State policy concerning prostitution at the present stage: state and main directions

Abstract

The illegal commercial sex industry became an integral part of the modern Russian way and a shadow component of the economic sector. The analysis of the current state and the main directions of the state policy concerning prostitution and counteraction to its negative consequences taking into account the implemented national model of prohibitionism is presented in the article. The subject of the research is international legal statements regulating regulations on counteraction to prostitution and sexual exploitation, the modern criminal and administrative legislation of Russia, bills on problems of legal regulation of the sphere connected with commercial sexual relations. Conclusions and proposals of the author are based on materials of jurisprudence, data of official statistics, sociological and criminological research works, published theoretical works on the problem. The author used general scientific methods of analysis and synthesis and private scientific systemic, comparative legal, sociological and statistical methods to analyze legal information and to study the efficiency of legal norms. In the work, the author's concept of the state policy of counteraction to prostitution is given, the provisions of international treaties on counteraction to prostitution exploitation which aren't apprehended by the Russian criminal law, decisions of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation are considered. The lawmaking experiment on establishing criminal liability and introducing or increasing administrative responsibility concerning participants of the illegal sphere of sexual services (souteneurs, consumers and prostitutes), criminalization of prostitution and its advertizing, etc. is critically comprehended. As a result of the conducted research the author comes to a conclusion that the state showing a formally negative attitude to prostitution has no general strategy with an effective mechanism reducing prostitution growth. Proclaiming the legislative ban of prostitution with nominal administrative responsibility, the state does not take any resolute actions for eradication of the fundamental reasons producing it. As a problem with destructive social consequences that demand a proper anticipatory response, prostitution is left outside the state priority, which promotes its more dangerous forms - victimization of sex workers, corruption delicts, illegal migration, risks of minors' involvement in prostitution, etc.