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Since 1995, brothels in New South Wales have been permitted to operate as legitimate businesses regulated by local councils using planning powers. Despite more than 20 years since decriminalisation and widespread support, there remains an urge by some to heavily regulate the sex industry, reflected in the recently submitted report to the NSW Government from the Select Committee on the Regulation of Brothels (2015). Although the Report supports maintaining decriminalisation, it is dominated by concern about the association of brothels with crime and the consequent need for increased policing. This article argues first that there is little to no evidence to support the criminogenic concerns articulated in the Report. Second, even if these concerns existed, there is nothing to suggest that the proposed measures would provide a solution. Moreover, these proposed reforms reflect a worrying trend in criminal law reform of the expansion of police powers modelled on anti-terrorist legislation, despite existing police powers and criminal offences that are not prosecuted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emerging research in sexuality and space outlines the diverse forms of spatial governmentality used to discipline non-normative sexual behaviours, exploring how exclusion, concealment, and repression combines to ensure that 'immoral' sexualities are out of the sight of the 'moral majority'. In this paper, we explore this contention in relation to planning for sex service premises (brothels) in New South Wales, Australia. Though such sex service premises are now legal, our analysis nonetheless considers the way that these premises have been subject to forms of planning constraint that reflect planners' assumptions about the appropriate manifestation of sex premises within the urban landscape. By exposing the assumptions written into planning law that sex premises are legal but potentially disorderly, we demonstrate the evidential power of planning to reinforce dominant moral geographies through instruments which, at first glance, appear to be focused on objective questions of amenity and the 'best use of land'. This paper hence explores the ways in which planners have translated assumptions of disorder into categories of visibility and distance, meaning that brothels have become hidden in plain view so as not to disturb the integrity of residential 'family' spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Premises associated with commercial sex--including brothels, striptease clubs, sex cinemas, and sex shops--have increasingly been accepted as legitimate land uses, albeit ones whose location needs to be controlled because of assumed 'negative externalities'. However, the planning and licensing regulations excluding such premises from areas of residential land use are often predicated on assumptions of nuisance that have not been empirically substantiated. Accordingly, this paper reports on a survey of those living close to sex industry premises in New South Wales, Australia. The results suggest that although some residents have strong moral objections to sex premises, in general residents note few negative impacts on local amenity or quality of life, with distance from a premise being a poor predictor of residents' experiences of nuisance. These findings are considered in relation to the literatures on sexuality and space given regulation which ultimately appears to reproduce heteronormative moralities rather than respond to genuine environmental nuisances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article engages with the question of whether or not sex work in the home should be regulated in the same way as large commercial brothels or as home occupations. Underlying concerns about sex services premises generally are that they are criminogenic, disorderly and exploitative of women. This article draws upon original research of surveys of people living in the vicinity of sex services premises, interviews with sex workers and service providers, and council records of complaint to argue that, on the contrary, home occupations (sex services) can operate lawfully with minimal amenity impacts, and that this type of business can provide a positive work environment. We recommend that sex work in the home in New South Wales should be regulated in the same way as other home occupations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]