...Amber Lopez English Composition 1 The World’s Oldest Profession It is the world’s oldest profession and you’d think that at some point in time society would have accepted it. However, not only is prostitution still not legalized in the United States, but it is not even accepted as a profession worth having. Why? What are reasons so terrible that this profession shouldn’t be legalized? Let me clarify, by identifying what I mean by prostitution. By definition, prostitution is the act of performing sex and/or sexual acts in exchange for some kind of compensation, but the part that needs to be clarified is by whom this exchange is happening between. This exchange should only happen between two consenting adults. Adult meaning that under the law a person is of legal and consenting age. The way that everyone is looking at prostitution is biased to the negatives. Many argue that prostitution is morally wrong, that by legalizing prostitution you are in turn condoning sex trafficking, that rape and violence are more prone to happen, and the list goes on and on. However, the list goes on and on about why it would be a positive change to legalize it as well. Not only are there ways to refute some of the arguments made against prostitution, but there are also positive outcomes that can result from legalizing prostitution in the U.S. There is a booming business waiting to emerge from prostitution here in the U.S. You have potential business owners, plenty of employees, and a surplus...
Words: 1881 - Pages: 8
...Prostitution/ The World’s Oldest Profession Lady of the Night Common Night Walker Lady of Pleasure Lady of easy virtue Scarlet Women Hooker/Whore Hello, I am here today to discuss Why the World’s Oldest Profession/ Prostitution should not be legalized. The 3 areas I will touch upon are there will be an increase in violence, verbal and emotional abuse and human/sexual trafficking. According to Merriam-Webster, Prostitution is the act or practice of engaging in promiscuous sex for money. The women are treated as a commodity and considered a product that can be bought and sold. Prostitution comes in a various outlets such as: strip club, escort/call girl service, brothel, window worker and bar/casino worker, street, and human trafficking. As we are aware, the life of prostituted women is very physical. Their job is to perform sexual acts to please the customer’s sexual desires. They encounter extreme violence such as being robbed, beaten, tortured, rape by one or, gang raped by 2 or more and sometimes murdered. Can you imagine being burned with a cigarette, punched in the head with a closed fist, having a black eye, hair pulled or your eardrum damaged? The sad part about it is the pimp and the customers think the prostituted women are fair game for this type of treatment. According to the Council for Prostitution Alternatives in Portland, Oregon in 1991, 78% of prostituted women were raped: Mostly by their pimps and customers. In a year’s time, they are horribly...
Words: 730 - Pages: 3
...the oldest profession in the world is, they would most likely think of some sort of manual labor. To their surprise they would find out that the world’s oldest profession is prostitution. Prostitution is defined as the act or practice of providing sexual services to another person in return for payment. It can be traced back before the times of Christ as women who were not married could not make a living so they had to resort to prostitution. However in today’s society, prostitution is viewed as crime more than a profession. Prostitution is illegal in forty nine out of the fifty states in the United States, with the exception of Nevada. Those who oppose prostitution believe that it is immoral, causes crime and increases sexually transmitted diseases. Most people do not realize how prostitution can benefit the United States. Legalizing prostitution will in fact reduce crime, reduce STDs, and increase revenue in the United States. With prostitution comes crime, or one would think it causes crime. However, it would reduce crime significantly. The amount of rapes in the United States would decrease as they did in Amsterdam where prostitution is legal. Kirby R. Cundiff, PhD, Associate Professor of Finance at Northeastern State University wrote, " It is estimated that if prostitution were legalized in the United States, the rape rate would decrease by roughly 25%”. In 2009, the United States had roughly ninety thousand cases of reported rapes. By simply legalizing a profession that...
Words: 577 - Pages: 3
...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...
Words: 583 - Pages: 3
...Kristi Currier Comp 2 Why Prostitution Should Be Legalized Prostitution is one of the oldest known jobs in history. Prostitution, while frowned upon in standardized society, would be beneficial to reduce the overcrowding population in jails as well as taxing the profession to potentially help the economy in their ongoing fight against the national debt. With proper laws enforced in order to legalize this profession, prostitution could become a respected profession. People in general enjoy sex thoroughly. Sex releases endorphins that make people happy. Thankfully, the Constitution allows people to choose the way in how we are happy. Sex between two people is no more dangerous than a prostitute and a client. The difference between the two is there’s a payment involved with the prostitute and client (Freeman, 2012). A promiscuous person has just as much, if not more, of a chance to contract an STD than a prostitute. There’s no way to control someone’s sex life on a regular basis. Prostitution is just as safe as walking down the street. There’s just as much of a chance a person could get hit by a car or get hit by lightning or even getting shot, stabbed, or murdered (Freeman, 2012). With today’s current job market continuously plummeting, prostitution is used as last resort option of employment for most women and men. Prostitution does not limit itself to just one sex. Men as well as women can be prostitutes. Although it’s a choice men or women make to sell their...
Words: 1001 - Pages: 5
...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...
Words: 314 - Pages: 2
...Chang Gyu Lee Professor Imbarus English 1C 25 April 2015 Prostitution Should Be legalized Prostitution is the business or practice of engaging in sexual relations in exchange for payment or some other benefit. Prostitution is commonly referred to as “the oldest profession”, which is commonly, far from exaggeration. For as long back as human being have records, evidence can be found of people selling sex for various kind of gains. When the invaders were running around slaughtering the native people, they also were enjoying the pleasures of local prostitutes. In the fourth century, Athenian orator Apollodoros said "we have courtesans for pleasure, and concubines for the daily service of our bodies, but wives for the production of legitimate offspring and to have reliable guardians of our household property." And yet, in the modern world, where people claim to be the most socially financially advanced, prostitution is still an illegal action. Prostitution is one of the growing concerns around the world. Governments of different countries seem to have no answer to this illegal act. While in some countries, it has been legalized, in others it is strongly condemned due to cultural and religious factors. Prostitution in recent years has become a business for many. Many of the people hire prostitutes and sell them to men looking for sexual pleasure for loads of money. The question is if prostitution is illegal then why is the industry for prostitutes expanding? The society...
Words: 875 - Pages: 4
...Prostitution is often commonly referred to as the oldest profession in the world. While it is often said jokingly with a wink and a smile, the phrase is rooted in some truth. It is not clear whether it actually is the oldest profession, especially when compared to careers like farming, military, and teaching. Regardless, prostitution has been happening since the days of early civilizations. “It [prostitution] stains the earliest mythological records. It is constantly assumed as an existing fact in Biblical history. We can trace it from the earliest twilight in which history dawns to the clear daylight of to-day” (Sanger, 1897, p. 35). For most of history, the act of prostitution was legal. Today sex work is generally treated by society...
Words: 939 - Pages: 4
...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
... Illegal Prostitution Prostitution is a dangerous business that is commonly known as the oldest profession which is far from an exaggeration. Statistics show that prostitution is legal in 50 percent of our country, 11 percent limited legality, and illegal in 39 percent of our country total 100%. In the United States it is illegal but legal in 11 rural counties in Nevada where they have to do registration and do routine checkups. Indoor prostitution became legal in Rhode Island in 1980 due to an unintentional legal loophole created by legislators. The state enacted new legislation closing the loophole on Nov. 3, 2009. As a nation we should abolish prostitution and get rid of it as a whole research shown that over 100 million women take up prostitution as a full time profession. When they are caught and put into jail they just bond out and back on the streets raising crime and spread of disease. When working in this field prostitutes are a high target for serial killers, rapist, and sociopaths because they feel as if they don’t have the proper tools to protect themselves and they thrive off the struggle. Prostitution should not be legalized because it comes with serious consequences for potential clients and the person soliciting themselves contract or contribute to the spread of disease, it leads to human trafficking and unwanted crime. Being a prostitute or a potential client causes the spread of disease. When it comes to the spread of disease in this profession the most...
Words: 1182 - Pages: 5
...the 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...
Words: 1553 - Pages: 7
...Legalizing Prostitution BCOM/275 September 17, 2012 Betty Bernstein Legalizing Prostitution Prostitution is the oldest profession in the world and is a touchy subject for many because it is filled with vagueness’s and double standards. Even the very definition of the word is perplexed now days. Along with the new definition in Webster it’s really hard to figure out exactly what makes prostitution illegal. According to ProCon.org (2012), “We generally think of the transfer of money as the element that makes prostitution a crime (although money plays a subtle part in all sorts of sexual relationships). Yet in a number of states, as well as in Webster's newest dictionary, the definition of prostitution includes not only the exchange of money but also the rather vague concept of promiscuity... for example, forbid[ding] both getting paid for sex and the offering of the body for indiscriminate sexual intercourse without hire.” In the article entitled “Ten Reasons for Not Legalizing Prostitution and a Legal Response to the Demand for Prostitution” the author, Janice G. Raymond expounds on the topic of prostitution and reasons not to legalize the profession. The article is very informative and brings up some valid points and evidence to support her theories. Two of the reasons that were listed in the article lacked credibility, reliability, and validity. The reason in the article that Raymond lacked these things was reason number six, which basically stated that she interviewed...
Words: 850 - Pages: 4
...Prostitution: A Problem of Equality, Dignity and Integrity There is much argument and debate in society about the issue of prostitution. Gunilla Ekberg, co-executive director of the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women states that “in order to successfully find solutions to the problem of prostitution, it is necessary to think about and discuss among ourselves what kind of society we wish to live in.” Before this discussion, however, we need to take a step back. The first question that needs to be addressed is whether we as a society see prostitution as a problem. Do we see prostitution as an inevitable, inescapable and necessary profession - a profession that has always existed as the ‘oldest profession in the world’? Or do we acknowledge that prostitution is a violation of internationally recognised human rights: equality, dignity and integrity? Is prostitution a problem? A problem for equality It is widely recognised that violence against women is antithetical to the establishment of gender equality, and that one of the most severe and devastating practices of gender-based violence is the commercial exploitation of women and girls, which includes prostitution. The United States Department of State determines that few activities are as brutal and damaging to people as prostitution. Field research in nine countries concluded that 60-75% of women in prostitution were raped, 70-95% were physically assaulted, and 68% met the criteria for post traumatic stress disorder, in the...
Words: 1081 - Pages: 5
...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 and customers...
Words: 2182 - Pages: 9
...Prostitution is considered by many historians to be the oldest profession on the planet; traced back before ancient eastern scripture, and has been disputed since it’s inception. The question then arises: is prostitution morally sound? While Kant believed that prostitution was unethical and should be avoided, I contend that the conscious and choice act of prostitution (discounting cases of forced and child harlotry), done voluntarily and of one’s own accord is morally well-founded. Such a legal reform to decriminalize and provide the right of prostitution would respect that which we hold most dear: our autonomy. From time immemorial, human beings have sought escape from the stresses of society, and since then prostitutes have welcomed their business and soothed their nerves. It has spawned a great variety of opinions; from being an honest and blue-collar profession not unlike any other, to a vile and contemptible trade resorted to only by the dregs and undesirables of society. But while opinions exist, it is not yet clear whether prostitution is morally valid and should be legalized. Prussian philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) believed that morality and its requirements were subject to a universal order; something he termed the Categorical Imperative. But to form an indubitable foundation for such a law, he first needed to establish a common moral knowledge, and so Kant determined that “..nothing in the world—indeed nothing even beyond the world—can possibly be conceived...
Words: 879 - Pages: 4