Prostitution

Prostitution (매춘/賣春, 성 매매/性賣買, 윤락행위/淪落行爲) is the business or practice of providing sexual services to another person in return for payment. The person who provides sexual services for money is called a prostitute.

Prostitution is one of the branches of the sex industry. The legal status of prostitution varies from country to country, from being permissible but unregulated, to a punishable crime or to a regulated profession.

Prostitution occurs in a variety of forms. Brothels are establishments specifically dedicated to prostitution, as shown on a Pompeii fresco. In escort prostitution, the act may take place at the customer's residence or hotel room (referred to as out-call), or at the escort's residence or in a hotel room rented for the occasion by the escort (called in-call). Another form is street prostitution. Sex tourism refers to travelling, typically from developed to underdeveloped nations, to engage in sexual activity with prostitutes.

Key words
self-deternminism on sex, unconstitutionality, sex crime, sex industry

Anti-Prostitution Law
There are two special laws on sex trade, which were enacted in 2004.
 * Act on the Punishment of the Arrangement, etc. of Sexual Traffic (성매매알선 등 행위의 처벌에 관한 법률)
 * Act on the Prevention of Sexual Traffic and Protection, etc. of Victims Thereof (성매매 방지 및 피해자보호에 관한 법률)

These acts were originally to protect the basic rights of male or female prostitutes in case of forced prostitution or seduced prostitution.

Article 21 (Penal Provisions), at issue, of the Act on the Punishment of the Arrangement, etc. of Sexual Traffic stipulates:
 * (1) Any person who traffics in sex shall be punished up to one year in prison with labor or penalty not exceeding three million won, confinement or fine.

In other words, both sellers and buyers of sex as well as pimps are punishable. Actually this act has helped some women coerced into the job, by force and violence, but has done nothing, or even aggravated situations, for those who jumped into the job inevitably but voluntarily.

So far, the anti-prostitution law notably reduced the red districts but expanded them to the rest of the society in the form of various pseudo-brothels such as massage parlors, kissing rooms and even office-residences using SNS communications. Wealthy men prefer going abroad to enjoy sex with no sense of guilt. It is reported that Koreans are the largest client group of sex tourism in Southeast Asia.

Issue of Unconstitutionality
In January 2013, a judge at Seoul Northern District Court applied for the constitutional review of the relevant provision of the Act questioning the constitutionality of criminal punishment of prostitutes and their clients as violating self-determining rights of adult individuals.

Judge Oh pointed out in his resolution:
 * "비록 금품 등 재산상 이익을 대가로 수수하기는 하나, 성교 행위 등은 사생활의 내밀 영역에 속하는 것이어서 착취나 강요가 없는 상태의 성인 간 성매매행위가 성풍속에 대한 중대한 위험을 초래했는지 명백하게 확인할 수 없다. 성매매특별법은 성인 간 성행위는 개인의 자기결정권에 맡겨야 하고 국가는 형벌권 행사로써 개입해서는 안 된다는 원칙을 지키지 못하고 있다.
 * 성매매에 대한 처벌은 자의적으로 집행되거나 단속적으로 이뤄져 성매매 여성이 처벌받지 않기 위해 국가의 법집행으로부터 보호해줄 세력, 예컨대 포주나 폭력조직 등에 의존하게 한다. 결국 성매매 여성에 대한 형사처벌은 성 착취 환경의 고착화라는 문제를 만들고 있다.
 * 성매매특별법은 불특정인을 상대로 한 성매매는 처벌하면서, 특정인을 상대로 한 소위 축첩(蓄妾)행위나 외국인을 상대로 한 현지처 계약 등은 처벌하지 않는다. 대가를 수수하는 성행위라는 점에서 사실상 본질이 같은데도 불특정 대상을 상대로 한 성매매 여성만 처벌하는 것은 평등권을 침해한다."

To Permit or Not to Permit
According to the current act, even a prostitute making a living is treated as a criminal. As a result, the prostitutes cannot protest for fear of getting caught against clients who refuse to pay or even exercise violence. The men caught buying sex, however, often get away with some perfunctory education, or 'John’s classes'.

Legalizing the sex trade may help to reduce increasingly frequent and violent sexual crimes and respect the human rights of women, but runs the high risk of encouraging prostitution in a country where sex industry’s annual volume is five times larger than the film industry’s and export women to foreign cities like Tokyo, New York, Los Angeles, etc. with large Korean communities.

Prospect
It remains to be seen how the Constitutional Court full bench will rule on this case in six months or so. A compromise plan thinkable for now seems to be to consider decriminalizing prostitutions while strengthening punishments of clients by weakening the demand side.