Legalising Brothels
| Author | James Morton |
| Published date | 01 March 2004 |
| Date | 01 March 2004 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1350/jcla.68.2.87.29121 |
| Subject Matter | Opinion |
OPINION
Legalising Brothels
James Morton
Following on from the review of the law on sexual offences (see
www.sexualoffencesbill.homeoffice.gov.uk and Protecting the Public,
Cm 5668, November 2002), press reports at the end of 2003 have
announced that the government is considering licensing brothels and
creating managed areas or toleration zones to combat street prostitution.
This comes at a time when more and more women are being exploited
in the sex trade, often by organised crime groups such as the triads and
criminals from the former Eastern bloc countries.
The laws relating to sex, patchworked over the years, are, of course,
both complex and contradictory. Prostitution itself is not illegal, but it is
unlawful for two women to work out of shared premises. Complete sex
does not have to take place for a woman to commit an act of prostitu-
tion. That was established in Rv de Munck [1918] 1 KB 635. At the
extreme end of the scale in his book, The Lesbian, D. W. Cory cites the
case of a lesbian who remained intacta by only permitting her clients to
practise cunnilingus. She too fell into the definition of prostitute.
What is also not permitted is living off the earnings of prostitutes or
controlling prostitution. There have been some anomalies. As the jour-
nalist and barrister, the late Fenton Bresler, pointed out in his enter-
taining Sex and the Law (Frederick Muller: London, 1988), technically a
businessman who rents a small flat for himself and his friends to use for
sex with extra-marital partners is guilty of brothel keeping. This is surely
not what the legislators had in mind. More seriously, in 1995 at South-
wark Crown Court, Susan Pando was acquitted of controlling prosti-
tutes. The judge found that there was no evidence that the prostitutes
were subject to her ‘control, direction or influence’. This brought an
angry comment from the police who pointed out that in such cases the
men behind the operation would go unscathed. All that needed to be
done was that a woman be put in charge along with some notional
contracts that the prostitutes were self-employed and no offence would
be committed.
Statistics in the industry are notoriously difficult to come by, but
towards the end of the last century in a survey for The London Programme
(LWT) it was estimated that in London the turnover from flats, saunas,
clubs and bars with hostesses was in excess of £250 million annually. It
was thought that about one in sixteen men between the ages of 20 and
40 purchased sex. There is also a lucrative spin-off industry in the
placing of advertisements in the form of cards in telephone kiosks. Those
employed in this off-shoot can earn about £100 a day.
It is accepted that authorities in various cities have permitted what
may perhaps be described as unofficially recognised brothels in the form
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