Protecting Victims Sexually Exploited through Prostitution

Steven Bittle

Main Argument / Overall Summary

critically examines how Canadian governments use the language of sexual abuse, exploitation, and victimization to justify laws and policies intended to protect young women involved in prostitution (under 18).

He identifies three major problems with Canada's approach:

• Individualizing youth prostitution:

• Reinforcing familial ideology:

• Continued criminalization and control

Individualizing youth prostitution:

Governments focus on the individual young woman's behaviour rather than the underlying causes, such as poverty, homelessness, family abuse, and inequality.

reinforcing familial ideology

Governments assume that returning young women to their families is the best solution, even when their families may have been abusive.

continued criminalization and control

Young women are treated as victims when they accept government assistance but can be punished or detained when they reject help or continue working in prostitution.

Historical Background: How Canada's Approach Developed

• Young women as criminals: They are viewed as immoral, deviant, or responsible for their involvement in prostitution.

• Young women as victims: They are viewed as vulnerable individuals who need protection and rescue.

Alberta's Secure Care Legislation

Under this legislation:

• Authorities could apprehend young people believed to be involved in or at risk of prostitution.

• Young people could be placed in a protective safe house for up to five days.

• Authorities could apply for two additional detention periods of up to 21 days each.

• Young people could receive counselling, treatment, and assessments.

Bittle's criticism of Alberta's Secure Care Legislation

Secure care effectively punishes young women by taking away their freedom, even though the government claims it is protecting them.

• It also fails to address the underlying reasons they became involved in prostitution.

Individualizing the Youth Prostitution Problem

governments focus too heavily on the individual young woman rather than the larger social conditions that influence her involvement in sex work.

• sees them as victims regardless of individual circumstance

several problems from Individualizing the Youth Prostitution Problem

• It overlooks poverty, homelessness, and limited employment opportunities.

• It ignores experiences of abuse within the family.

• It minimizes the importance of financial independence and the need for money.

• It assumes that leaving prostitution is simply a matter of making the right individual decision.

Bittle connects this approach to neoliberalism.

Neoliberalism emphasizes individual responsibility and personal choice rather than collective or government responsibility for addressing social problems.

For example:

• Governments expect young women to take responsibility for leaving prostitution.

• Young women are encouraged to make better decisions and accept help.

• Governments reduce social welfare programs and employment supports.

familial ideology.

government policies reinforce the belief that the traditional nuclear family is the ideal environment for young women.

The idealized family is described as:

• White

• Christian

• Heterosexual

• Middle-class

• Patriarchally organized

Why is the idealized family problematic?

Many young women become involved in prostitution after experiencing abuse or difficult circumstances within their own homes.

• Some run away from physically, emotionally, or sexually abusive households.

• Some leave because they want independence and financial autonomy.

• Some experience abuse from male family members or acquaintances.

Bittle's family argument

By treating the family as the solution, governments ignore the possibility that the family itself contributed to the young woman's circumstances.

Youth Are Still Criminalized and Controlled

• Bittle argues that young women are treated as victims when they accept the government's definition of victimhood and cooperate with its interventions.

• However, when they reject assistance, refuse treatment, or continue working in prostitution, they can be treated as criminals or as problematic youth.

Bittle argues that secure care is particularly problematic because:

• Young women are the ones being detained, not the male customers purchasing their services.

• Some young women view secure care as punishment rather than assistance.

• Some simply wait until their detention ends and then return to the streets.

• Forced intervention can discourage young women from voluntarily seeking help from social services.

Indigenous youth are disproportionately represented in prostitution, and their experiences must be understood within the context of:

• Colonialism.

• Historical exploitation by the state.

• Poverty and socioeconomic inequality.

• Family and community displacement.

• Systemic discrimination.

argument about impact on indigenous youth

• The state positions itself as protecting Indigenous youth while continuing to exercise coercive control over them.

• This means that supposedly protective policies can reproduce the same inequalities and power imbalances that contributed to their marginalization.

Bedford (2013)

• The Supreme Court's decision in Canada (Attorney General) v. Bedford struck down certain prostitution-related Criminal Code provisions because they increased the dangers faced by sex workers.

• For example, restrictions forced sex workers to meet clients in secluded locations to avoid police attention, increasing their vulnerability to violence.

PCEPA (2014)

• The legislation criminalized the purchase of sexual services.

• The government justified this approach by presenting sex workers as victims of exploitation and customers as sexual predators.

PCEPA criticism

• The legislation continues to reinforce the idea that sex workers are automatically victims.

• Criminalization may push sex workers into more secluded and dangerous working environments.

• Adult sex workers may be reluctant to provide young people with support because of restrictions on providing services near minors.

What Does Bittle Believe Should Change?

• governments need to move beyond automatically treating every young woman as a victim waiting to be rescued.

• Instead, governments should address the structural conditions that contribute to youth involvement in prostitution.