The Police, Sex Work, and Section 14 of the Policing and Crime Act 2009

Abstract

This article considers the origins and aims of Section 14 of the Policing and Crime Act 2009 and the offence of paying for the sexual services of a prostitute who has been subject to exploitative conduct; this offence is one of ‘strict liability’. Section 14 was implemented on 1 April 2010 and using the Freedom of Information Act 2000 the authors have attempted to show the number of times Section 14 has been used by the police in England and Wales since the Act became law; how the Act has been used and the outcome of the use of this section.

No model in practice: a ‘Nordic model’ to respond to prostitution?

“…This act made it an offence to pay for the sexual services from a prostitute who has been subject to exploitative conduct; this offence is one of 'strict liability'. Previous research has already identified the non-implementation of this law by law enforcers [73]. Thus, we urge the Home Office to conduct further research on the use of this existing law before considering whether to introduce a full ban on purchasing sexual services in order to avoid uninformed, inappropriate and incomplete transfer.…”

“…In England and Wales, Kingston and Thomas found that the police were not using the partial law that criminalised men for purchasing sexual services from trafficked women. The police were unable to detect whether a sex worker was the victim of exploitation or force because the law is either not needed, the police were not appropriately trained to identify victims or because of sex workers inability/unwillingness to report their victimisation to the police [73]. Thus although the offence of paying for sex can be prosecuted, those whose role it is to enforce this law, the police, are not doing so.…”

‘Cost’ calculations as a barrier to gaining information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 from the police in England and Wales

“…Previous research by Crawford (2009:16) examined the use of dispersel powers to tackle anti-social behaviour and found 'significant inconsistencies in police recording practices'. Indeed, as we discovered following our FOI requests to determine the use of S.14 of The Policing and Crime Act 2009 by the police across England and Wales (Kingston & Thomas, 2014), subsequent research on the use of S.14 that followed our methodological approach were provided with completely different data from the same forces, and both studies despite being conducted in a similar time period also retrieved information from some forces that did not match (Matolcsi, 2015;Mulvihill, 2015). Whether this was an officer's error, or a system malfunction is unclear, but it clearly raises questions about both the reliability of FOI data provided by the police and their ability to deal with FOI compliance in an accurate manner.…”

The Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014: implications for sex workers and their clients

“…These laws have made it easier to prosecute men who seek to obtain sexual services from someone on the street and prosecute those who purchase sexual services from someone subject to However, it must also be noted that although legislation enables practitioners to implement the law, it is well-known that the policing of prostitution is inconsistent and varied across England and Wales (Kingston & Thomas, 2014;Scoular & Carline, 2014). For example, implementation of the strict liability offence to prosecute clients purchasing sex from exploited or trafficked persons has rarely been enforced (Kingston & Thomas, 2014). Thus changing forms of governance, which promotes more localized responses to crime (Garland, 2001;Scoular & O'Neill, 2007), has enabled the police to apply the law uniformly.…”

“…It has previously been show that the police of one division may apply differing strategies to deal with prostitution to neighbouring divisions (Kingston, 2013). Likewise, nationally the police have been known to utilise legislation in different ways (Kingston & Thomas, 2014 (Carline & Scoular, 2015;Scoular & Carline, 2014).…”