Should Prostitution Be Legalized Or Not

Prostitution has existed for decades now; you’d think it would be normalized, quite weird to make such a popular demand illegal. Why is it that a person who engages in frequent sexual activities and embraces themselves for it gets a mere shoulder shrug- whether it’s out of disagreement or not- but a person who engages in frequent sexual activities and charges a fee is breaking the law. The fact that whether a person gets paid for sex or not can change one’s perception of that individual is flabbergasting.

The world has evolved and changed in many ways; prostitution should be looked at as an adaptation to society. Prostitution should be made legal for many reasons but here is three; Legalizing prostitution can lower sexual assault rates against prostitutes, also because this is how some people provide for themselves and their families, and because one should do what they desire with their bodies.

Although it is illegal, prostitution is an extremely prevalent and growing market.

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It is in high demand and by the looks of things it doesn’t seem like it has intentions of slowing down. Prostitution is around almost every corner, but danger surely ensues. Since prostitution is illegal, many workers must run their business in sometimes unsafe and sketchy places. They have to be so discreet about everything it’s hard to plan for safety, which is why this kind of work should be legalized. Legalizing prostitution can potentially decrease sex crime violence. According to Seo-Young Cho author of “An Analysis of Sexual Violence-The Relationship between Sex Crimes and Prostitution in South Korea” stated, “One may buy sex instead of committing a sex crime if both sexual acts have shared motivations for instance if one commits a sex crime because of an unsatisfied sexual desire on the spur of the moment, making prostitution available and affordable might reduce sex crimes.

” Prostitutes are raped and sexually assaulted on many occasions but are afraid to report the heinous acts because it may result in them serving some serious jail time. Assaulters know that what the sex workers are doing is illegal, so they take advantage of this. This also makes it harder to catch the culprits because the chances of them being turned in are extremely low. There is a plethora of sexual infection out in the world, and there have been cases of where people who have STI’s or STD’s knowingly have sexual intercourse with another and passes these infections on to them. If prostitution was legal, there could be routine checks on both workers and customers/clients to ensure that this doesn’t happen. These cases don’t get addressed as much and it is believed to be because that they are connected to the sex trade. Sex workers have the same rights as anyone else and they deserve just as much if not more respect. Society can no longer turn a blind eye to these things because of its association with being a prostitute.

Next in order, prostitutes really make a living off this “job”. www.Forbes.com stated that even the lowest-paid sex workers made up to as little as three hundred dollars a day. That’s $2,100 per week! Prostitution is a job; Most of these workers aren’t doing this for fun, but to take care of themselves and their families. I think we disregard the fact that sex workers are people too and they have a story and reasons why they do what they do. Life isn’t easy for everyone and if selling sex is what it takes to make ends meet for them then so be it. Prostitution should be legal because finding a way to provide for yourself and your family is a necessity. It’s not like it involves killing someone or selling drugs but simply a sex exchange that involves money. If this is how someone needs to acquire a livelihood then so what, especially if it's willingly, but we will speak more on that topic later.

Although there are plenty of reasons as to why prostitution should be legalized, there are just as many as to why it shouldn’t. The word prostitute has an abundant number of negative connotations associated with it. “The problem is that the term “sex worker”, coined in the 1980s and increasingly used by the police, health workers and the media, includes pornographers, strippers, and pimps, as well as those directly selling sex.”, says Julie Bindel writer of the article “Why Prostitution Should Never Be Legalized”. When people hear prostitution their preconceived notions immediately fill their minds and quickly think the worst. It is hard to legalize something with such an ill name to even say. This word is used in a pimp’s everyday vernacular, which means they probably use this word broadly and generalizes it to every woman in the sex trade. This is a problem because this means that pimps and pornographers etc, won’t care if the prostitute is legally working because to them these prostitutes will be looked at as just regular sex workers and the equivalent to those who are being pimped. This name prostitute will bring no respect to those who would be legally working which means they could face the same sex crimes as any other sex worker. The article also goes on to talk about how a young lady was sold to a brothel in Nevada (the only U.S state where it's legal) and is now being pimped out. Let’s clarify that being a prostitute and being pimped out can mean two completely different things. You can be a prostitute and only work for yourself or you can be a pimp’s prostitute work for him or her. Naysayers say that prostitutes are dependent on their pimps which is why decriminalization of the sex trade will never work but being pimped stems from something different than being just a prostitute. Those with pimps nine times out of ten were probably with this person since a young age. The pimp probably introduced them to life by having them trafficked and drugs and alcohol were most likely involved. Those being pimped were probably with their pimp for years so that life is all that knowledge and sometimes since they’ve been living like that for so long, they don’t want to get out of that lifestyle. However, this is not fair to use as an argument seeing as prostitutes being pimped and sex trafficked are different than those in it willingly who use this as a job.

Not wanting to legalize prostitution stems from those mostly men- who don’t like the idea that women can have no strings attached sex just as a source of income. The same people who want to make abortion illegal are probably the same ones who don’t want to decriminalize prostitution. Everyone has basic human rights and doing whatever it is that they want to with their bodies should be one of them. Prostitution should be legalized because people can do whatever they want with their bodies. If you are pro-choice but believe prostitution should be illegal then you are a hypocrite. If it is easier for you to fight for the right of someone to kill off another being than to fight for someone who’s possibly just trying to make end meets, you need to be evaluated. If you are someone that possesses a tattoo or piercing but argues that prostitution should be illegal. Please explain the difference. You both are having things done to your body that was 100% wanted. The difference is you paid for yours and they get paid for theirs.

I encourage each of you to try to at least change your mind about prostitution. Even if you don’t think it should be legal it shouldn’t be looked down upon. Know that this is an occupation for some. This is how they get through life and how they take care of their families. Some people also have no other choice, they were forced into this lifestyle and have no way out so legalizing it will lift at least one of the many burdens they carry. The world shouldn’t be so judgmental of what people want to do in their free time or what some need to do to become financially stable.  

Works cited

1. Cho, S.-Y. (2013). An analysis of sexual violence: The relationship between sex crimes and prostitution in South Korea. Applied Economics Letters, 20(3), 252-258. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504851.2012.697042
2. Coy, M., & Horvath, M. A. H. (2016). Sex work, law and social theory. Routledge.
3. Farley, M. (2004). Prostitution: Fact sheet on human rights violations. Retrieved from http://www.prostitutionresearch.com/pdfs/Fact%20Sheet.pdf
4. Giobbe, E. (1993). The impact of legalizing prostitution on violent crime. D. C. Heath and Company.
5. Hughes, D. M. (1999). The demand for victims of sex trafficking. University of Rhode Island.
6. Jeffreys, S. (2009). The industrial vagina: The political economy of the global sex trade. Routledge.
7. Maginn, P. J., & Steinmetz, K. F. (2014). Selling sex: Experience, advocacy, and research on sex work in Canada. UBC Press.
8. Weitzer, R. (2011). Legalizing prostitution: From illicit vice to lawful business. NYU Press.
9. Williamson, C., & Cluse-Tolar, T. (2021). Reimagining the sex trade: Feminism, abolitionism, and decriminalization. University of California Press.
10. Zhang, S. X., Roberts, K. R., & Xu, J. (2018). Economic analysis of prostitution: Moral or not? Journal of Public Economics, 167, 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpubeco.2018.07.003