SOCI 210 Chapter Notes - Chapter Wagenaar: Johan Wagenaar, Collaborative Governance, Neoabolitionism
Document Summary
In the advanced western democracies, prostitution, in all its manifestations, is deeply entangled with the state: from the mid-19th century onward the authorities of all countries under study attempted to control and regulate prostitution. In general, prostitution policy is prone to sudden reversals, unfortunately almost always to more repressive policy regimes: policy making in the domain of prostitution is almost wholly driven by ideology. These obsessions were hidden beneath scientific theories and formal policy schemes whose overt aim was to understand and contain prostitution and improve the situation of the prostitute. In the absence of reliable data on social phenomenon, discourse determines policy making. Discourse is rarely a monolithic, unassailable ideological bloc that exhaustively determines pol, administrative and professional arrangements. Importance of ancillary law for the position of sex workers: use of a wide range of laws to regulate prostitution, laws that are specifically aimed at prostitution form only one aspect of the regulatory package.
