France Cracks Down on Prostitution with Prosecution

From being a country that once had brothels, France is making some major progress in ending prostitution.  Just today, Wednesday April 6th, 2016, the French Parliament just passed some legislation that would penalize offenders with harsh fines or informational classes.

France is the country with the Eiffel Tower

In the United States, we have had laws that affected the customers as well as the facilitators and organizers accompanied to prostitution.  In California, it is a misdemeanor and a $1000 fine and a maximum of a year in prison.  In France they are fining first time offenders about $1,700 USD (1500 Euros) and more than doubling it for second-time offenders.  Offenders also have the option to take classes instead of paying the fines.

Some sex workers are in protest against the new legislation

This new bill repeals some unsuccessful, old legislation that punished prostitutes more harshly; it just encourage prostitutes to operate on the outskirts of town where there were less police, which created a more dangerous situation for them.  On top of that, France acknowledges that they can't just crack down on prostitution without getting prostitutes some help.  There are tens of thousands of sex workers in the country and they are attempting to provide fully funded training for prostitutes so that they are able to leave their past and make a living.

Do you think France is going about this the right way?  Should customers of prostitution be punished more or less severely?  What do you think about government funded therapy and training for ex-prostitutes?  Or is France's new approach just trimming the weeds?

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-35982929
http://www.euronews.com/2016/04/06/fines-and-classes-set-to-await-those-who-pay-for-sex-in-france/
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/07/world/europe/to-discourage-prostitution-france-passes-bill-that-penalizes-clients.html
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/france-makes-paying-for-sex-a-crime-and-divides-opinion-among-the-nation-s-prostitutes-a6971916.html