One Way Traffick

Well if you are a regular reader of the blog you will know of my fascination with crime and in particular claims of crime associated with clubs. Now we knew with the death of Lilith those people trying to shut the clubs would need to find another crime to base their scaremongering on.

So anyone who has followed the press recently will have seen a certain MP refer to trafficking in the same breath as talking about clubs. Careful wording of course. the sex entertainment industry is the name used as an all embracing point to try and mix arguments and claims and make any counter claims more difficult.

Now I like a little light reading and felt I needed to read more on the subject not just in the UK but also about America as there have been a couple of cases there and no doubt those in the UK trying to close the SEVs down will use America as an example even though the UK industry doesn't bear any relation to the existing American scene.

So first lets pick up with the claims in Bindel's report of trafficking, I have been looking to see which club it was and I cannot find any record of any club being involved. And I am pretty good about digging through the internet to find info but if a club was involved the club would have been closed but I am struggling on this one. Certainly I can find no article where a club has had a trafficked dancer in the press. The only failure that I know of was an underage dancer with a forged driving license.

So as I am reading all about trafficking and both sides of the arguments I find Ronald Weitzer, Sex Trafficking and the Sex Industry: The Need for Evidence-Based Theory and Legislation, 101 J. Crim. L. & Criminology 1337 (2013). http://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/jclc/vol101/iss4/4

This is a document in the US criminal journal and even in this there is regular references to the lack of evidence and the that theories are just that theories without any facts on which they are based. In America there are different definitions of trafficking and if a couple move to a different state and one partner dances that can be seen as trafficking even if no coercion is in play. In the UK with councils being able to inspect the documentation of dancers there is a process to protect the dancers. But our county borders do not have the same effect as state borders in the US so things will be different.

Now there have been very occasional links to trafficking in the US but these have been minimal. Whilst the UK has had no club that has had trafficked dancers. Remember two major police investigations Pentameter and Pentameter 2 did not link one club to trafficking so the use of implication again by those cannot find any facts of wrong doing by the clubs just shows how desperate certain people are to create a fear of clubs centered around fiction. Obviously this is a massive subject that I have tried to minimise for readability and there are many aspects to trafficking but I would suggest readers who are interested read around on both sides of the discussion so they can form an opinion not biased by a single view.

As an aside congratz to Upstairs in York who got it's licensed renewed even though there were a few objections.

TonyN (tonyprince@acdcfan.com)