Should Prostitution be Legalized?

The question of whether or not prostitution should be legal is something that has only arrived in relatively recent history. Prostitution has been regarded as the “world’s oldest profession” since there is evidence of it occurring in preindustrial societies all the way up until today, with some of the earliest accounts of its existence in the time of primitive people when husbands would regularly exchange their wives amongst each other. In the Middle East and India, temples maintained large numbers of prostitutes because they believed that sexual intercourse facilitates communion with the gods (“Prostitution”, 2014). Although prostitution usually involves women, there are some male prostitutes but they typically cater to male clientele (“Prostitution”, 2014). Usually prostitution is accompanied by many vices since a lot of the women that practice it now are coerced into the act, sex trafficked into doing it, or end up not having a choice due to financial struggles. They also have reported abuse from their “pimps” and their customers as well as a lot of involvement in other organized crime, which of course cannot be reported because prostitution is illegal, at least in the United States. There are many people on both sides of the issue that state legitimate and research-backed reasons for both legalizing/decriminalizing prostitution, keeping it illegal or going about other types of persecution and evidence for these sides will be discussed and analyzed in this blog.

For the No side of this argument, I found a solid amount of articles that offered evidence as to why legalizing/decriminalizing prostitution would be detrimental to society. One such article was by J. Raymond who offered ten reasons why it should not be legalized and offers an alternative legal response to the demand for prostitution. One of her reasons is that legalization/decriminalization of prostitution is a gift to pimps, traffickers and the sex industry and she argues this because this would legitimate the sex industry as a whole, not just the women (Raymond, 2003). This would mean that massage parlors, brothels and sex clubs would be considered as viable businesses and pimps would be sex entrepreneurs and valid businessmen. Dignifying prostitution as work doesn’t dignify the women, just the industry as a whole. Her next point is that legalizing prostitution, as was done in the Netherlands, promotes sex trafficking. She references statistics from the Netherlands that show an increase of sex-trafficking and that even in the year 2000, the Dutch Ministry of Justice argued in favor of a legal quota of foreign sex workers because the market demanded a variety of bodies (Raymond, 2003). Raymond also mentions that eight Dutch victim support organization reported an increase in the number of victims of trafficking since the ban on prostitution was lifted (2003). From both of these reasons against legalization, it is possible to see how her subsequent reasons are viable from the information she presented. Other reasons include that legalization doesn’t control the sex industry, only expands it, and increases illegal and street prostitution. Through both of these, that would most likely lead to her next reason that it increases child prostitution, as has been seen in the Netherlands (Raymond, 2003).  Raymond’s next reason was that legalization does not protect the women, which was supported by a statement from a woman who said “the only time they protect anyone is to protect the customers” regardless of whether or not it was a legal establishment (2003).  Other reasons included that legalization only increases demand because it encourages men to buy women for sex in a wider and more permissible range of socially acceptable settings, along with that it does not promote women’s health, nor does it enhance their choice in the participation in the industry (Raymond, 2003). The last reason also explains why it does not enhance their choice and that is because women in systems of prostitution do not want the sex industry legalized or decriminalized because “it’s not a profession. It is humiliating and violent from the men’s side,” according to one woman (Raymond, 2003). Raymond and her colleagues from previous interviews said that not one woman they talked to would want their daughters or family members to consider sex work as a viable option for a career.

Some people legitimize their reasoning for legalization of prostitution by stating that other cultures have tolerated it for centuries and that it will not go away, so we might as well legalize it. In regard to societies of the past, L. Schrage says that we should not look to them to support reasons for either keeping things the way they are or imposing a reform because the stance of past cultures is not necessarily applicable to us. For example, she mentions that in medieval French society, public opinion did not view prostitutes with disgust; they were on good terms with priests and men of the law, and many bachelors had compassion and sympathy for them and therefore they had a real chance of becoming reintegrated into society because they were desired as wives or servants when they came into their thirties (Shrage, 1989). Even though the same act of prostitution was present in this society, according to Shrage, we cannot equate it to our society since the public opinion is nowhere close to what it was in that society.

Other problems with legalizing prostitution were highlighted in the book Prostitution Policy: Revolutionizing Practice through a Gendered Perspective by L. Kuo (2005) and she states that the four main reasons that are often stated as why certain areas will legalize prostitution are to protect public sensibilities, to protect public health, to protect public safety, and to protect women and men in the business. Unfortunately, Kuo says that this isn’t always the case, as can be seen with Nevada, the one state that has legalized prostitution in the United States, save a few counties (2005). Nye County, Nevada issued an ordinance justifying legalization by saying that the legalization of prostitution would be under strict medical and police supervision, control and enforcement in order to substantially reduce the occurrence of venereal and other contagious disease and the crime rate within the county (Kuo, 2005). Kuo states that at the time, the Nye county ordinance was enacted, they had no empirical evidence to support their claims and this stems from a stereotypical view of prostitution as being diseased and dirty. She mentions a study done in the Netherlands, where prostitution is legal, where it was found that only 10% of the national STD rate is attributable to prostitutes or their clients. Furthermore, Kuo mentions that if legalization is meant to protect public health, but they only have the prostitutes tested, then that isn’t fair because they’re part of the public too; therefore, their clients in theory should also get tested for their protection. Essentially, what the bottom line of all of the arguments against legalizing prostitution is that it won’t really change anything anyway. They state that while each city, county, state or country may have its reasons for legalizing prostitution, in the end what they set out to do doesn’t actually take place, or it just benefits the sex industry as a whole and does nothing to help the women, only those who are involved in the overall business like sex clubs and pimps.

In my research, I found that most of the advocates for the Yes side of the question offered alternative options other than just full-decriminalization, which would remove all criminal penalties and leaves prostitution unregulated and could therefore exist in any locale so long as the parties do not disturb the peace or violate other laws (Weitzer, 2011). For example, in Weitzer’s book Legalizing Prostitution: From Illicit Vice to Lawful Business, he proposes a two-track policy for legalizing prostitution. In this policy, it would differentiate between indoor venues that are hosts to sex acts and street or window prostitution. Most countries that have legalized or decriminalized prostitution have only done so for the indoor venues, not for street prostitution, mostly because prostitution manifests itself in fundamentally different ways in both of these situations. Weitzer mentions the Wolfenden Committee of Britain that produced a report that advocated a dualistic approach, extremely similar to the two-track policy that Weitzer mentions. Even though they proposed it more than fifty years ago, the ideals are still very relevant. They state that prostitution was defined as a public nuisance and offensive to the public because it exposed the ordinary citizen to indecency and the exploitation of others, and since it was deemed as a public offense, they recommended harsher penalties for prostitutes who operated outdoors.

Weitzer goes on to mention several instances in which police from different states and counties have not only used unnecessary resources as far as tax dollars go on sting operations, but they have also used an unnecessary amount of time planning these elaborate operations (2011). There were also multiple instances in various counties across the country where the police that were undercover allowed prostitutes to masturbate them or perform oral sex on them before issuing an arrest. The amount of money spent on these operations is staggering. In one case in Allentown, Pennsylvania, the state police paid an informant on four occasions to have sex with women at a spa in 2006 and he received $180 for his time and $360 to pay the women for sex each time (Weitzer, 2011). Not only is it a waste of money, but also they are only perpetuating the business and hiring unnecessary people to do their job for them. In this way, decriminalizing indoor prostitution venues, according to Weitzer, would allow the police to focus on more violent crimes rather than pursuing pleasurable acts, as well as allow the more legitimate forms of prostituting as a consensual business continue.

While some of the aspects of prostitution have increased in the Netherlands as mentioned in the No section, there are some aspects that they flourish in. Weitzer states that they have the lowest spread of HIV in the world, even though they have no required testing of any populations (2011). The reason for this is attributed to their extensive sex education. There are pamphlets, posters, comic books, you name it, on how to practice safe sex. A particular comic book is mentioned that is given to prostitutes that explained with pictures how to put a condom on their client with their mouth without the client noticing. It also featured a quiz that had pictures of male genitalia infected with various STIs, enabling the women to spot these diseases when they become visibly detectable (Weitzer, 2011). While this doesn’t exactly deal directly with the legalization of prostitution, an informed society is a much safer one as proven by the statistics of the low rates of STI contractions amongst Dutch citizens. Perhaps if the US were to implement some of these forms of education, there wouldn’t be the stigma of prostitution being regarded as a dirty, impure and infectious job.

Other advocates for alternative reform include Raymond who says that it is crucial to advocate for the decriminalization of women who are prostitutes by choice because no woman should be punished for her own exploitation. On the other hand, she believes that there should definitely be a punishment for the demand and that pimps, buyers, procurers, brothels or sex establishments should never be decriminalized for they are what are perpetuating this business. Other reasons to not shy away from the thought of legalization include that some experts have noted that prostitution is no longer a major investment for organized crime because it is difficult to control, too visible and affords too small of a return so that evidence combats the thought that prostitution and organized crime are so closely linked (“Prostitution”, 2014). Also public health officials have indicated that prostitutes only account for a small percentage of cases of sexually transmitted diseases in the US (“Prostitution”, 2014). Some proponents also agree with Weitzer’s case that legalizing prostitution would allow the courts and police more time and resources to deal with more serious crimes, and as states before, a lot of time and resources are spent on trying to craftily solve this problem.

When it came time for me to make a decision about who I agreed with more, I found it pretty difficult being a woman and thinking of what life would be like if prostitution was legalized and one of my friends or my sisters could easily and legally make a living off of sex work. However, since I am making an informed decision about this, having heard sound reasons from both sides, I chose to side with the Yes side for a number of reasons. When I say yes, I more so mean the decriminalization of some aspects of prostitution rather than just full-legalization. I agreed with Weitzer the most when he was proposing the two-track policy. I thought it was ignorant of me to close my eyes and pretend that prostitution isn’t happening just because I am neither directly nor indirectly affected by prostitution, so I decided to go with the option that dealt most effectively with the existing problem. As someone who believes in female empowerment, I think that if a woman really wants to go into this business because she knows it is lucrative and that the demand will always be there, then it is her right and she should be able to do it. Of course I disagree with the coercion of women into this profession as well as sex trafficking, which is where a lot of the street prostitution and brothels are concerned. Large establishments like brothels or sex clubs are definitely known to have a substantial amount of women who are not there consensually, which is why private, individual, consensual practice could and should be allowed and not dealt with unless there is a complaint or report of maltreatment. I think that keeping street prostitution illegal is a fair thing to do because where ancillary crimes are concerned as it refers to their involvement in prostitution, it is typically through street prostitution where they flourish. Also, punishing the people who are demanding the prostitution, as Raymond suggests, is another part of a viable solution. Those who exploit the women should be punished, not the women who choose to exploit themselves or are the victims of forced exploitation.

Some critiques that I had about each of the sides included the fact that most of the articles that I found were written by women and usually only one woman. Obviously this is a topic that is very dear and dear to women’s hearts because it is typically women who are being exploited, but I wonder what more men’s views on the subject are. Although, the source that I did use the most and agree with the most was written by a man, Ronald Weitzer, I think more men need to concern themselves with this issue. Also, since most of the articles were written by women and usually only one woman, there were a lot of bold statements made that could have been backed up with empirical evidence, but since sometimes they weren’t, they just sounded like really audacious opinions. Raymond did a fabulous job with her article and she had studies or interviews that she referred to for each of her claims as to why prostitution shouldn’t be legal, which I definitely respected and I thought it made her argument quite sound, as opposed to Shrage, who did not use nearly as many references or citations. Through reading the many opinions of people who propose possible solutions to the problem or cracking down on the system we have, I think that the two-track policy has the most promise in America than the other options. Hopefully someday a version of it will be implemented which would allow independent women to go about this business if they so choose, and stop the sex-trafficking of children and women all around the world.

Works Cited

Kuo, L. (2002). Evolving a Policy – Legal Status. In Prostitution policy: Revolutionizing practice through a gendered perspective. New York: New York University Press.

Prostitution. (2014). Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia, 1p. 1.

Raymond, J. (2003). Ten Reasons For Not Legalizing Prostitution And A Legal Response To The Demand For Prostitution. Journal of Trauma Practice, 2, 315-332.

Shrage, L. (1989). Should Feminists Oppose Prostitution. Ethics, 99(2), 347-361.

Weitzer, R. (2011). Legalizing prostitution: From illicit vice to lawful business (pp. 47-56). New York: NYU Press.

 

One thought on “Should Prostitution be Legalized?

  1. Two research articles included for Side A 5/5 pts

    Two research articles included for Side B 5/5 pts

    Summary of Side A and Side B 20/20 pts

    Who you agree with and why? 15/15 pts
    (Include strengths and weaknesses)

    APA Formatting/ Grammar/ Length 5/5 pts

    Total 50/50 total

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