Prostitution in the Community

The Challenges of Belgian Prostitution Markets as Legal Informal Economies: An Empirical Look Behind the Scenes at the Oldest Profession in the World

“…This 'voluntary' label includes those prostitutes who, as some interviewed experts point out, start with sex work because they see little alternative to achieving their goals. Limited alternatives or not, nearly all interviewed experts claim that the main driving factor in starting as a prostitute is money, which is in line with previous research (Kingston 2014;van Wijk et al 2010). Of our 22 interviewed sex workers, 16 cited financial reasons as the main reason for starting and six cited non-financial reasons.…”

“…First of all, in line with international literature (e.g., Benoit et al 2005;Brents and Sanders 2010;Kingston 2014), several experts and sex workers point to the fact that there still exists a taboo around sex work, that sex work is stigmatized and argue that many people have a mistaken view of it.…”

“…Interestingly, Kingston (2014) found similar reasons offered by police officers and local residents (the majority of whom were in favour of legalization and regulation) in her study of prostitution in the UK. In our study, some respondents, however, feel the time is not yet ripe for prostitution to be put on the political agenda in Belgium.…”

“…It could also be described as a problem area, given the presence of nuisance and pimps. Concerning the former, research in the UK has equally revealed that police action regarding prostitution markets is related to the presence of nuisance (Kingston 2014). Concerning the latter, a smouldering fear still exists that history will repeat itself.…”

“…However, it is possible that it could actually facilitate such collaboration because it means that a very limited number of police officers are in regular contact with managers. In order for the unit-members not to build up informal relationships with managers and prostitutes (which was found in the UK by Sanders [2005] and Kingston [2014]) and not to relapse into the mistakes of the past, a thorough control system is needed. It is with this danger in mind that, although the federal police normally focus on phenomena which extend beyond the geographical boundaries of the local police (in which the RLD falls; Van Gaever and Lameyse 2013), they also conduct controls in the RLD on the basis of an informal arrangement between federal and local police:…”