'Men need more sex than women' so decriminalize UK sex trade, academic says

[IceWizard]

Thu Aug 6, 2015 10:54am EDT
By Kieran Guilbert

LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) -
Decriminalizing prostitution in Britain could
reduce levels of rape and sexual assaults on
women, a think tank said on Thursday, which
described attempts to control the sex trade as
ineffective and a waste of public money.

Britain's sex industry - reportedly worth 4 billion pounds ($6.25 billion) - will continue to flourish as men have a far greater desire for sex than women, and male demand for sexual
entertainment is "growing, and ineradicable",
according to a report published by the Institute of Economic Affairs.

"Men would like to have sex twice as often as
women. This gap in sexual desire between men and women is growing over time and cannot be dismissed as an out-dated patriarchal myth as argued by some feminists," report author and sociologist Catherine Hakim said in a statement.

She dismissed claims that prostitution,
pornography and lap-dancing are damaging to
society and promote rape and violence against women, and said they may even help to reduce sexual crime rates.

But campaigners against violence against
women called the report "alarmingly one-sided" and said arguments about men's greater interest in sex than women were "laughable".

Laws legalizing or decriminalizing the sex trade have been introduced in the Netherlands, Germany and New Zealand. Other countries, such as Sweden, Norway,
Iceland, Canada and Northern Ireland, have
adopted the so-called 'Nordic model' which aims to punish clients without criminalizing those driven into prostitution.

"Laws on prostitution are now outdated,
misinformed and redundant. Decriminalization is the only workable way forward," Hakim said.
"The proposal to copy Sweden and criminalize
customers in the sex trade is a complete waste
of public money."

The report was published amid controversy over a proposal by human rights group Amnesty International endorsing the decriminalization of the sex trade, which has been slammed by women's rights campaigners and celebrities such as Meryl Streep.
Selling sex is legal in Britain, but running a
brothel, working as a group of prostitutes, and
soliciting are not.

Hakim said Britain's laws prevent women
working together in an apartment for mutual
protection, and argued the Nordic model drives the sex industry underground, increasing risks. Sarah Green, acting director of the End Violence Against Women Coalition, said the report had omitted facts about early age of entry into prostitution and sexual violence suffered by women in prostitution.

"The claims about men's greater interest in sex... are laughable," Green said in a statement. "A contemporary teenager could explain to the author how and why men make greater claims about their sexual interests and experiences and women downplay theirs."

($1 = 0.6400 pounds)


(Reporting By Kieran Guilbert, Editing by Ros
Russell; Please credit the Thomson Reuters
Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson
Reuters, that covers humanitarian news,
women's rights, trafficking, corruption and
climate change. Visit www.trust.org)