Massage parlor
Encyclopedia
A massage parlor is a business where customers can receive a massage
Massage
Massage is the manipulation of superficial and deeper layers of muscle and connective tissue to enhance function, aid in the healing process, and promote relaxation and well-being. The word comes from the French massage "friction of kneading", or from Arabic massa meaning "to touch, feel or handle"...

. Sometimes the term is synonymous with brothel
Brothel
Brothels are business establishments where patrons can engage in sexual activities with prostitutes. Brothels are known under a variety of names, including bordello, cathouse, knocking shop, whorehouse, strumpet house, sporting house, house of ill repute, house of prostitution, and bawdy house...

 as the term "massage" may be used as a euphemism for paid sexual favours.

Particularly where brothels are illegal, massage parlours (as well as saunas, spas or similar establishments) may be fronts for places of prostitution. Illegal brothels disguised as massage parlours are common in the US, UK, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

, South Korea
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...

, Malaysia, Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...

, Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...

 and many other countries.

Alternatively the massage may have a "happy ending", meaning that it ends with the client being masturbated, thus providing a light version of prostitution.

However, not all massage parlors are involved in prostitution.

Thailand

Even though Thailand
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...

 is rather well-known for its unique spa
Spa
The term spa is associated with water treatment which is also known as balneotherapy. Spa towns or spa resorts typically offer various health treatments. The belief in the curative powers of mineral waters goes back to prehistoric times. Such practices have been popular worldwide, but are...

 experience and particularly healthy and non-sexual traditional Thai massage
Thai massage
Thai massage is a type of massage in Thai style that involves stretching and deep massage. This form of bodywork is usually performed on the floor, and the client wears comfortable clothes that allow for movement. No oils are used in Thai massage...

, this section refers to a different type of massage parlor commonly associated with the term in Thailand, Sexual massage.

The internal traffic of Thai females consists mostly of 12-16 year olds from hill tribes of the North/ NorthEast. Most of the internally trafficked girls are sent to closed brothels, which operate under prison-like conditions.
Thousands of women from rural Thailand, China, Laos, Burma and Cambodia are sold to brothels in Bangkok or in other countries by "job brokers," who often operate in organized international syndicates.
One million women from Burma, southern China, Laos, and Vietnam have been trafficked into Thailand.

In 1996, foreign women made up the majority of prostitutes in 40 sex establishments in 18 border provinces that are brothels masquerading as karaoke bars, restaurants and traditional massage parlours. In some venues, there are no Thai women at all.
In mid-1997 an increasing number of young girls, more than 60% of which are under 18 years old, were entering Thailand through Mae Sai checkpoint into massage parlors, brothels etc.

50% of the prostituted women in Chiang Rai are Burmese. Thousands of indigenous Burmese women from Shan State in the north and from Keng Tung in Eastern Burma have been sold into brothels in Bangkok and throughout Thailand.

United Kingdom

In the UK, prostitution itself is legal, but associated activities such as kerb crawling
Kerb crawler
A kerb crawler is a person who drives around areas known for street prostitution soliciting prostitutes for sex. The act is known as "kerb crawling" because the person will typically drive very slowly along the kerbside....

, soliciting
Solicitation
Literally, solicitation means: 'urgently asking'. It is the action or instance of soliciting; petition; proposal. In criminal law, it most commonly refers to either the act of offering goods or services, or the act of attempting to purchase such goods or services...

 in public, keeping a brothel and pimp
Pimp
A pimp is an agent for prostitutes who collects part of their earnings. The pimp may receive this money in return for advertising services, physical protection, or for providing a location where she may engage clients...

ing are not; and the Policing and Crime Act 2009
Policing and Crime Act 2009
The Policing and Crime Act 2009 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The Act makes provision about police reform, prostitutes, sex offenders, sex establishments and certain other premises...

 makes it illegal to pay for sex with a prostitute who has been "subjected to force" and this is a strict liability offence (clients can be prosecuted even if they didn’t know the prostitute was forced). (see Prostitution in the United Kingdom
Prostitution in the United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom, prostitution itself is not a crime, but a number of related activities, including soliciting in a public place, kerb crawling, owning a brothel, pimping and pandering, are crimes....

).

Many illegal brothels are disguised as "massage parlours".

In 2005, it was reported that, in Manchester, there were around 80 "massage parlours" which were fronts for prostitution and that the police ignored those establishments, focusing instead on reducing street prostitution
Street prostitution
Street prostitution is a form of prostitution in which a sex worker solicits customers from a public place, most commonly a street, while waiting at street corners or walking alongside a street, but also other public places such as parks, beaches, etc. The street prostitute is often dressed in a...

.

On October 12, 2005, the Evening News reported that "A self-confessed pimp
Pimp
A pimp is an agent for prostitutes who collects part of their earnings. The pimp may receive this money in return for advertising services, physical protection, or for providing a location where she may engage clients...

 walked free from court after a judge was told police had 'turned a blind eye' to organised prostitution in massage parlours in Manchester."

In December 2007, the Manchester Evening News removed all advertisements for massage parlours from its personal columns. The move follows a meeting between ministers and newspaper and advertising industry representatives. It followed comments by Harriet Harman, Minister for Women and Equality, in the House of Commons on October 25 that some local newspapers were promoting slavery by running sex adverts for foreign women.

The meeting between the government and news and advertising industries - chaired by Home Office Minister Vernon Coaker - included Ms Harman, Margaret Hodge, a junior minister at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, Solicitor General Vera Baird, Newspaper Society Director David Newell, Christopher Graham from the Advertising Standards Authority
Advertising Standards Authority (United Kingdom)
The Advertising Standards Authority is the self-regulatory organisation of the advertising industry in the United Kingdom. The ASA is a non-statutory organisation and so cannot interpret or enforce legislation. However, its code of advertising practice broadly reflects legislation in many instances...

, Baroness Buscombe of the Advertising Association
Advertising Association
The Advertising Association is a trade association that represents all sides of the advertising industry in the UK - advertisers, agencies, media, and research services...

 and Roger Wisbey of the Committee of Advertising Practice
Committee of Advertising Practice
The Committee of Advertising Practice is the sister organisation of the Advertising Standards Authority .CAP is primarily responsible for the constant revising and updating of the British Code of Advertising, Direct Marketing and Sales Promotion , through its Code Policy team. CAP also contains a...

.

Mr Coaker said after the meeting, on November 1: "We agreed a number of important steps today, and will continue to work together.

"The Government will continue to work with the Police and Local Authorities, and the Newspaper Society has committed to strengthen its guidance to local papers on what adverts to accept, and to raise awareness of this link to trafficking.

"This is just one strand of a range of initiatives, which together will work to eradicate this intolerable trade once and for all."

Canada

In Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, operating a brothel
Brothel
Brothels are business establishments where patrons can engage in sexual activities with prostitutes. Brothels are known under a variety of names, including bordello, cathouse, knocking shop, whorehouse, strumpet house, sporting house, house of ill repute, house of prostitution, and bawdy house...

 or being found in a brothel
Brothel
Brothels are business establishments where patrons can engage in sexual activities with prostitutes. Brothels are known under a variety of names, including bordello, cathouse, knocking shop, whorehouse, strumpet house, sporting house, house of ill repute, house of prostitution, and bawdy house...

 is illegal, and so is public solicitation (see Prostitution in Canada
Prostitution in Canada
In Canada, the buying and selling of sexual services are not illegal, but most surrounding activities, such as public communication for the purpose of prostitution, brothels and procuring are outlawed....

)..

United States

38 states and the District of Columbia require some type of licencing for massage therapists.

In Rhode Island
Rhode Island
The state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, more commonly referred to as Rhode Island , is a state in the New England region of the United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area...

, prostitution was legal "behind closed doors" from 1980 until 2009. For this reason, massage parlors, also known as "spas" were known to be involved in prostitution. (See Prostitution in Rhode Island
Prostitution in Rhode Island
Prostitution in Rhode Island was outlawed in 2009. On November 3, 2009, Governor Donald Carcieri signed into law a bill which makes the buying and selling of sexual services a crime....

.)

In New Jersey, there are an estimated 525 massage parlors acting as fronts for the prostitution industry.

An ongoing study of the prostitution business in New York City by the Sociology Department of Columbia University found that between 1991 and 2010, the rise of the internet and mobile phones “have enabled some sex workers to professionalize their trade,” with a shift from streetwalking to “indoor” market (including massage parlors and escort agencies), a geographical change in the concentration of sex work, and the growth of a more expensive luxury market.

An investigation by Time Out New York in January of 2011 found New York City massage parlors charging from $60 to $100 per visit, with an extra tip for the sex workers (usually $40) for a massage and “happy ending” (or manual stimulation of the penis until orgasm). Most of the massage parlors reviewed were very strict about the female masseuse not being touched back by the male client, but in some further contact could be negotiated.

In Washington, D.C., an Asian massage parlor can earn up to $1.2 million a year.

External links

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