prostitution is inherently harmful and dehumanising’ and that ‘the majority of those who are involved in prostitution are unwilling participants.’

...

http://scot-pep.org.uk/having-voice/sco ... rchase-sex



Bitte schreibt Protestbriefe


Musterbriefe gibt es unter dem Link
(von Scot-Pep, unserer Sexworker-Beratungsstelle in Edinburgh
gegründet und geleitet von Ex-Sexworkern
und sehr aktiv international bei NSWP.)



Evt. sollten wir als Sexworker Forum in A - CH - D auch eine offizielle Stellungnahme abgeben



Argumente gegen Freier-Kriminalisierung:
www.sexworker.at/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=985

Schwedisches "Modell" ist gescheitert:
www.sexworker.at/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=912&start=140
...



Hier kann man ältere Briefe (pros / cons) zu einem vorhergegangenen Gesetzentwurf einsehen:
www.rhodaGrant.org.uk/consultation2012/index.htm

[Marc of Frankfurt]

Gegen Freier-Kriminalisierung in Schottland:



Dr. Belle de Jour's response

to Rhoda Grant's parliamentary prostitution consultation
on her proposed criminalization of clients in Scotland


http://sexonomics-uk.blogspot.co.uk/201 ... rants.html





[hr]

Rhoda Grant, MSP, the sponsor of this proposed bill, is a member of the Scottish Parliament. In her view, sex work is inherently harmful and dehumanising and sex workers are predominantly coerced to work in the sex industry. That is why she proposed a law that would, much like the Swedish Sex Purchase Act, criminalise the clients of sex workers. She believes that as a result, demand for sexual services and human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation would gradually be reduced. You can read her full consultation document at:
www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentar ... 54314.aspx

While a societal change in attitude and perception of sex work is required, her proposal is unfit to bring about the necessary change. Instead, she perpetuates stereotypes about sex work, thus adding to the stigmatisation and discrimination of sex workers, which reports from various agencies of the United Nations and even the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon himself described as harmful to the health and safety of sex workers:
www.un.org/sg/statements/?nid=4266

SCOT-PEP provides information how to participate in the consultation process to oppose Rhoda Grant's proposal. (SCOT-PEP is a registered charity dedicated to the promotion of sex workers’ rights, health and dignity. SCOT-PEP is a member of the Global Network of Sex Work Projects (NSWP), the European Network for HIV/STI Prevention and Health Promotion among Migrant Sex Workers (TAM-PEP), and the UK Network of Sex Work Projects, UKNSWP):
www.scot-pep.org.uk/having-voice/scot-p ... rchase-sex