why prostitution should be legal essay

To Protect Women, Legalize Prostitution

by | Oct 1, 2019 | Amicus , Criminal Justice , Labor and Employment , Sex Equality |

Prostitution is a sensitive subject in the United States. Frequently, arguments against prostitution center around concern for the health and safety of women, and those concerns are not unfounded. Prostitution is an incredibly dangerous profession for the (mostly) women involved; sexual assault, forced drug addiction, physical abuse, and death are common in the industry. For the women who work in this field, it is often very difficult to get help or get out. Many sex workers were sold into sex trafficking at a very young age and have no resources with which to escape their forced prostitution, or started out as sex workers by choice only to fall victim to sex trafficking later on. Moreover, since prostitution is illegal in most places in the United States, there are few legal protections in place for prostitutes; many fear that seeking help will only lead to arrest, and many who do seek help are arrested and then have to battle the stigma of a criminal record while they try to reintegrate into society.

So why is the response to such a dangerous industry to drive it further underground, away from societal resources and legal protections?

When people argue prostitution should be illegal, in many cases their concern comes from a place of morality , presented as concern for the health and safety of women. People believe that legalizing prostitution will only lead to the abuse of more women, will make it harder for prostitutes to get out of the industry, or will teach young women that their bodies exist for the sole purpose of sexual exploitation by men.

However, legalizing prostitution has had positive benefits for sex workers across Europe . The most well-known country to have legalized prostitution is the Netherlands , where sex work has been legal for almost twenty years. Bringing the industry out of the black market and imposing strict regulations has improved the safety of sex workers. Brothels are required to obtain and renew safety and hygiene licenses in order to operate, and street prostitution is legal and heavily regulated in places like the Red Light District . Not only does sex work become safer when it is regulated, but legalization also works to weed out the black market that exists for prostitution, thereby making women safer overall. Also, sex workers are not branded as criminals, so they have better access to the legal system and are encouraged to report behaviors that are a danger to themselves and other women in the industry. Finally, legalizing sex work will provide many other positive externalities , including tax revenue, reduction in sexually transmitted diseases, and reallocation of law enforcement resources.

It’s true that current efforts by various European countries to legalize prostitution have been far from perfect. In the Netherlands, certain components of the legislation , such as requiring sex workers to register and setting the minimum age for prostitution at 21, could drive more sex workers to illegal markets. Not only that, but studies indicate that legalizing prostitution can increase human trafficking.  However, even those who are critical about legalizing prostitution can recognize the benefits that legislation can have on working conditions for sex workers. If countries with legislation in place spend more time listening to current sex workers, the results of decriminalizing prostitution include bringing safety, security, and respect to a demographic that has traditionally been denied such things.

The underlying reason that people are uncomfortable listening to sex workers about legalizing prostitution has nothing to do with concern for the health and safety of women. If that were the genuine concern, prostitution would be legal in the United States by now. The underlying reason people disagree with legalizing prostitution is that prostitution is viewed as amoral because it involves (mostly) women selling their bodies for financial gain. However, telling women what they can and cannot do with their bodies does not come from a place of morality: that comes from a place of control.

People, especially women, sell their bodies for financial gain in legalized fashions on a daily basis. Pornography is legal, and so is exotic dancing. It’s common for people to have sexual relationships with richer partners so as to benefit from their wealth, whether this is through seeking out wealthy life partners or through the less formal but increasingly prevalent phenomenon known as sugar-dating . It’s also common for people to remain in unhappy relationships because they do not want to lose financial stability or spend money on a divorce.

So, what’s the difference? Why are these examples socially acceptable, even encouraged, but prostitution is seen as so appalling?

The difference is that in all of these other situations, it is easy for people to pretend that the women involved are not actually selling their bodies directly. It’s easy to pretend that the pornography actors are just people having consensual sex that the viewing public just happens to be privy to observing . It’s easy to pretend that exotic dancers are not actually selling their bodies because they are not directly engaging in the act of sex. It’s easy to pretend that people who enter into or remain in sexual relationships with wealthy partners could be there for reasons other than financial gain or security.

Prostitution does not allow the general public to have the benefit of these pretenses. Rather, the industry is honest about how sex and money are directly related. And for many individuals, this is an uncomfortable notion. It is even more uncomfortable for some people to believe that women should be allowed to have the control over their bodies that would permit them to engage in prostitution voluntarily; they cannot allow themselves to believe that women would choose such a profession. Yet rather than recognize this reality, those who oppose the legalization of prostitution march forth with arguments about concern for the safety of women. They fail to realize that criminalizing prostitution does not help sex workers, and their arguments lead to legislation that harms women while operating under the morally-driven guise of wanting to protect them.

Instead of forcing sex workers to conduct their business in unregulated black markets where their lives are in danger, all for a mislabeled purpose of “saving” women, take actual action to save women. Legalize prostitution, impose strict regulations, and construct comprehensive support systems that allow sex workers to do their jobs safely.

The desire to protect women from sexual abuse will always be valid, and if anything is a desire that should be more widespread in the United States. What is disingenuous is opposing legalized sex work for reasons that purport to be women’s safety, but that are actually coming from a place of discomfort over women openly engaging in sexual interactions for financial gain. If you are uncomfortable with the idea of women having sex for money, then you should also have a problem with pornography, exotic dancing, and people dating for money. If you do not have a problem with all of these socially accepted practices but have a problem with prostitution because it is “morally questionable,” then you have lost your right to any forum where decisions about the safety and rights of women are being made.

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Should Sex Work Be Decriminalized? Some Activists Say It's Time

Jasmine Garsd

LGBTQ, immigrant rights and criminal justice reform groups, launched a coalition, Decrim NY, in February to decriminalize the sex trade in New York. Erik McGregor/Getty Images hide caption

LGBTQ, immigrant rights and criminal justice reform groups, launched a coalition, Decrim NY, in February to decriminalize the sex trade in New York.

Sex work is illegal in much of the United States, but the debate over whether it should be decriminalized is heating up.

Former California Attorney General and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris recently came out in favor of decriminalizing it , as long as it's between two consenting adults.

The debate is hardly new — and it's fraught with emotions. Opponents of decriminalization say it's an exploitative industry that preys on the weak. But many activists and academics say decriminalization would help protect sex workers, and would even be a public health benefit.

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Queen honors activist who fought to decriminalize prostitution.

RJ Thompson wants to push back against the idea that sex work is inherently victimizing. He says for him it was liberating: Thompson had recently graduated from law school and started working at a nonprofit when the recession hit. In 2008, he got laid off with no warning and no severance, and he had massive student loan debt.

Thompson became an escort. "I made exponentially more money than I ever could have in my legal profession," he says.

He says the possibility of arrest was often on his mind. And he says for many sex workers, it's a constant fear. "Many street-based workers are migrants or transgender people who have limited options in the formal economies," he says. "And so they do sex work for survival. And it puts them in a very vulnerable position — the fact that it's criminalized."

Thompson is now a human rights lawyer and the managing director of the Sex Workers Project at the Urban Justice Center. It's among several organizations that are advocating bills to decriminalize sex work in New York City and New York state. They already have the support of various state lawmakers .

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Juno mac: how does stigma compromise the safety of sex workers.

Due to its clandestine nature in America, it's extremely hard to find reliable numbers about the sex trade. But one thing is for sure: It's a multi-billion-dollar industry. In 2007, a government-sponsored report looked at several major U.S. cities and found that sex work brings in around $290 million a year in Atlanta alone.

Economist Allison Schrager says the Internet has increased demand and supply. "Women who pre-Internet (or men) who wouldn't walk the streets or sign with a madam or an agency now can sell sex work, sometimes even on the side to supplement other sources of income," she says.

So what happens when you take this massive underground economy and decriminalize it? Nevada might offer a clue. Brothels are legal there, in certain counties.

In Shrager's book, An Economist Walks Into A Brothel , she investigated the financial workings of the Nevada brothel industry. She found that on average it's 300 percent more expensive to hire a sex worker in a Nevada brothel than in an illegal setting. Shrager thinks it's because workers and customers prefer to pay for the safety and health checks of a brothel.

"Sex work is risky for everyone," she says. "You take on a lot of risk as a customer too. And when you're working in a brothel you are assured complete anonymity. They've been fully screened for diseases."

Goats and Soda

Legalizing prostitution would protect sex workers from hiv.

But many activists and academics say decriminalization would help protect sex workers and could also have public health benefits.

Take the case of Rhode Island . A loophole made sex work, practiced behind closed doors, legal there between 2003 and 2009.

Baylor University economist Scott Cunningham and his colleagues found that during those years the sex trade grew. But Cunningham points to some other important findings : During that time period the number of rapes reported to police in the state declined by over a third. And gonorrhea among all women declined by 39 percent. Of course, changes in prostitution laws might not be the only cause, but Cunningham says, "the trade-off is if you make it safer to some degree, you grow the industry."

Rhode Island made sex work illegal again in 2009, in part under pressure from some anti-trafficking advocates. That's the thing: The debate about sex work always gets linked to trafficking — people who get forced into it against their will.

Economist Axel Dreher from the University of Heidelberg in Germany teamed up with the London School of Economics to analyze the link between trafficking and prostitution laws in 150 countries. "If prostitution is legal, there is more human trafficking simply because the market is larger," he says.

It's a controversial study: Even Dreher admits that reliable data on sex trafficking is really hard to find.

Human rights organizations including Amnesty International support decriminalization. Victims of trafficking might be able to ask for help more easily if they aren't afraid of having committed a crime, the groups say.

Cecilia Gentili is the director of policy at GMHC, an HIV/AIDS prevention, care and advocacy nonprofit in New York. Erik McGregor/Getty Images hide caption

Cecilia Gentili is the director of policy at GMHC, an HIV/AIDS prevention, care and advocacy nonprofit in New York.

Former sex worker Cecilia Gentili says she might have been able to break free much sooner had it not been for fear of legal consequences. She left her native Argentina because she was being brutally harassed by police in her small town. She thought she'd be better off when she moved to New York, but as a transgender, undocumented immigrant, she says she had few options.

"Let's be realistic," Gentili says, "for people like me, sex work is not 'one' job option. It's the only option."

Gentili says that when police busted the drug house in Brooklyn where she was being held, she debated whether to ask for help. She figured she was in a very vulnerable position, as a trans, undocumented person. She stayed quiet.

These days Gentili is the director of policy at GMHC , an HIV/AIDS prevention, care and advocacy nonprofit in New York. She's advocating for New York City and state to decriminalize sex work.

Rachel Lloyd is the founder of Girls Educational and Mentoring Services, a nonprofit for sexually exploited women in New York. Jasmine Garsd/NPR hide caption

Rachel Lloyd is the founder of Girls Educational and Mentoring Services, a nonprofit for sexually exploited women in New York.

But many believe the sex industry is just fundamentally vicious and decriminalizing it will make it worse. Rachel Lloyd is the founder of Girls Educational and Mentoring Services , a nonprofit for sexually exploited women in New York. She says there's nothing that will equalize the power unbalances in the sex industry.

"The commercial sex industry is inherently [exploitative]," she says. "The folks who end up in the commercial sex industry are the folks who are the most vulnerable and the most desperate."

When she was a teenager, Lloyd sold sex in Germany, where it's legal. But she says that didn't make it any less brutal for her.

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"Those power dynamics of exploitation were still there," she says. "When ... legal johns came in, they were the ones with the money."

Lloyd says she doesn't want sex workers to be persecuted or punished. But she doesn't think men should be allowed to buy sex legally. She says that would be condoning the same industry that brutalized her and the women she works with today.

But decriminalization activists say that sex work has and always will exist. And they say bringing it out of the shadows can only help.

Read more stories from NPR Business.

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Why Prostitution Should Be Legal

"Sex workers are, for the most part, just ordinary women who are doing a job."

“But what if it was your daughter? Surely you wouldn’t want to see your child do sex work.”

Thus goes the common refrain whenever the topic of decriminalizing sex work arises.

Ask yourself how you would feel if Weeks — porn star Belle Knox — was your daughter. I submit that virtually every honest person — those with children of their own, as well as those who merely possess a functional moral imagination — will admit to being appalled at the thought.

I tried this experiment and discovered that I do not like to imagine my family members having sex of any kind, paid or unpaid.

However, I do not have a daughter. But, then, as Elizabeth Nolan Brown points out, the people making this argument do not necessarily have daughters , either. So, here is a brief list of professions I would not want my fictitious daughter to enter into:

Professionally playing any sport that involves head trauma. (It’s unlikely the NFL is going to let women start playing, but, if they do, I don’t want her getting CTE.)

Being a war reporter. (Everyone I’ve met who has done war reporting has “hilarious” stories about the times they almost died, which I’d find much less hilarious if they were coming from my child.)

Any profession that promises people a quick, easy and most likely ineffective way to solve their problems, like hawking untested diet pills. (It’s deeply immoral to prey on vulnerable people’s hopes.)

Becoming a spokesperson for the alt-right. (The Devil has enough advocates.)

You can agree or disagree with me that I’m right to not want a daughter to enter into those professions. The fact remains that, regardless of how I feel about them, my future daughter has a perfect legal right to pursue them.

People are allowed to enter professions that might be unsafe. People are allowed to enter into professions where their body is seen as a tool of the trade. People are allowed to enter professions that seem morally questionable. The only time that isn’t the case is when a woman is having sex as her profession.

"People are allowed to enter professions that seem morally questionable. The only time that isn’t the case is when a woman is having sex as her profession."

At least, it isn’t the case in the United States. There are a great many countries where sex work is legal, such as New Zealand, which decriminalized sex work in 2003. The results of the Prostitution Reform Act have been beneficial for sex workers. A study from the Christchurch School of Medicine found that “90 percent of sex workers believed the PRA gave them employment, legal and health and safety rights. A substantial 64 percent found it easier to refuse clients. Significantly, 57 percent said police attitudes to sex workers changed for the better.” Prostitutes also reported being able to go to the police when they were hurt or threatened, and one sex worker successfully sued a brothel owner for sexual harassment .

Lives for sex workers in countries like New Zealand are getting better.

Meanwhile, in the United States, we’re cracking down on tools sex workers use such as backpage.com. The website, which allowed escorts to list their services, was shut down earlier this month, and the co-founders and others associated with the company were charged with facilitating prostitution. Attorney General Jeff Sessions described the website as the “dominant marketplace for illicit commercial sex, a place where sex traffickers frequently advertised children and adults alike." (One co-founder has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to facilitate prostitution; the other co-founders have pleaded not guilty.) The Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA) legislation promises to further reduce legal protections for these sites, which means that more of them will likely shut down in the future.

Trafficking, in which women and children are forced into sex work (or other occupations), is morally heinous. Not because it’s sex work. Because it’s forced.

However, criminalizing prostitution—or sites that facilitate sex work transactions—thereby pushing it further underground, isn’t necessarily thought to be helpful when it comes to ending trafficking.

The ACLU explains that people being trafficked “are vulnerable because they often work in jobs that are hidden from the public view and unregulated by the government.”

Critics of decriminalizing prostitution often point to increased reports of trafficking in countries that have legalized prostitution, such as Germany . It is, however, quite possible that’s because people finally started seeing trafficking and began reporting it in greater numbers. Beyond that, a Harvard Study on the topic noted that, “The likely negative consequences of legalized prostitution on a country’s inflows of human trafficking might be seen to support those who argue in favor of banning prostitution, thereby reducing the flows of trafficking…However, such a line of argumentation overlooks potential benefits that the legalization of prostitution might have on those employed in the industry.”

Countries like New Zealand, which have decriminalized all acts of prostitution, seem to have better luck in terms of the wellbeing of sex workers, perhaps because their focus was on creating legislation that “safeguards the human rights of sex workers and protects them from exploitation.”

Reforms in countries like New Zealand seem to show no increase in trafficking, and research suggests that “decriminalization has had little impact on the sex worker population at all, apart to provide it with protection.”

Amnesty International has likewise pushed for decriminalization of prostitution , claiming that, in addition to pushing for policies that protect sex workers from harm and coercion, “Sex workers must also have a say in developing laws that affect their lives and safety. But without decriminalization, they cannot expect equal treatment under the law to achieve these ends.”

Until sex workers are heard and respected, nothing is going to change.

"Until sex workers are heard and respected, nothing is going to change."

Which is an important reminder that you don’t have to look to Amnesty International to figure out how to feel about the shutdown of, for instance, backpage.com. You can look directly to the sex workers it affects.

One sex worker told Newsweek that as a result of the shutdown she was, “devastated and terrified” and that “people are going to die” as prostitution will be forced further underground and prostitutes will have to work with more dangerous people.

Others have described how Backpage helped them, writing , “Backpage gave me a basic screening tool, and access to money, and food, and shelter. Backpage kept me alive.”

We should be listening to them, and involving them in reform, because they’re the people this will impact.

If there is something to be afraid of regarding people entering sex work—beyond the fact that it is a very dangerous profession —is that it tends to render women voiceless. Society will too easily dismiss what they have to say because many people have been told that they do not need to listen to sex workers, or regard them with anything other than disgust or pity.

"Sex work tends to render women voiceless"

ABC recently shared a video wherein Stormy Daniels, a sex worker, said that Trump’s attorney Michael Cohen, “has never thought that the little man or, more especially, women, women like me, mattered. That ends now.”

But it doesn’t. One of the first comments on that video, which was liked 8,000 times, declares, "you got paid for sex...hello your [sic] not like other women."

There are a lot of people out there who do not want to accept the reality that, for the most part, sex workers are just ordinary women who are doing a job they may like or dislike to various degrees for ordinary reasons (to pay their rent, or support their kids, or to save up money for future goals.)

"There are a lot of people out there who do not want to accept the reality that, for the most part, sex workers are just ordinary women who are doing a job they may like or dislike"

This isn’t a problem with sex work. That’s a problem that has to do with the extent to which we disown individuals, especially women, who do sex work. Often, in the case of porn, we disown them while simultaneously enjoying the work they produce.

When we decriminalize sex work, sex workers lives get better. It makes it possible for them to go to police when dealing with unruly clients, rather than being reluctant to do so because it’s illegal. It allows them labor rights that mean if they’re employed, they can expect clean healthy workplaces from their employers. In Nevada, at legal brothels, 84 percent of prostitutes remarked that their jobs felt “safe.” That was “largely because the police, employers and co-workers were there to protect them.”

There’s evidence to indicate decriminalization makes non-sex workers environments better, too. When Rhode Island decriminalized sex work for six years from 2003 to 2009, a study by UCLA found there was a dramatic drop in STDs and rape . The study’s authors remarked that, “decriminalization could have potentially large social benefits for the population at large—not just sex market participants.”

We need to realize that, like every other woman, sex workers are already someone’s daughter. They’re also their own person. And we have to start listening to what they have to say.

Jennifer Wright is BAZAAR.com's Political Editor at Large. She is also the author of 'Get Well Soon: History's Worst Plagues and the Heroes That Fought Them' and 'It Ended Badly: 13 of the Worst Break-Ups In History.'

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The learning network | should prostitution be legal.

Should Prostitution Be Legal?

Questions about issues in the news for students 13 and older.

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This summer Amnesty International passed a resolution supporting the decriminalization of sex work. The organization decided that decriminalization is the best way to defend sex workers’ human rights and lessen the risk of abuse they face. But will making prostitution legal only increase the demand for sex workers, without actually protecting them from the violent abuse and exploitation that is common in the industry?

Should prostitution be legal?

Rachel Moran, the founder of Space International, which advocates the abolition of the sex trade, argues in this Op-Ed that prostitution should not be legal:

I entered the sex trade — as most do — before I was even a woman. At age 14, I was placed in the care of the state after my father committed suicide and because my mother suffered from mental illness. Within a year, I was on the streets with no home, education or job skills. All I had was my body. At 15, I met a young man who thought it would be a good idea for me to prostitute myself. As “fresh meat,” I was a commodity in high demand. For seven years, I was bought and sold. On the streets, that could be 10 times in a night. It’s hard to describe the full effect of the psychological coercion, and how deeply it eroded my confidence. By my late teens, I was using cocaine to dull the pain. I cringe when I hear the words “sex work.” Selling my body wasn’t a livelihood. There was no resemblance to ordinary employment in the ritual degradation of strangers’ using my body to satiate their urges. I was doubly exploited — by those who pimped me and those who bought me. I know there are some advocates who argue that women in prostitution sell sex as consenting adults. But those who do are a relatively privileged minority — primarily white, middle-class, Western women in escort agencies — not remotely representative of the global majority. Their right to sell doesn’t trump my right and others’ not to be sold in a trade that preys on women already marginalized by class and race. The effort to decriminalize the sex trade worldwide is not a progressive movement. Implementing this policy will simply calcify into law men’s entitlement to buy sex, while decriminalizing pimping will protect no one but the pimps.

Gillian Abel, an associate professor and head of the Department of Population Health at the University of Otago in Christchurch, New Zealand, argues in this Room for Debate piece that prostitution should be legal:

Sex work is an occupation that many women voluntarily choose. To deny that prostitution is work not only infringes on women’s right to choose their work, but also on that of men, transgender and gender-diverse individuals. And denying sex workers the right to do their work legally infringes on other rights, such as their access to legal aid and recourse. In 2003, New Zealand was the first country to decriminalize sex work for the workers, their clients and third parties (minders, pimps, landlords, or anyone else who may receive money from sex workers’ earnings). This move allowed sex workers to operate under the same legal and labor rights as any other occupational group, and makes them less vulnerable to exploitation. New Zealand sex workers are now able to govern their own work, collaborating with their peers or electing to use third-party management, such as a brothel operator. Sex workers can now request police assistance if they are exposed to violence, report crimes without fear of being held accountable for involvement in the illegal acts themselves, and seek support services. This has already begun to play out. A police officer went to jail in 2010 for coercing a sex worker into providing free sex by threatening her with traffic fines. In another case last year, a sex worker was awarded $21,000 after successfully bringing a sexual harassment lawsuit against the operator of the brothel where she worked. (The sex worker liked her work but objected to the manner in which the operator of the brothel was treating her.) Prior to decriminalization, it would have been impossible for a sex worker to legally challenge bullying and exploitative behavior.

Students: Read both articles, then tell us …

— Should prostitution be legal?

— Is sex work an occupation that many women voluntarily choose? Does denying sex workers the right to do their work legally infringe on other rights, including their access to legal aid?

— Does making prostitution legal make women less vulnerable to abuse by criminals? Does it give sex workers the same labor rights as other occupational groups? Would it make women safer?

— Or, will making prostitution legal lead to higher rates of human trafficking without solving the issues of abuse and exploitation?

— Ms. Moran recommends the “Nordic Model” (or the “Equality Model”) as a better way of protecting prostitutes than decriminalization. She explains:

The concept is simple: Make selling sex legal but buying it illegal — so that women can get help without being arrested, harassed or worse, and the criminal law is used to deter the buyers, because they fuel the market.

Do you think arresting and inhibiting johns is a better approach?

Students 13 and older are invited to comment below. All comments are moderated by Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.

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The Benefits of Legalizing Prostitution Opinion Essay

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Prostitution has been illegal in many countries in the world. Despite this fact, prostitution has continued to be practiced in every capital, and other cities in every country. This being the fact the governments need to see that they are fighting a losing battle and continuous prohibition of prostitution is like chasing wind. There are many reasons that do call for the government to change its strategy and legalize prostitution. There are numerous reasons as to why the government should legalize prostitution. Some of those reasons are as follows.

When prostitution is illegal, many of those who practice it do it secretively. This makes them be exploited by their clients. They are put in every kind of abuse, yet they are afraid to report the exploiters to the authority, as they fear they may be arrested. This makes the exploiters to evade justice.

This encourages them to continue with their vice thus humiliating many innocent prostitutes. If prostitution will be legalized, prostitutes will not fear to report the clients who rape them and the exploiters will stop this menace, as they will be afraid of consequences of their actions.

Legalizing prostitution will curb the spread of HIV and AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. This is because when prostitution will be legalized prostitutes can be required to be tested for those diseases. Those found with diseases can be treated or barred from trading. The government can offer treatment to them easily as prostitutes will not be afraid to seek medication. This will be extremely beneficial as it can protect the prostitutes and their clients.

Legalization of prostitution will make the government put its resources in other beneficial activities. Governments do use a lot of money in campaigns to condemn prostitution. These resources can be put into other uses such as education or health provision in the country. Police spend a lot of time chasing and arresting prostitutes, whereas many criminals are harassing the public. With the legalization of prostitution, police will be chasing real criminals instead of harassing harmless prostitutes.

Prostitution is a source of income to those who practice it. With the current rise of unemployment in the country, it is paramount for the government to legalize prostitution. Bearing in mind that many of prostitutes have low education profile and for them to secure decent jobs is hard, prostitution need to be legalized. This would make prostitutes be respected by members of the public. This will minimize stress faced by prostitutes, which leads to other stress related crimes.

Legalization of prostitution makes the government control prostitution. The government will ensure those who practice this profession are not underage. This will assist in eliminating child prostitution. Human trafficking will decrease as many of victims trafficked are meant to participate in prostitution. With this in mind, it is crucial that those who care for children should let prostitution be legalized.

Ones body is a God’s gift, which one should not be controlled on how to use it as long as one is not infringing rights of others. Therefore, prostitutes has right to use their bodies as they see it fit without being stigmatized by law. Legalization of prostitution will make prostitution be carried out in conducive environments, which pose no danger to the prostitute and their clients.

Since today prostitution is illegal, prostitutes are not taxed, yet they earn a lot of money from the trade. Bearing in mind that taxes are the ones used to develop every country economy it is not agreeable to ignore the contribution the taxes from prostitutes can make. The government can encourage the establishment of brothels, which would make government access the taxes from prostitutes easily.

Prostitutes would be required to acquire licenses in order to commence their business. The licenses would be provided with a fee as a source of income to the government. Countries, which have legalized prostitution, are getting a lot of revenue from the sex industry. Dutch sex industry gives more than 500 million dollars annually. Countries with high population can make a lot of money from prostitution and put this revenue in their economy development.

Legalization of prostitution will help to curb incest and rape crimes. This is because the perpetrators of these crimes will not fear to seek prostitute services. Many relatives are exploiting young ones, and if prostitution is legalized the relatives are provided with an alternative to seek prostitutes’ services without being intimidated or judged. Bestiality and other harmful sexual practices will come down with legalization of prostitution.

Prostitution is a trade where buyers and sellers do it willingly. No one is forced to be the party in prostitution. This being the fact there is a need to legalize this practice because adult individuals who are responsible for their actions carry it out. Prostitution therefore, needs to be considered as any other profession carried out in the country.

The government has no choice but to legalize prostitution. Legal prostitution is the only remedy to end menace associated with prostitution. Prostitution is a practice, which is here to stay, and illegalizing makes, it is a black market trade exposing both the prostitutes and their clients to many risks. Legal trades are easy to control and manage, and if the government want to control this trade it need to legalize it.

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Bibliography

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Should the US Legalize Prostitution?

Laws should punish buyers and brokers of sex, not prostitutes, argues SPH researcher

Prostitutes are at increased risk for assault, homicide, and sexually transmitted infections. Photo by microgen/iStock

Lisa Chedekel

As debate continues around the world about whether prostitution should be decriminalized, a Boston University School of Public Health (SPH) researcher argues in the American Medical Association Journal of Ethics for a middle ground in the US that would punish buyers and brokers of sex, but not the people who sell sex (i.e., prostitutes).

Emily Rothman , an SPH associate professor of community health sciences and expert in sexual abuse and violence, says that both the criminalization and legalization of commercial sex have ethical pitfalls because they can “disempower and burden sellers” and put vulnerable people at increased risk of harm.

She argues that the so-called “Nordic model,” which criminalizes only the buying and brokering of sex, “offers the advantage of eliminating punishment for sellers, while potentially preventing the expansion of the commercial sex market and limiting the number of people trafficked.”

Rothman says that despite global controversy about the regulation of commercial sex, there is widespread agreement that sellers, or prostitutes, are at increased risk for a host of negative health and social consequences, including assault, homicide, and sexually transmitted infections. Complicating the debate is a lack of data on the percentage of those engaged in commercial sex who sell sex willingly, or who are coerced by force (i.e., trafficked) or by financial pressures.

Whether people who engage in commercial sex are consenting or non-consenting is important, she says, because supporters of decriminalization “assume that most paid sexual encounters are entirely consensual.” Problematically, she adds, some accept the argument that people living in dire poverty, with no other options, sell sex with consent.

Rothman argues that biomedical ethics disallows the coercive practice of using financial inducements to compel people to participate in medical research, so it is “logically consistent” to object to the use of financial incentives to compel people to have sex.

“There are those who argue that people work at all kinds of jobs that they don’t like because of financial pressure, and that working at sex is no different,” Rothman says. “But that is not a universally held opinion by the people who have sold sex. Some feel that having their bodies penetrated by customers is fundamentally, qualitatively different than standing behind a cash register. We simply don’t know what percentage of sellers enjoy selling sex, and what percentage are being assaulted or traumatized regularly.”

While criminalization has the potential to reduce the likelihood that people will be trafficked, arrests can “compound adversity” for sellers, especially those from marginalized populations, and enforcement can be used “selectively” against buyers and brokers, Rothman says. Legalization, meanwhile, may not stem trafficking and may continue to put sellers at high risk of violence and exploitation.

She notes that, counter to expectations, the decriminalization or legalization of commercial sex in New Zealand, the Netherlands, and Germany has not resulted in uniformly safer conditions, successful unionization of sex workers, or destigmatization. She cites economists’ analyses showing that countries where commercial sex is legal appear to experience higher sex-trafficking inflows.

“On the question of decriminalizing the form of commercial sex known as prostitution in the US, the potential harms to individuals and the public must be considered as carefully as the benefits of the expansion of individual rights,” Rothman says.

She says that while there is “no perfect solution,” the Nordic model, or any other policy changes, should be rigorously evaluated after being implemented.

Prostitution is illegal in all 50 US states, with the exception of some counties in Nevada, where it is allowed in local government-regulated brothels.

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Should Prostitution Be Legalized?

To the Editor:

I disagree with Rachel Moran that “ Buying Sex Should Not Be Legal ” (Op-Ed, Aug. 29).

The way to actually prevent a 14-year-old from being lured into the sex business is to legalize it, regulate it and tax it. By doing so, you can monitor and protect under-age woman from going into the trade.

At the same time, by legalizing it, you allow consenting adults to pay for a service that they feel they need and for women to earn a living in a manner they can choose, or not. It is time we stop telling people how to live their lives, while at the same time enforcing protections for the youths who do need it.

PETER G. HILL

Weston, Mass.

I agree with most of Rachel Moran’s criticism of Amnesty International’s recommendation that the consensual sex trade be decriminalized.

In my opinion, the best way to provide greater safety for prostitutes would be to make it illegal to purchase sex from someone who is under the control of another person such as a pimp or brothel owner. In addition, pimps should be prosecuted, and brothels should be prohibited unless they are owned and operated solely by the prostitutes who work there.

Unlike the “Nordic model,” in which it is legal to sell sex, but always illegal to buy sex, I believe that it should be lawful to buy sex from a prostitute who is self-employed, including working in a group or collective with other self-employed prostitutes.

I believe that this approach would go further to promote the safety and autonomy of prostitutes than the Amnesty recommendation. It also recognizes that there may be some prostitutes who have freely chosen to be in their trade.

BRUCE COUCHMAN

Rachel Moran’s voice as a survivor of the sex trade deserves to be heard. But so do the voices of thousands of sex workers around the globe — like the 8,000 organizing for rights in Karnataka, India , and more than 2,000 in Uganda — advocating against criminalization.

The experiences of sex workers are complicated, and often embedded in complex systems of global, racial and gender inequality. We, and other sex worker, women’s, human rights and anti-trafficking organizations around the globe , believe that stigmatizing and criminalizing a marginalized population does little to expand economic options or address the root causes of their marginalization.

We have seen how calls to criminalize clients in the United States are frequently a distraction from the continued and disproportionate criminalization of people selling sex. We have seen laws against “brothel-keeping” and “promoting prostitution” used to prosecute sex workers themselves. And we support decriminalization of sex work.

KATHERINE M. KOSTER

Communications Director

Sex Workers Outreach Project

Walnut, Calif.

Little has been heard from Amnesty International members who are opposed to the decriminalization of all aspects of sex work. In advance of a forthcoming “open” conversation call, Amnesty members have been officially reminded that although we are not required to agree with or defend this policy, we “are obligated to not convey a different message in the public arena.”

This gag order is contrary to one of the rights on which Amnesty International was founded: freedom of expression.

MARCIA LIEBERMAN

Providence, R.I.

The writer is coordinator of an Amnesty International group.

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Palak Sharma

December 10th, 2019, legalising sex work: both sides of the debate.

7 comments | 114 shares

Estimated reading time: 10 minutes

Sex workers are on the periphery of social and economic life in many countries. Increasingly, even governments look down upon sex workers as subjects unworthy of benefits or legal protection. There are 3 million commercial sex workers in India alone, of whom an estimated 40% are children, according to a study conducted by the Indian Ministry of Women and Child Development. There have been no further official statistics released on this section of population since, and both acceptance and acknowledgement are a distant prospect in developing countries.

Some jurisdictions have decriminalised prostitution-related activities, including New Zealand, parts of Australia, Germany, Netherlands, and parts of the USA. Yet although India has legalised sex work, issues remain.

How far can we go in legalising sex work?

The limited scope of sex education in schools makes clear that sex is considered a taboo in countries like India. And, in a social and cultural context that makes sex a taboo, legalising sex work is almost blasphemous. That taboo thrives on lingering homophobia and transphobia. For instance, Section 377, which decriminalised homosexuality in India, has still not been fully enacted. Despite India’s rich historical legacy of emancipation and female empowerment, extending as far back as ancient and medieval Buddhist literature that celebrated prostitutes who rose up to be monks (Amrapali), the inherent notion underlying sex work inspires widespread disgust and abhorrence.

The legalisation of sex work itself remains a conundrum. For example, one option for legalised sex work could make use of urban zoning centres where prostitution is permitted (although this strategy reported bleak results in Britain ). Alternatively, sex workers could be licensed, but this could promote discrimination and bias on the basis of identity ( e.g. , caste) and infringe on the sex workers’ privacy.

Legalisation is therefore contentious. But legalisation’s only alternative may be exploitation.

How do international laws restrict legalisation of sex work?

International laws and conventions such as the 1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) endanger sex workers. Article 6 of the CEDAW requires states to take “all appropriate measures to suppress all forms of traffic in women and exploitation of prostitution of women.” Such measures threaten counterproductive laws to suppress trafficking that could seriously harm sex workers.

Furthermore, international aid programmes such as the US Leadership Against HIV/AIDS , Tuberculosis, and Malaria Act condition funding on a pledge of opposition to prostitution. This conditioning restrains the ability of aid recipients to chart their own courses of legalisation.

Is the grass really greener on the other side of legalisation?

In the face of growing support for the legalisation of sex work, critics worry about ignorance of legalisation’s true consequences. Studies show that most female sex workers enter into prostitution out of necessity, not personal choice. We might wonder whether continued criminalisation that keep workers trapped is justifiable, when we could instead focus on helping sex workers escape prostitution. Licensing or some other certification of sex work that adds to their résumé would be conventionally considered a possible blot on their record.

A second concern focuses on the risk that legalisation might increase human trafficking. Greater legitimacy for sex work could lead fuel that sector’s economy, yet sex workers would likely not benefit from such growth. Most sex trafficking networks operate in a shadow economy, and the profits are concentrated beyond the sex workers’ reach. We should be mindful that legalisation alone would not in itself transfer profit to lower reaches.

Lastly, sex work is still a fairly unorganised sector with many women operating from their homes. Legalisation would push many workers outdoors, and further stigma would soon follow. Some neighbours may forbid sex workers from living nearby. Those sex workers too reticent to come forward would also be excluded from the protections of labour law under a legalisation scheme.

It is important to listen to voices coming from within this community, in the form of unions like Organización de Trabajadoras Sexuales (OTRAS) from Spain or the DecrimNow campaign in Britain. Sex work legalisation is more than mere legal debate and affects sex worker health. At this time, legalisation perhaps requires the emergence of a consensus in the community more than a governmental diktat.

Note:  This article gives the views of the authors, and not the position of the Social Policy Blog, nor of the London School of Economics.

About the author

Palak Sharma is a student of MSc International Social and Public Policy (Development) in the Department of Social Policy since September 2019.She is also the co-founder of the think tank Green Governance Initiative in India.

Palak I appreciate you that you have courage to write on this topic as most of the bloggers have not because they think this is a wrong topic. They have to consider that this is the topic we need to pull out to help those who have stuck in this industry without their wishes.

This is really a very amazing blog. I like very much these types of blog please keep it up

Thanks for the wonderful share. Your article has proved your hard work and experience you have got in this field. Brilliant. I love it reading.

I love to visit your website here is good information for us thanks for us.

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Thanks a lot very helpful and interesting content…it’s article very nice… thanks you

great post keep posting thank you!!

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Should Prostitution be legalized?

• should prostitution be legalized?

*Updated 2023

The oldest profession is rigorously recorded in the  bible   depicting instances of prostitution by career professionals as well as prostitutes prompted by circumstance. today, with over 42 million prostitutes worldwide and  around two million prostitutes in the us alone, it’s not surprising that every country on the planet has laws governing it. whether prostitution should be vigorously opposed or tacitly accepted is a subject of much debate, and it seems no one policy holds a monopoly on success or failure., so, when it comes to prostitution, should we legalize it or keep it criminal here are both sides of this debate., keep it criminal.

Legalizing prostitution has failed to check its illegal counterpart

When the Netherlands legalized prostitution in 2000 , one of its main objectives was to curtail human trafficking and the criminal prostitution enterprise. In spite of its best intentions, illegal brothels still proliferated and prostitutes continued to  suffer abuses  at the hands of pimps. The government is continuing to try to clean up the Red Light District by relocating its sex workers, but they fear this forced change may further put their rights and safety at risk . Similarly, Nevada’s illegal prostitution industry is estimated to be about  four times as large  as its legal gambling enterprise. If legalization does not protect prostitutes , then it proves nothing more than a cynical revenue source for government.

It reinforces the darkest attitudes of capitalism, in which people are reduced to commodities

How does one quantify value for an hour of her time? How about for a pound of her flesh? Exchanging money for sexual interaction, an interaction that is commonly regarded as both an expression and vehicle of intimacy reduces this bond-solidifying act to a mere transaction. And while some buyers voice disillusionment with the services rendered, others draw extreme satisfaction from the leverage one gains from paying for sex, allowing them to “ do things with [prostitutes] that real women would not put up with .” But, let’s not forget that prostitutes are as real as girlfriends and wives. The essence of this statement, which was taken as part of an international research project researching men who buy sex, shows just how effective sex-for-pay is at removing all traces of humanity from its practitioners.

Prostitution promotes degrading attitudes toward women, and invites violence against them

The fact that sex workers are  80% female  cannot be overlooked, nor should the fact that a sizable portion of sex workers are coerced by physical means or by economic hardship. Female prostitutes are more likely to be  raped or murdered than any other population .

And so, by the necessity to protect themselves, either from physical harm or from destitution, an overwhelmingly female contingent of sex workers find themselves at the mercy of the men they serve. Cruelly, society blames women for the violence committed against them, often postulating how she might have brought the trouble on  herself . The only way to oppose such attitudes (and realities) is to increase legal measures against those who perpetuate the prostitution industry.

Legalize it

Legalization circumvents the most dangerous aspects of prostitution

The criminalization of prostitution leaves prostitutes on the fringes of society, making them vulnerable to violence, poverty, and health risks. Decriminalization allows sex workers to call the police in incidences of violence. In the Netherlands , decriminalizing prostitution gave sex workers access to social security and public health care.  India’s union of sex workers improved prostitutes’ financial security by teaching them how to  identify counterfeit bills .

Sexually transmitted infections are also statistically lower in areas where prostitution is decriminalized. In rural Nevada, where prostitution is legal (and condoms and regular HIV tests mandatory), there has not been one case of HIV/AIDS diagnosed in a registered sex worker  since 1986 . Beyond all the practical benefits, legalizing prostitution brings sex workers into the fold of society, increasing their sense of belonging, and thereby enhancing their feelings of responsibility toward others.

Legalization can harness the sex industry’s potential to contribute to society

One formerly illicit trade that is now legal in many US states, marijuana, has done wonders for economic and social rejuvenation in these states. In 2021, a handful of states grossed tens of not hundreds of million of dollars in  pot tax revenues , with California earning more than $1 billion. At city and county levels, such states are using their share to ramp up public initiatives , such as funding alcohol and drug treatments, school construction, veterans’ services and more. Imagine how different prostitution would seem if a portion of its proceeds went to providing child-care support for working parents, or to supplement medical research that helps cure disease or to help fund drug rehabilitation programs.

Legalization reflects the victimless nature of consensual prostitution

The internet abounds with sex worker  testimonials  who attest to the satisfaction of a career in sex, and these personalities carefully draw a distinction between themselves and those who are coerced. Some prostitutes marvel at their great financial success and draw feelings of “empowerment” from their work. Stories of satisfied practitioners and customers beg the question: Why isn’t prostitution simply viewed as a normal business transaction? As the great  variation in prostitution laws across the globe reflects, the illicit nature of prostitution is by no means an objective reality. And even if the ethical parameters of prostitution are unclear, free societies should, in principle, avoid restricting business transactions that do not harm individuals or society.

The Bottom Line: Prostitution is not a hegemonic practice. Because it comes in so many mediums and is practiced by willing and unwilling parties, governments are unlikely to effectively address the ills (or the benefits) that accompany prostitution with one-size-fits-all policies – nor should they try. What do you think?

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Lawmakers’ horrific plan to turn nyc into ‘sin city east’ by ok’ing prostitution.

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Without any hint of public discussion or hearings, Albany lawmakers are racing to legalize prostitution before the legislative session ends June 6.

They’ve already legalized weed, greenlighted Big Apple casinos and rolled back consequences for most crimes via their disastrous criminal-justice “reforms.”

Now they want to degrade the city further by paving the way for legalized hookers. And without even giving critics a chance to complain in advance.

It’s beyond outrageous.

Politico reports that state Sens. Liz Krueger (D-Manhattan) and Julia Salazar (D-Queens) are backing dueling bills to “reform” the illicit trade.

Krueger would shield “sex workers” and go after only “johns,” while Salazar would legalize every aspect of the harmful industry.

Salazar, a radical Democratic Socialist, bizarrely believes sex workers are both independent entrepreneurs and victims of traffickers as well as prosecutors.

And just as with the botched cannabis legislation, neither has proposed a mechanism to oversee, license and regulate their sex-worker nirvana, compounding the horrors should their bills pass.

In 2021, Gov. Andrew Cuomo already set the leglislative-reform ball in motion , signing a bill to allow “loitering for the purpose of prostitution.”

He justified the repeal as ending discrimination against black and transgender sex workers whom he claimed law enforcement had been targeting — never mind that minority residents didn’t support prostitution in their communities.

Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez had actually stopped prosecuting persons arrested for sex work before that, in 2020, and the following year, he dismissed 262 prostitution-related warrants dating back to 2012; Queens DA Melinda Katz quickly followed suit.

No wonder the “Market of Sweethearts,” a thriving illicit sex market along Roosevelt Avenue in Queens, has continued to plague the area.

Let’s be clear: Victims of sex trafficking deserve justice and supportive services. But even progressives like Krueger and Salazar will admit that “sex work” isn’t just about a paycheck but a worker’s dignity.

Where’s the dignity in selling one’s body? Especially when forced to by traffickers.

Proponents say they want to empower women, yet they ignore the exploitation and inherent dangers of the trade. Not to mention the abuse these women are forced to endure and the other crimes their “work” promotes.

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Which is why normalizing another harmful deviancy, particularly without public hearings, is beyond the pale.

Officials are also pushing foolishly to accelerate casino licensing in the city — after botching the rollout of legal cannabis and driving up crime via reforms like Raise the Age and cashless bail.

Despite all of the neon lights and signage in Times Square, the Big Apple can never be the Las Vegas of the East — and it’ll only bring more decadence and misery if it tries.

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