Reply #56: Oops. I forgot the link.

[Spike from MN]

Inspections probably wouldn't do much good. Before prostitution was legalized, cops would warn the owners of upcoming raids so by the time the authorities showed up, more often than not they found nothing. The cops gave the owners "protection" in exchange for freebies and I rather doubt legalization has changed that aspect of the business. (I don't have a link for that as it was in the book I read.)

Here's the link I forgot to include in my previous post along with some snippets.

But a United Nations report on human trafficking released last month still rated Germany "very high" as a destination for women forced into sex work, and some of those who supported legalization are reconsidering.

...


It's not just missing tax revenue that's worrisome, Breyer said. Because prostitution is legal, police don't investigate it as aggressively as they once did, and that's allowed forced prostitution to thrive, she thinks.

Anne Fitzgerald, who works with Solidarity With Women in Distress, agrees. That's why her group began preparing an information campaign last year.

...


"The idea behind the change in legislation was, I believe, that prostitutes should be able to leave the `gray zone' of semi-illegality and be registered and have social insurance like other professions," Fitzgerald said. "Reality has since shown that very few prostitutes are officially registered and the police have practically no way of justifying brothel raids, so that now fewer victims of trafficking are actually discovered."

http://www.centredaily.com/mld/centredaily/news/world/14566639.htm