Legalization of Prostitution - Assignment Example

?Legalization of Prostitution It is well known that prostitution is the world’s oldest profession, although when questioning the oldest professions, it is likely not the first to come to mind. Since the Mesopotamian era, prostitution has evolved and changed from a necessity to evil. The United States has felt this same evolution as prostitution was once a common thing, whereas currently it is perceived as utterly wrong. According to William Sanger (1897), the majority of prostitutes were in their late teens to early twenties and they generally came from poor or broken families and were largely illiterate. Given the time period, poverty, disgrace and lack of education was a primary cause of young women becoming prostitutes. Sanger asked many women why they became prostitutes, and often they answered the same. They had been kicked out of their homes or deserted, were forced into it to survive, or, in some cases, they would turn to it as a remedy of their current situation, and only wanted to pursue it until something better came along. In the 19th century, prostitution evolved again into a highly profitable, visible and industrialized business. Women became commercial products, and were “sexed bodies for hire” and the business of prostitution was of high profit from the women’s ‘owners’ as “illicit sex increasingly became an attractive form of capital investment” (Barry, p 97). The labor market of the time saw the decrease of women in ordinary domestic labor into prostitution because of this rapidly developing industry (Barry, p 97). As prostitution grew, society could no longer ignore the problem that it was creating, but they could not stop the men that went to visit these houses of ill repute. It went so far as to create a book that became known as the “gentlemen’s guide”, which included “better houses, giving addresses, benefits to be gained from particular establishments and the names of favorite prostitutes” (Pivar, p 31). There were only two groups of the time that dominated the solution to the problem of prostitution, which were the regulationists and the abolitionists. The regulationists supported the legalization and encouragement of prostitution. On the other hand, the abolitionists merely wanted it to disappear, without offering the women any other means of supporting themselves. They were ultimately forced to stay in the business, whether they wanted to or not (Bullough, p 245). The police and doctors that supported the regulation of prostitution were concerned with the control of venereal diseases, crime and sanitation (Pivar, p33). Today, prostitution is still seen by the majority of society as a crime against the morality of humanity (Scambler, p 7). These women are commonly referred to as hookers, whores, sluts or simply prostitutes. They are seen as trash, a bane on society with no moral compasses and whose bodies are ravaged by venereal diseases. There is a plethora of opinions of prostitution, but it is not something that is sick, wrong or unjustified. The argument has been made by opposition to prostitution that they are merely desperate women with cloudy judgment because of the economic issues that they suffer from (Stolba, 2000). This may be true in some cases, but if it were completely true, then the number of women in the business would do something else. There are over one million women in the United States today that make their living by prostitution. Oppositely, about one in every six American men has been a client of a prostitute at some point in the past five years. Oddly, the threat of AIDS and other venereal diseases is now the most compelling argument for the legalization of prostitution. Roughly, half of all street prostitutes in New York City and Washington, D.C. are HIV positive. In Newark, New Jersey, nearly 60% of all prostitutes there have HIV. Despite this, in the state of Nevada, not a single prostitute in a state-licensed facility has ever tested positive for HIV/AIDS (Armentano, 1993). The brothels in Nevada require that their prostitutes undergo monthly blood tests to ensure the safety of both the women and their customers. It is obvious that if prostitution was legalized and the brothels that exist underground were to be government regulated, the spread of HIV would drastically decrease. The “war” on prostitution is simply another government ploy to use our hard-earned tax dollars against something that is trivial, and cannot be stopped. It is currently estimated that one out of every ten police officers in the country works on vice-related issues. It is assumed that roughly one-half of a typical city’s prison female population is prostitutes. Los Angeles alone spends nearly $100 million each year fighting illegal prostitution (Armentano, 1993). These public resources are being used on a trivial problem that could be spent on resources that would protect our society from real criminals. It is doomed to failure, as there simply is no way to stop a market that is full of willing, consenting adults buying and selling a product, which is sex. The ring of prostitution in America will not be stopped, as it is a willing display of personal rights. Prohibition of prostitution alienates people’s individual rights. “Prostitution is the voluntary sale (or rental) of a labor service” (Armentano, 1993). People own their bodies and have every right to decide how to use it. Provided prostitution remains voluntary, as in the case of many Nevada brothels, it should be legal. There should be no case for government interference in an individual’s rights to privacy and personal liberties. The government does have an important role to play in the market of prostitution, provided they legalize it. They should pass legislation to protect both the buyer and seller, through guaranteed volition, with criminal penalties if the provisions of a potential act are not followed. This will protect both parties in their rights to property, which is their own body, and protect them from coercion. Currently, prostitution is illegal outside of the state of Nevada, with the exception of Clark County, Nevada, so prostitutes in other states have no protection and no recourse in the event of physical harm, coercion or rights infringements. The government needs to pass legislation to protect the women that currently have no protection from harm. They are Americans, too, and have the same rights to legal and police protection like everyone else. Governmental prohibition of prostitution is nothing more than an expense that we cannot afford. The legislation that is in place outside of Nevada concerning prostitution is an obvious rights violation in the first degree, not to mention incredibly costly to the taxpayers of our country. This fight against the legalization of prostitution only fuels the human trafficking issues that the world faces. It is wrong to assume that the legalization of brothels would increase the number of human trafficking victims. Beatings, rape, trafficking and the spread of venereal diseases is more widespread in the areas of the country that are not supportive of the legalization of prostitution. Since there is only one state in the union in which prostitution is legal, it continues to underground insurgence of illegal human trafficking for the purpose of illegal prostitution. These illegal prostitution sectors thrive on the illegal trafficking of humans, as this sector of the population is not controlled and not regulated (Bureau of the Dutch National Rapporteur on Trafficking, 2005). Through the criminalization of prostitution, creates the ideal setting for exploitation and abuse of these people. “It is believed that trafficking in women, coercion and exploitation can only be stopped if the existence of prostitution is recognized and the legal and social rights of prostitutes are guaranteed” (Wijers, 1998). Ultimately, the protection that is granted to people does not cover the prostitutes themselves, but rather the traffickers and other illegal brothels. “It allows them to use the laws against prostitution to intimidate… Women and girls being held against their will are afraid to go to police because they will be treated as criminals” (Brock, 2004). This is merely one of several reasons that prostitution should be legalized. The simple question that needs to be asked is if the activity that is taking place is illegal or not. Consensual sex between two adults is not illegal in any state. It should not matter than there is an exchange of money involved. For instance, in the case of a couple that are dating, there is an exchange of money between them periodically. One offers to buy the other dinner or a movie, while the opposite enjoys the item or activity as well for free. One-half of the couple is paying for the other half’s enjoyment. Therefore, it is the same with prostitution. One person is paying for a service that they will receive from another person, and provided both are of the age of majority, it should not be illegal. What two adults do in the privacy of their hotel or home is no one’s business but their own, regardless of monetary exchange. Nevada seems to be the model for support for this argument. The women that are a part of these brothels are there willingly. It is a legitimate business in Nevada, and the current brothels there continue to pursue further legitimacy. According to the Nevada Brothels’ website, the brothels and the prostitutes both are subject to federal income taxes and they must pay local fees. In 2005, brothel owners lobbied the Nevada state legislature to be taxed further to increase the legitimacy of their business, but as of yet the legislature has not passed. Also in 2005, there is anticipation of a new brothel in Nye County that will employ male prostitutes to cater exclusively to female customers. This is not illegal in Nevada, but there remained some question on how the men would meet the legal requirements for examination for venereal diseases. In December 2009, the Nevada State Board of Health passed a law allowing male sex workers to be tested weekly for venereal diseases, making this a first in the country. In February 2011, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid called for an end of the prostitution in his home state of Nevada. He stated that Nevada is a place for innovation, investment, but not the last place where prostitution remains legal. He also claimed that parents do not want their kids looking out the window of their school bus and seeing a brothel. According to the owner of the brothel Moonlite Bunny Ranch, Dennis Hof, he also owns three other brothels, and he pays about $500,000 in fees each year and employs 650 people. One of the prostitutes at the Moonlite Bunny Ranch said that there is no way that a child getting off a school bus is going to see a brothel. They are all hidden in rural areas with minimal advertisement. This same prostitute went on to say that it is absurd to remove a “viable, productive, contributing business for a hypothetical one,” in reference to Reid’s implication that the brothels are deterring new business in the state (Silverleib, 2011). Prostitutes are not different from any other person in our capitalist society. The options of many women are limited by their financial status and education, but for the most part, like all other occupations, prostitutes tend to choose to do that. Prostitution is not a form of slavery, because similar to manufacturing, farming or construction, prostitution is merely the word that describes the working conditions. Slavery is descriptive of the situation under which the work is done and/or exploited. Many different occupations exist today that the working conditions are horrendous. For example, migrant workers or other shops where undocumented immigrants work. There is no call for the abolishment of agriculture or other industries, just fair treatment. This is the same plight of many prostitutes. Regardless of the illegality of prostitution, it still goes on, and will continue to. The legalization of prostitution will protect the women that work in the profession, instead of allowing their basic human rights to be violated by a real criminal. Prostitutes do not have the power to protect themselves against police and pimps in the underground population of prostitution. These men harass, abuse and violate the prostitutes they have working for them. These women deserve the same rights and equal treatment as any other American worker in any other occupation. The labor movement allowed workers in every other industry in the United States protection from unsafe working conditions, occupational safety laws, eight-hour workdays, stricter child labor laws, yet prostitution is not covered. The stereotypical prostitute is dirty, strung out on drugs and was sexually abused as a child. This sexual abuse stereotype is often used as a ploy against the legalization of prostitution, and as an excuse to undermine the issue. Most prostitutes are prostitutes because that is their chosen profession (Koyama, 2008). Politicians chose that as their profession, professors, doctors, lawyers and so on chose their professions. Prostitutes are no different, other than they do not have the same protections in the law that the rest of society has. There are sexist structures that still exist, as in the case of nurses and doctors, women are predominantly nurses and doctors are predominantly men. In the case of prostitution, the institutional sexism that still exists is affecting the women in the sex industry, as it creates a negative impact on the prostitution industry through stereotyping. Nearly all statistical information found that is used by anti-prostitution activists are skewed by their either methodology or bias. Very few well off prostitutes answer surveys or other questionnaires, and often are not mandated by the judicial system to attend any programs to help them get out of the business. Most of the respondents to the surveys that have been conducted are often in horrendous situations, dealing with homelessness, drug addiction, mental illness, alcohol addiction, abusive pimps or any combination of these. These people are under representing typical workers in the sex industry. Everyone is entitled to their own definition of sexuality, and have every right to make their own decisions regarding their own body. People overall, whether the citizenry or legislators, need to realize that the elimination of prostitution is unreasonable. There is a huge difference in forced prostitution through trafficking or other engagements and the brothels in Nevada or elsewhere. Many of these women and men willingly engage in these acts, and that must be remembered. It is again no different to engage in the act of sex willingly regardless of the exchange of money. Under basic legal principle, everything that is not verboten by common or statutory law is allowed. Similarly, in Lawrence v. Texas, (U.S. Supreme Court, 2003), in a 6-3 ruling, the justices struck down the existing sodomy laws in Texas. What this overturned law means for prostitution is that it not only decriminalized sodomy between consenting same-sex adults, but also opposite-sex adults engaging in the activity in private. In 1965, in the case of Griswold v. Connecticut, the Supreme Court struck down the law excepting the use of contraceptives by married couples, which for the first time recognized a right to the individual’s privacy, not through the guarantees provided in the Bill of Rights, but as part of penumbras. The criminalization of prostitution does not support them and does not give voice to their complaints of abuse. This needs to stop through some legislation that allows prostitutes to have the same inalienable rights as the rest of us do, regardless of the profession we choose. Provided that both parties are of legal age, consenting and in a private area, there should be nothing wrong with prostitution. It should be held as simply another professional institution that can be taxed, regulated and supported. The women and men who take part in the prostitution aspects that are available to them should be allowed to do so as they wish. God and our Founding Fathers gave us the right to freedom, justice and the pursuit of happiness. If this is the case, then the women that choose to be prostitutes and are working to provide for themselves and their families should not be criminalized for it. Prostitution has been around since the dawn of time. It is not going anywhere, and it should be legalized and regulated to protect those that offer their services as well as those that partake in them. Works cited Armentano, Paul. “The Case for Legalized Prostitution.” Freedom Daily December, 1993. The Future of Freedom Foundation. Web. 03 May, 2011. Barry, Kathleen. The Prostitution of Sexuality. New York: University Press, 1995. Print. Brock, Rita Nakashima. “Argument: Legalization of Prostitution May Actually Reduce Sex Trafficking.” Debatepedia. International Debate Education Association. Web. 03 May, 2011. Bullough, Vern and Bonnie. Women and Prostitution, A Social History. New York: Prometheus Books, 1987. Print. Bureau of the Dutch National Rapporteur on Trafficking. “Argument: Legalization of Prostitution May Actually Reduce Sex Trafficking.” Debatepedia. International Debate Education Association. Web. 03 May, 2011. Legal Information Institute. Cornell University Law School. Cornell University Law School. Web. 03 May, 2011. Nevada Brothels. Nevada Brothels. Web. 03 May, 2011. Pivar, David J. Purity Crusade: Sexual Morality and Social Control, 1868-1900. Connecticut: Greenwood Press, Inc., 1973. Print. Sanger, William. The History of Prostitution: Its Extent, Causes and Effects Throughout the World. 1897. The Medical Publishing Company. Print. Scambler, Graham and Annette. Rethinking Prostitution: Purchasing Sex in the 1990’s. London: Routledge, 1997. Print. Silverleib, Alan. “Reid Takes on Nevada Brothels.” CNN Politics. CNN Politics. 23 February, 2011. Web. 03 May, 2011. Stolba, Christine. “The Newest Dilemma about the Oldest Profession.” Women’s Quarterly Autumn 2000: 26. Print. “Support Prostitutes Rights Now!” eminism.org. eminism.org, 2008. Web. 03 May, 2011. Wijers, Marjan. “Argument: Legalization of Prostitution May Actually Reduce Sex Trafficking.” Debatepedia. International Debate Education Association. Web. 03 May, 2011. Read More