Liberalization of prostitution laws ‘leads to significant decrease in rape rates’ according to a study Posted in The Journal of Law and Economics“while banning it leads to a significant increase.”
For the studyresearchers Huasheng Gao and Vanya Petrova from China‘s Fudan University examined data from 31 European countries, covering a period between 1990 and 2017. During this period, eight countries (Spain, Denmark, Hungary, the Netherlands, GermanySlovenia, LatviaAnd Romania) have liberalized their prostitution laws while six countries (SwedenCroatia, Norway, Iceland, FranceAnd Ireland) cracked down on prostitution.
Overall, the liberalization of prostitution laws was linked to a significant decrease in rape rates, while prohibition was linked to a significant increase, but the magnitude of these two changes was far from equal. On the contrary, “the scale of the prohibition of the sex trade is approximately four times greater than that of its liberalization”, write Gao and Petrova.
The average rape rate in the Sample Countries was nine rapes per 100,000 people. Countries that liberalized prostitution laws saw a decrease of about three rapes per 100,000 people, compared to countries that did not change their prostitution laws. Meanwhile, countries that banned or further criminalized prostitution saw an increase of about 11 rapes per 100,000 people, compared to control countries.
Gao and Petrova classify each country as having one of four model prostitution laws. On the side of the prohibition are criminalization (in which selling and paying for sex are illegal) and the Nordic model or “final demand” model (in which paying for sex is illegal but offering paid sex is not). On the side of liberalization are legalization And decriminalization (in which neither selling nor paying for consensual sex is not a criminal act, without it needing to take place in special circumstances to be legal).
Decriminalization programs are further characterized either as abolitionism (in which brothels are acceptable) or new abolitionism, in which brothels are explicitly prohibited. An example of a country with a new abolitionist decriminalization program is Denmark, where there are no criminal penalties for sex work per se, but running a brothel is a crime punishable by up to at four years old.
“Among models of prostitution liberalization, decriminalization (especially abolitionism) has a stronger effect on reducing rape than legalization,” the researchers found. “Among the models of prohibiting prostitution, the Nordic model has a stronger effect on increasing rape than criminalization.”
This last point is somewhat surprising – meaning that full criminalization is linked to less increases in sexual assaults than criminalizing only clients of prostitution – and perhaps important to keep in mind as advocates push for Nordic model laws on prostitution in the United States.
Rates of rape in the 31 countries studied increased between 1990 and 2017. “But the increase in banned countries is significantly greater than in” control countries or in countries that have liberalized prostitution laws, specify the researchers. “From 1990 to 2017, the average rape rate in banned countries increased from 7.70 to 36.81 (380%). In contrast, the rape rate increased from 6.49 to 9.71 (50% ) in liberalized countries and from 4.67 to 8.48 in control countries (82 percent).”
Gao and Petrova note that “in recent years, the anti-prostitution movement, fueled by ideological concerns about gender inequality and human trafficking, has gained momentum.” But “our findings suggest that policies aimed at prohibiting prostitution may have the serious unintended consequence of proliferating sexual violence,” they write.
Countries with and without prostitution law changes had “parallel trends” in rape rates before any policy changes. Most of the discrepancies in rape rates began to occur after a country changed its prostitution laws, suggesting that these changes may not just be correlated but causal, the researchers say.
They find further support for the causal interpretation in the fact that changes in rape rates observed in countries where prostitution policy changed did not match changes in rates of serious non-sex crimes such as homicide, burglary or robbery.
Gao and Petrova offer the caveat that “changes in prostitution laws might not be random. It is possible for a country to change the laws as part of an overall program to improve the social status of women and thus institutes other policies that may affect rape rates, “and while they have attempted to control this in various ways, these techniques “may not fully address the possible non-randomness of prostitution laws” .
But their findings are in line with a series of previous research linking the liberalization of sex work laws to reductions in sexual violence. For example, a 2018 study showed that rapes in Rhode Island have decreased when the state temporarily decriminalized indoor prostitution. A study 2017 found fewer sexual assaults after the opening of legal street prostitution areas in 25 Dutch cities. Another study from 2017 linked the launch of Craigslist “erotic services” ads in various US cities to falling homicide rates among women.
In the meantime, rape rates in Sweden have increased when the city implemented the Nordic model, according to research by Riccardo Ciacci, professor of economics at Comillas Pontifical University in Madrid. And the criminalization of sex work in Northern Ireland in 2015 was associated with “InotvsreAsed seXyouAI vIohIenotvse vsohmmIyouyoued AgAInotsyou wohmen”, according to the paper 2021 “The Effect of the Sex Buyers Act on the Sex Market, Sexual Health and Sexual Violence.”
FREE SPIRITS
States act to prevent cops from lying to children. Raison‘s CJ Ciaramella has more details:
Based on mounting evidence that minors are particularly susceptible to false confessions, criminal justice reformers in several states are demanding stricter rules for the questioning of minors. The last such surge occurs in new Yorkwhere reformers hope to pass legislation requiring minors to have access to a lawyer before police questioning.
Maryland And washington state already apply such a rule. And in 2021, Illinois And Oregon became the first two states to ban police from lying to minors during interrogations.
Wrongful convictions have shown that teenagers are less likely than adults to understand their Miranda rights and more likely to focus on immediate rewards rather than long-term consequences. According to Innocence Projectnearly 30% of DNA exonerations involved false confessions, and about a third of the defendants in these cases were 18 or younger when they confessed.
Similar bills have been introduced in New York before, but none have passed, in part because of opposition from the New York Police Department (NYPD). “Parents and guardians are in the best position to make decisions for their children, and this bill, while well-intentioned, supersedes the judgment of parents and guardians by an attorney who may never have met the ‘individual,’ a police spokesman said. said The city in December.
More here.
FREE MARKETS
Biden’s budget proposal to include a tax hike. President Joe Biden is scheduled to release his budget proposal today, and what Biden plan would be complete without plans to raise taxes on high earners? Consequently, the President will propose to increase health insurance taxes for US households with income over $400,000 a year, from 3.8% to 5%.
The proposal highlights “the extent to which Mr. Biden has fully embraced the political advantage of taxing high earners,” to write Jim Tankerley And To THE New York Times. The silver lining: “Administration officials have conceded that these tax increases are unlikely to pass Congress.”
QUICK KEYS
“A decision by the State Court of Appeals on Wednesday could effectively end civil forfeiture in Oregonconcluding that such cases amount to unlawfully punishing someone twice for the same crime.”https://t.co/GGs1iJwkSC
— Shane D. Kavanaugh (@shanedkavanaugh) March 8, 2023
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