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Jun 12, 2015 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom
Prostitution is the world’s oldest profession. In Guyana, prostitution is illegal. Yet, I cannot recall in recent times anyone being hauled before the courts for prostitution.
If you interview the men and women involved in prostitution, they will say to you that they are not being forced to sell their bodies for money. No one, they will contend, is holding them against their will.
But while no one may be sending the prostitutes out there to do business, there may be economic pressures that are forcing both men and women into prostitution.
Admittedly there are some prostitutes who may be in the business because of the big bucks that can be made. It has been reported that some prostitutes charge as much as $50,000 for a one-night stand.
Even those involved in the lower end of the market, it is said, can make about sixty thousand dollars in one night by going with multiple partners.
Prostitution is big business and the market is segmented and far more complicated than it would appear. This makes it difficult to combat. The vast majority of prostitutes do not have to stand by the road corners to solicit customers.
The majority of prostitutes actually go as paying customers to the various pubs, buy their own drinks, and look as if they are normal patrons. But try to get friendly with them and they will tell you that their company costs money.
This is why even though prostitution is illegal, it is difficult to combat.
You would be surprised at some of the persons who are out there on the market and how innocent they seem.
No one is holding a gun to these prostitutes’ head and asking them to sell their bodies. But there is always an element of compulsion – economic compulsion – that would push someone to sell their bodies for money. No person can truly say that they are not under duress when they are selling their bodies.
Prostitution is therefore something that needs to be combatted. But that is always easier said than done.
Soliciting, which is the basis upon which prosecution rests, is difficult to establish, especially in the case of high-end prostitutes who provide something akin to escort services.
But if prostitution is illegal, what about striptease?
If you expose your privates in public, even if it is because you had to take a pee by the road corner, you are liable to be charged for indecent exposure. Yet, in Guyana, there are so-called “private clubs” which are open to the public for a fee and in which there is nightly striptease dancing.
Is there a weakness in the law that prevents the authorities from taking action against these clubs? Is it legal and is there a lacuna in the law that allows these clubs to operate and get away with what they are doing.
This is something that needs to be addressed not just to protect the morals of society, but also to protect the persons, both men and women, who flock to these private clubs, because they believe that what takes place there is legitimate entertainment.
Is it legal and is it entertainment or a disguised form of prostitution?
A public advisory should be issued on these strip joints. Let us not pretend that they do not exist. They do and their activities are spreading. There are not just private striptease clubs. Private parties are also now organized in which striptease is part of the offering.
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