...Prostitution. An age-old profession or an age-old problem begetting more problems? The United Kingdom is in the process of determining if and how to update or change its current laws regarding prostitution. In the midst of this determination, questions abound. Prostitution is no easy matter. In the age of women’s rights and the women’s movement, prostitution is a dividing factor. On the one end, it is the epitome of patriarchal abuse throughout centuries and perfected in our culture today. On the other end, it is a form of empowerment. And in between is the common person with his or her own take on prostitution as either abuse, a profession, or something a little of both. Alongside this culture of moral, cultural and legal uncertainty and to confound the problem is prostitution’s purported connection to international human trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation. Therefore, on the one hand, prostitution’s reason for being illegal due to immorality may be obsolete, but should it remain somewhat illegal or banned altogether because it is linked to another crime that transcends borders and cultures? The following is a discussion on the same, and in the end, it is hoped that some clarity may be revealed from a puddle of obscurity. First, a brief introduction will be given about prostitution and human trafficking. Second, the laws of the United Kingdom and international law will be reviewed and analyzed. Third, a comparative review of current legal systems and...
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...Prostitution Chapter I The Problem and its Background Introduction Prostitution is said to be one of the oldest profession in the world. It is the giving or receiving of the body for sexual activity for hire but excludes sexual activity between spouses. It is the performance for hire where there is an exchange of value, any of the following acts: Sexual intercourse; sodomy, or; manual or other bodily contact stimulation of the genitals of any person with the intent to arouse or gratify the sexual desires of the offender or another. Background of the Study Prostitution is the performance of sexual acts solely for the purpose of material gain. Persons prostitute themselves when they grant sexual favors to others in exchange for money, gifts, or other payment and in so doing use their bodies as commodities. In legal terms, the word prostitute refers only to those who engage overtly in such sexual-economic transactions, usually for a specified sum of money. Prostitutes may be of either sex, but throughout history the majorities have been women, reflecting both the traditional socioeconomic dependence of women and the tendency to exploit female sexuality. Although prostitution has often been characterized as the “world’s oldest profession,” the concept of women as property, which prevailed in most cultures until the end of the 19th century, meant that the profits of the profession most often accrued to the men who controlled it. Men have traditionally been characterized as procurers...
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...Prostitution is often called the world's oldest profession. It's been around since the beginning of time and can be traced back to ancient civilization. Prostitution hasn't stopped after thousands of years and it's not going to stop anytime soon. Prostitution is already legal in some parts of the world, but not in Canada and the United States. Pro-prostitution think prostitution should be legalized. They state that legalizing it would solve more problems than it would create and people could be protected from diseases, the streets could be kept cleaner, and prostitutes would have a safer working environment. Anti-prostitution demands that legal prostitution will increase the sex industry and human trafficking. Prostitution will hurt peoples. This is because prostitutes can cause a disease such as HIV. Pro-prostitution opposed that statement. Pro-prostitution demands that prostitution gives benefit to the customer because the customer gets their pleasure. It fulfils both people's needs. Even though prostitution is not legal, it will continue to happen. They will find a way around the law, and continue with their business. If it is legalized, laws can be made to keep prostitutes and people safer than they are now. Some people don't think much of prostitutes. Peoples think that the prostitutes who spread the disease. This is because most of the prostitutes are drug addicts which cause HIV. For the few bad ones, they would be the ones who would most benefit from legalization...
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...Prostitution should be legalised to protect the workers from violence and STDs such as HIV To the Home Secretary, I am writing to express the distress I feel about the current laws of prostitution and how legalising it would protect against STDs and violence. I have three main reasons as to why prostitution must be legalised. To begin your current laws banning prostitution are ineffective. Secondly legalising prostitution would be much safer for the prostitutes and thirdly legalisation can be part of a wider education in context to prostitution, which I will explain further later on. Before I consider the three reasons I want to heighten your awareness of the current abuse statistics and the current HIV statistics. a detailed study carried out in 2004 concluded that prostitutes do indeed have an increased chance of contracting STDs such a syphilis, hepatitis B and HIV. Over all 30,000 women a year worldwide die of HIV contracted through prostitution. These shocking figures surely warrant some consideration towards legalising prostitution. So why is prohibition ineffective? It may shock you to hear that the UK has increasing rates of prostitution and could be set to overtake the USA. Due to high unemployment these women (in a low paid, low skilled job) would earn around £5.93 an hour. The women who prostitute may not have any other source of income and desperately need the money for their families. We need to become comfortable with the fact that (worldwide) people...
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...Rome Cheri Griggs ETH 316 October 8, 2013 Patrick Tierney Topic 2: When in Rome Prostitution is legal in many countries outside the United States. Should it be? To understand whether prostitution should be legal, we first should understand what prostitution is. Prostitution is being a willing participant in sexual activity, usually with people other than a spouse or friend, in exchange for immediate payment of money or other valuables. Prostitutes can be either male or female, and mostly they are females with males as clients. Prostitution varies from country to country. In some parts of the world, it is known to be legal and is known to be a profession, while it is a crime punished by death in other parts of the world. Prostitution also known as a form of human rights. In many countries, women are vulnerable and trafficked into the sex trade. Certain religions oppose prostitution, saying it as a threat to the moral codes lay down in their scriptures. Many sex worker activists view it as a human rights issue. There are four things about prostitution that legal teams find interesting and they are victimization, ethics and morality, freedom of the individual and general benefit or harm to society. Victimization issues are people who support legal prostitution and argue that this is a consensual sex act between adults. Many advocates that are against prostitution say that all prostitutes are victims and that this kind of behavior leads to serious psychological...
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... Under what circumstances, if any, might the legalization or decriminalization of drugs be beneficial to society? Do you consider alcohol a drug? Should greater control be placed on the sale of alcohol? I consider alcohol a drug when it is abused as one. I have seen people use alcohol in social settings, and they have known their limits of when to stop. I do not think alcohol was put here as a drug; I think that the effect of it on people is what made alcohol considered as a drug. There are different effects of alcohol, some are losing/ gaining weight, losing appetite, and even losing people lives. People are put into situation where they can abuse alcohol because of the fact that it is a legal drug. Even though people have to wait until they are 21 years old to buy alcohol there are all different types of ways to get around that. This is where the abuse comes in because teens are sometimes uneducated on the effects of alcohol, so they tend to drink it because they see someone they admire that is older that drinks it. This makes them think it is okay because it is also legal. Yes, I do believe that there should be a lot more control placed on the sale of alcohol because it is so easy to get other people to buy alcohol for minors. Do TV shows and films glorify drug usage and encourage youths to enter the drug trade? Should all images on TV of drugs and...
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...Should prostitution be illegal? 1) The legalization of prostitution would mean more revenue for the country. 2) Legalizing prostitution would protect public health and all involved. 3) The time and cost to incarcerate prostitutes is never recouped and is therefore lost revenue. 4) It would reduce violence and abuse among women. 5) It is a victimless crime involving two consenting adults. If prostitution were legalized, prostitutes would be taxed, earning revenue for the country and have job benefits, such as security and healthcare, allowing for a safer and healthier work environment. Prostitution is a profession that has been around for more than a millennia. However, it seems to be a sore subject that leaves people at odds with one another. One may ponder whether the profession should even exist, while another may believe there is no harm in allowing the profession to thrive. Although one may see the profession as a cesspool for diseases and find it immoral to perform such acts, one can't help but notice the benefits of legalizing prostitution. If prostitution were legalized, prostitutes would be taxed, earning revenue for the country and have job benefits, such as security and healthcare, allowing for a safer and healthier work environment. If prostitution were legalized, prostitutes would be on payroll and have their income taxed, thus bringing more revenue to the economy. While one may like prostitution to be banned all together, it is highly unlikely...
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...Prostitution is defined as providing sexual services for money. Even though prostitutes are paid for their services, all prostitution causes harm to women and children because prostitution violates human rights and exposes them to many diseases. Prostitution has many different faces in the sex industry. Most sex industries try to undergo different names like escort services, massage brothels, strip clubs, adult and child pornography and outcall services. No matter what name one may consider prostitution is wrong, and it should be banned from every country. Human Rights How does prostitution violate human rights? “Human rights are the basic rights and freedoms that all humans should be guaranteed, such as the right to life and liberty, freedom of thought and expression, and equality before the law” (“Human Rights,” 2009). Prostitution violates all these rights because women and children are forced to have sexual encounters with strangers, are treated as if they are nothing better than sex, and are robbed of their freedom. Most prostitutes are controlled by pimps or trafficking services. Falling victim of prostitution Many prostitutes are victims of violence by pimps. The following picture shows a pimp choking and verbal abusing a female prostitute. Abuse such as this one is the number one reason female prostitutes believe they are obligated to stay in the business of being a sex slave. We as a nation need to protect women and children from this type of violence. By banning...
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...Prostitution is a profession that has been around for more than a millennia. However, it seems to be a sore subject that leaves people at odds with one another. One may ponder whether the profession should even exist, while another may believe there is no harm in allowing the profession to thrive. Although one may see the profession as a cesspool for diseases and find it immoral to perform such acts, one can't help but notice the benefits of legalizing prostitution. If prostitution were legalized, prostitutes would be taxed, earning revenue for the country and have job benefits, such as security and healthcare, allowing for a safer and healthier work environment. If prostitution were legalized, prostitutes would be on payroll and have their income taxed, thus bringing more revenue to the economy. While one may like prostitution to be banned all together, it is highly unlikely considering how long the profession has been around. Consider illegal immigrants working here for less wages and off the books, meaning not being taxed. Why is it we are more bothered by illegal immigrants not paying their fair share of taxes than prostitutes? They are legal citizens getting paid to perform a service tax free, which should be against the law, not the service provided. The taxes that tax payers pay now go into municipalities such as the police department and the judicial system. Therefore, taxpayer's money is being wasted when police pursue prostitutes for a victimless crime,...
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...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...
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...Prostitution in the USA During my perusal of daytime television a few weeks ago, I came across a talk show featuring a woman who was selling her virginity. After majoring in Woman’s Studies in undergrad, Natalie Dylan (pseudonym) is using the money to pay for her graduate degree in Marriage and Family Therapy. She consulted with the owner of a legal brothel outside of Las Vegas, to auction off her first time. Natalie’s virginity auction sparked my interest in the legality of prostitution. Should women be able to sell their bodies? Why are some brothels legal in the United States, but prostitution as a whole illegal? What are the ramifications of selling your sexuality, and why does the government get involved? Body for Sale How does one put a price on any body part? Surely every time I hear of a new ailment that plagues another human being I can’t help but to think about how fantastic my arms or legs or elbows are, but should I be allowed to sell them to willing buyers? Let us consider all the other body components up for sale. Plasma donators can be “compensated” up to $200 a month for their time (Aho). Many people may believe that this is ok because it is used to save lives, but what about sperm and egg “donation”? A man can make up to $1000 a month for 1½ to two years; and though the numbers haven’t been nailed down, a woman can make an average of $4,217 per egg donation (Aho). Whether or not lives are saved in sperm/egg donation is arguable, but one thing is for sure:...
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...World’s Oldest Profession Prostitution is the act of offering sexual services to another person in return for money. Prostitution is often referred to as the world’s oldest profession and has existed in the sex industry for centuries occurring all over the world. Since prostitution first began the debate has raged: should prostitution be legalized or not? To protect the safety of sex trade workers, the time has come to legalize prostitution. A major argument for legalizing prostitution is the questionable logic of criminalizing an activity that occurs routinely in our society. The services of a prostitute are used regularly by many people. According to Doctor Allan Schwartz, four main reasons that men visit prostitutes are a “compulsive need for sex, an insatiable need for sexual pleasure, a fear of intimacy or relationships, and misogyny” (Schwartz). These reasons for using the services of prostitutes have existed for a long period of time and the demand for paid sex will always exist. In many segments of society paying for sex is acceptable. History has proven that eliminating prostitution is not possible. Decriminalizing the sex trade will recognize prostitutions role in our society. Prostitution is generally an act between consenting adults and different categories include street, brothels, escorts and sex tourism. According to Sherry F. Colb of Rutgers Law School, prostitution is classified as a victimless crime. She states “What makes prostitution a victimless crime in...
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...WHY PROSTITUTION SHOULD NOT BE LEGALISED Introduction The issue of legalisation of prostitution remains a highly controversial and debatable one. A lot many times the questions put forth demand to know whether legalisation will really stop the harm to prostitutes or the so-called ‘morally-secure’ society. A stronger element of agnosticism emerges in the proposals for legalisation when it’s on ground effect depicts a consternating increment in the very same issue it seeks to check- human trafficking. Total legalisation makes prostitution, the epitome of human rights violation, as much of an occupation as any other, albeit it remains clearly distinctive from other low-status and abusive forms of employment by the vice of being the worst one. Legalisation indubitably renders the economically and socially decumbent and vulnerable position of prostitutes- bolstered. It is true that the struggle for economic survival pushes people to extreme measures where in their choice of work appears justifiably consensual. But a deeper understanding reveals that the women engaged in prostitution for economic survival are in it by ‘coerced choice’ instead of a real one. In most cases, the prostitute is poor and traumatized even before she enters such a profession. Prostitution is a deranging and extreme form of gender discrimination. It not just affirms, but backwashes male supremacy. A violation in its most characteristic forms, legalised prostitution is nothing but an infringement to the...
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...DECRIMINALIZATION OF PROSTITUTION: AN INMODEST PROPOSAL An Annotated Bibliography Bristol Community College 04/25/2016 Elmer Paz Prostitution is the sale of sexual services in exchange for money or other compensation. A person exercising prostitution called prostitute. Prostitution is one of the jobs and social phenomena that responds to human sexual desire, and in many cases, the need for affection and understanding, seeking relief from loneliness and isolation, especially in the big cities. Prostitution is included within the so-called "victimless crimes", i.e. those committed by adults with legal capacity whose behavior does not harm anyone or does not affect the rights of third parties. It is a voluntary transaction for sexual services in exchange for money. This occurs because the parties involved in it expect to obtain mutual satisfaction. Otherwise, the business relationship would not take place. Prostitution, a universal reality, remains a pending issue for most advanced democracies, specifically in the United States. Some countries have tackled the problem from different points of view, with more or less success, but the answer is not simple. There is a huge need to pose prostitution as a legal job and decriminalize it in order to increase control and protection of women. Prostitution should not be a crime. Prostitutes are not committing an inherently harmful act. While the spread of disease and other detriments are possible in the practice of prostitution, criminalization...
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...Verain Vasudeva PHIL17545G March 30, 2014 Professor Mark Reitsma Should Laws Reflect Indirect Harm? Laws reflect the moral code of the majority within a society. Therefore, the majority within a society depict if a law should be reflective of an indirect harm. Indirect harm is “an action which itself did not harm, but may promote or eventually lead to harm”(Reitsma, Liberty and its Limits: Extent of Freedom), it may have no correlation to leading towards harm. John E. Mills indicated “the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others” (Heydt), but lawmakers perceive it justifiable to create laws that are reflective of indirect harm. Laws against Prostitution and drug’s are reflective of indirect harm. If ones using drugs or is a prostitute is not directly harming others in society. Even though laws that reflect indirect harm are to prevent harm from happing, indirect harm should not be considered whilst making laws because they tend to restrict one's freedoms & liberties and there is no substantial evidence that indirect harm leads to harm. Laws tend to create restrictions upon individuals of the society. People are overwhelmed by the pressures of these restrictions and cannot express their freedoms & liberates. Firstly, if one is a distinguish as a criminal under indirect harm laws they will be condemned by society when they have not harmed any individual in...
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