Transcript Regulating the Sexual City: Compulsory Rehabilitation

Regulating the Sexual City:
Compulsory Rehabilitation Orders &
Kerb Crawler Rehabilitation
Programmes
Dr Teela Sanders
[email protected]
Anti Social Behaviour, Urban Spaces and
the Night time Economy
University of Leeds
17th April 2008
Drawing on sociological studies
Overview of Paper
► 2004
– now: Recent policy context
► Discourses and narratives about sex workers in
need of ‘rehabilitation’
► Compulsory Rehabilitation Orders
► Practical implications of ‘exiting’
► New focus on the ‘kerbcrawler’ as the problem
► Policing sexuality in the city
► ‘Regulatory therapy’: Support through
surveillance, exclusion and control
Recent Policy Developments
Being Outside: constructing a response to street
prostitution (Scottish Executive,2004)
► Prostitution (Public Places) (Scotland)Act 2007
► Paying the Price (Home Office, 2004)
► Co-ordinated Prostitution Strategy (Home Office,
2006)
► New ‘Tackling Demand’ Review (July 2008)
► Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill (2008):
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 Section 71: Removal of “common prostitute”
 Section 72: Orders to promote rehabilitation
 Compulsory Rehabilitation Orders
Sex Workers as Victim Narratives
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Prostitution defined as only
sexual exploitation and as
public nuisance
Focus on the street
Exiting as the only policy
option: not making it safer
for women
Remove opportunity for
prostitution to take place
Priority is eradication
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Recognises not
homogenous group but
then goes on to say
common characteristics
are….
Abuse
Difficult lives
Homelessness
Problematic drug abuse
No agency
Coordinated Prostitution Strategy
2006
► Rejected
managed
zones – condoning
► Rejected licensed
brothel system
► Eradication of street
prostitution through…
► ‘Exiting’ and/or
criminalisation of sex
workers - ASBOs
► ‘Tackling
Demand’
► Trafficking and sexual
exploitation
► Move from victim to
offender
► Move from fines to
ASBOs / imprisonment
► Increase in sex
workers sent to prison
Compulsory Rehabilitation Orders
2008
► The
court may make an order for a person
convicted of loitering or soliciting (for purpose
of prostitution) requiring them to attend three
meetings with a specified “supervisor”
► The purpose of the order is to promote the
“offender’s” rehabilitation
► Failure to attend any sessions can result in a
further summons and a possible 72 hours’
imprisonment
Practical Policy Implications
CROs ignore the essential need for voluntary
engagement in change not forced change
► ASBOs and criminal justice route can displace
activity, cause women to work less safely and
increase risk of violence
► Sends women to prison & criminal record, denying
access to more services
► Drives women away from services rather than
making them more accessible
► Moving towards zero tolerance with no legal indoor
provision
► Potentially opens the way for moral judgements,
vigilantism and increased exploitation in underworld
►
Ideological Impact
► Sex
workers as criminals not as rightful citizens
► Ipswich murders had no impact on policy in terms
of safety or providing spaces for women who work
on the streets
► Discourse of Disposability (Lowman, 2001)
► Violence on the street
► Stigmatisation of the most marginal women
► No recognition of voluntary sex work or long and
complex processes of leaving
‘Tipplezones’ in Holland
Redefining who is the ‘problem’
► 1980’s
+ men who buy sex problematised
► Increase in laws against ‘the kerbcrawler’
► 1985 Sexual Offences Act - shift in who was the
problem
► 2001 Criminal Justice & Police Act - kerbcrawling
an arrestable offence
► 2003 Criminal Justice Act - conditional cautioning
► Peak between 2000-4: 993 men arrested (2002)
The Punter, The Kerb Crawler, The
‘User’, The Offender
► ‘Problem
of sex’ =
‘Problem of men’ –
men defined as
‘abusers’, users’,
‘danger’, spreaders of
disease’
► Complex socioeconomic reasons for
sex industry not
addressed
► Individual
groups of
men and women
involved in sex
industry blamed for
deterioration of ‘moral
fabric’.
► Men who visit brothels
/ escorts – exempt
► Lap dancing not
considered sexual
consumption
Coordinated Prostitution Strategy:
Tackling Demand
► Enforcement
of existing laws for kerbcrawling
► Addressing concerns from communities
► Informal warning / court diversion / prosecution
► Crackdowns, zero tolerance decoys, supporting
naming and shaming, media coverage, driving
licenses revoked, fines, rehabilitation programmes
► High profile naming and shaming – Aberdeen /
Leeds: impact on families??
► 2008
– another review of ‘tackling demand’
with view to criminalising men who buy
Deterrence Campaigns
► Imagery
and discourses in national and local
official campaigns is one of vile hatred for
men who buy sexual services
► Radio adverts, beer mats and posters in
newspaper – warnings of how middle class
respectability can be ruined by a small
misdemeanour……..
‘Kerb Crawler Rehabilitation
Programmes’
► Arrest
= Choice of ‘rehab’ or court
► Supported by government based on low reoffending rates
► Strategy ignored evaluations: re-arrest not a good
measurement due to displacement
► No evidence that programmes in North America
have lasted more than 2 years
► Range of reasons for ineffectiveness:
displacement; addictions; negative view of
commercial sex; not balanced; moral message
about buying sex as wrong
‘Regulatory Therapy’ & New Labour
Harrison and Sanders, 2006 : Understand social regulation
that is grounded in structure and agency
► Labelling behaviours ‘anti social’ and ‘vulnerable’ justifies
further exclusion, incarceration, inequalities
► Welfare support alongside disciplinary mechanisms
► Responsibilization (Scoular & O’Neill, 2007) and ‘the
conditionality of welfare’ (Dwyer, 1998) – support with
deterrence, containment and discipline
► Gendered surveillance and control – CROs coercion to
‘change’ and ‘exit’ a lifestyle to become ‘better’
► Constraining and conditioning of female sexuality – net
widening since 1997
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‘Men’ as the problem
► Aim
to re-educate men…..
► Certain forms of male sexuality problematised
► Certain types of sexual consumption as anti social
– other forms of commercial sex (lap dancing)
facilitated in the city
► ‘Respectability’ and correct sexual behaviour at
the centre of policy
► Scourfield & Drakeford (2002) – CJS to police and
control behaviours of men
► Difference symbolises deviance, which equates to
criminality and a threat of social and community
cohesion
Solutions
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Wider discussions on the place of sexual consumption in
late capitalism
Disentangle trafficking issues from the general sex industry
Understanding of the supply and demand dynamics of the
market – women entering into the sex industry
Move away from ideas of ‘eradication’ – WHO BELIEVES
THIS IS POSSIBLE ?
More pragmatic solutions that prioritise safety – zones /
licensing
Court diversion schemes – stop revolving door of fine
and arrest
Not use CJS to deal with social issues
► Recognition of voluntary sex work and adult consent in
commercial sex
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References
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Scoular, J and O’Neill, M (2007) ‘Regulating prostitution:
social inclusion, responsibilization and the politics of
prostitution reform’. British Journal of Criminology, 47 (5)
764-778
Harrison, M and Sanders, T (2006) Vulnerable People and
the Development of 'Regulatory Therapy'. Supporting Safe
Communities: Housing, Crime and Communities. T.
Newburn, A. Dearling and P. Somerville (eds) London,
Chartered Institute of Housing: 155-168.
Dwyer, P. (1998) ‘Conditional citizens ? Welfare rights and
responsibilities in the late 1990s’, Critical Social Policy, 18,
4: 57, pp. 493-517.