Should We Legalize Prostitution Now?

Prostitution has continued to flourish even in countries that have banned it. In fact, in such countries, it exists as an underground criminal activity in most inhuman conditions. Since there are no health or other regulations, AIDS as a result of prostitution is spreading rapidly in such countries. Forced trafficking in girls is common in order to fill the illegal brothels owned and manned by criminals. Once a girl is forced into prostitution, she remains confined in these dingy brothels all her life because the hoodlums guarding the brothel will kill her rather than let her escape. These premises are not registered, and ftherefore it is almost impossible for the girl's family or fiends to trace her out for she may be in any of the hundreds of brothels (looking like ordinary buildings from outside) hidden in various parts of the city. Contrast this with the legalized brothels in say Australia which are almost like five star hotels registered with the Government. Nothing shady or criminal about them. They are easily identifiable because they advertise themselves and have signboards. Human trafficking is for that reason a remote possibility. The girls in these legalized brothels live in a hygeinic and sometimes luxurious payment. They get the payment due to them (not like the illegal brothels who only give food and clothing to prevent them from dying. The customer also gets a much better deal in the legalized brothel for he is not harrassed by criminals and is much less in danger of contracting AIDS as the prostitutes are regularly tested for such diseases. If still there is an argument for not legalizing prostitution, I dont know what it is.

Watch a movie called "Traffic" then tell me that its ok, if you still feel that way.

Surprisingly, despite what Sunil articulately argues, legalizing prostitution creates a venue and marketplace for the commercial sex industry in a particular area. Customers "shop" there, and the marketplace grows as sellers compete and feed the demand. Once there is a thriving commercial sex center, there is economic pressure to keep prices low, which provides an incentive to bring in lower cost sex workers. Furthermore, the increased legal commercial sex activity provides an environment where it's easier to hide illegal commercial sex.

All of this is beside the fact that "consenting" sex workers who are truly free to come and go and make a living, without coercive bosses, are relatively rare. (There are exceptions, maybe even a significant number of exceptions. But they aren't the rule.) As much as there is a theoretical appeal for TAXING prostitution to provide revenue, and for LICENSING prostitution to regulate health, safety, pay, hours, working conditions, age, etc... the reality is usually that prostitutes are more often victims of their environment and their handlers, and less often free to make an informed and safe employment choice.

But even if you ignore my argument about the general nature of prostitution, and even if I were to concede that theoretical legal prostitution could be a healthy choice for consenting sex workers, my primary argument is that legalized prostitution INCREASES sex trafficking.

If I were to answer the poll, I would answer, "No, don't legalize prostitution because it increases the number of sex trafficking victims, despite the best intentions of those arguing for legalization."

And, if you really want to protect the sex workers, but insist upon making prostitution legal, then make it legal for the sex workers, but not for the customers. Prosecute the "johns", and leave the prostitutes alone. That will help decrease the demand problem, without further victimizing the prostitutes.

An essay by Jane Raymond of the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women International says it better than I do. Read "10 Reasons for Not Legalizing Prostitution" at http://www.prostitutionresearch.com/laws/000022.html

If you'd like to make the poll a little more balanced, you could offer the choice "No, because it hurts women."

Actually the reality you portray is quite true today with our faulty system of laws in place. Those "victims of prostitution" exist precisely because of these laws that seek to push some sort of pseudo-morality on people.

What people don't realize is 90% of these problems are caused by these very ignorant laws. These laws actually hurt the very people they are intended to protect by "sweeping it all under the rug". These very laws create the black market which crime syndicates are only too happy to cash in on.

As soon as we legalize prostitution (and drugs frankly) crime will plummet and both suppliers and consumers in that business will operate in safety like any other business.

As soon as the local state inspection agency starts inspecting all the bordellos you'll see all the sex slave prostitutes freed and countless criminals arrested.

It's that simple - make crime a bad business proposition and those people will eventually have to go get jobs to make a living. With our current laws, crime pays very well.

You can't legislate one man's morality and pretend it's not government meddling with people's private lives, that's not the place of government, and it doesn't work.

Have an awesome day!
Dan

Legalization of prostitution will cheapen humanity.
Sex will be lowered to the level of eating, defecating, urinating (like animals).
When men need food, they go to restaurants to eat. When men need defecation, they go to toilets to dispose of their poop. When men need sex, they go to brothels to dig their penis into women's vagina. The men's penis is at the same level as his anus. The women's vagina is also lowered to the same level as her anus. Women's vagina is where all humans (men and women) come out of - to enter into this world. Thus all humans are lowered to the level of the shits, the feces that come out of their anus.
The words I use are vulgar? - Yes, vulgar words best describe with precision vulgar acts, the abuse of women in prostitution.
Decent men, men if they are still men and humans, will think of ways to pull women out of prostitution, not to invent laws to strengthen the prostitution industry.