Similar to neighbouring Southeast Asian countries, Indonesia is, simultaneously, infamous for its prevailing sex tourism economy, sex industry and sex trafficking activities. On 6 December 2022, Indonesia's parliament passed the criminal code to criminalize extramarital sex. The anti-extramarital sex legalization was established to help reinforce Indonesia's stance of disallowing sexual behaviours beyond marital relationships. Those who engage in extramarital sex, per the criminal code, are sentenced to up to a year in prison.

This book responds to Indonesia's latest legislation that passed the criminal code of criminalizing any act of extramarital sex. The premise in this book is that, by criminalizing extramarital sex, the Indonesian government aims to crack down on the local prostitution industry to minimize any act of sexual exploitation, prostitution and sex trafficking. It presents how cracking down on the local or regional prostitution industry cannot be accomplished by simply taking legislative actions.

It examines and analyses how sex work is socio-economically and institutionally constructed. It presents the underlying unequal power of relations in Indonesian society that facilitates sexual exploitation, especially against disadvantaged children and women. It highlights the policymaking discourse on how local Indonesian policymakers should respond to such an unequal power of relations and the prevalence of sex work. Moreover, it visits the anti-extramarital sex legislation in order to explain how the Indonesian government should endeavour to crack down on its domestic sex industry in order to uphold the values of human rights and lower the prevalence of the practice of commercial sex.