Prostitution is often described as the oldest profession in the world. It is identifiable in recorded history as early as Ancient Babylon and Mesopotamia in many different guises. And you don’t have to go far to find it today. It certainly seems that at least one thing hasn’t changed much in the last four thousand years. Prostitution has found its place in societies across the world for centuries, and it’s clear that any modern day government that makes an attempt to eradicate it is going to have to introduce a social revolution, creating a huge shift in the national psyche, not to mention the welfare system. It’s a process that could take hundreds of years, and that’s if there were consistent policy backed by a consistent government: a phenomenon that is hard to find in modern politics. So for the moment at least, whether we like it or not, prostitution is here to stay. The question, then, becomes what can we do to take a step in the right direction?

Taking a quick look at the history of prostitution in Europe reveals hundreds of different ways that monarchs and governments have attempted to address the issue. In 1358, the Great Council of Venice declared that prostitution was “absolutely indispensable to the world” and set up government-funded brothels. To the other extreme, in 1586, Pope Sixtus V ordered the death penalty for prostitution in all Catholic countries. Neither seems a particularly satisfactory conclusion. A little closer to home, King Henry II seemed to have the right idea, by allowing prostitution but requiring weekly inspections of the brothels to ensure that no other laws were being broken. Post-revolution France took a step further in 1802, by legalising prostitution and creating a Bureau of Morals to regulate the brothels – a system that operated successfully for over a century. So what can we learn from history?

The obvious option is the all-out ban. But since when has making something illegal prevented it from happening? The reality is that making prostitution illegal is simply likely to push the market further underground, making it more difficult to regulate and the women involved more vulnerable. Criminalisation in any form seems likely to enforce the stigma and encourage abuse. The historic tradition of bans has taught us this much: they don’t work. It then becomes a question of what can be done to regulate the market and to provide further protection for sex workers. It is here that post-revolution France had the right idea.

Let’s start with the facts: prostitution is not illegal in the United Kingdom. There are, however, a whole host of laws that make it more difficult for prostitutes to practise: running a brothel, soliciting on the street, kerb-crawling and inciting and controlling prostitution for personal gain are all illegal. In short, whilst the law succeeds in making ‘pimping’ illegal, it also succeeds in making a situation in which prostitutes may work together illegal. Whatever happened to safety in numbers? In effect, the law requires that prostitutes work alone, away from the public eye and are thus more vulnerable. Whether prostitution is seen as a ‘victimless crime’ or not, the reality is that (as reported by the home office in 2004) more than half of women in prostitution had been raped or seriously assaulted, and 75% had been physically assaulted. According to a recent politics.co.uk poll, 89% of those surveyed answered that the primary aim of sex legislation should be to keep sex workers safe, and this seems the most sensible suggestion of late.

How do we make the sex industry safer for those involved? We take a leaf out of King Henry II’s book, and legalise brothels.

Whilst this may seem a radical suggestion, it is certainly not a new one. Brothels have been legalised in Nevada, the Netherlands, New Zealand and parts of Australia, with limited success. Whilst none of these examples seem to provide a perfect working model, there is undoubtedly something to the idea. In theory, legalised brothels are regulated brothels – ideally by a specific branch of law enforcement, as with the Bureau of Morals in France. Such regulations could take huge steps to ensure that punters are hygienic, without drugs and alcohol problems and STI-free. And I’m not talking about the kind of brothels that have appeared in Nevada, that are run by men, for profit, but of those of the kind seen in New Zealand: licensed by the government, run by the women involved, taking the money that they earn, whilst protected from sexual abuse and physical assault firstly by safety in numbers, and secondly by regulatory bodies. By legalising this model of brothel, but maintaining the illegality of soliciting on the streets, kerb crawling and ‘pimping’, new sex laws would, rather than pushing prostitution underground, bring it under the protection of law enforcement. That is, of course, in an ideal world.

The truth is that many people, myself included, are reluctant to accept that prostitution is here to stay; fearing that to legalise it, is to normalise it. Eventually, however, we have to face up to the reality: prostitution has been rife for the entirety of recorded history, and it doesn’t seem to be on its way out anytime soon. The faster we accept this, the faster we can take steps to improve the safety and quality of life of sex workers in the UK. It’s a hard truth to take, but, for the time being at least, it’s a necessary one.

Pippa Bailey