Critically examine British government policies directed towards prostitution - Essay Example

The problem of prostitution in the UK is often more than just the expansion of the sex industry; it is integrally related to the increase of trade on the street and the crimes associated with it. In February 2003, 31 policemen in Glasgow arrested women in an anti-prostitution clampdown ranged over 48 hours as a result of their provocation by the angry residents. In this operation, no men were arrested. A vast majority of the women engaged in the act of street prostitution are either crack cocaine addicts or are on heroin or both.

Most of the prostitution in the UK happens in the outdoors city and the indoor scene is small. Women that are engaged in the street prostitution are exposed to sexual or physical violence in the disproportionate levels. Prostitution is one of the leading causes of suspicious deaths and assassination of women in the UK. Acceptance of the lap dancing among the celebrities and the businesses as well as broadcasting of the lap dancing in the television programs provides evidence for its relative success.

Normalization has placed emphasis upon the aspects that were more acceptable like small brothels and escort agencies. Regulation can be understood as a half-way house arrangement that constitutes different approaches and regimes, that include but are not limited to a reactive nuisance response with the resident clampdowns upon customers and especially women, and a blind eye approach in which reigns informal tolerance. “The legal regulation of prostitution in the UK was set out in the Sexual Offences Act 1956, which reflected the findings of the Wolfenden Committee investigation into prostitution and homosexuality that took place around that time” (politics.co.uk, 2012).

Prostitution in the Wolfenden Committee was treated as a moral issue as was evident from the Act’s text. This became the basis of the popular debates between Herbert Hart and Lord Devlin. By the end of the year 2003, the Home Office declared its plans to revise