Demand

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

From Report:
  1. Surveys indicate that one in 15 men in Ireland have paid for sex. They tend to be educated with incomes from the middle range; a significant proportion buy sex during the daytime (lunchtime) and in the evenings after work.
  2. Dangerous, unprotected sexual activities are commonplace with a high proportion of buyers stating they had unprotected sex; there is increasing pressure on women to engage in high risk sexual acts which can damage women’s sexual, reproductive, mental and physical health.
  3. In an analysis of over 1,000 sex buyer reviews posted online the key ratings were of: good value for money; physical attributes; explicit details of sexual acts demanded; his/her degree of sexual gratification; the expectation that he/she enjoys it and an expectation of ‘the girlfriend experience’ with severe criticism of women who were not satisfactory.
  4. More recent research indicates the profile of buyers: employed, mid to high income, majority in a relationship, 25% admit having witnessed exploitation in prostitution but almost none have considered reporting to the police; buyers are well informed about trafficking in women but ignore it when buying.

Footnotes:
 11 Punter.net Ireland is an internet site where buyers post reviews of the women they have bought – this website is no longer used in the Irish context – most reviews are on Escort-ireland.com itself.
12 Yonkova, N. & Keegan, E. (2014) Stop Traffick! Tackling Demand for Sexual Services of Trafficked Women and Girls Immigrant Council of Ireland, Dublin

Click to access STOP-TRAFFICK-full-report.pdf


13 This approach has now also been introduced in Iceland, Norway, France, Northern Ireland and Ireland.

Query:
This section makes considerable reference to a report – “Stop the Traffick” – funded by the EU, commenced in 2011 and launched by Immigrant Council of Ireland in early 2013 (relevant report published in TheJournal.ie on 11 February 2013). It seems to me that the only verified participants in the relevant research were self reported sex buyers in Bulgaria and Lithuania. (see page 81). I am not convinced of the relevance of this research in an Irish context. Even the demographics are completely different.For example:
Southern Ireland: The report claims that there are 1000 sex workers in Southern Ireland out of a population of nearly 5 million. TIP 2013 placed Ireland in Tier 1 this was downgraded to Tier 2 in 2018.
Bulgaria: It is estimated that there are 10,000 sex workers in Bulgaria and 20,000 Bulgarian sex workers abroad out of a population of 7 million. TIP 2013 placed Bulgaria in Tier 2 Sex work legislation was similar to Ireland pre 2013
Lithuania: It is estimated that there are 3,000 sex workers in the Capital Vilnius alone out of a population of nearly 3 million in the whole country. TIP 2013 placed Lithuania in Tier 2 Sex work is heavily criminalised (for this reason it is hard to get more accurate estimates of prevalence, but it is generally believed to be quite common.)

Query:
I find it very hard to understand how any report, regardless of quality, relevance and validity, or lack thereof that was first researched in 2011 9 years ago, and six years before the passage of the the 2017 Sexual Offences Act the implementation of which is under review, could be considered relevant in this particular context at all. “the past is another country, they do things differently there” (LP Hartley, 1953).
BREAKINGNEWS.IE HEADLINES FOR JANUARY 30, 2011
BREAKINGNEWS.IE HEADLINES FOR JANUARY 30, 2020
I do no believe it is possible to review the impact of a change in social policy using only opinion that predates it by several years.

Query:
The report also relies too heavily on three papers part produced by Melissa Farley:

  1. Farley, M., Bindel, J. and Golding , J.M. (2009) Men Who Buy Sex: Who They Buy and What They Know?,
  2. Farley, M. et al (2011) Attitudes and Social Characteristics of Men Who buy Sex in Scotland, Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, March 28, 2011, 
  3. Farley, M. et al , (2011) Comparing Sex Buyers with Men Who Do not Buy Sex: “You Can Have a Good Time with the Servitude” vs. “You’re Supporting a System of Degradation”, Psychologists for Social Responsibility Annual Conference, Boston, July 15, 2011

Melissa Farley has been widely criticised for:

  1. The above cited report 15 July 2011
  2. A wide range of unethical research practices
  3. Using insulting, degrading and racist language to describe sex workers
  4. At least one, detailed, formal complaint to the APA(2012)

I do not believe the “Stop the Traffick” report cited in support of this section could rightly be considered credible in 2012 let alone today.

Third Party Query:
I see 31 refs to “trafficking” in the report and footnotes, but no link at all to the Dept of Justice’s own “Blue Blindfold” annual reports on people trafficking convictions. Why?
Annual reports – Blue Blindfold 2017
Pages 16-17 –
The Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act came into effect in 2017…
With the passing of this Act, the AHTU has taken on new responsibilities for prostitution policy in addition to that of trafficking in human beings. This new role includes liaising with concerned stakeholders, An Garda Síochána, and a variety of NGOs.
Page 12:
In 2017, while nine persons were convicted under section 3(2) of the Criminal Law (Human Trafficking) Act 2008, for offences relating to non-commercial child sexual exploitation, none were convicted for a human trafficking offence.