Legalizing Prostitution

Prostitution Should Not Be Legal Theodore Roosevelt once said “[to] educate a person in the mind but not in morals is to educate a menace to society”. Teddy was a wise and moral man; one should take his advice when coming to a timely and moral decision such as the one with prostitution. Prostitution is an act that is detrimental to the self-dignity and morals that all humans should have, regardless of religion. Morals are the basis of humanity, without them, humans would be nothing more than supremely intelligent savages. By allowing the injustice of prostitution to reign prevalent, we would be inching closer to an emotionless and moral-lacking creature that one sees in science fiction. Prostitution should be illegal because it will increase
STD rates, it promotes human trafficking, and because it is degrading to women. There are three types of slavery in this world; emotional, mental, and physical.
Prostitution manages to utilize all three, thus confirming its dangerous nature. Human trafficking is done to force human beings into prostitution to make money; therefore legalizing prostitution will only further encourage human trafficking. Richard Poulin,(Professor at the University of Montreal), found that in countries where prostitution is legal; the majority of the prostitutes are foreigners with no papers, making them largely suspects of being sex slaves (Poulin). Take Amsterdam for example, where research shows that eighty percent of the prostitutes there are foreigners, and seventy percent of them have no papers (Poulin). This indicates that the majority of the prostitutes there are victims of human trafficking. Another point is that since prostitution is legal in some countries, then that country would attract more tourists who are seeking sexual services; in turn leading to a higher demand for prostitutes, simultaneously encouraging human-trafficking (Dorchen). It is very clear then that the legalization of prostitution will lead to a whole new wave of slaves in the worst
form. There is an estimated 110 million cases of STDs in the United States, and those numbers are increasing every day (CDC). STDs are some of the terrible consequences of lust, and if that lust were to increase there is no telling how amplified STD rates would be. By legalizing prostitution, sex will become an excessive part of life, brothels would become the harbor for disease ready to spread. As the World Health Organization pointed out, the main way of transmitting the HIV disease is through prostitutes and the men who sleep with them, also in turn affecting the men’s wives and babies (JRSM 319). Furthermore, evidence from a controlled experiment regarding prostitutes and venereal diseases; found that out of the sample size, only around eleven percent of prostitutes are STD free (Chambers 69). The reality is that promiscuity will be encouraged if prostitution is legal, inevitably leading to a surge in STD rates never before seen.
Women like Jane Addams and Alice Paul once fought very hard to destroy the old notion of inequality towards women; with the legalization of prostitution, these great women’s vision will be severely tainted.
Women are presumably the backbone of prostitution, because of that the pimps that run prostitution rings typically will do anything to keep their women doing this degrading job. By legalizing prostitution, one would be degrading women, seeing how they are the brunt of the of prostitution industry. Recent statistics in the United Kingdom show that sixty three percent of women prostitutes experience violence, and seventy five percent of those prostitutes had been physically assaulted by their pimps (AVA). One could assume that in the United States those statistics are similar but the proportion is way larger here as well. All in all, prostitution only leads to women being cruelly controlled, and
abused.
Many argue that prostitution is beneficial to the economy, while this may be true, that is not justification at all. The opposition believes that many women need these jobs in order to survive, and that the legalization will lead to an increase in clientele who spend more money and boosting the economy. However to those people who believe economic benefits should be the sole proprietor in this decision, one should ask if they would support the fateful night of kristallnacht carried out by the Nazis, surely that worked out well for non-Jews economically. Society could sacrifice a lot of the morals that are instilled, and it could very well begin with the perception of prostitution, but it will not end there if one continues to search for unethical means of stimulating the economy. As Virada Somswasdi (President for FORWARD) puts it, "One needs to completely rid oneself of the voracity for cash to see that prostitution, although legalized, can never be a legitimate business because it will always be associated with crime, corruption, class, mass sexual exploitation and human trafficking" (Procon.org). Although the opposition sees the hollow value in prostitution, it is not a sufficient reason for legalization due to its absence of consideration morally; therefore their argument should be disregarded considering the United States is a country of ethics resembling upon the laws.
Secondly, the opposition also believes that by legalizing prostitution, organized crime will drop, this is true but only according to misinformed laws. The opposition believes that it is quite simple, one makes it legal and the “bad guys” suddenly will flush out. Technically by law the “bad guy” becomes a businessman or a manager; however those people although labeled differently are still the same old crooks that they always have been. Organized crime will in actuality become more prevalent if prostitution is legalized, because the businesses will be run by criminals. Let us take Amsterdam for example, where the local police and the mayor have acknowledged that the red-light district has become a haven for crime and corruption such as human trafficking, money laundering, and formations of gangs marketing very young girls (Bindel). This acknowledgement by authorities in Amsterdam sends a serious red flag because it proves the notion that only criminals are involved with this sick business; legalizing prostitution would be encouraging criminals to commit injustices. With all that being said, the opposition’s stance would be counterproductive to what they really want to accomplish.
Lastly, many argue that prostitution is a victimless crime that harms nobody; however that is a ludicrous assumption. The thinking behind the opposition’s stance is that since prostitution involves two consenting adults then it does not hurt anybody. Prostitution is the selling of human bodies for a profit; therefore that naturally does damage to the victims which in this case are the prostitutes. According to Torontonian Valerie Scott in reference to legal brothels, "At the brothel, [you] [are] regularly forced to have free sex with the manager and any of his friends, and you [do] [not] have the right of refusal. If your client demands a particular type of sex [you] [are] not comfortable with, you have to do it anyway. In my mind, [that] [is] sexual assault" she says (Doll). Right she is, it seems like although legal, prostitution on a continual basis violates human rights. Additionally, in a study of 475 people in prostitution sixty-two percent of prostitutes reported being raped, seventy-three percent reported being physically assaulted, and ninety-two percent said they wanted to escape immediately (Rapeis.org). This all makes it very difficult to believe that prostitution is a “victimless crime”, especially when the majority of them want to escape; therefore the opposition’s contention is void as well.
Works Cited
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Doll, Cyril. "Legal tricks: legalized prostitution is promoted as a women 's rights issue, but it simply legitimizes sexual abuse." Western Standard 29 Jan. 2007: 19+. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 25 Nov. 2013.
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