Decriminalization and 20th Century Prostitution
Prostitution
Prostitution is by definition the exchange of sex for money. It is illegal in the United States (except for some parts of Nevada), but legal in a lot of other countries in the world. Although it is illegal, it still has a large impact in our economy in the US. “Every year billions of dollars are spent on the sexual favors of prostitutes, whose profit amounts to at least 10 times the annual budget of the U.S. Department of Justice.” (Thio, 215) It is very hard to get a exact number of prostitutes and Johns in the United States because of gross underreporting. They really can only get their numbers from arrests and voluntary information, and who is going to admit that they have to pay for sex? The statistics though are that the numbers of prostitutes range from 84,000 to 336,000. (Potterat et al., 1990) There are four different types of prostitutes; streetwalkers, child and adolescent prostitutes, call girls, and house prostitutes. When thinking of a prostitute probably the first type that comes to mind is a street prostitute. This person works on the streets trying to sell herself. The street prostitute and the adolescent prostitutes are the ones that most commonly engage in the most dangerous behavior, including frequent drug use, contracting STD’s, and also engaging in other illegal behaviors. The streetwalker is also the one to most likely to get caught and jailed for their activity. House prostitutes and call girls are the more “safe” form. Especially if working legally, their work is more regulated. For this paper I want to first outline the history of prostitution. I want to also look at the different reasons that prostitution is illegal in the United States and seen as a deviant act and look in the “John” perspective and why that is not seen in society as much as deviance. Lastly, I want to also look in the arguments for legalizing prostitution; including the pros and cons.
Prostitution is known today as “the world’s oldest professions”.
Prostitution is by definition the exchange of sex for money. It is illegal in the United States (except for some parts of Nevada), but legal in a lot of other countries in the world. Although it is illegal, it still has a large impact in our economy in the US. “Every year billions of dollars are spent on the sexual favors of prostitutes, whose profit amounts to at least 10 times the annual budget of the U.S. Department of Justice.” (Thio, 215) It is very hard to get a exact number of prostitutes and Johns in the United States because of gross underreporting. They really can only get their numbers from arrests and voluntary information, and who is going to admit that they have to pay for sex? The statistics though are that the numbers of prostitutes range from 84,000 to 336,000. (Potterat et al., 1990) There are four different types of prostitutes; streetwalkers, child and adolescent prostitutes, call girls, and house prostitutes. When thinking of a prostitute probably the first type that comes to mind is a street prostitute. This person works on the streets trying to sell herself. The street prostitute and the adolescent prostitutes are the ones that most commonly engage in the most dangerous behavior, including frequent drug use, contracting STD’s, and also engaging in other illegal behaviors. The streetwalker is also the one to most likely to get caught and jailed for their activity. House prostitutes and call girls are the more “safe” form. Especially if working legally, their work is more regulated. For this paper I want to first outline the history of prostitution. I want to also look at the different reasons that prostitution is illegal in the United States and seen as a deviant act and look in the “John” perspective and why that is not seen in society as much as deviance. Lastly, I want to also look in the arguments for legalizing prostitution; including the pros and cons.
Prostitution is known today as “the world’s oldest professions”.