Prostitution arrests reveal gender bias

In late January, Washington Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles introduced a bill in Seattle that extended the maximum penalty of sex buying from 90 days to a year in jail. Today, sex buying is defined as “patronizing a prostitute,” which is nothing more than a Class A misdemeanor. The goal of the bill is to decrease prostitution rates, as opposed to using resources to arrest prostitutes. This plan needs to be enacted because in the majority of the arrests, prostitutes are reportedly treated worse than their male patrons in a crime in which the latter is equally guilty.

There is a huge gender disparity in the arrests related to prostitution. According to the Massachusetts State Police’s data, of the 920 arrested on prostitution charges in 2014, 70 percent were women. According to the Seattle Attorney’s Office, 199 women in Washington were prosecuted on prostitution charges, compared to 98 men. This, then, is no longer about the debate on whether or not prostitution should be legal but about the negative stigma that comes with being a female prostitute.

Prostitutes often do not willingly enter the occupation. According to the International Labor Organization, 20.9 million people are victims of human trafficking. Co-founder of the Organization for Prostitution Survivors (OPS) and former prostitute Noel Gomez told The Seattle Times that she was a prostitute for a long time and has “never met one woman in my life who wants to do the work they’re doing. Not one.” She herself was forced into prostitution as a teen and still feels troubled by the experience.

It is even more abhorrent that men are being charged with plain misdemeanors for taking advantage of girls who are prostitutes, sometimes against their will. Society instills the double standard of sexuality among men and women: a man who wishes to have several sexual partners is seen as a put on a pedestal, while a woman who wishes to do the same is scrutinized. The double standard is awful in any other setting such as high schools and college campuses, but at least the issue is widely recognized. In prostitution, however, the gender disparity is even more appalling. If the states want to consider prostitution a crime, then they must do so for both sides of the offending party. Regardless of prostitution laws, women and men should be prosecuted and judged in exactly the same way.

Hopefully, Washington will be the first of many states that will target the demand side of prostitution.  About a decade ago, Sweden changed their laws on prostitution, outlawing the buying of sex and making the selling of it legal. This reform targets the right people instead of prostitutes. In five years, the prostitution rates in this Scandinavian country went down by 40 percent and have continued to decrease over the years. As the first state to start targeting gender disparity more aggresively, Washington will not only help decrease the rates, but it will also help raise awareness on the importance of gender equality over such a divisive subject.