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Rethinking Wolfenden: Prostitute-Use, Criminal Law, And Remote Harm, Michelle Dempsey

Michelle Madden Dempsey

This article critiques the Wolfenden Committee's conclusion that criminalising prostitute-use is inconsistent with the liberal harm principle. Section one evaluates recent empirical evidence challenging Wolfenden's assumptions regarding prostitution. Section two analyses the use of forced-prostitutes as a direct harm offence of rape. Section three presents a new approach to criminalising the conduct of prostitute-users, and sketches a prima facie case in favour of criminalising solicitation for prostitute-use as an abstract endangerment offence.