Prostitution in Singapore
Prostitution in Singapore in itself is not illegal, but various prostitution-related activities are criminalized. This includes public solicitation, living on the earnings of a prostitute and maintaining a brothel. In practice, police unofficially tolerate and monitor a limited number of brothels. Prostitutes in such establishments are required to undergo periodic health checks and must carry a health card.[1]
History
The rapid development of Singapore in the late nineteenth century combined with the city's gender imbalance (the male population greatly outnumbered the female)[2] resulted in prostitution becoming a flourishing business and brothels a boom industry.[3] The prostitutes were primarily Chinese and Japanese, imported as karayuki-san.[2] Japan exported prostitutes called Karayuki-san during the Meiji and Taisho periods to China, Canada, the United States, Australia, French Indochina, British Malaya, British Borneo, British India and British East Africa where they served western soldiers and Chinese coolies.[4] One Japanese prostitute in British Singapore was forced to serve dozens of men a day until her genitals hurt and she was forced to use petroleum jelly on it.[5] The Japanese prostitutes also served Chinese men in Singapore.[6] Japanese prostitutes were everywhere in Singapore in the British colonial era and they were renown for the "Singapore grip" by their British male clients, where the Japanese prostitute would use their vagina to squeeze the client's penis. Britain was Japan's ally and let Japanese prostitutes and other businesses infiltrate Singapore's economy. One Singapore based photography studio was owned by a Kempeitai chief.[7] The Japanese government tried to hide the existences of these Japanese prostitutes who went abroad and do not mention them in books on history.[8][9][10] Japanese prostitutes were also in other European colonies in Southeast Asia like Singapore as well as Australia and the US.[11][12][13][14][15][16][17] Japanese Karayuki San prostitutes in Southeast Asia sent remittances back home to Japan to find the First Sino Japanese War and Russo Japanese war.[18][19][20] The development of the Japanese enclave in Singapore at Middle Road, Singapore was connected to the establishment of brothels east of the Singapore River, namely along Hylam, Malabar, Malay and Bugis Streets during the late 1890s.[21] By 1905 there were at least 109 Japanese brothels in Singapore.[22]
Prostitution was seen by the colonial authorities as a necessary evil[2] but a number of steps were taken to place restrictions on prostitution in the city. The registration of prostitutes and brothels was made compulsory in an attempt to prevent forced prostitution, and an Office to Protect Virtue was set up to help anyone unwillingly involved in prostitution.[23] Shortly after the outbreak of World War I the colonial authorities banned prostitution by white women, and as a result the white brothels in Singapore (over twenty in 1914) had all closed by 1916.[24]
A 1916 report described the misery and indecency of the prostitutes working in the red-light districts around Malay Street and Smith Street, and pressure was placed on the Colonial Office in Britain to further restrict licensed prostitution. Sir Arthur Young, governor-general of the Straits Settlements, considered prostitution indispensable for the colony's economy and labour supply[24] but the sale of women and girls into prostitution was banned in 1917.[23] Influential figures in the city's Japanese community who were concerned about dignity and morality put pressure on the Japanese Consulate to end Japanese prostitution. In 1920 the Consulate ordered the banishment of all Japanese prostitutes from Singapore, though some of the women remained as unlicensed prostitutes.[24] The importation of women and girls for prostitution was banned in 1927 and brothels were banned in 1930, though prostitution remained legal.[23]
During the Japanese occupation of Singapore (1942–45), brothels were set up for the use of Japanese servicemen. There were about twenty such brothels in the city, typically housed in deserted Chinese mansions.[25] By the time of the surrender of Japan in 1945 prostitution was flourishing.[26]
In the 1950s striptease acts took place at the city's getai shows, performed by specialist travelling dance troupes.[27] The shows developed a sleazy image, partly as a result of stories about performers working as prostitutes. During this decade the city's police organised operations to reduce prostitution and Chief Minister Lim Yew Hock sought out suggestions as to how prostitution could be limited. Women's rights activist Shirin Fozdar described Singapore as "one big brothel"[28] and the city was a regional centre for prostitution. The People's Action Party under the leadership by Lee Kuan Yew initially banned prostitution when they came to power in the late 1950s, switching to a strategy of containment in the mid 1960s.[29]
From the 1950s to the early 1980s
Singapore's economic boom in the 1970s and 1980s created an increase in demand for sex work, and unskilled women from Malaysia and India migrated to the country to take up prostitution alongside the Chinese women already working in the sex industry. An increase in construction work in the country in the 1990s led to Thai and Korean prostitutes migrating there to service the single men working in the industry. In the country's "Designated Red-Light Areas" women were earning $7–$120 per client in the 1990s.[32]
Law
Commercial sex with underaged persons
Any person who obtains for consideration the sexual services of a person under 18 years of age (in other words, has commercial sex with such a person) commits an offence and may be punished with imprisonment of up to seven years or a fine or both.[33] The term sexual services is defined to mean sexual services involving sexual penetration of the vagina or anus of a person by a part of another person's body other than the penis or by anything else, or penetration of the vagina, anus or mouth of a person by a man's penis.[34] It is also an offence for a person to communicate with another person for the purpose of having commercial sex with a person under 18.[35] These offences apply to acts that take place in as well as outside Singapore.[36]
It is a crime for a person to:
- Make or organise any travel arrangements for or on behalf of any other person with the intention of facilitating the commission by that other person of an offence under section 376C (that is, offences relating to commercial sex with a minor under 18 outside Singapore), whether or not such an offence is actually committed by that other person;[37]
- Transport any other person to a place outside Singapore with the intention of facilitating the commission by that other person of an offence under section 376C, whether or not such an offence is actually committed by that other person;[38] or
- Print, publish or distribute any information that is intended to promote conduct that would constitute an offence under section 376C, or to assist any other person to engage in such conduct.[39]
A person who is guilty of the offence may be punished with imprisonment of up to ten years, or a fine, or both.[40]
Pimping
It is a criminal offence to:
- Sell, let for hire or otherwise dispose of or buy or hire or otherwise obtain possession of any woman or girl with intent that she shall be employed or used for the purpose of prostitution either within or without Singapore, or knowing or having reason to believe that she will be so employed or used;[41]
- Procure any woman or girl to have either within or without Singapore carnal connection except by way of marriage with any male person or for the purpose of prostitution either within or without Singapore;[42]
- By threats or intimidation procure any woman or girl to have carnal connection except by way of marriage with any male person either within or without Singapore;[43]
- Bring into Singapore, receive or harbour any woman or girl knowing or having reason to believe that she has been procured for the purpose of having carnal connection except by way of marriage with any male person or for the purpose of prostitution either within or without Singapore and with intent to aid such purpose;[44]
- Knowing or having reason to believe that any woman or girl has been procured by threats or intimidation for the purpose of having carnal connection except by way of marriage with any male person, either within or without Singapore, to receive or harbour her with intent to aid such purpose;[45]
- Knowing or having reason to believe that any woman or girl has been brought into Singapore in breach of section 142 of the Women's Charter or has been sold or purchased in breach of section 140(1)(a), to receive or harbour her with intent that she may be employed or used for the purpose of prostitution either within or without Singapore;[46]
- Detain any woman or girl against her will on any premises with the intention that she shall have carnal connection except by way of marriage with any male person, or detain any woman or girl against her will in a brothel;[47]
- Detain any woman or girl in any place against her will with intent that she may be employed or used for the purpose of prostitution or for any unlawful or immoral purpose; or[48]
- Attempt to do any of the above acts.[49]
The penalty is imprisonment not exceeding five years and a fine not exceeding $10,000.[50] A male person who is convicted of a second or subsequent offence under the first six offences listed above[51] is liable to be caned in addition to being imprisoned.[52]
Practice
Prostitution occupies an ambivalent position in Singaporean society. Major constraints control its practice despite it being legal.
Policing
By the end of 2015 there had been an increase of around 40% in fraud crimes that involved prostitution and sex-related scams involving the
In 2016, examples of sentencing included the case of a man who was jailed for 85 months and fined S$130,000 for organising online prostitution[61] and evading nearly S$27,000 of income tax.[62]
In 2015 there were also reported cases of nightly sex activities involving transvestite prostitutes soliciting at a car park in the old
There are also rare cases of people impersonating policemen in order to rob sex workers. In 2016 the organiser of such a crime was sentenced to two years and seven months in jail and 12 strokes of the cane.[66]
Sex trafficking
There has been an illegal trade in women and girls unwillingly trafficked into Singapore's brothels since the beginning of the nineteenth century. The country's authorities have made numerous attempts to prevent the trade.[32]
Singapore is a destination country for women and girls from other Asian countries subjected to sex trafficking and a source country for Singaporean women and children subjected to sex trafficking. Some of the 965,000 foreign work permit holders that comprise more than one-quarter of Singapore's total labor force are vulnerable to trafficking; most victims migrate willingly. Traffickers compel victims into sex exploitation through illegal withholding of their pay, threats of forced repatriation without pay, restrictions on movement, and physical and sexual abuse. Foreign women sometimes arrive in Singapore with the intention of engaging in prostitution, but under the threat of serious harm or other forms of coercion, they become victims of sex trafficking.[67]
The United States Department of State Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons uprated Singapore to a 'Tier1' country in 2020.[68]
References
- Notes
- ^ a b "2008 Human Rights Report: Singapore". U.S. Department of State. 25 February 2009. Retrieved 25 February 2016.
- ^ a b c Warren 1993, p. 34.
- ^ Warren 1993, p. 32.
- JSTOR 29766813.
- ^ "Rare interview tapes with Japanese 'karayuki-san' prostitute in Singapore surface". The Mainichi. 30 December 2020.
- ^ Lay, Belmont (18 May 2016). "Thousands of Japanese women worked as prostitutes in S'pore in late 1800s, early 1900s". mothership.sg.
- ISBN 9834055609.
- ^ Sartore, Melissa (7 June 2019). "Facts About Karayuki-San, The Japanese Sex Workers Trafficked To The Rest Of The World". Ranker.
- ^ https://www.facebook .com/rankerweirdhistory/posts/11-facts-about-karayuki-san-the-japanese-sex-workers-trafficked-to-the-rest-of-t/1420919264731111/
- ISBN 1134757166.
- ^ Hong, Regina (8 July 2021). "Picturing the past: Postcards and the pre-war Japanese in Singapore". ARIscope Home - Asia Research Institute, NUS.
- JSTOR 29766813.
- ^ Mihalopoulos, Bill (26 August 2012). "世界かWomen, Overseas Sex Work and Globalization in Meiji Japan 明治日本における女性,国外性労働、海外進出". Japan Focus: The Asia-Pacific Journal. 10 (35).
- ^ Lay, Belmont (18 May 2016). "Thousands of Japanese women worked as prostitutes in S'pore in late 1800s, early 1900s". Mothership.SG.
- ^ Isono, Tomotaka (13 May 2012). ""Karayuki-san" and "Japayuki-san"". The North American Post: Seattle Japanese Community.
- .
- ^ Sone, Sachiko (January 1990). The karayuki-san of Asia, 1868-1938 : the role of prostitutes overseas in Japanese economic and social development (Master's Thesis).
- ^ Warren, James F. (September 2000). "Intersections: Review Sandakan Brothel No. 8: An Episode in the History of Lower-Class Japanese Women">". Intersections: Gender, History and Culture in the Asian Context (4).
- ISBN 0-7656-0354-3.
- S2CID 203491109.
- ISSN 0219-8126.
- ISBN 9789971692674.
- ^ ISBN 9780313377433.
- ^ ISBN 9781134651733.
- ISBN 9780393245530.
- ISBN 9789812308788.
- ^ Ho 2013, pp. 30, 35.
- ^ Ho Hui Lin (2013–14). The 1950s Striptease Debates in Singapore: Getai and the Politics of Culture (PDF) (Thesis). National University of Singapore.
- ^ ISBN 9789971694876.
- ^ Johnny Chen (26 June 2014). "The Original Bugis Street". Ghetto Singapore.
- ^ Belmont Lay (14 December 2017). "Why do Desker Road & Rowell Road have brothels with transgender prostitutes?". Mothership. Singapore.
- ^ ISBN 9789004346253.
- ^ Penal Code (Cap. 224, 2008 Rev. Ed.), s. 376B(1). It is not an offence to obtain sexual services from one's own spouse: s. 376B(3).
- ^ Penal Code, s. 376B(4).
- ^ Penal Code, s. 376B(2); the penalty is imprisonment for up to two years, a fine, or both.
- ^ Penal Code, s. 376C.
- ^ Penal Code, s. 376D(1)(a).
- ^ Penal Code, s. 376D(1)(b).
- ^ Penal Code, s. 376D(1)(c). Publication of information means the publication of information by any means, whether by written, electronic or other form of communication: s. 376D(2).
- ^ Penal Code, s. 376D(3).
- ^ Women's Charter, s. 140(1)(a).
- ^ Women's Charter, s. 140(1)(b).
- ^ Women's Charter, s. 140(1)(c).
- ^ Women's Charter, s. 140(1)(d).
- ^ Women's Charter, s. 140(1)(e).
- ^ Women's Charter, s. 140(1)(f).
- ^ Women's Charter, s. 140(1)(g).
- ^ Women's Charter, s. 140(1)(h).
- ^ Women's Charter, s. 140(1)(j).
- ^ Women's Charter, 140(1)
- ^ Women's Charter, ss. 140(1)(a) to (f).
- ^ Women's Charter, s. 140(2).
- ^ Measures, Nick (24 November 2020). "Sex, drugs and security cameras: Touring Geylang, Singapore's legal red-light district". CNN.
- ^ Loh Chee Kong (15 May 2007). "Orchard Towers in the crosshairs". Channel NewsAsia. Archived from the original on 17 May 2007.
- ^ Koh, Hui Theng (18 April 2012). "He wanted massage, but was offered 'special'". The New Paper. Archived from the original on 16 April 2015. Retrieved 24 February 2016.
- ^ "More bang for your buck: How new technology is shaking up the oldest business". The Economist. 9 August 2014. Archived from the original on 1 September 2018.
- ^ Cheong, Danson (23 February 2016). "Online "sugar mummy" scams on the rise: police". Retrieved 24 February 2016.
- ^ "Don't be a victim Know the scams". Scam Alert Singapore. National Crime Prevention Council. Retrieved 24 February 2016.
- ^ Foo, Jie Ying (7 November 2015). "One-woman anti-vice squad". Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 24 February 2016.
- ^ Cheong, Danson (10 July 2015). "34 women, 2 men arrested in 2-day anti-vice sweep". Retrieved 24 February 2016.
- ^ Hussain, Amir (11 February 2016). "Online vice ring pimp who received nearly $2.6m in revenue over 5 years jailed". Retrieved 24 February 2016.
- ^ Hussain, Amir (12 February 2016). "Online pimp jailed and fined for evading more than $26,000 in income tax". Retrieved 24 February 2016.
- ^ Cheong, Danson (11 October 2015). "MP pledges to clean up sleazy Woodlands park". Retrieved 24 February 2016.
- ^ "'Sisters' peddle sex in cars at park". Straits Times. 11 October 2015. Retrieved 24 February 2016.
- ^ Cheong, Danson (11 October 2015). "MP pledges to clean up sleazy Woodlands park". The Straits Times. Retrieved 31 March 2018.
- ^ Chong, Elena (24 February 2016). "Man robbed, tied up 2 Chinese masseuses". Asia One.
- ^ "Singapore 2018 Trafficking in Persons Report". U.S. Department of State. Archived from the original on 30 July 2018. Retrieved 30 July 2018. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
- ^ "2020 Trafficking in Persons Report: Singapore". Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons.
Cited Works
- Ho, Hui Lin (29 January 2013). The 1950s Striptease Debates in Singapore: Getai and the Politics of Culture (Masters of Arts (History) thesis).
Further reading
- Articles
- Archibald, C.P. [et al.] (6–11 June 1993). "Improved Knowledge but Unchanged Behaviour Following a Safe Sex Intervention among Prostitutes in Singapore". International Conference on AIDS. 9: 825..
- Lim, K.B. [et al.]; Tham, SN; Sng, I; Tan, T (August 1984). "Screening for Cervical Cancers in Prostitutes" (PDF). Singapore Medical Journal. 28 (4): 300–303. PMID 3423794..
- Ratnam, K.V. (December 1986). "Awareness of AIDS among Transsexual Prostitutes in Singapore". Singapore Medical Journal. 27 (6): 519–521. PMID 3589723..
- Ratnam, K.V. (February 1990). "Efficacy of Health Education Programme on Awareness of AIDS among Transsexuals" (PDF). Singapore Medical Journal. 31 (1): 33–37. PMID 2333540..
- Warren, James Francis; Jaschok, Maria; Miers, Suzanne (1994). "Chinese Prostitution in Singapore: Recruitment and Brothel Organisation". Women and Chinese Patriarchy: Submission, Servitude, and Escape. Hong Kong: ISBN 978-1-85649-125-9..
- Warren, James Francis (1990). "Prostitution and the Politics of Venereal Disease: Singapore, 1870–98". Journal of Southeast Asian Studies (Submitted manuscript). 21 (2): 360–383. S2CID 74000610..
- Wong, M.L. [et al.] (6–11 June 1993). "A Qualitative Investigation of Condom Use Negotiation among Prostitutes in Singapore". International Conference on AIDS. 9: 113..
- Wong, Yang Joel (1996). "Brothels, Pimps and Prostitutes: The Administration of Criminal Justice vis-à-vis Prostitution". Singapore Law Review. 17: 154..
- Books
- Brazil, David (1993). No Money No Honey. Singapore: Angsana Books. ISBN 978-981-00-5129-7..
- Tan, Roger (2012). Singapore Sex Guide 2013. Singapore.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link). - Lai, Ah Eng (1986). Peasants, Proletarians, and Prostitutes: A Preliminary Investigation into the Work of Chinese Women in Colonial Malaya. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. ISBN 978-9971-988-38-8..
- Lim, Gerrie (2004). Invisible Trade: High-class Sex for Sale in Singapore. Singapore: ISBN 978-981-05-1033-6..
- Lim, Gerrie (2008). Invisible Trade II: Secret Lives and Sexual Intrigue in Singapore. Singapore: Monsoon Books. ISBN 978-981-05-9209-7..
- Moe, Mekong (2018). Erotic Singapore: Sex and the City-State. Singapore: Createspace Books..
- Nicholl-Jones, S.E. (1941). Report on the Problem of Prostitution in Singapore. [Singapore]: [s.n.].
- Warren, James Francis (1993), Ah Ku and Karayuki-san: Prostitution in Singapore, 1870–1940, Singapore; New York, N.Y.: ISBN 978-0-19-588616-0.
External links
- Singaporeans fight sex trade with street lamps
- Prostitution wave hits 'squeaky clean' Singapore
- Singapore may raise minimum prostitution age to 18
- Country Narrative – Singapore
- Prostitution is not illegal in Singapore