A new bill from At-large Councilmember David Grosso would decriminalize sex work in the District.
"The reason I want to do it, in a nutshell, is I do not think the criminalization of sex workers has worked for the District of Columbia," Grosso said in an interview with DCist earlier this week. "Arresting our way out of the problem is not the solution. The approach should be a harm reduction and human rights approach."
As drafted, the Reducing Criminalization to Promote Public Safety and Health Amendment Act of 2017 gets rid of all criminal penalties for "pandering or inducing an individual to engage in prostitution" for consenting adults. It does not create any red light districts or way of regulating sex work, and coercing people against their will to engage in sex work remains illegal.
Grosso has been preparing the legislation in concert with the Sex Worker Advocates Coalition, a group of local stakeholders that includes HIPS, Whitman-Walker, and more. The bill would also create a task force to study its implementation and make further suggestions for reform.
"This is an approach that the world is being encouraged to take—to take a healthcare lens and try to resolve the issues," says Grosso, citing recommendations from groups like Amnesty International and the World Health Organization.
While prostitution has been legal in some parts of Nevada in the form of brothels for more than a century, what's often called "the world's oldest profession" remains criminalized in the rest of the United States. An effort to decriminalize prostitution via referendum in San Francisco failed in 2008, after heavy criticism from city officials at the time. Kamala Harris, then the city's district attorney and now a rising star senator, said the measure "would put a welcome mat out for pimps and prostitutes to come on into San Francisco."
But in the near decade since then, there's been a shift in perspective alongside a growing international movement further popularizing the policy change that sheds stigma in favor of pragmatism.
http://dcist.com/2017/10/new_bill_would_decriminalize_sex_wo.php
"The reason I want to do it, in a nutshell, is I do not think the criminalization of sex workers has worked for the District of Columbia," Grosso said in an interview with DCist earlier this week. "Arresting our way out of the problem is not the solution. The approach should be a harm reduction and human rights approach."
As drafted, the Reducing Criminalization to Promote Public Safety and Health Amendment Act of 2017 gets rid of all criminal penalties for "pandering or inducing an individual to engage in prostitution" for consenting adults. It does not create any red light districts or way of regulating sex work, and coercing people against their will to engage in sex work remains illegal.
Grosso has been preparing the legislation in concert with the Sex Worker Advocates Coalition, a group of local stakeholders that includes HIPS, Whitman-Walker, and more. The bill would also create a task force to study its implementation and make further suggestions for reform.
"This is an approach that the world is being encouraged to take—to take a healthcare lens and try to resolve the issues," says Grosso, citing recommendations from groups like Amnesty International and the World Health Organization.
While prostitution has been legal in some parts of Nevada in the form of brothels for more than a century, what's often called "the world's oldest profession" remains criminalized in the rest of the United States. An effort to decriminalize prostitution via referendum in San Francisco failed in 2008, after heavy criticism from city officials at the time. Kamala Harris, then the city's district attorney and now a rising star senator, said the measure "would put a welcome mat out for pimps and prostitutes to come on into San Francisco."
But in the near decade since then, there's been a shift in perspective alongside a growing international movement further popularizing the policy change that sheds stigma in favor of pragmatism.
http://dcist.com/2017/10/new_bill_would_decriminalize_sex_wo.php
