Will prosecution stop prostitution?
Prostitution is said to be the oldest profession in the world. That is why in all major towns and cities, especially in the advanced world, there are locations labelled ‘Red Light Districts’ where commercial sex workers ply their trade.
In Ghana, prostitution is illegal, but the practice is a thriving vocation, with all categories of women and men involved in it.
Going forward, let us first establish that society has been very unfair to commercial sex workers. While society treats females involved in prostitution with scorn, their male counterparts do not face stigmatisation but are regarded as ‘champions’ among their peers.
Some of our readers who did not see the essence of the prominence we gave the story on the arrest of commercial sex workers in yesterday’s issue of the paper questioned our judgement in excluding the pictures of the two patrons who had also been arrested.
We do not seek any alibi, but genuinely the pictures of the two patrons were not made available to us. After all, it takes two to practise prostitution and there is no way we would have covered up wrongdoing by those men whose promiscuous lifestyles have sustained prostitution, although it is prohibited in the country.
The Daily Graphic gave prominence to the story of the commercial sex workers not to ridicule womanhood, far from it.
We did so to start a debate on prostitution in the country, especially when the practice is banned by law.
We cannot pretend to not notice this breach of the law and so we must act as swiftly to deal with the menace, as the Cantonments Police did last Sunday night, or take steps to repeal the law and join the league of nations that have unbanned prostitution.
For some of the sex workers, prostitution is by choice, while for others the unjust social order forced them into the ‘vocation’.
No matter what we do, some women and men will continue to enjoy prostitution as a pastime. Some are forced into it by their circumstances as a result of peer pressure, broken homes and economic difficulties.
As a people, we should be interested in the effects of prostitution on the campaign to achieve zero prevalence rate for HIV and AIDS, especially when it is established that the prevalence rate is very high among commercial sex workers.
What the law does to some of the negative practices such as prostitution is to drive the trade underground where it cannot be regulated.
It is for this reason that the prostitutes and their patrons hide under the cover of darkness to practise their trade, contrary to the Criminal Code, Act 29, 1960.
Nonetheless, the Daily Graphic calls for a debate on the issue, with the view to arriving at a decision that will benefit everybody. But we must indicate that until the conditions that drive prostitution are addressed, sex work will be difficult to stop, in spite of the legal regime.
