Prostitution: causes, impacts, and societal perspectives

¶ … legalization of prostitution within the United States, America would actually be better served by legalizing prostitution. This is due to three reasons: first, prostitution will continue to exist, legal or not; second, criminalizing prostitution compromises the health of prostitutes, their customers, and others by not enabling prostitutes to have regular health checks, and third, keeping prostitution illegal, as it does now, does not improve, but instead actually decreases, the social health of the United States in terms of crime rate, suicide rates, divorce rates, and other indicators of national social well-being.

Prostitution is illegal in the United States, with the acception of a few places in the Nevada (Armento, 1993; Rationale Behind the Legalization of Prostitution, 2004). Rather or not prostitution become legal throughout United States, it is in many other countries, including Israel (Liberator, 2003) and the Netherlands (Otchet, 1998), has been an issue of ongoing debate in America. CATAW (2001) and Raymond (2003) argues that legalizing prostitution would encourage and promote sex trafficking and the sex industry overall, increase child prostitution, and fail to protect women's health. Carlson (2000) Killingsworth (2002), Liberator (2003), and Rationale Behind the Legalization of Prostitution (2004) say keeping prostitution illegal will neither decrease the practice, protect women, decrease crime, or improve social conditions of our socity. It is my own opin that the benefits of legal rostitution outwaigh disadvantages. three reasons: (1) prostitution has not been stopped, and will not be stopped, by criminalizing it; (2) the health of prostitutes and those they serve is at greater risk currently than it would be if prostitution were to become legal; and (3) social conditions within the United States would actually improve if prostitution were to become legal.

Criminalizing Prostitution Will Not Stop it

Prostitution is now illegal in America, but still "There are currently over one million prostitutes in the United States making a full-time income off their services" (Rationale Behind the Legalization of Prostitution (2004) p. 2). Because prostitution is illegal does not end it simply drives underground. Further, as Carlson (2000) suggests: "Illegality has not ended the... problem. No amount of enforcement can do so entirely. Its very illicitness adds a certain spice" (p. 1). One only recall the effects of prohibition in the United States in the 1920's, or the frequency and numbers of illegal abortions performed throughout the United States before Roe vs. Wade legalized abortion to relize that criminalizing prostitution does not in fact put a stop to it, and may even serve (under Carlson's theory) to increase the practice and entice people to try it. Raymond (2003) suggests prostitution bad for women's self-esteem and overall health, but Rationale Behind the legalization of Prostitution (2004) counters that "Call girls that have been surveyed reported that their self-esteem is higher now than it was before they became prostitutes. An astonishing 97% of these women assert themselves more. Prostitution serves as a niche for those whom were unable to find their place in any other place"(p. 2). Therefore, I belive prostitution is here to stay, and that keeping it underground instead of leagalizing it will only entice it, and lead to further health problems and other dangers for the women and customers.

Illegal Prostitution Harms Women's and men's Health

Prostitutes who are illegal will not get their health checked as much, and will probably be more likely to get, and transmit, STD's (Sexually Transmitted Diseases), and worst of all AIDS. "In the U.S., sixty percent of prostitutes tested positive for HIV, whereas in places like Nevada, where prostitution is regulated, none of their working girls tested positive since the enactment of legislature" (Rationalization behind the Lebalization of prostitution (2004), p. 3). If prostitution were legal, prostitutes could be monitored to prevent the spread of STDs like syphilis, herpes, and worse. Legalizing prostitution, though, "would require prostitutes to undergo regular medical examinations. STDs would be prevented from being spread as well as other communicable ailments like hepatitis and tuberculosis" (Liberator, p. 6). Also, men who see prostitutes, if the prosututes were healthier due to regular health exams required by the U.S. government, would be less likely to bring STDs from the prostitutes home to their wives or other sexual partners, increasing the overall national health. Currently, with prostuition illegal, it is much harder for prostuites to keep up their level of health and not infect their customers. Legalizing prostitution, then, would serve to make the prostitutes healthier, and decrease the current health hazards of prostitutiom now faced not only by prostitutes, but the customers they serve, and perhaps those customer's families. Even the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (2001), a worldwide organization opposed to prostitution, supports regular health checks, and governmental provisions for regular health checks, for prostitutes. Further, as Prorock (1999) states: "Legalizing prostitution nusually relies on monitoring practices, that decrease the transmission of STD's and unwanted pregnancies. Any way you look at it, STD's are a problem in almost any situation, but competent monitoring in a licensed service provides a certain measure of security" (p. 2). Liberator (2003, p. 12) concurs with: "There is a strong rationale for legalizing prostitution by regulating the industry, thereby monitoring sex workers and consequently the clients they serve. Allowing prostitution to remain invisible only perpetuates the spread of sometimes-deadly sexually transmitted diseases. A containment model based on managing the problem is better than an abolitionist model based on ignoring it, hoping it one day goes away all by itself."

Keeping prostitution Illegal Does Not Help Social Condition

Raymond (2003) and CATAW (2001) suggest that prostitution is bad for social conditions, but prostitution in and of itself, I feel, does not necessarily decrease social condition. Instead, I agree with Liberator (2003) that there is no proven connection between low crime rate and illegal prostitution. In fact, the opposite seems to be the case. According to Liberator, "The countries where prostitution is legal do not suffer from a high number of violent crimes. It appears legalized prostitution does not make societies more of a crime hazard" (p. 11).