Is Prostitution Deviant?

Prostitution viewed through the social-conflict paradigm, a "framework for building theory that sees society as an arena of inequality that generates conflict and change" (Macionis-Society), would be that the act of prostitution is a result of an unequal distribution of money, power, education, and social prominence. Prostitution is deviant, in that it is an action that is outside the norm of the accepted standards of our society. However, whether prostitution is deviant or not is not the starting place of the social-conflict paradigm. The social-conflict theorist would make no judgment but instead ask why. The social-conflict paradigm would analyze the social structure the individual was raised in, such as the education level and thus the opportunities available for the individual to gain skills necessary to accomplish success in society. It would then cast blame on the social factors rather than poor choices or lack of vision of the person. In essence, a prostitute would just be a victim of things out of his or her control. Prostitution would be viewed as a necessary bread of inopportunity rather than immorality.

A strength of the social-conflict paradigm in viewing conflict is that in order to change the pattern of prostitution or any negative matter of society we must look at what forms the problem in order to prevent it. However one viewpoint gives us a narrow solution for a vast number of problems and other issues besides social inopportunity, like morals, values and a persons character must also be addressed in ordered to wholly fix any problem. Though we live in a world that expresses moral relativism, there is still objective truth and there are still things which are right and wrong. Though prostitution may have been forced upon some as a means of survival, it is still wrong and destructive. The consequences medically are huge for this kind of wide spread behavior. Though we can feel for those who have found themselves in this kind of life style, we must teach them new ways of living as well as helping provide new opportunities.