An article in The Independent, Vice UK: Britain's booming prostitution industry, describes what is going on in England.
Here are some passages:
And this one:
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Here are some passages:
But it wasn't long before she realised what many street prostitutes understand there is a much safer and much more profitable way to sell sex.
She got off the street and began working in one of the thousands of sauna parlours that operate behind the tightly drawn net curtains of suburban Britain. Exuding a no-nonsense self-confidence that belies her occasional moments of self-doubt and self-pity, she says: "I remember thinking it doesn't have to be like this. So I went for an interview at a sauna parlour and was given a job straight away. The clientele were businessmen and professional people. But behind the scenes there were organised crime gangs who were using it for their drugs and guns operations."
In the 1990s, Charlie decided to break out on her own and run her own brothel, a decision which brought her to the attention of the police and the pimps. She had a number of altercations with both, but it was a vicious fight with one of the girls that brought matters to a crisis. Charlie stabbed her in the eye, which landed her a two-year jail term.
Now 38 and speaking with the trademark sexy huskiness of the madam, she says of her time in jail: "This was an important moment for me, because I discovered that I could do other things and that in fact I had more to offer in my head than I had to offer between my legs."
After prison, Charlie Daniels went on to write a best-selling book called Priceless: My Journey Through a Life of Vice. She is now a motivational speaker, devoting herself to helping people turn their lives around through her life reclamation work.
She got off the street and began working in one of the thousands of sauna parlours that operate behind the tightly drawn net curtains of suburban Britain. Exuding a no-nonsense self-confidence that belies her occasional moments of self-doubt and self-pity, she says: "I remember thinking it doesn't have to be like this. So I went for an interview at a sauna parlour and was given a job straight away. The clientele were businessmen and professional people. But behind the scenes there were organised crime gangs who were using it for their drugs and guns operations."
In the 1990s, Charlie decided to break out on her own and run her own brothel, a decision which brought her to the attention of the police and the pimps. She had a number of altercations with both, but it was a vicious fight with one of the girls that brought matters to a crisis. Charlie stabbed her in the eye, which landed her a two-year jail term.
Now 38 and speaking with the trademark sexy huskiness of the madam, she says of her time in jail: "This was an important moment for me, because I discovered that I could do other things and that in fact I had more to offer in my head than I had to offer between my legs."
After prison, Charlie Daniels went on to write a best-selling book called Priceless: My Journey Through a Life of Vice. She is now a motivational speaker, devoting herself to helping people turn their lives around through her life reclamation work.
And this one:
In his grey suit and blue shirt, Ian looks and sounds like a typical City businessman. He is courteous but also strangely unembarrassed by his sexual exploits which suggests that such stories are often shared among his working peer group.
Speaking in direct, upbeat tones, sometimes in mock cockney to hide his middle class roots, he says he started to frequent sex parlours after graduating from lap dancing clubs in London. "I think I asked one of the girls if I could pay to have sex with her. She gave me a card and it got me thinking. I thought about escort girls but that seemed too cold and calculating. In the end I went out drinking in Manchester one night and was taken to a place by some local business clients I had been messing around with. I don't remember much about it, except that afterwards I was convinced she had given me the clap or something. I was so worried that I booked into 24-hour sex clinic. When the doctor finally saw me she gave me all the all clear and asked me if I was married. She said the symptoms I had were psychosomatic, brought on by a sense of guilt about what I had done. Apparently it's quite a common thing."
Ms Sanders says that as more and more middle class men are paying for sex, there is a contingent trend among the numbers of middle class women who regard selling their bodies as a justifiable means of generating high income. She cites the example of a Jewish university-educated girl, calling herself Belle de Jour, who found fame after using a blog diary to record her secret life as a high class escort. "Although women have always used the sex industry to support their educational endeavours," says Ms Sanders, "increasingly female students faced with mounting debts and university fees are opting to work in the sex markets."
But perhaps the most significant change in prostitution in recent years has been the arrival of the internet, which has brought the sex industry off the street and into the home. Thousands of sites advertise escorts, sauna parlours, sex clubs and online brothels. Men who have been too scared to try these services before can now search out a prostitute or escort from the safety of their own computer terminal.
In the face of such a pervasive and organised (and unionised) sex industry, it is difficult to see how any government will be able to control or regulate prostitution properly. For every woman who is successfully led out of a life of vice, there are many more prepared to take her place.
Speaking in direct, upbeat tones, sometimes in mock cockney to hide his middle class roots, he says he started to frequent sex parlours after graduating from lap dancing clubs in London. "I think I asked one of the girls if I could pay to have sex with her. She gave me a card and it got me thinking. I thought about escort girls but that seemed too cold and calculating. In the end I went out drinking in Manchester one night and was taken to a place by some local business clients I had been messing around with. I don't remember much about it, except that afterwards I was convinced she had given me the clap or something. I was so worried that I booked into 24-hour sex clinic. When the doctor finally saw me she gave me all the all clear and asked me if I was married. She said the symptoms I had were psychosomatic, brought on by a sense of guilt about what I had done. Apparently it's quite a common thing."
Ms Sanders says that as more and more middle class men are paying for sex, there is a contingent trend among the numbers of middle class women who regard selling their bodies as a justifiable means of generating high income. She cites the example of a Jewish university-educated girl, calling herself Belle de Jour, who found fame after using a blog diary to record her secret life as a high class escort. "Although women have always used the sex industry to support their educational endeavours," says Ms Sanders, "increasingly female students faced with mounting debts and university fees are opting to work in the sex markets."
But perhaps the most significant change in prostitution in recent years has been the arrival of the internet, which has brought the sex industry off the street and into the home. Thousands of sites advertise escorts, sauna parlours, sex clubs and online brothels. Men who have been too scared to try these services before can now search out a prostitute or escort from the safety of their own computer terminal.
In the face of such a pervasive and organised (and unionised) sex industry, it is difficult to see how any government will be able to control or regulate prostitution properly. For every woman who is successfully led out of a life of vice, there are many more prepared to take her place.
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