-In New South Wales, brothels were decriminalized in 1995. By 1999, the numbers of brothels in Sydney had increased exponentially to 400-500. "There are 24 pages advertising brothels and escort agencies in the Yellow Pages today," says Sydney Madam Catherine O'Malley. "Three years ago there were only two or three."
Phil Mercer, "Prostitutes gear up for Olympic sex," BBC, 1 February, 2000, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/627012.stm
-"No research has demonstrated that legal prostitution decreases illegal (street and brothel) prostitution. Following legalization of prostitution in Victoria, Australia, although the number of legal brothels doubled, the greatest expansion was in illegal prostitution. In 1 year (1999), there was a 300% growth of illegal brothels."
Melissa Farley, " "Bad for the Body, Bad for the Heart": Prostitution Harms Women Even if Legalized or Decriminalized," Violence Against Women, Vol. 10 No, October 2004 http://www.prostitutionresearch.com/FarleyVAW.pdf
"Advocates of legalized prostitution in Germany used the argument that legalizing prostitution would control the expansion of the sex industry. In effect, the exact opposite is happening. ...Germany is the most lucrative prostitution economy in Europe, earning 7.5 billion dollars between 2002-03. Legalization has opened not only the back door but the front door to hundreds of pimps and traffickers, posing as legitimate businessmen, who move thousands of women per year into Germany for prostitution. ...Contrary to claims that legalization and decriminalization would control the expansion of the sex industry, prostitution now accounts for 5% of the Netherlands economy. Over the last decade, as pimping was legalized, and brothels decriminalized in the year 2000, the sex industry increased by 25% in the Netherlands."
Janice G. Raymond,The Consequences of Legal Policy on Prostitution and Trafficking in Women , Budapest, Hungary, May 28, 2004
-“Far from declining as attitudes to sex have relaxed, the trade in women's bodies has grown exponentially... . Those countries with a legal or semi-legal sex trade - Germany, the Netherlands, some Australian states - have some of the biggest problems associated with it. A thriving legal sex trade encourages its illicit counterpart, providing services that legal brothels don't offer." Joan Smith, "Prostitutes are victims, not crminals," The Independent, April 13, 2007, http://comment.independent.co.uk/columnists_m_z/joan_smith/article2444422.ece