The Prostitution Law Review Committee is pleased to introduce this report entitled The Nature and Extent of the Sex Industry in New Zealand: An Estimation. The report provides baseline information on the sex industry prior to the passage of the Prostitution Reform Act 2003 (the Act). It will assist the Committee evaluate the extent to which the Prostitution Reform Act 2003 (the Act) is meeting its purpose.
The report is divided into two distinct sections to reflect the different sources of information. The first section reports on the findings of a telephone survey of NZ Police Districts and Areas. This survey canvassed specific police staff in a position to offer information and insight on the sex industry in their area.
The second section is based upon an audit of the number of advertisements for commercial sexual services undertaken by the New Zealand Prostitutes' Collective (NZPC). In addition, an interview with some members of the NZPC gives a fuller picture of the nature of the sex industry in New Zealand and is designed to be complementary to the information provided by the NZ Police. The views expressed in this report are those of the participants and are not necessarily the views of their organisations.
Methodology
Part A: Survey of New Zealand Police
A similar method to the 2001 police survey was employed in the current exercise. All 12 police districts participated in the survey with a total of 38 police respondents. These police officers were sent a survey form listing information requirements. The questionnaire was used as a basis for an interview which was then conducted over the phone over the period of November 2003 to April 2004.
Part B: New Zealand Prostitutes' Collective
Newspapers, the Yellow Pages and websites were checked by NZPC members for the number of advertisements for commercial sexual services on several randomly chosen Fridays. Dates chosen for the exercise were 4 July 2003, 3 October 2003, 5 December 2003 and 7 May 2004. The date of 4 July was chosen in order to represent the situation as close as possible to the introduction of the Prostitution Reform Act 2003. Subsequent dates have been chosen for monitoring purposes to determine changes in advertising following the introduction of the new legislation.
Caution must be used in interpreting these findings. The advertisements count both private workers and businesses and therefore the number of advertisements cannot be taken to represent the number of people working in the sex industry. In the case of prostitution businesses there will be more than one person working from each business. In addition, while most private workers work by themselves, some do work with one or two others. Nevertheless, in cases like this, the workers are usually advertising separately from each other, with different phone numbers for each worker.
Key Results
Part A: Survey of New Zealand Police
- A total of 383 sexbusinesses were identified across New Zealand. Massage parlours represented the highest number of businesses (189) followed by escort agencies (101) and then rap/escort parlours (93).
- A total of 5,932 sex workers were identified over the areas canvassed. Sex workers employed in massage parlours constituted nearly half of all sex workers (44%). Private workers followed in numbers accounting for 24% of sex workers. Street workers represented 11% of those working in the sex industry and sex workers in rap/escort parlours and escort agencies accounted for 10% each of the sex industry.
- Not surprisingly, sex businesses were concentrated in the Auckland Police District. There were comparatively few businesses in other police districts. Street workers were concentrated in the main centres and in particular in Auckland City and Counties-Manukau districts.
- Respondents estimated that on average 30% of street workers were transgender or transsexual. In comparison only 4% of private workers, 1% of escort agency workers and 1% of rap/escort parlour workers were identified as transgender/transsexual. Male sex workers were found primarily working on the streets, privately, or in escort agencies.
- It was estimated that there were around 200 sex workers under the age of 18 and over half (60%) were located in the street sector.
- Non-New Zealand sex workers were considered to be a significant issue in the greater Auckland area. These workers were predominantly from Thailand and China but other Asian countries were also represented.
- About a quarter of police respondents answered affirmatively when asked about exploitation of sex workers in their area. Forms of exploitation included a system of bonds and fines, use of drugs, and unreported crime against sex workers.
- About half of the police areas or districts responding to the survey indicated that they had a police officer with a portfolio dedicated to prostitution. However, in most of these cases the proportion of a person's full-time portfolio dedicated to prostitution was very small. Police role included liaison, licensing/vetting of massage parlours, registration of sex workers and investigation of complaints.
Part B: New Zealand Prostitutes' Collective
- There were 151 advertisements for commercial sexual services in Wellington and 469 in Auckland on 4 July 2003. In Wellington there were 18 advertisements for agencies and the same number for parlours on the 4th July. Proportionally together, these represented about a quarter of all sex advertisements on this date. In Auckland there were proportionally more advertisements for agencies than parlours. However, advertisements for private workers represented three-quarters of the advertisements in both Auckland and Wellington.
- In Auckland, female advertisements comprised the majority of private advertisements (83%). Private advertisements for male sex workers comprised 13% of the total and advertisements for transgender workers 3%. In Wellington, 61% of private advertisements were advertising the services of female sex workers, 29% were for male sex workers and 10% for transgender workers.
- The NZPC estimated that between 50% to 70% of sex workers worked in massage parlours, 20% in escort agencies and 10% work on the street or privately.
- The NZPC estimated that the transgender sex worker population is about 5% in total, but that transgender workers represent about 50% of those working on the street.
- The NZPC did not consider there were significant numbers of under age sex workers working in the industry. Importantly, not all young people on the streets are sex workers but in many instances they have been identified as such and so inflating the numbers of under age workers.
- NZPC key informants indicated that exploitation of sex workers most frequently occurred in their employment conditions.