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Old 14-08-2006, 04:47 PM
harlequin harlequin is offline
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Re: All you need to know about Offences relating to prostitution under the SG LAW

Reading through all the postings, I see that there is a lot of confusion about the legality of prostitution in Singapore.

First of all, a very big thank you to Bro Big Sexy for answering all the questions from the brothers. However, I feel that if you want to know the law, try to read the related law in it's entirety : reading bits and pieces only creates more confusion. The law regarding prostitution is found in Part XI of the Women's Charter, and can be viewed online. Just do a search for "Women's Charter" in any search engine.

I am not a lawyer, but here's my interpretation of the law.

Extracts from the Women's Charter

Offences relating to prostitution
140. —(1) Any person who —

(a) sells, lets for hire or otherwise disposes of or buys or hires or otherwise obtains 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;


One may interpret that since we hire the women for sex, we have committed an offence under the law. Note, however, that it is an offence relating to prostitution. So, the next question is, did this offence occurred within an act of prostitution ? What is the legal definition of prostitution anyway ? In Part I of the Women's Charter, under "Interpretation",

"prostitution" means the act of a female offering her body for promiscuous sexual intercourse for hire, whether in money or in kind;

Note that it is the female (ie. the prostitute) who has to be the one who offered sex, not you. So, the prosecutor will have to prove, first of all, that she has offered sex for money (thereby establishing that prostitution occurred). Of course, since no prostitute will ever admit that she has offered "her body for promiscuous sexual intercourse", there is no case to begin with. In other words, she must have made on offer to hire herself out for sex and you accepted that offer.

There is simply no way that the prosecutor can prove all these in a court of law. They may suspect, but proving it in court is a totally different matter. It is little wonder that I have never heard of a successfully prosecuted case.

If you read the entire Women's Charter, especially Part XI of the act, you can see that Parliament's intention is really to protect the women against the pimp and the trafficker. It was never intended to prosecute the prostitute or her customer. This is the reason why I say that one should read the entire act to understand the law better, rather than bits and pieces of it.

So, why does AV bother to conduct raids ? I understand from the OKTs themselves that the ones they are after are the pimps. They will ask the girl to identify her pimp, but she herself is not charged for any offence.

Anyway, the bottomline is this : if for some reason, AV raids the room while you are in it with the girl, just don't admit to having paid her any money. She herself will certainly not admit to being a prostitute !

Bros, I have spent a lot of time trying to put this matter in clearer perspective for everyone. So, I hope you will show some appreciation by upping my points.