Should Prostitution be legalized?

Prostitution, while regulated and legal in other countries, remains heavily stigmatized and criminalized in most of the United states. While there are plenty of economic and labor benefits of prostitution, the vast majority of Americans are against it for moral reasons. With 58.7% of the world’s prostitution occurring (Cho, Neumayer 2012) in places where it is completely prohibited, one might correlate prohibition with an increase in the activity.But is it really that bad? Surely a practice that is commonplace and even viewed as natural in other countries could not pose a threat to break the very moral fibers of the United States and induce Armageddon, as some conservative critics claim. Many advocates claim that prostitution can have many social and economic advantages if legalized, for example labor rights and tax revenue. It’s easy to see how this hot topic has become such a slippery slope. I set out to find the answer to this question and more as I researched the pros and cons of legal prostitution.

anti-legalization

Many argue that prostitution would cause an influx of human trafficking into the United states, despite its already high amount. An empirical study by Seo-Young Cho and Eric Neumayer examined the numbers of the impact of legal prostitution on human trafficking world wide. They concluded that it may increase the amount of human trafficking. Their conclusion was drawn from the fact that legalizing prostitution opens up the market for demand, which in turn requires more supply. In order to meet the overwhelming demand for sex workers, many young girls and women are being kidnapped and sold into international prostitution. However, they acknowledge that a cross sectional analysis cannot provide a definite conclusion due to the scarcity of reliable and comparable data.

My second empirical study focused on the factors and driving forces that cause prostitution. The researchers found that prostitution incidence and openness in countries affects the demand for  prostitutes. In addition, female youth unemployment also plays a significant role in fueling the supply. Policies that focus on addressing these underlying factors of human trafficking and prostitution could have an important impact on the market. Basically saying that many women turn to this line of work out of having no other economic options. Instead of being open and socially/legally accepting of prostitution, governments should provide more social and economic opportunities to women so that they’re not driven to prostitution to escape poverty or earn a living.

Pro-legalization

Trafficking women to work as prostitutes is obviously bad for a multitude of reasons, but many women choose the occupation of their own volition. My next article focused on the economic aspect of legal sex work. It (Levitt, venkatesh 2007) combined transaction level data on street prostitutes with ethnographic observation and official police force data to analyze the economics of prostitution. Their data shows that prostitutes earn an average of about $27 per hour, or roughly $20,000 annually. Although that amount is four times higher than what non prostitutes report earning (about $7 an hour), it is certainly not adequate compensation for the amount of risks involved, which include violence, rape, Sexually transmitted diseases and even murder. This leads me to one of the pro-legalization arguments. If it were legalized, they would have worker’s rights to fair wages and a safe work environment, like any other occupation. Legalization would provide protections for these women, who are human like everyone else, although the stigmatization of their job influences society to treat them as lesser beings.

A fourth empirical study (Moffat, Peter 2004) also examines the economic impact, but in the United Kingdom. Researchers studied demographics of both clients and workers, putting together statistics on how much money is made in different neighborhoods, from different races of clients, etc. Legalized prostitution generates an annual 194 million pounds annually in greater London alone. Tax revenue generated by this is estimated at 250 million pounds. In the state of Nevada in the United states, tax revenue was to fund public investments such as education and roads, but the Republican party blocked it because they didn’t want ‘schools to be funded by immoral activities’. I’m no economist but the state of education inequality is so drastic in this country that I think kids need all the funding they can get, regardless of whether the sources of revenue are “moral” or not.

Research limitations

Perhaps the biggest issue with this data is that it is not comprehensive. There are many different types of prostitutes, laws, demographic data and driving forces that together propel the industry. It is nearly impossible to account for all these facets. Its also hard to collect data in countries where it is illegal, since workers are reluctant to give information for fear of prosecution. There’s also not a definitive way to seperate human trafficking from willing workers, since no legal protections are in place in many countries. Much of the data presented is cross sectional, however.

My Conclusions

After examining both sides of the argument and empirical data, I have decided that I am pro-legalization. Although I personally would not turn to prostitution as an occupation, I recognize that it is going to happen regardless of its legal status and that sex workers are people too. Sex work is a job just like anything else, and as such needs to have rights and protections for workers. The right to a safe work environment, fair wages, and monthly or weekly health check ups should be mandatory. In many countries where prostitution is legal, workers are required to undergo regular health check ups and sexually transmitted disease tests. Brothels and workers are required to go through the licensing process and meet other legal requirements. I feel that this reduces the amount of women trafficked into forcibly working these jobs. With legal protections, a worker could contact the police for help without worrying about getting arrested or deported in the event that she was forcibly trafficked into prostitution.

With unemployment being a major issue in America right now, prostitution could provide many women and men job opportunities. Although it may not be a glamorous job, it certainly does earn a lot more money an hour than taking a minimum wage job at McDonald’s or Wal-Mart. The higher wages earned could help poor women save up for college in order to secure an education and better job opportunities. Single mothers could also use it as a way to make a decent living and still have time to spend with their children, attending school functions and having quality time. It may even afford many people things that are currently unattainable due to high costs, such as health insurance, a decent car, decent housing, and higher education. Another major accomplishment of legalization is reducing the amount law enforcement spends on stopping it. From police task forces setting up undercover investigations to catch Johns to arresting the common hooker for soliciting on a street corner, money is spent on catching and prosecuting these people. The average amount the United States spends on each prisoner is $40,000 a year. By legalizing, that’s millions of dollars that could be saved each year and put towards better uses, such as education or repairing aging bridges. Those resources would also be better spent tracking down pedophiles and murderers, rather than hiring public defenders, juries and judges to hear tens of thousands of dockets of prostitution cases.

Levitt, S., & Vankatesh, S. (2007, September 1). An Empirical analysis of street level prostitution. Retrieved April 30, 2015, from http://economics.uchicago.edu/pdf/Prostitution 5.pdf

Danailova-Trainor, G., &Belser, P. (2006). Globalization and the illicit market for human trafficking: An Empirical Analysis of Supply and Demand. ILO Working Paper No. 78. Geneva: International Labour Organization

Cho, S-Y., Dreher, A., & Neumayer, E., (2012). The determinants of anti trafficking policies: Evidence from a new index. Economics of security Working paper No. 72. Berlin.

Moffatt, Peter G. and Peters, Simon A., Pricing Personal Services: An Empirical Study of Earnings in the UK Prostitution Industry. Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 51, No. 5, pp. 675-690, November 2004. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=610479

 

One thought on “Should Prostitution be legalized?”

  1. Two research articles included for Side A 3/5 pts
    Citation for second source?

    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 48/50 total

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *