Law Enforcement and the Monitoring of Legal Sex Industries: A Case Study of the Netherlands

Madeleine Lipey’s capstone paper centers around the 2000 law change in the Dutch criminal code, in where the Dutch government lifted the ban on brothels and recognized prostitution as a legitimate, taxable occupation. While implemented as a response to high rates of human trafficking in the country, Lipey notes that this new legal reality contributed to a changing relationship between the police and sex workers in the wake of the 2000 law as law enforcement was no longer directed to arrest or reprimand employees of the sex industry. More specifically, she examines the intended and inadvertent consequences that have accompanied the lifting of the ban and argues that the police force must rethink the methods employed to monitor legal prostitution. Lastly, Lipey makes a series of policy recommendations designed to improve police leadership and effectiveness and sheds light on the legalization in practice to consider how sex workers are treated by those who are employed to protect them.