1 1/2 Million German Men Use Sex Workers Daily

[+ quoththeraven]

Back to Germany.

 

After doing some research online and watching a documentary last night, it appears that 90% of the prostitution in Germany is forced, meaning that sex workers are under constraint. We're not talking about high-end, Internet-based prostitution, we're talking about mega-brothels, Mama-sans and TRAFFICKING.

 

Here are some numbers:

 

Germany is a paradise for sex traffickers :

• 400,000 sex workers

• Every day about 1.2 m men visit sex workers (labor union Ver.di)

• 90% of prostitutes are under constraint

• The German sex industry rakes in some $US17.7 bn a year.

• Main destination in Europe for sex tourism

• Mega-brothels, bordellos with flat rates, package deals, airport quickies, „all you can eat“ principle, ....

 

– Reeperbahn street in Hamburg

– The biggest German brothel, the Pascha, in Cologne, services about 800 men every day.

– At the Pussy Club near Stuttgart, women are regularly forced to have sex with 60 men a day.

– Saarbrücken at the French border is known as Europe‘s prostitution capital: 1,000 call girls for a population of 170,000 inhabitants

 

source: http://www.gemeinsam-gegen-menschenhandel.de/images/downloads/20140417FrankHeinrichMdBHeidelbergMH.pdf

 

Thanks for the post. I downloaded the article but haven't had a chance to read it yet.

 

I had already come to the conclusion that the majority of sex workers in Germany are trafficked and/or coerced based on the Der Spiegel article and some understanding of how the law, institutions, and human beings operate. The presence of brothels and no law against pimping gives the power to owners as opposed to workers. That in itself is a recipe for exploitation, trafficking, and coercion -- the worst of capitalism run amok. It is not the same kind of market or freedom that occurs when sex workers are independent, set their own hours and rates, and control the circumstances under which they operate.

 

That's why I think it's important to quantify the good and bad of all the approaches, including Sweden's (criminalizing paying for sex) and the UK's (benign neglect with laws meant to prevent exploitation and public solicitation), as objectively as possible. Otherwise public policy decisions are made based on bad or no data.

 

Also, I'm not sure what this says about the Netherlands, which seems to have a slightly different ethos and perhaps a lower incidence of trafficking even though on its face the law is the same. Not that I think their approach should be followed elsewhere. It just has too many pitfalls. But legalization may work better in the Netherlands than in Germany, in part because the Netherlands had de facto legalization already.

[+ quoththeraven]

Back to Germany.

 

After doing some research online and watching a documentary last night, it appears that 90% of the prostitution in Germany is forced, meaning that sex workers are under constraint. We're not talking about high-end, Internet-based prostitution, we're talking about mega-brothels, Mama-sans and TRAFFICKING.

 

Here are some numbers:

 

Germany is a paradise for sex traffickers :

• 400,000 sex workers

• Every day about 1.2 m men visit sex workers (labor union Ver.di)

• 90% of prostitutes are under constraint

• The German sex industry rakes in some $US17.7 bn a year.

• Main destination in Europe for sex tourism

• Mega-brothels, bordellos with flat rates, package deals, airport quickies, „all you can eat“ principle, ....

 

– Reeperbahn street in Hamburg

– The biggest German brothel, the Pascha, in Cologne, services about 800 men every day.

– At the Pussy Club near Stuttgart, women are regularly forced to have sex with 60 men a day.

– Saarbrücken at the French border is known as Europe‘s prostitution capital: 1,000 call girls for a population of 170,000 inhabitants

 

source: http://www.gemeinsam-gegen-menschenhandel.de/images/downloads/20140417FrankHeinrichMdBHeidelbergMH.pdf

 

There are no sources cited for most of the statistics, including 90% trafficked, although based on the Der Spiegel article I think it's reasonable to think at least half are trafficked or coerced. At least it looks like someone realizes there's a problem, although I don't know and didn't try looking for what political party this member of Parliament is affiliated with. I'm not sure how effective the proposed fixes are, though. It seems to me that the legalizing brothels is part of the problem and can't be fixed by reform alone. So is the involvement of ideology on both sides -- anti-sex work as inherently exploitative of women in Sweden, pro-sex work as a mark of female agency (but in reality pro-sweatshop sex work) in Germany. I'd love to see some of those studies and reports cited from other countries.

[Frankly Rich]

Well, I guess that we will continue to wish for stats on exploitation, and until reliable ones are available, many will claim that as many as 90% of sex workers are exploited. That really sounds awful, and I doubt that it is true. It's certainly not true in my experience. Who wants to patronize a person who is forced into the job?

 

Look at all the sex workers who post here. None of them ever say they are forced into it. Women make very good money in some instances, and by that I mean the further you are from a streetlamp, the further you are from bad working conditions, so to speak. Just like the guys here, lots of women have chosen the profession, and are amply rewarded.

 

The idea that any woman working as a sex worker hates her job defies belief. People like sex, and women sex workers may have their fill of it from time to time, but they choose to continue because the benefits are so good.

 

The idea that sex is bad or wrong is behind much of the protests of exploitation. Should a person be considered exploited who chooses sex work for an occupation because it is the best job available to them? Definitely anyone forced into sex work deserves our help to get out of the work. But finding them seems difficult. By that I mean truly finding them and giving them the opportunity to escape. Lots of money gets made by forces wanting them enslaved, and its those forces we need stats on, which will then lead to arrest stats. But otherwise, leave the willing sex workers alone.