It is the oldest oppression, not the oldest profession as often claimed by those who believe prostitution is too hard to eradicate. In what other "job" are drug addiction, homelessness, rape and murder seen as occupational hazards? Few of the many women who have escaped the sex industry describe it as a profession - more paid abuse.
The long-awaited Home Office review of prostitution concludes that it is not a desirable phenomenon; that the women and children caught up in it are abused, not "making a free choice"; and that it is not a victimless crime. Indeed it has gone so far as to say that men who pay for sex are akin to rapists.
After hundreds of years of policy makers and social commentators ignoring the harm inherent in prostitution we now have a clear line from the government. It no longer wishes to sweep this issue under the carpet. Prostitution, the last bastion of men's dominance over women, has been exposed for what it is.
What additional resources will be made available to prevent children being abused in the sex industry, help women out of prostitution and re-educate the customers, we have yet to see. Certainly it would be impossible to elicit change without giving money to projects that work with prostitutes, or running a public-education campaign dispelling the myths of prostitution.
Why, for example, do we have to accept prostitution? Yes, it has been with us for a long time, but so have poverty and racism. We do not hear governments declaring that "racism is here to stay", and suggesting that the best policy is damage limitation and making it more bearable for people who are racially abused, or that we should not make life difficult for the perpetrator, but just accept that some people need to be racist.
For too long men who use women in prostitution have been invisible. Sweden is the only country that has finally recognised that prostitution is not a desirable social phenomenon but an obstacle to equality between women and men. It also recognises that prostitution is a form of violence against women. Because Sweden does not hold up a welcome sign for pimps and customers, the trafficking of women into the country has been significantly reduced, compared with countries where prostitution is legalised or decriminalised.
But why should we take away the livelihoods of women in prostitution? I hear this time and again from those who hand out condoms and clean needles to women on the street and put little effort into helping them escape. Many women support the Swedish law, because it has given them an incentive to ask for support to get out of the sex industry. If the UK, like Sweden, provided readily available drug and alcohol rehabilitation, safe housing and protection from pimps then most women would leave prostitution.
According to an opinion poll in 2004 on the new law, 80% of Swedish citizens support it. As a result, children are now growing up with an understanding that women's bodies are not commodities to be bought and sold, and that prostitution is an infringement of human rights. The customers have more or less reconciled themselves to the fact that women in Sweden are not for sale.
Those hoping to see the government support decriminalisation of brothels will be disappointed by the Home Office review, as will those advocating tolerance zones. Where such zones have been tried they have failed. One zone in Melbourne resulted in street prostitution increasing fourfold. In Amsterdam drug dealing, trafficking and violence towards the women and customers in the zone led to it being closed in 2003.
It is argued that it is safer for the women to work in a legal or decriminalised regime. Prostitution can never be safe. If a buyer decides he wants to hurt a woman, he will simply take her away from the CCTV cameras.
Women in prostitution are stigmatised whether it is legal or not. In Amsterdam, where women are told they must register as prostitutes before they can work, less than 10% of the 25,000 have done so. No one wants to labelled a "prostitute" - what they need is to be assisted out of this daily abuse.
Let's hope the government puts its money where its mouth is. Police need to stop criminalising and punishing women and divert attention to pimps, traffickers and customers. Women in prostitution are constantly in danger of their lives. Ignoring the buyers will only lead to a continuation of complacency. Women need proper alternatives to selling their bodies to earn a crust, but they can only take advantage of such alternatives if we commit to ending prostitution and encourage women to leave. This will never be achieved if those of us living relatively charmed lives believe that prostitution is a job, and that we will never see an end to the commercialised abuse of women and children.
· Julie Bindel is the founder of Justice for Women and advised the Home Office as part of its review on prostitution