Prostitution Should Not Be Legalized: According to

¶ … Prostitution Should Not Be Legalized: According to statistics, it's stated that over one in every ten American adult males have paid for sex at a certain point in their lives. Actually, in 2005, nearly 84,000 people were arrested throughout the United States for prostitution-related offenses. Patty Kelly argues that prostitution is basically considered as part of the American culture which will not disappear any time soon.

Kelly continues to argue that Eliot Spitzer's resignation after he paid a woman for sex and got caught was a move to help convince Americans that it was finally time for decriminalization of prostitution throughout the United States. Kelly's support for legalization of prostitution in America is also informed by his comparison to Mexico which has decriminalized prostitution. In one-third of the states in Mexico, prostitution is legal, common and visible as many women sell sexual services do so due to some rational choice to be there.

These rational choices by most of these workers were in some cases after a divorce, economic crisis or after a bad breakup. According to his findings, only five of the 140 women working at the brothel or Galactic Zone as it was commonly known had a pimp and insisted that the man was their boyfriend. While some of these women were happy with their job, they all made their own hours, determined their own rates and determined the sexual acts they would perform.

While Kelly also admits that the brothel had its own dangers, he states that it was safer than in the streets because of condom distribution by government agencies and police protection. He also admits that legalizing and controlling prostitution has its own demerits such as stigmatizes sex workers, forces them to compulsory medical testing which is usually ineffective and gives these sex workers a false sense of security (Kelly par, 8). On the other hand, Kelly states that criminalization of prostitution is worse as compared to legalizing and regulating it.

While drawing on examples from the 1998 criminalization of commercial sex in Sweden, Kelly states that criminalization of commercial sex does not seem to protect these workers at all. It was discovered that after this criminalization of commercial sex, prostitution continued while its prices decreased with fewer but usually violent clients. Furthermore, Kelly also gives the New Zealand's 2003 Prostitution Reform Act as an example since it decriminalizes the practice, protects the rights of commercial sex workers and is conducive to public health.

Kelly's Personal Bias: In this article for the legalization of prostitution in America, Kelly does not mention certain issues associated with the practice such as human trafficking, mental and physical health of prostitutes as well as the engagement of organized crime in prostitution. The dangers that Kelly mention regarding the legalization and regulation of prostitution are not extensive and detailed. He fails to recognize the fact that legalizing prostitution is both exploitative and demeaning to prostitutes and their clients.

Actually, this legalization expands the practice of prostitution, helps pimps, doesn't protect women and results in more back-alley violence. Decriminalization of the practice results in several human-trafficking issues which are contrary to the international human-trafficking laws. Actually, due to these human-trafficking issues associated with the practice, the U.S. government helped to defeat the legalization of prostitution in countries like Bulgaria. Secondly, Kelly doesn't mention the mental and physical health these commercial sex workers who usually lack the ability or resources to use protection.

As a result, they become infected with sexually transmitted diseases like Herpes and HIV / AIDS (Due par, 12). Throughout the years, prostitutes have reported they feel dirty after being involved in the practice and sometimes resort for drugs or alcohol in order to calm the mental torture they go through.

Reasons for Not Legalizing Prostitution: As many countries are considering legalizing and regulating prostitution, there are several reasons why this practice should not be legalized including & #8230; Strengthens Pimps, Traffickers and Sex Industry: Decriminalization of prostitution basically turns brothels, massage parlors, sex clubs and other prostitution sites into legal venues where commercial sexual activities are permitted to flourish with limited restraints. As opposed to dignifying and professionalizing prostitutes, legalizing prostitution actually dignifies the sex industry (Raymond par, 5).

This strengthening of pimps, traffickers and the sex industry due to legalization of prostitution will make children and women unsafe. Throughout history, legalized prostitution is considered as one of the root causes of sex and human trafficking. As there are more venues for commercial sex activities, the legalization or decriminalization of prostitution results in the expansion of the sex industry. Increases Hidden, Illegal, Clandestine and Street Prostitution: One of the major goals of decriminalizing or legalizing prostitution is in order to get prostitutes off the street.

However, since many of these prostitutes don't want to register and undertake health checks as may be required by the law, they resort to street prostitution in attempts to evade such legal requirements. Additionally, these prostitutes choose hidden, illegal, clandestine and street prostitution in order to avoid being regulated and exploited by new sex businessmen. In certain countries where prostitution is legal, strict regulations of the sex industry have failed to remove the criminal elements from sex businesses.

Fails to Protect Women: According to the findings of a research, prostitutes have reported that prostitution establishments have done little to protect them from exploitation regardless of whether they are legal or illegal establishments. Actually such establishments tend to protect the clients in sex businesses more than the women involved in these acts. These prostitutes are subjected to violence from pimps who use violence as an initiation into prostitution and for sexual gratification.

The failure of legalized prostitution to protect women makes these prostitutes to be vulnerable to intimidation, threats, punishment and humiliation from pimps. Australia's Example: While the issue of legalizing prostitution resulted in the split in the 1970's Coalition government, the 1982 Labor government supported the idea overwhelmingly since it regarded prostitution as principally an economic exchange. Prostitution was legalized in Australia in 1984 resulting in the attainment of a legal planning permit by brothels. Furthermore, this government considered prostitution as an issue of private sexual behavior between agreeing adults.