D.C.'s Prostitution Policy More Complicated Than Condoms Alone

My friend and fellow blogger Alex DiBranco recently wrote an excellent article about the Washington, D.C., Police Department's "Prostitution-Free Zone" initiative, warning that the enforcement of anti-prostitution laws under this initiative have resulted in women being arrested for carrying multiple condoms in their purse. And RH Reality Check claims that this policy makes selling sex on the street more dangerous for women.

DC police certainly have a lot to worry about -- from HIV/AIDS to illegal street prostitution, from police mistreatment of women arrested for prostitution to the trafficking of children and adults into prostitution. So with so many complex and intersecting problems, what's a district to do?

As a resident of D.C., I was surprised when I saw the first "Prostitution-Free Zone" sign go up in my neighborhood. After all, prostitution is illegal in D.C.; shouldn't everywhere be free from prostitution? It felt like declaring a street corner a mugging-free zone or a patch of sidewalk a double parking-free zone. The "Prostitution-Free Zone" campaign in D.C. is the Metro Police Department's (in my opinion poorly-named) policy for cracking down on prostitution in certain parts of town. They publish the guidelines they claim to use for determining which parts of the city are "Prostitution-Free Zones" on their website, and include complaints from the public and concerns that the level of prostitution endangers public safety.

But the clear program name FAIL aside, does a prostitution crackdown exacerbate the city's problems with AIDS, human trafficking, and police mistreatment? As with all public policy, the devil is in the details. If, as RH Reality Check and several local organizations claim in a recent report, D.C. cops are arresting women for carrying a hearty supply of condoms in their wallet, then such arbitrary and ineffective enforcement should be stopped. But if D.C. cops are, as their website claims, asking people caught soliciting prostitution in the no-no zone to "disperse and depart within a reasonable time frame before any arrests are made," then that sounds to me like a reasonable way to enforce the law. The biggest issue is often how officers are engaging with women on the streets.

Respectful engagement between police officers and women in prostitution helps officers identify minors in the industry and women looking for a way out. It also helps identify pimps and traffickers. Are police officers sometimes abusive to women on the street? Absolutely. Is the need to end police abuse and mistreatment a reason to toss out policies which have helped identify trafficking victims, like the four children who were being pimped in a "Prostitution-Free Zone" last year? Absolutely not. It is a call for much-needed reform.

Another serious and related issue is D.C.'s growing AIDS epidemic, which is now the highest of any city in the U.S., and has surpassed the infection rates of some African countries. With such a significant HIV/AIDS problem, practicing safer sex is a priority for everyone engaged in commercial sex, voluntarily or involuntarily (and for everyone else, for that matter). A number of organizations in the DC area distribute condoms and other resources, with no questions asked, to those who can reach them. But trafficking victims and women under pimp control in particular may have difficulty accessing these tools. Similarly, higher rates of injection drug use within the commercial sex industry can increase the risk for HIV transmission in this population. As D.C. continues to improve polices, including those around prostitution, fighting AIDS should be at the top of the priority list.

Prostitution policy in DC is complicated, and it's about much more than just condoms. It's about balancing the need to fight exploitation and AIDS and police abuse and human trafficking all at the same time. And it's about time we all start working together to do just that.

Photo credit: daquella manera