Call Prostitutes “Sexual Entrepreneurs”, Say Police

Police chiefs have been accused of treating prostitution as a normal job and effectively decriminalising it by telling officers they should call prostitutes “sex workers” or “sexual entrepreneurs”. The Telegraph has more.

Commercial sexual exploitation of women is at risk of being normalised and decriminalised by the approach, according to an all-party parliamentary group (APPG).

In a letter to Shabana Mahmood, the Home Secretary, MPs cited a slump in convictions for all types of prostitution offences in the past decade as evidence.

At the same time, sex trafficking was being conducted on an “industrial scale” through “pimping websites”, with one alone promoting 15,800 adverts for prostitution, they said.

Convictions for “paying for sexual services of a prostitute subjected to force” are down from 43 in 2010 to zero in 2023, [convictions for] soliciting have fallen from 208 to 25 in the same period, [those for] keeping a brothel have dropped from 32 to eight and [those for] ‘pimping’ have decreased from 32 to eight.

The group said it was “deeply concerned” that guidance by the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) telling officers how to deal with prostitution was “normalising” commercial sexual exploitation as “work” and “undermining” efforts to crack down on it.

The guidance states that officers should limit the use of the word “prostitute” or “prostitution” to “specific legal meanings and offences”.

It says that “sex work” is, for some, “a necessary survival strategy” while for others it is an “active career choice”. These included “sexual entrepreneurs” who “have chosen to engage in commercial sex as a career choice and for whom sex work is not necessarily a temporary arrangement that they seek to exit”.

In its criticism of the guidance, the APPG said the term “sex work” was not contained in any UK legislation. “It is an ideological, political and deeply contested term, and its recommended use by the NPCC is highly inappropriate,” said the APPG.

“Relatedly, it is wholly inappropriate that the term ‘sex work’ is in the very role title of the police officer leading the NPCC’s work on this issue.”

The group, which is chaired by the Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi, said that the NPCC’s use of the term “sex work” went against a recommendation by the Commons home affairs select committee, which had said it should not be used by law enforcement agencies.

“This is because the term ‘sex work’ normalises the exchange of money for sex acts as a job. It is not; it is sexual exploitation and abuse,” said the APPG.

Worth reading in full.

Subscribe
Notify of

To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.

Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.

18 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
mrbu
mrbu
4 months ago

I hope all these entrepreneurs are submitting their self-assessment tax forms and paying the requisite NICs.

Marcus Aurelius knew
4 months ago
Reply to  mrbu

And provide receipts; before agreeing to receive any service, I would want to know if I can claim my VAT back.

soundofreason
soundofreason
4 months ago

Ah yes. Corporal Entertainment budget line I believe.

EppingBlogger
4 months ago

Entrepreneurs usually develop novel products or new ways of doing business. I wonder what novelties the prostitutes have shown to the police to induce them to adopt this language.

Looking for business, ducky?

soundofreason
soundofreason
4 months ago
Reply to  EppingBlogger

I wonder what novelties the prostitutes have shown to the police

Mind bleach please!

EppingBlogger
4 months ago
Reply to  soundofreason

Well they are each “on the job”.

Mogwai
4 months ago

Maybe Chief Constable Gavin Stephens, Chair of the NPCC identifies as a feminist, like The Khant.😬

“It says that “sex work” is, for some, “a necessary survival strategy” Hmm, nope. We’re not in centuries gone by when this statement might have had some validity. I’d rather be on the dole and a regular customer of food banks than go down this particular road. I call bullshit.

I do concede that there will be some women who choose this type of work ( though God only knows what their back story is ), there’ll be some funding drug habits and some being exploited through trafficking, but I’ve no idea what the percentage splits are. I just don’t understand why any woman in this day and age would choose this degrading and dangerous way to earn money when you can keep your clothes on ( as well as keep your self-respect ) and go work in a supermarket ( or countless other jobs ), to be honest.

stewart
4 months ago
Reply to  Mogwai

My guess is that compared to working in a supermarket, it pays more for less time. And that probably suits those who aren’t too squeamish about the work.

huxleypiggles
4 months ago
Reply to  Mogwai

Minimum wage at 40 hours per week pays nigh on 25 grand pa.

Mogwai
4 months ago
Reply to  huxleypiggles

Yes, exactly. I’d sooner go work in McDonald’s. Actually, anywhere that you work and sells food you tend to get fed for free, in my past experience. I worked in McDonald’s when I was 18yrs old and I vaguely remember my uniform trousers becoming a bit snug over time. 😮 So unless a woman is needing to make a fast buck because she’s in debt to loan sharks who’ve threatened to pull her teeth out with pliers, I honestly can’t think of a situation where you’d go into prostitution willingly. That goes for these so-called ‘high end’ escorts, too. The type that service the attendees of Davos and whatnot. Same difference, you’re no better than a street-walker. I just hope that Gucci bag was worth it, because maybe some women value money more than they value themselves.

soundofreason
soundofreason
4 months ago
Reply to  Mogwai

…because she’s in debt to loan sharks who’ve threatened to pull her teeth out with pliers, I honestly can’t think of a situation where you’d go into prostitution willingly.

Interesting use of the word ‘willingly’

stewart
4 months ago

Commies are really obsessed with changing the names and words we use. It’s like a compulsion.

EppingBlogger
4 months ago
Reply to  stewart

It is not a compulsion it is a plan. By taking control of the language you can undermine history and control all political discourse on your terms.

stewart
4 months ago
Reply to  EppingBlogger

Maybe for a few it’s a plan. But I don’t think most of these petty tyrants think that deeply. I reckon for most it’s just the raw pleasure of telling someone else what to do and having some sort of stick to try to make them do it.

transmissionofflame
4 months ago
Reply to  stewart

And they are assisted in this by people who seem to prefer being told what to do rather than thinking for themselves, may of whom then want someone else preferably taxpayer funded to enforce the rules on everyone else “for fairness”.

10navigator
10navigator
4 months ago

A contemporary of mine in the early 70s was a navigator on RAF Britannias. Young and callow, his first US trip saw him and his crew nightstopping as Nellis Air Force Base (Las Vegas). A night’s carousing with the crew ended with him chatting up a girl at the bar of whom he enquired what she did for a living. The girl replied, “I’m a business girl buddy”. He naively replied, “Oh what business are you in?”

Arum
Arum
4 months ago

I’m not sure whether sex work could really be called a career, opportunities for promotion seem limited.

Kev
Kev
4 months ago

Prob work a lot harder than most recent arrivals.