Preview

Why We Should Decriminalize Sex Work

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
243 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Why We Should Decriminalize Sex Work
Sex work is a controversial topic, which leads to heated debates about equality, morality, personal safety, and personal anatomy. While sex work is the exchange of sexual services for material compensation, a double standard for sex workers exists. Workers who are not in the sex industry are regarded as those that choose legitimate and legally protected work. The Canadian government views sex work as a profession that is exploitative and unprotected.
This paper will argue that while sex work in Canada is criminalized to protect the vulnerable population from harm, by not acknowledging sex work to be a legitimate form of labour, it can lead to more mental, physical, social harm. To truly protect the vulnerable population from harm, Canada should decriminalize sex work and
…show more content…
Cana

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Patty Kelly, “ Enough Already, It’s Time We Decriminalize Prostitution’ depicts the compelling, entertaining and mind captivating skills this well-known writer and professor in anthropology captures her audience. However, the essay fails to justify its thesis that prostitution should be decriminalized in so many ways. Firstly, she shouldn’t base her argument on the findings done on this particular social environment as the focus is too narrow to offer all needed information for an unbiased conclusion.…

    • 261 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    (112)Brock’s (2012) article defines the ever-changing shift anti-prostitution campaigns changes in relation to the “marketplace” of prostitution in terms of labels put on the industry. Brock (2012) argues that Canadian patriarchal culture has created new labels for the business of prostitution in an effort to avoid the penalties of the law. These activist barriers to legal and social definitions of prostitution are important variables in the effort to build campaigns that will thwart these methods of “marketplace” manipulation of…

    • 949 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    It is important to point out that this case is not about legalization of prostitution but whether the laws that the Canadian Parliament has enacted in regards to the activities related to prostitution are in accordance with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. As stated by the Supreme Court of Canada in Bedford, prostitution is a legal and lawful commercial activity. However,…

    • 2666 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    How to understand and deal with prostitution is the issue expressed in “Enough Already, It’s Time We Decriminalize Prostitution” by Patty Kelly. The thesis of this essay is that criminalizing prostitution is not eliminating the issue but causing more of them. Prostitution is becoming so familiar that we need to decriminalize it because it is not going away anytime in our lifetime or the next. This is shown by the fact that in 2005 eighty-four thousand people were imprisoned for prostitution or prostitution-related offenses. Patty Kelly pleads that where it has been legalized people are more satisfied with their jobs and are more often there voluntarily instead of being forced to be there. This is supported by the fact that out of one hundred…

    • 214 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    When you hear the word prostitution what kind of image pops up in your mind? Is it a malnourished drug addicted woman? A woman possibly controlled by a pimp? When you hear prostitution, do you think of someone forced against their will? I wanted to know what you all thought before I told you the definition. Prostitution is the act or practice of engaging in promiscuous sexual relations for money; the unworthy or corrupt use of one’s talents for the sake of personal or financial gain; the practice or occupation of engaging in sexual activity with someone for money (Legal Dictionary). I’m not related to any prostitutes, and I am not a prostitute, but I have done much research on the topic and watched a documentary on the subject. I feel that…

    • 1187 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “The second voice— sex workers and their allies—is louder, commands more media presence, and seems to enjoy more financial support. It proclaims that prostitution is a woman’s right and a form of productive labor, and that the…

    • 975 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Native women involved in the sex trade in Western Canada are faced with many difficulties, including: violence, rape, assault, lack of food, homelessness, AIDS, death, and drug addiction. These women did not choose this way of life. However, an intricate web of predispositions - violence, poverty, and lack of security- have lead Aboriginal women to the sex trade as an attempt to survive. It is an unfortunate series of events when a country is able to provide financial and residential security for new comers to the nation, but completely ignores and blames the first peoples of the land for their circumstances. Society also judges and implicates on prostitutes, causing many people believe that women chose this life, and it is a completely consensual arrangement. The legal system also persecutes these women; they are murdered, beaten, assaulted, and go missing without the slightest inquiry as to their disappearances or abuses by police. Sex trade workers are judged and denied basic human rights on the basis of their gender, culture, race, and job positions. Recently, there has been a push to legalize prostitution in Canadian cities nationwide. Where this would be a good institution, as these prostitutes would be guaranteed rights, and…

    • 2081 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the Netherlands, the historical decriminalization process of prostitution was founded on public health standards, but it soon provided more protections and regulations for prostitutes as a means of decriminalizing a commercial enterprise. In many cases, prostitution has been seen as a voluntary profession that protects the rights of the prostitute, and prevents the involuntary exploitation of children and adults into the sex trade. In a similar manner, Canada has also had a history of decriminalizing prostitution in the 20th century, but with increasing barriers to worker’s rights for voluntary prostitutes as a legal and regulated business. However, modern Canadian legislation only protects involuntary sex workers, such as children and lower-class adult women, and it does not support the idea of a more expanded commercialized system of regulation for voluntary sex workers. This is a major difference between the decriminalized sex trade of the Netherlands and criminalized prostitution in Canada, which supports voluntary sex workers as members of a commercial trade. Certainly, the example of the Netherlands provides a more developed acknowledgment of voluntary sex workers as having rights under the protection of government regulation, which is also being considered in Canada.…

    • 1030 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The essay, “Enough Already, It's Time We Decriminalize Prostitution”, written by George Washington University’s, anthropologist Patty Kelly, is a response to a U.S. governors resignation regarding his use of prostitutes. Throughout the essay, Kelly makes her position clear that she is in favor of the decriminalization of prostitution. In order to strengthen her stance towards the subject, Kelly recounts first hand research into one legal brothel in Mexico, provides statistics and compares the negative impacts of criminalization and legalization in favor of decriminalization. However, it is worth noting that she does not properly cite her statistics or examples, therefore further investigation is required to verify if all statements are factual.…

    • 255 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Migrant Workers In Canada

    • 464 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Macklin (2013) explains that migrant workers participate on different types work because they need to support their families and/or themselves and have no other means of work. Macklin (2013) acknowledges that gender-inclusive phenomenon exist in the Canadian market. Women are imported to perform traditional women roles because the role is gender specific. Many Canadian women are not fulfilling traditional female role, so for that reasons many migrant workers it becomes a transnational trade. These services are usually sex workers, domestic workers, and mail orders. Macklin (2013) defines sex trade workers as a person whose work involves sexually explicit behaviour. Domestic workers are people who are paid to help with mental tasks such as cleaning or nanny. Mail-order brides are women who enlist herself to be selected by a man for a marriage. Macklin (2013) notes that trading women in a business and migrant women are used for certain jobs, whether working for a pimp, parents or a single men, most of the women are poor and young. The impact of international law on domestic and immigration law is seen as a symbol. Canada laws does not protect migrant workers for being exploited and trafficked, instead it is used to make a decision about sexual exploitation that does not sex workers. Overall, the Canadian government has constructed migrant workers as outsiders and women are affected by construction because they use as trading pieces in the Canadian…

    • 464 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Prostitution In Canada

    • 537 Words
    • 3 Pages

    It is essential to understand that people, both men and women, do actively and willingly engage in sex work; the reality is, it is not going away. It is my opinion, and indeed the opinion of the Government of Canada, that some forms of sex work should be legalized.…

    • 537 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Anti-prostitution law will imperil prostitutes and in most scenarios makes thing very difficult for them. In countries like Canada and Nevada, prostitution is not considered a crime. Nevertheless, communication and some other activities related to prostitution like human trafficking has been prohibited. Prostitutes who are Street based are the most visible and receive the most attention. This represents only a small section of the sex industry, which also incorporates brothels and escort services. Capturing to arrest and punish prostitutes mirrors our overall population's hesitation concerning sexual activities and male desire and sexual freedom. (Boels, 2015).…

    • 315 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Canada’s approach of regulating sex work has dramatically changed over the years. Commonly referred to as the world’s oldest profession, sex work today is associated with the issues of power. The practices of sex work are constructed by patriarchal conditions, “which both creates and legitimates the ‘needs’ as well as it perpetuates the systems and practices that permit sex work to flourish under capitalism” (Jeffreys, 2008, p. 185). The term sex work can be interpreted in mean different ways; it encompasses all forms of activities related to the sex industry, otherwise recognised as “prostitution”. The topic of sex work gives rise to intense debates on issues of morality, organized crime, sexuality, human trafficking, the abuse of women and children, public health and safety, human rights violations and gendered oppression. Throughout this paper, an overview of the Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act will be provided, followed by the history and an analysis of the issue from the conflicting sides. The discussion that follows examines the impacts of the Bill C-36 on social work practice.…

    • 241 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Love , V. (2013), “Champagne, Strawberries, and Truck-Stop Motels: On Subjectivity and Sex Work,” in Emily van der Meulen, Elya M. Durisin, and Victoria Love (eds.), Selling Sex: Experience, Research, and Advocacy on Sex Work in Canada. Vancouver: UBC Press, pp. 58-64.…

    • 2041 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Best Essays

    Sociology

    • 3442 Words
    • 14 Pages

    Thesis: Prostitution in Dumaguete is the highest increasing illegal activity in the city which takes place in the boulevard causing tourist’s constant coming in the area.…

    • 3442 Words
    • 14 Pages
    Best Essays