Recommendations

From The Implementation of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2017, Part IV – An Interim Review:

Monitoring and Evaluation

From Report:
Research is critical in providing an evidence base for policy development and interventions. The Review should be mindful of the following considerations when assessing research and evidence presented in relation to the impact of the law:
  • Oversight of the research by qualified researchers;
  • Ethical approval has been given for the research by a recognised institute;
  • Methodology and collection of data is transparent;
  • Origin of data is verifiable;
  • Data is interrogated for double counting;
  • Numbers in the trade are not calculated by number of mobile phone numbers recorded as women in the sex trade typically have multiple mobile phone numbers which would result in over-counting;
  • Reports of offences and violence to be verified by incident, date, location and perpetrator (buyer or pimp for example);
  • Researchers should have no past or present association with or financial relationship with the sex trade organisers or those profiting or benefiting from or promoting the sex trade;
  • Need to take cognisance of the weight of the evidence and representation by service providers i.e. the numbers of clients and service responds to should be taken on board by the review;
  • Reviewers should have a track record of examining laws and implementation, in particular on sexual offences.
Comment:
Researchers should have no past or present association with or financial relationship with abolitionist organisations or lobbies or those profiting or benefitting from or promoting the abolitionism;