Prostitution
Espace presse

A summary of procuring

 

Definition

proxénétisme direct et indirectThe majority of legislations distinguish between two forms of procuring.

- direct procuring, defined as the act of "helping, assisting or protecting the prostitution of another; profiting from another's prostitution, sharing the products or receiving subsidies from a person constantly indulging in prostitution, hiring, training, diverting a person for prostitution or pressuring her to prostitute or continue to do so."

- indirect procuring, which consists in providing consented information on public or private premises to people indulging in prostitution. The real estate procuring is an important part of procuring. It has various faces: cabarets, restaurants, night clubs, private clubs, hostess bars...Even the simpe act of lending a van to a prostitute is noted as a procuring crime.

Criminal Networks of Prostitution

In Europe, the small structures, almost familial, coexist with high-level criminal organizations, who engage in sophisticated forms of trafficking and have high-level accomplices in the political and diplomatic world. Smaller groups can cooperate with large groups involved in multiple forms of trafficking.
No matter their size, these groups are mobile, perfected and structured. That is their main strength. Albanian networks, for example, are well-run criminal groups of 4 to 10 people, formed from clan, geographic, or family ties, just like true companies (market study, rationalization activity, task spacialization...). These groups are controlled by geographic and industry sectors, with, at the head of the organization, their board and chief supervising the group and defining the orientation of their criminal activities.
Different intermediaries intervene in every stage of exploiting women: recruiters, every type of agency, website producers, publicists, travel agencies, hotels, restaurants, "canvassers" who manage the locations on the sidewalk, bouncers in charge of protecting the girls, and sometimes, "solicitors" (bar owners, hotel concierges, taxi drivers...).
Faced with such a complex structure, it is generally difficult to find those who are responsible. Due to the fact that thanks to cell phones and the internet, procurers can manage their business away from the field of operations, without the risk of being caught.

The situation in France

le proxénétisme en franceFrance has the most repressive arsenal against procuring. If one considers prostitution to be free, then the exploitation of prostitution is severely punished. The repression of procuring, presents the unique characteristic of punishing an activity by reference to an activity that is not, in itself, illegal.

Articles 225-5 to 225-12 of the Penal Codes punish all forms of procuring. In its 2010 annual record of convictions, the Ministry of Justice declared 475 individual convictions for procuring acts, of which 275 were for aggravated procuring. About 40 international trafficking networks are dismantled every year, of which 64% are in Eastern Europe and the Balkans.

In 2010, the Directorate of Criminal Affairs and Pardons, showed that in the cases of aggravated procuring, the prison sentences amounted to an average of 27.2 months. 78% of those convicted are older than 25. 28% of those convicted are women and 56% are foreigners, still in regards of only aggravated procuring. The average fine amounted to an average of 13.080€ ($17,919 USD).
Even if the legal framework for procuring violations seems to be complete, the offense of trafficking remains, to this day, rarely seen (3 cases in France in 2009, 3 cases, as well in 2010). Few judges use the cumulative nature of the procuring and trafficking violations. However, current texts allow, in theory, to incriminate human trafficking with the purpose of sexual exploitation as a whole, the dismantling of the industry to the original recruiting.

 

 

 

Who are the Clients?

 

Profile

le client : monsieur tout le monde ?Several studies have questioned the possibility of establishing a profile of the client of prostitution. All of them had the same conclusions: ONE DOES NOT EXIST! Clients of prostitution have very diverse academic levels, family situations, careers, and revenues. Prostitutes are mostly women, and most studies showed that the great majority of clients are men.
There exists, at least, two groups of men who resort to sex services: those who rarely do it and those who have frequent encounters with prostitutes. The latter consists of men, who for long periods of their adult life, go to prostitutes regularly.
Other types of clients also exist, but they are less numerous: clients looking for men, these can be transvestites; female clients, of every age, wealthy enough to afford male prostitutes.

The situation in France

la situation en FranceIn France, the client is always anonymous, always invisible, always in the shadows, always free. In regards to the law, criminally speaking, the client does not exist. It is necessary to recall that in France, the clients of adult prostitutes are not punished, the only ones who are punishable are those who are clients of child prostitutes and prostitutes in vulnerable situations (pregnant or handicap). The clients of child prostitution (15 to 18 years old) risk up to three years in prison and a fine of 45.000€ ($61,650 USD); clients of child prostitution (under the age of 15) risk seven years in prison and a fine of 100.000€ ($137,000 USD). Lastly, clients of prostitutes in vulnerable situations risk a fine of 3.750€ ($5,137 USD) and up to three years in prison.

Globalization

Not a single continent is spared: Budapest, Riga and Kiev have become sex tourism destinations to the same level as Bangkok, Goa or Manila. Every opportunity is good: Trade Shows, sporting events... In 2011, the American Superbowl provoked a 136% increase in the number of prostitution ads on popular websites! At the annual exhibition of maritime entrepreneurs in Hamburg, the supply of prostitution (as hourly rates of hotel rooms) are doubled...
Certain websites for clients of prostitution have hundreds of thousands of subscribers sharing information on clients in Europe, classified by country and city, glorifying sexual exploitation, sharing their experiences and evaluating the performance of prostitutes.
If the sex industry is doing well, it is because of the clients. Many countries, even those who have legalized prostitution, recognize that it is the demand which creates the supply, and that therefore, the client is the main actor and responsible for the system. Nowadays, even if we are still far from a collective awareness, the role that the client plays is still recognized and sanctioned by the law in many European countries.

 

 

 

 

Stages de sensibilisation

Afin de répondre au mieux à ces objectifs, le décret du 12 décembre 2016 fixe les modalités de mise en œuvre, l’organisation et le déroulement du stage.

Le décret des stages de sensibilisation

tweets by Fond_Scelles

The Scelles Foundation in the press

  • (ES - Milenio) El ser humano no está a la venta
    El periodismo necesita inversión. Comparte este artículo utilizando los íconos que aparecen en la página. La reproducción de este contenido sin autorización previa está prohibida.
    El periodismo necesita inversión. Comparte este artículo utilizando los íconos que aparecen en la página. La reproducción de este contenido sin autorización previa está prohibida.