THE concerns about the impact of sex work on women in particular are well founded. But it is hard to understand exactly how a policy of criminalising payment for sex could be made to work in practice. Since a few women (and indeed men) unfortunately find themselves in a position where the only thing they can offer is sex in return for payment, making it illegal will not achieve much if anything other than introduce a wider and easily hidden range of different problems.

Anyone receiving any form of inducement whether in kind or cash would be aiding and abetting the commission of a crime. Criminalising paying for sex therefore also means criminalising receiving payment for sex. There are many simplistic “solutions” to issues, but they invariably have predictable consequences which those promoting the ideals fail to heed. Solving the prostitution problem is far more complex and is not dissimilar to the equally simplistic demands to scrap the “not proven” verdict. Campaigners on issues like this rarely think through all the potential outcomes.

Nick Cole
Meigle, Perthshire