南韓性買賣特別法和警方掃黃行動對性產業的影響

In September of 2004, the government of South Korea enacted the ”Act on the Punishment of Intermediating in the Sex Trade.” Included in the law are strict penalties such as large finds and long prison sentence for both the owners of brothels and their patrons. Despite this law, many observers in Korea have suggested that the legislation does little more than suppress the sex trade, which then causes it to displace from red light districts to more clandestine locations and leading to crime displacement. Displacement is a central concern of researchers, policymakers, and others concerned with crime prevention and proactive policing as it is a crucial indicator to evaluate the fail or success of the control measures. Serious crime displacement not only indicates the failure of the control measures, it also creates barriers in crime controlling in the future.The paper introduces the theoretical background of crime displacement and presents theories and general concepts of crime displacement. A in the years 2000 to 2009 and a news content analysis of crime displacement based on 174 newspaper articles as well as a secondary data analysis derived from a survey of 1,078 Korean sex workers in 7 cities throughout South Korea. Despite the official crime statistics reveals that the legislation and police crackdown seem to be successful, our findings indicate that the controlling effect on the johns, the older prostitutes with longer brothel experience is limited and consequently leading to tactical and spatial displacement. Finally, the paper discusses the implications of theory and policy for improving our understanding of current anti-prostitution policies and efforts to control prostitution.