...Prostitution may be the world's oldest profession, and laws prohibiting prostitution may well be the oldest example of government regulation and government sex discrimination. In a free society, however, all such laws are inappropriate because they violate the basic rights and liberties of the individuals involved. Recent research indicates that “over one million women in the United States earn their living by full-time prostitution. Furthermore, roughly one in every six American men has been a willing client of a prostitute within the past five years (cite1).” This shows that many people, buyers and sellers, are a part of the prostitution profession, so for the United States government to ban prostitution for only a moral reason, and spend millions of tax payers’ dollars on trying to fight a never ending battle with prostitution seems ludicrous. In a free society in which we live in, it makes no sense for the government to be telling people that they cannot charge a fee for harmless services they otherwise are at liberty to give away. This is why Prostitution should be legal. Instead of spending billions on illegalizing prostitution, “the city of Los Angeles alone spends close to 100 million dollars annually dealing with illegal prostitution (cite4)”; the United States government should legalize prostitution. For more reasons than one, prostitution thrives in areas that have a very high crime rate, because of this, police officers and courtrooms are overburdened with these...
Words: 1108 - Pages: 5
...Legalization of Regulated Brothel Prostitution Sex is an integral part of human culture and nature. Humans have an ingrained craving for it that they satiate in different manners. Prostitution, long described as the world’s oldest profession, formed around this craving and over time has evolved into a worldwide industry that has only been aided through the use of technology. However, sex work remains illegal in the United States and most parts of the world and the consequences for participating as a consumer or supplier are grave. This illegality has adverse effects on modern society’s health, economy and safety that would easily be alleviated in the event of the decriminalization of prostitution and the legalization of regulated brothel prostitution: Prostitutes face a real health risk due to the criminalization. According to Steffanie A. Strathdee and colleagues from her article “Dispelling Myths about Sex Workers and HIV” in the medical journal The Lancet. …sex workers face substantial barriers in accessing prevention, treatment, and care services… because of stigma, discrimination, and criminalization.” and “illegality of sex work creates barriers to sex workers seeking HIV prevention… due to fear of authorities. This fear of authorities is a significant barrier for prostitutes for many reasons and includes prostitute’s unfortunate avoidance to condom use. “Police harassment, [the] arrest of sex workers for carrying condoms [and] the use of condoms as evidence of sex...
Words: 1516 - Pages: 7
...Should Contractual Sex Be Legalized? Prostitution is known as the world's oldest profession dating back to biblical times. Prostitution allows women and men the opportunity to earn a living without and acquired skills other than those of the sexual nature. The Greek viewed the naked body as a masterpiece, so why do American's legislator's for sex for monetary consumption as immoral and degrading? Perhaps they are using their personal religious beliefs to persuade others, or is it the concern for public health and safety. The Constitution grants American citizens the freedom of speech, religion, and trade. Can laws governing restricted prostitution be considered unconstitutional? A case in Florida arose when a woman, who was a prior...
Words: 971 - Pages: 4
...common consent; out of all these questions prostitution is the darkest, the knottiest, and saddest” (Gilfoyle:0). The geography of prostitution is based on the area of social trends and acceptance. The most visible evidence of this is the rapid rise in the number of brothels and “bawdy houses” in New York during the 1820’s. Prostitution became increasingly more involved in urban life even though being criminalized by law. Yet the people who decide the legislation on prostitution were some of its most loyal and profitable customers. Prostitution is an un-harmful act and should be legalized, regardless of society’s uneducated opinion on the matter. Prostitution should be legalized for the facts that it would generate a substantial amount of income for the federal government as a means of taxation; legalization would suppress the spread of venereal and it would also reduce the amount of crime along with physical violence which occurs in the commercial sex trade. In the majority of states, prostitution is suppressed to illegal activity and many believe it to be a form of immoral actions. But in Nevada, the state became famous by grasping and promoting the un-popular commercial sex trade, which was banned elsewhere in other states. Prostitution has become a legitimate cash crop. Nevada began legalizing prostitution during the early 1970s; since then, they have been gaining multiple benefits economically from many different prostitution-related sources. Some of these revenues were...
Words: 1106 - Pages: 5
...Finally the third adjudicated law enacted to criminalize prostitution was called the Federal Mann Act. This Act, which was also known as the White Slave Traffic Act, made prostitution a felony to engage in the transport of any female for the purpose of prostitution posed by the immorality of the act. This Act criminalized the sexual behavior between consenting adults. This Act can be found under 18 U.S.C. §2421, and defends all human trafficking throughout the United States. After addressing two legislative decisions for prostitution and one on criminalizing prostitution, I want to give three examples of this “victimless crime.” Before I jump into my first topic on escort services, I want to define the terms of prostitution and escort service....
Words: 1469 - Pages: 6
...Legalization of Prostitution: Its effects on sex trafficking and society Prostitution and sex trafficking is a persistent issue around the world. Neighborhoods are plagued with women whom are scantily dressed, having sex in open and public places. Sex trafficking is directly affected by prostitution; legalizing prostitution would reduce the amount of women abducted and forced into prostitution or forced into becoming sex slaves. Legalizing prostitution would also allow women to be able to make their own decision whether prostitution is a morally acceptable profession for them or not. Prostitution should be a decision made by an individual and not by the government. The government should not be able to decide what is morally acceptable and what is not; State and religion are meant to be separate because every individual has the right to make their own decisions regarding their own life. There are many positive outcomes to making prostitution legal; crime would be reduced, the economy would benefit tremendously, prostitutes would be safer as well as removing the social stigma attached to prostitution. By legalizing prostitution the numbers of people trafficked would be reduced by eliminating the demand for sex trafficking. With the many successful legal prostitution establishments commonly known as brothels, it is clear that legal prostitution can work in today’s society....
Words: 1022 - Pages: 5
...A person how sells their body for sex to make money is prostitution. People have the choice of where they want to work and may decide prostitution is the fastest way to get rich. A lot of people thinking that prostitution should be legalized thinking it will protect people. But it will increased the danger, it will increase sex trafficking, and it will increased the demand for prostitutes while legitimizing the business. Prostitution should not be legalized because it will increased the danger to people in that type of business. According to Janice Crouse, “Prostitutes call their work ‘paid rape’ and note the friends who "didn't make it out alive” (Crouse). The prostitutes turn to drugs and alcohol in order to deal with their career. Because...
Words: 717 - Pages: 3
...PROSTITUTION IS NOT A CHOICE LEARN A BOUT TH E TRA FFI CKING OF WOMEN AND GIRLS WORLDWIDE, AND FIND OUT WHAT CAN BE DONE TO END THIS WID ESPR EAD PROBLEM … Soroptimist International of the Americas-1709 Spruce Street Philadelphia, PA 19103 - 215 893 9000 - www.soroptimist.org SOROPTIMIST WHITE PAPER Prostitution is Not a Choice I think so much about what has happened to me. Why these men did what they did to me. Old, disgusting men. It was horrible. They knew I did not want to be there, but they paid their money. They used me. I was their property for the night. They destroyed me. (14-year-old girl at Casa Hogar, a shelter in Costa Rica for children rescued from the country’s sex trade1) OVERVIEW Prostitution has been called the world’s oldest “profession.” In reality, it is the world’s oldest “oppression” and continues to be one of the most overlooked human rights abuses of women on the planet today. 2 Prostitution of women is a particularly lethal form of violence against women, and a violation of a woman’s most basic human rights. While society attempts to normalize prostitution on a variety of levels (discussed later in this paper), prostituted women are subjected to violence and abuse at the hands of paying “clients.” For the vast majority of prostituted women, “prostitution is the experience of being hunted, dominated, harassed, assaulted and battered.” 3 It is “sexual terrorism against women at the hands of men and little is being done to stop the carnage...
Words: 12689 - Pages: 51
...(TTH2:30-4:00) April 18, 2011 Knowledge is the First Step: Let’s Work Together to Stop Human Trafficking Human trafficking and sexual exploitation has become a huge issue in recent years. It has commonly been misconceived that it only occurs in poor countries. In fact the United States makes the top ten lists of common destinations for victims of human trafficking. This is a very discouraging statistic, and I must admit it has left me with a sour taste in my mouth. It’s impossible to determine the exact extent and growth of this industry because smugglers use different methods, and it’s illegal. Some people believe that the legalization of prostitution might actually reduce sex trafficking. Also the current human trafficking laws may not be as effective as they should be in trying to eliminate the problem, perhaps a change in legislature is needed. Another consideration to help alleviate human trafficking would be a special tax set up in accordance with trade laws, which could help fund different aspects of awareness, recovery shelters, etc. These three fundamental issues are related because traffickers find ways around the laws and use devious methods to force the victims into prostitution, in order to fully understand the correlation we must first put ourselves in these person’s shoes. Also all three proposals are hot button topics that very well could be key elements in the elimination of human trafficking. Most of us take our “natural born” freedoms and liberties...
Words: 1967 - Pages: 8
...Should Prostitution be Legalized and Regulated by the Government? When we examine sex as a trade, the combination of philosophy, cultural precedence, religious influence and politics made each country select how to handle it in its own way. In Singapore, sex for money is open and commonplace. Denmark women can be legal prostitutes so long as it is not their sole means of income; Canada, France and Mexico allow it. Prostitutes must be contained within brothels in the Netherlands, unlike within England and Wales where prostitution is limited to individual providers. Israel, the historical stage for the Bible allows it too. Currently most everywhere in the United States, our legal system penalizes prostitutes and their customers for what they do as consenting adults. Money is still spent on law enforcement efforts to catch prostitutes and their customers. Once caught, justice departments have to process these people through very expensive systems. Making prostitution legal will allow the act to be managed instead of ignored. Pimps and organized crime figures, who regularly treat their workers on subhuman levels, would no longer control women. In some countries, prostitute rings buy and sell women on the black market, force their women to comply through violence and create unhealthy working conditions. When prostitutes operate independently and in secret, many times they become abused by their own customers. Why should be legalized? 1. Prostitution should be legalized...
Words: 1028 - Pages: 5
...2012 Decriminalization of Prostitution The question that I am exploring is should society allow individuals sell sex for money? This question is important because taxpayer money is being spent on Vice Police Units who patrol known prostitution locations and go under cover. It’s also important because through out history social policy and public law has changed back and forth on the issue of prostitution. I am interested on this issue because recently my hometown of Ottawa, Ohio, has had a scandal involving our town mayor being arrested for solicitation of prostitution, causing the loss of his job and embarrassment for our town. My first source was a documentary series on the History channel called “Sex in the Ancient World” specifically the episode I watched was “Pompeii”. “Sex in the Ancient World” is written and directed by Kurt Sayenga. Kurt Sayenga got his start with his magazine “Greed” which covered punk rock culture and quickly rose to stardom trough his multiple documentaries and his feature films like “The Day the Earth Stood Still”. His experience shows he is a very creditable source because he has blockbuster movies and is a respected by all of the film community. In this documentary the core issue was sex in Pompeii in ancient times. Pompeii was small Roman city of 6,000 when Mount Vesuvius erupted in the year 76 AD and sealed the city in volcanic ash like a time capsule. Pompeii is the first definite proof of the occupation of prostitution. According to “Sex in the...
Words: 1664 - Pages: 7
...The Globalization of Prostitution According to Manfred Steger, professor at the University of Hawaii, globalization can be defined as the “intensification of worldwide social relations which link distant localitites in such a way that local happenings are shaped by events occurring many miles away and vice versa” (13). The main characteristics of globalization are the increased amount of global trading, markets’ openings, and inflow and outflow of goods and service (Ditmore, 186). Globalization has four major qualities such as creation of new social networks, stretching of social relations, intensification of social exchanges, and consciousness across the world (14-15). Globalization can be beneficial in terms of communication and economic trade but also can be very harmful when it comes to sex marketing, trafficking and prostitution. Prostitution is a very controversial topic and is widely debated in different countries. Globally, people are divided into proponents and opponents of legalization of prostitution. This paper is going to research and critically analyze the conflict regarding legalization of prostitution as well as provide a comparative perspective on illegal prostitution in the United States and legal prostitution in Germany. Prostitution is often named as the oldest profession in the world. Even in the times of Bible, prostitution was one of the most common ways for women to earn money. According to American Bible Society, Proverbs 23:27-28 says “for a prostitute...
Words: 3468 - Pages: 14
...Prostitution: Not so Bad After All There are many great risks of being a prostitute. The physical risks being assaults, STD's, and robbery. And the mental effects resulting in lack of self esteem, depression, thoughts of suicide, and nothing is going to be the same after sinking as low as prostitution. Being a hooker is flat out dangerous. Why do it? The simple answer is: desperation. Statistics show that 92 % of women say they want to leave prostitution but cannot due to lack of money or food.[1] If prostitution was legalized, many of these risks could be prevented. Several people let their morals and religion decide that legalizing prostitution is bad for the country. However, a scientific study proves that a causal relationship between legalized, regulated prostitution and the benefits of lower crime, better healthcare, lower suicide rates and lower divorce rates.[2] The legalization would not only make the prostitutes feel safer, but it would also pull all of the focus of law enforcers from harlotry to worse matters that our country is facing. Prostitution being illegal is simply unconstitutional and denies women of her rights. The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people [3] Which basically states that the constitution protects our personal rights not explicitly expressed in the constitution. Being a prostitute is a personal decision that the government shouldn't have to control. The...
Words: 827 - Pages: 4
...When criminal penalties are taken from prostitutes, rape rates would decrease sufficiently due to extraction of punishments. Max Ehrenfreund states, about a case originally issued in 2003, “For the next six years until legislators corrected their error, the oldest profession was not a crime in Rhode Island and public health and public safety substantially improved as a result, according to a new working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research. The statewide incidence of gonorrhea among women declined by 39 percent, and the number of rapes reported to police in the state declined by 31 percent, according to the paper.The study by Baylor University's Scott Cunningham and Manisha Shah of the University of California, Los Angeles contributes to an impassioned, long-running debate about prostitution among advocates for women's rights. Their work appears to be the first quantitative evidence that removing criminal penalties for prostitutes can reduce violence against women and curtail sexually transmitted infections in society generally -- and dramatically so (When...Legalized...
Words: 724 - Pages: 3
...victims of sex trafficking. Up to millions of minors fall into the hands of traffickers every year in the United States. Two issues exist in the discussion of the problem of sex trafficking of minors in the United States. The first issue is that not all professionals agree on the definition of sex trafficking, and not all professionals can agree if those who have been trafficked are criminals or victims. The second issue is that it can be difficult to obtain accurate data on the problem of sex trafficking because many...
Words: 1530 - Pages: 7
