Legalizing Prostitution in the US - Essay Example

Legalizing Prostitution in US Introduction The current criminal justice system of the US is experiencing various problems. The population of the jailhouses is increasing day by day and the government does not have enough reserves to provide funds for the increasing cost of operating prisons. There are several solutions through which the problem of funding can prisons and managing prisons can be settled. Prostitution is being experienced by all societies throughout the world, due to increase in the rate of prostitutions, legality of prostitution have been challenged. Several states within US have accepted and legalized prostitution and several other nations have even accepted it as a legal profession. In order to change the face of the criminal justice system and the prison management system, prostitution should be made legal and it should be highly supervised and regulated. Body Prostitution has been witnessed in the US society for several years, several rules and regulations have been made to erase every possible element of prostitution but no government regulation or government itself has been able to counter it. Prostitution is not only a part of US, it is even a part of the most conservative and religious nations throughout the world. Utah is one of the states that have very high rate of population, even criminal justice operators and officials seem to believe that prostitution is a very huge business within US. Legalization of prostitution has a very huge history; certain rights were awarded to the prostitutes within Egypt during the era of 18th century. Various nations have allowed prostitution to operate as a legal business, these nations have ensured that even the profession such as prostitution is conducted in a moral way and other immoral activities are not being conducted behind the walls of the brothels available in these nations. Recently, Nevada and Rhode Island, two of the states of the US has accepted this profession as a legal business within the state (Moss 360). Holland has taken an upper hand and has accepted the businesses conducted by brothels as a legal business. Holland accepted prostitution and has levied heavy rules and regulations on this business and this business operates in a moral fashion. One of the reasons due to which prostitution should be legalized is the reason due to which individuals choose the path of prostitution. Prostitutes conduct their business in a pretty secretive manner as the law enforcement agents do not all people of this profession to conduct business openly on the streets. Due to this, the business does not seem to attract decent people within the society to conduct this business. Females who are a portion of this business come from quite meager backgrounds or they conduct this business because they are quite desperate. Women prostitutes even comprise of those individuals who have been sexually exploited during a certain age or they are experiencing issues that are sexual in nature since their birth or early ages of life. Another type of prostitution is recognized as escort services, this kind of prostitution is considered legal. This kind of prostitution is not sanctioned by rules and regulations just because the service providers in this form of prostitution do not charge money for sex. Officials of this profession are paid for going out with their customers for a particular date or to attend a particular formal or an informal event. Escort services operate while stating that during the tenure when the customer and the escort are together, the activities that take place between these two individuals are not regulated by the escort services and whatever they do is their own choice. Females who are work as escorts come from good backgrounds and families that earn good and live in good homes and are quite good looking (Spector 56). These women do not end up serving the same profession throughout their lives, they are paid very high compensation and after they earn hefty amount of money, they alter their profession. Escort services is not only a kind of prostitution business that is not sanctioned by the law, pornography is another business that has been able to escape the laws of prostitution. The professionals within this business even exhibit similar behavior; they even work for a small period of time within the profession, make money and change their profession as soon as they have made enough. Similar behavior is expected by those individuals who sell sex as prostitution if the business was made legal and highly regulated. The legalization of prostitution would diminish the need for secrecy in the business and individuals would no longer opt for this profession due to the factor of desperation. This means that females working within this profession would no longer have to be afraid of being prosecuted and imprisoned if they start working under brothels that are directed, controlled and monitored by the state. Sex can not be ignored, it’s a part of a human’s life, and sex can be witnessed during movies, music and daily activities. Even businesses and marketers use sex appeal to advertise and promote their products. A research conducted by the Institute of Kinsey stated that 54% of the males fantasize about sex almost every day for more than one time, 43% males fantasize about have sex for more than one time each month or each week and 4% of males have the same fantasy for less than one time each month (Kinsey University 2012). The same survey stated that 19% females think more than once about sex each day, 67% women imagine about sexual activity more than once per month or per week and 14% women imagine less once each month (Kinsey University 2012). Males are found o have much more sexual desires than females, this one of the reason why the rate of rape and incest behavior is quite high in US communities. Males become desperate if they do not get a chance to relax their sexual desires and in turn they become violent and conduct activities such as incest behavior and rape. If prostitution is made legal within US, males who do not have partners to release their sexual desires can easily find prostitutes to relax their sexual desires. Sex is even considered as important for a healthy human being; it keeps away human beings from various health diseases. Researches have stated and proved that sexual activity has aided individuals mentally and physically, one of the benefits associated with having sex is lower amount of stress and higher amount of relaxation and proper flow of blood level. Increase in immunity level has even been associated as a benefit with sexual activity. Sex is even considered as a type of exercise, research states that thirty minutes of sex can result in burning 85 calories, this amount of calories can be burned through extended periods of sex or sex conducted in intervals (Marx 70). Research even states that sex can aid in decreasing the risk of an individual being affected by cardiovascular diseases and sex has even been associated with increase in confidence. According to a report produced by the FBI states that each year eight thousand individuals are arrested for the activity of prostitution. The time period spend by these individuals in prison depends on the state laws and state laws vary for this particular subject. There have been instances where high government officials have been held responsible for committing a crime by purchasing services from prostitutes. For example: during the period of 2008 Eliot Spitzer, a governor was caught red handed while waiting for a meeting with a prostitute at the Washington hotel (Phillips 135). Having sex is not a wrong activity, even if government officials desire to have sex and for that they are obtaining assistance from prostitutes, they should not be held responsible. Even good government officials have sexual desires and for that they may pay for such services, this does not mean that that a particular government official have gone rogue. There are various reasons due to which prostitution is not accepted as a legal business, these reasons are based on politics, health and religion. The job of prostitution is recognized as quite an immoral job by the religious groups. It is a common believe that legalization of this business will result in increased health issues such as sexually transmitted diseases and AIDs. They even state that due to legalization of prostitution, the equality between both the genders will decrease and there will be a tremendous increase in illegal births and rate of pregnancy. The harmful effects of legalizing prostitution are well known, but if proper regulations are in place, these harmful effects can be countered and in turn prostitution will become beneficial. Regulators need to ensure that the spread of AIDs and STDs is countered and avoided by legalizing prostitution. For this purpose, the policy makers can create set of rules such as blood tests, separate identification procedures for individuals working in the prostitution business, thorough checks on both the customers as well as those individuals who sell sex. These activities might be quite expensive according to policy makers, but this amount is way less than the amount of money wasted on keeping prostitutes in jail. This is because jail period for prostitutions does not counter prostitution and as soon as the jail period has been completed by a particular prostitute, they would resort to their activities and instead of conducting their activities in a legit way, and they will conduct such activities in secrecy. According to Siegel, all prostitutes to not end up experiencing STDs or AIDs, he further states that these individuals make over $300 to $1500 each day and this particular amount is quite huge for an individual to earn (Siegel 491). The handsome amount earned by prostitutes can benefit the state instead of costing the state. The state can earn revenue by taxing the amount of money earned by brothels and prostitutes. This amount of money will help increase the amount of money in treasury which can aid the government in spending money on other programs instead of prisoners and prison management. Conclusion The cost of catching prostitutes and removing them off the streets and keeping them in prisons is substantially high and the government of the US and the criminal justice system is no longer in shape to fund the prisons. Prisons do not correct prostitutes neither the profession leads to a decline, the profession is a highly paid one and individuals working in this profession instead of working in institutes and organizations that do not offer good jobs and pay very low. Legalizing of prostitution along with strict rules and regulations will benefit the country instead of costing it. Works Cited "The Kinsey Institute - Sexuality Information Links - FAQ [Related Resources]." The Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Sept. 2012. . Marx, Eve. 101 Things You Didnt Know About Sex. Avon, Mass: Adams Media, 2009. Print Moss, Stuart. The Entertainment Industry: An Introduction. Wallingford, UK: CABI, 2010. Print Phillips, Peter, Mickey Huff, Dahr Jamail, and Khalil Bendib. Censored 2010: The Top 25 Censored Stories. New York: Seven Stories Press, 2009. Print Siegel, Larry J. Criminology: Theories, Patterns, and Typologies. Belmont, CA: Thomson/Wadsworth, 2007. Print. Spector, Jessica. Prostitution and Pornography: Philosophical Debate About the Sex Industry. Stanford, Calif: Stanford University Press, 2006. Print Read More