An
inquiry into sex trafficking in Scotland is asking punters who use
prostitutes to talk to them - in secret.
Baroness Helena Kennedy, who is heading the probe, said men who buy
sex can help build a realistic picture of the extent of the trade.
Kennedy said: I want to hear from these men. I
need to hear directly from people who have experiences of trafficking. I
think if you want to have a proper sense of the problem, it is better to
hear from witnesses themselves directly.
It might be they are men who have used
prostitutes and they have had an experience where they have been with a
woman who was clearly coerced into prostitution. We need help to
understand the scope of the problem but those who can do that are often
the very people who, through shame or fear, don't want to step forward.
We will guarantee them absolute anonymity.
The probe will focus on Scotland but will have an impact on policy
across the UK. It is the most far-reaching study of trafficking in
Britain.
It will look at ways in which the country can tackle the hyped
problem of trafficking, from policing and border control to how well
victims are supported when they are found.
Kennedy and her team have talked to police, voluntary organisations
and experts but want to widen their evidence-gathering over the coming
months to punters and the victims of trafficking themselves.
The inquiry is being run by the Equality and Human Rights Commission
Scotland and, although all trafficking will be covered, the emphasis
will be on the women and children brought in for sex.
Police have reported an increase in the demand for foreign women from
men buying sex. She said: Senior police officers
do think that there has been a shift. Perhaps because men are travelling
much more, certainly on stag weekends and buying sex abroad. They are
experiencing sex in a more exotic way, activities that they don't
participate in with their wives and partners. It becomes something that
they want here.
Kennedy said that, contrary to speculation, the inquiry wasn't rooted
in Scotland because we have a disproportionate scale of trafficking. She
said: The truth is, we just don't know the size of
the problem because this hasn't been done before. And what makes it a
substantial problem? Fifty, 100 women? If we were talking about the
sexual abuse of children, we would never consider any number acceptable.
If this is happening at all and it is, we have to ask, how do we prevent
it?
A final report from the probe will be out next year.
A
leading expert on prostitution has insisted that Britain would have fewer
murders if the sex industry was decriminalised.
Here's
the (unofficial?) list of award winners for 2010.
If
you thought you could hide your extreme porn stash in a secluded location north
of the border – think again. For this week, the Scottish Parliament finally fell
into line with its English counterpart south of the border, passing laws -
included within the Criminal Justice Bill - making it a criminal offence to
possess images that were extreme and pornographic in nature.
