Summary: The Decriminalization Of Human Trafficking

Human trafficking is the fastest growing criminal enterprise in the world. Worldwide, human trafficking is the second largest source of organized crime, only behind drug cartels. By CIA estimates, there are 45,000-50,000 victims of sex slavery and trafficking each year in the U.S. alone. The sex industry in the United States is worth a staggering $14 billion a year.

Decriminalization of prostitution and the sex industry promotes sex trafficking and expands the markets for prostitutes. The argument that legalization would eliminate the criminal elements of sex business by strict regulation of the industry has failed. Countries that legalized prostitution have experienced an increase in the number of prostitutes and trafficked victims. The
Netherlands, which had legalized prostitution in 2000, saw an increased amount of trafficking cases. Eight Dutch victim support organizations reported an influx in sex workers while twelve organizations indicated that foreign sex victims had not diminished(Bureau NRM, 2002). In the years following the legalization of prostitution of Netherlands, the sex industry has increased by 25%. Legalization of prostitution in the State of Victoria, Australia resulted in massive expansion of the sex industry. (Sullivan and Jeffreys). In Victoria, Australia, the number of unlicensed brothels has tripled in number(Sullivan and Jeffreys, 2001). In Germany, where prostitution was decriminalized in 2002, the sex industry has exploded. Estimates show that one million men pay to use 450,000 girls and women every day(Moran, 2015). One goal of legalized prostitution is to protect prostitutes by moving them indoors into brothels where they would be less vulnerable than in street prostitution. However, some prostitutes defer to street prostitution to avoid exploitation by pimps as well to refuse health checks, which is required by law in countries where prostitution is legal. Thus, legalization could potentially drive women into street prostitution.
The decriminalization the sex trade in the United States would encourage men to buy sex and dignifies the sex industry.
Implementing this policy would promote men’s entitlement to buy sex and sends the false notion that women are sexual commodities. Supporters of legalized prostitution believe that women would be better protected. However, legalization of pimping will protect no one other than the pimps since regulations are not strict enough on the customers. Health examinations or tests for women are useless unless then men are forced to have health examinations. Both the customers and prostitutes must be monitored into order to prevent sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV and AIDS. Although certain sex businesses impose rules that require men to use condoms, many attempted to engage in sex without condoms. Numerous factors can discourage condom use, such as the need of women to make more money and competition from brothels that do not require condom
usage.

In response to the growing outrage over the prostitution issue in the US, there is a viable alternative approach that could resolve the issue. Though prostitution would still be criminalized, law enforcement can help combat the sex market. Many prostitutes force themselves to work at brothels because they desperately need money. Those who are desperate often sacrifice everything else for money, including their own safety. A solution would be to allow the selling of sex, but criminalize the buying of sex. This enables women to get help without being arrested, harassed or murdered. The criminal law is used to deter the buyers, since they are the source of income and ultimately fuel the market. Without male demand, there would be no female supply and thus no sex market. In America, a significant portion of buyers who purchase sex frequently have an annual income above $120,000 (Moran, 2015). By penalizing the customers, governments can generate masses of money that can provide prostitutes with other life opportunities. This viable approach to prostitution, known as the “Nordic Model” originated in Sweden and has been adopted by many other countries. Since Sweden enacted this law, the number of men who claim to have bought sex plummeted to 7.5 percent, which is roughly half the rate reported by American men.

People who support the legalization of prostitution in the United States argue that it would benefit the victims of human trafficking and produce lucrative tax revenues for state governments.
However, they fail to consider the dangers that prostitutes would be subject to as well as the consequences behind income from the sex industry. People in favor of legalizing prostitution believe that it would promote health among sex workers and greatly reduce the sex industry. Researchers have investigated the impact of legalized prostitution on the inflows of human trafficking through the economic theory. The economic theory attributes two possible effects of unknown magnitude to legalized prostitution : the scale effect and the substitution effect. The scale effect leads to an expansion of the prostitution market and thus an increase in human trafficking, whereas the substitution effect reduces the demand for prostitutes by favoring prostitutes who have legal residence in a country. Quantitative empirical analysis for a model of up to 150 countries indicate that the scale effect dominates the substitution effect(Cho,
2012).
In addition, people who argue that legalization The workplace homicide rate for prostitutes (204 per 100,000) is many times higher than that for women and men in the standard occupations that had the highest workplace homicide rates in the United States (Potterat, 2004).