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Being Outside: CONSTRUCTING A RESPONSE TO STREET PROSTITUTION

Chapter Twelve: SUMMARY & CONCLUSIONS

12.1 The Expert group was set up in August 2003, with the remit of carrying out a comprehensive review, on behalf of the Scottish Executive, of the wide-ranging issues surrounding prostitution in Scotland. The Group adopted a phased approach to this complex task, and this report reflects the findings of the Group with regard to the first phase of work - which has addressed women involved in street-based prostitution. The next two phases are planned to address issues relating to women involved in indoor prostitution, followed by consideration of men involved in prostitution.

12.2 The Group's approach sought to gather existing information and research findings relating to the UK, Europe and other countries comparable to Scotland; to examine the current position in the four largest Scottish cities; to speak directly to service providers directly involved in work relevant to this field, and to hear from women themselves involved, through meetings and through research commissioned for the purposes of the Group. The Group also benefited from sharing information and ideas with the Home Office review which has been carrying out a similar examination in England and Wales. Finally, the experience and professional expertise of the Group itself provided a firm foundation for the work.

12.3 Street prostitution is overwhelmingly an urban phenomenon, concentrated in the four large Scottish cities. The numbers of women involved are difficult to quantify, but informed estimates have been made for each of the four cities, which shows a total, Scotland-wide, of about 1,400 women involved, of whom about 180 are likely to be on the streets of the four cities each night. Each city has its own characteristics and problems with regard to the occurrence of street prostitution, and each has adopted different approaches to tackling the phenomenon. These are described in the report. There are however a number of key common challenges. We regard these as defining the strategic objectives which any strategy to respond to the problem must fulfil:

• to safeguard women involved in prostitution, reduce the harm they experience, tackle the concurrent behaviours such as drug misuse and help them towards exiting prostitution;
• to protect residential and commercial communities from the effects of soliciting and prostitution;
• to prevent children and young women who may be vulnerable to becoming involved in prostitution from taking that step; and
• to influence the attitudes which lead to the abuse of women sexually and physically through street prostitution.

These objectives contain dilemmas to which policy and practice must respond and these questions have dominated the considerations of the Group.

Any response will be multi-faceted because this set of objectives, of necessity, faces in several different directions simultaneously:

• addressing the needs of women involved or at risk of becoming involved,
• addressing the needs of the different communities affected; and
• tackling the attitudes which fuel the persistence of prostitution.

12.4 Key Factors applicable to street prostitution across Scotland have been identified.

• Street prostitution is overwhelmingly a survival behaviour for the women involved, who have an accumulation of serious personal difficulties and few resources with which to develop a less damaging way of life.
• Poverty, drug misuse, and to a lesser extent alcohol misuse, are intrinsically linked to most street prostitution in Scotland.
• Redevelopment is affecting the context of street prostitution - and complicating the capacity to respond effectively.
• Service responses which are deployed need to be specific to the task of tackling street prostitution if they are to work.

12.5 The way forward proposed by the Group is as follows:

1. A national strategic framework is necessary, requiring local identification of whether a need exists, action where evidence of street prostitution is identified, and setting out the core content of any local approach and the standards of service and principles of good practice which should be applicable to the local response.

2. In those localities where evidence of need is identified a local implementation plan should be drawn up, involving the full range of local service interests. The plan should include a strategy for preventing the involvement of vulnerable people in street prostitution; early intervention measures with those beginning to become actively involved; services for reducing harm with those more deeply involved; arrangements for managing risk and public offence; and services supporting women to exit street prostitution, prevent relapse and sustain non-involvement in prostitution.

3. Responding to street prostitution should be seen as a corporate and multi-agency responsibility. The local plan must centre on women involved in street prostitution, but should also look beyond the individual needs of those women involved, or at risk, and should seek to ensure that the impact from redevelopment of areas traditionally used for street prostitution be managed, to reduce adverse effects arising from dispersal and loss of service access. Development of the plan should follow the principles and practice of Community Planning.

4. Implementation of the plan should be monitored at regular intervals against agreed targets and prescribed standards of performance.

5. Arising from the national strategic framework there should be a range of national and local initiatives, to influence and educate public opinion regarding the risks of prostitution-based sexual relationships and the abusive elements they contain.

6. The law remains the key means to ensure continued protection from exploitation through prostitution to vulnerable groups, including young people and vulnerable adult women. Effective enforcement of these aspects of the law should be a priority in the local plan.

7. The law should be reviewed with regard to soliciting. The changes would seek to ensure that the law should:

• not criminalise on a moral basis;
• address the imbalance between men and women arising from the present emphasis on the person soliciting, without reference to the potential purchaser of sexual services;
• seek to reduce stigma which attaches disproportionately to the person soliciting as against the potential purchaser;
• minimise the use of imprisonment for women involved in prostitution;
• ensure continued protection to vulnerable groups, including young people and vulnerable adult men and women, from exploitation;
• provide effective protection to the general public from offensive behaviour;
• avoid any tendency to increase risk to vulnerable people and to communities through unplanned displacement; and
• provide a constructive legal framework to support the achievement of broader strategic obligations for tackling prostitution in Scotland.

The Group concluded that the law should be changed to repeal the criminalisation of soliciting per se, and replace this with an offence targeting offensive behaviour or conduct arising from a prostitution related sexual transaction - whether caused by purchaser or seller. The Group considered 3 options for taking this forward.

8. On any of the 3 options, this approach would obviate the need for specific legislative action regarding 'kerb crawling' - which could be policed on a basis of public offence. It would also amend the case for 'managed zones' as a possible useful local strategy for focusing service delivery and managing nuisance arising from street prostitution. This would change from a case based on discretionary suspension of the criminal law to one which is within the law and can be considered and used in the right circumstances as part of the agreed local strategy.

13. Conclusion

These conclusions with regard to street prostitution are submitted by the Group for consideration by the Scottish Executive. It is suggested that Scottish Ministers might make public the terms of the report, to encourage discussion and expression of views on the important issues of social and legal concern which are addressed.

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