Prostitution and Trafficking

Women’s Forum Australia believes that prostitution and sex trafficking are two of the most serious threats to gender equality and the rights of women and girls to live lives free of violence in today’s society…

Women’s Forum challenges the rhetoric that legalisation, in its current form, will suppress trafficking and prostitution…

Women’s Forum rejects the notion that prostitution is an act undertaken by two consenting adults in a relationship where the balance of power is shared equally. A survey of prostitutes in Queensland found that 90% of women working in legal brothels entered the industry because they ‘needed the money’ not because they deem it a legitimate and fulfilling form of work…

Women’s Forum advocates measures which target the causes of prostitution and illegal trafficking in women’s rights and girls’ bodies.

Quick Facts

  • Where prostitution is legalised or tolerated, there is a greater demand for human trafficking victims and nearly always an increase in the number of women and children trafficked into commercial sex slavery.[1]
  • Vulnerability remains the prime reason why women ‘choose’ prostitution – a survey of prostitutes in Queensland found that 90% of women working in legal brothels entered the industry because they ‘needed the money’.[2]
  • 89% of women in prostitution want to escape.[3]
  • Most prostituted women experience feelings of numbness, shock, fear, flashbacks, loss of control, nightmares, depression, anger, desensitization, shame and guilt.[4]
  • Field research in nine countries concluded that 60-75% of women in prostitution were raped, 70-95% were physically assaulted, and 68% met the criteria for post traumatic stress disorder, in the same range as treatment-seeking combat veterans and victims of state-organised torture.[5]
  • Men who purchase sex have trouble establishing lasting relationships with women.[6]  

WF Articles

Prostitution Prostitution (499 KB)

We recommend you read

The Swedish Law that Prohibits the Purchase of Sexual Services

Abolishing Prostitution: The Swedish Solution

Making Sex Work – Mary Lucille Sullivan

Not For Sale – Rebecca Whisnat & Christine Stark

Useful Websites

http://projectrespect.org.au/

http://www.stopthetraffik.org.au/stt/

http://catwa.org.au/


[1]US Department of State (24 November, 2004) ‘The Link Between Prostitution and Sex Trafficking’ website:

[2] Woodward, C et al.(2004) ‘Selling Sex in Queensland 2003: A study of prostitution in Queensland’, Prostitution Licensing Authority, pg. 31.

[3] Farley, M et al (2003) ‘Prostitution and Trafficking in Nine Countries: An Update on Violence and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder’, Journal of Trauma of Practice, Vol. 2, No. 3/4: 33-74.

[4] Sullivan (2008), p. 321.

[5] United States Department of State (2004)

[6]Sawyer SP & Metz ME (2008) ’The Attitudes Toward Prostitution Scale: Preliminary Report on Its Development and Use’, International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, April 17; 53; 334


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