Prostitution has become an extremely topical issue in recent years and attention has focused both on the situation of female prostitutes and the adequacy of existing forms of regulation. Prostitution, Politics & Policy brings together the main debates and issues associated with prostitution in order to examine the range of policy options that are available.
Governments in different parts of the world have been struggling to develop constructive policies to deal with prostitution – as, for example, the British Home Office recently instigated a £1.5 million programme to help address the perceived problems of prostitution. In the context of this struggle, and amidst the publication of various policy documents, Prostitution, Politics & Policy develops a fresh approach to understanding this issue, while presenting a range of what are seen as progressive and radical policy proposals. Much of the debate around prostitution has been polarized between liberals – who want prostitution decriminalized, normalized and humanized – and conservatives – who have argued that prostitution should be abolished. But, drawing on a wide range of international literature, and providing an overview that is both accessible to students and relevant to policy makers and practitioners, Roger Matthews proposes a form of radical realism that is irreducible to either of these two positions.
1. The Emergence of Prostitution as a Significant Social and Political Issue 2. Prostitution Myths 3. Routes into Prostitution 4. Prostitution and Victimisation 5. Leaving Prostitution 6. Regulating Prostitution: International Perspectives 7. Developing a Policy Response
Biography
Roger Matthews
"This book takes as its focus the social, policy and political dilemmas posed by female street prostitution. Against the backcloth of increasing public concern and the divided feminist views on intervention, Matthews charts a careful and well thought out path for a critical realist intervention on street prostitution. Demanding evidence-based policy not policy based evidence, Matthews makes a cogent and convincing case for a coherent and empathetic neo-deregulation of street prostitution. This is a commanding powerful and thought provoking read for all those who claim to be concerned about street prostitution in the U.K. and elsewhere today." - Sandra Walklate, University of Liverpool, UK
