Preview

Should Prostitution Be Legalized? Essay Example

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1662 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Should Prostitution Be Legalized? Essay Example
Argument Paper “[Out of all the] prostitution arrests in the United States, 70% are female prostitutes, 20% are male and 10% are costumers,” says Melissa Farely who works for Prostitution Research. Prostitution is a pressing matter in the United States today, and can no longer be ignored. Recent activists for prostitution are strongly advocating that the United States will legalize prostitution, which is not an issue that should be changed in our legal systems. Any solicitation of women for money is damaging to the body, how society views women, and marital status. So in no way we should endanger more women by legalizing uneducated and misconceived acts to such prostitutes.
Legalizing prostitution has been a pressing matter by many abolitionists. Abolitionists see illegal prostitution as a punishment against women, so generally they wish that punishment would go to all of the clients and pimps, rather than the prostitutes themselves. Reformers want prostitution to be decriminalized as a whole, punishing all involved: prostitutes, clients, pimps, and all affiliated with prostitution. (Anthony) The main question that comes up between the abolitionists and reformers is when do the women get rights? It’s a very controversial subject because it is so situational, whether the woman is being physically abused, or if she is on the run out of her contract, it’s hard to say when the woman is right or wrong when it comes to her body. Standing on the reformers side, it is easy to see that we can eliminate these problems and situational questions altogether if we can just eliminate prostitution as a whole.
Women are not protected. Too often there is physical violence from pimps and customers, unsafe sex practices, and mentally damaging environments. There were 146 prostitutes that were interviewed from five different regions and the findings are as followed, “Eighty percent of the women interviews has suffered physical violence from pimps and buyers and endured similar

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    It is hard to imagine that in our own backyards, there are people being demoralized and abused for sex. An industry where mostly women are exploited for their bodies and used for profit, more and more women are entering the practice of prostitution, unaware of the risks involved. Promises of a glamorous lifestyle, lots of quick money, and rights of being your own boss, are beliefs among the women entering this trade. Unfortunately, this is a façade of many dimensions as prostitution turns into sex trafficking, abuse, and sometimes worse. As time progresses, the age of these women committing to such a lifestyle is on a rapid decline, with some of the women being around 13 years old.…

    • 1564 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Do you believe that prostitution should be legalized? This paper will examine the pro and con and my point of view on should prostitution be legalized. Condemnation of prostitution is as old as prostitution itself. Sex workers have often been stigmatized and isolated from mainstream society. Prostitution is the practice of engaging in sexual activity in exchange for immediate payment in money or other valuables. Advocates of sex workers have called for the legalization of prostitution in an effort to provide sex workers with regulatory protection. They think legalizing it would encourage a higher demand.…

    • 1795 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “The second voice— sex workers and their allies—is louder, commands more media presence, and seems to enjoy more financial support. It proclaims that prostitution is a woman’s right and a form of productive labor, and that the…

    • 975 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Early 20th Century Vancouver was home to 40 female-run brothels , and police were concerned with eliminating street prostitution . This signified a control and toleration of sex work. Following the 1940’s, society viewed prostitutes as disease spreaders, causing sex workers to be removed from brothels, forced off the streets, fined, charged as criminals, and occasionally jailed . The closure of brothels continued rapidly in to the 1980’s . The perspective shift from society regarding prostitution caused a large shift in the momentum of prostitution. Women were forced on to the streets, with no place to go; their livelihoods were removed from them, and they were not only open public harassment, but to preying men and sexual predators due to the fact they were forced to take their previously safe work to the streets. According to today’s society, because one does not fit into a specific career class, they are not worthy of basic human rights. It is a completely inaccurate presumption that most people believe that prostitutes choose these lives, and so it is not their concern to attempt to help these…

    • 2081 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The essay, “Enough Already, It's Time We Decriminalize Prostitution”, written by George Washington University’s, anthropologist Patty Kelly, is a response to a U.S. governors resignation regarding his use of prostitutes. Throughout the essay, Kelly makes her position clear that she is in favor of the decriminalization of prostitution. In order to strengthen her stance towards the subject, Kelly recounts first hand research into one legal brothel in Mexico, provides statistics and compares the negative impacts of criminalization and legalization in favor of decriminalization. However, it is worth noting that she does not properly cite her statistics or examples, therefore further investigation is required to verify if all statements are factual.…

    • 255 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Anti-prostitution law will imperil prostitutes and in most scenarios makes thing very difficult for them. In countries like Canada and Nevada, prostitution is not considered a crime. Nevertheless, communication and some other activities related to prostitution like human trafficking has been prohibited. Prostitutes who are Street based are the most visible and receive the most attention. This represents only a small section of the sex industry, which also incorporates brothels and escort services. Capturing to arrest and punish prostitutes mirrors our overall population's hesitation concerning sexual activities and male desire and sexual freedom. (Boels, 2015).…

    • 315 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Prostitution In Prisons

    • 703 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Thirty percent of convicted women in prisons are prostitutes. I believe a woman has the right to sell her body if she chooses. Although it is a question of ethics and morale, technically, it should not be considered a crime. As with drug offenders, prostitutes do not put anyone in danger except themselves. However, one will argue that prostitute do supply some of the sexually transmitted diseases found within the communities. A sexually transmitted can be potentially harmful, especially with cases of Syphilis and/or HIV. Nonetheless, a person who chooses to lay with a prostitute has chosen to do so, because it is not a forcible act. For that reason, if a person lays with a prostitute they are accepting the risk to possibly acquire a disease. This then makes a person responsible for the consequences of their actions. An alternate solution for imprisoning prostitutes could be to help the women find better jobs. Several reports indicate that eighty percent of prostitutes wish to stop prostitution and get out of the lifestyle. Prostitutes prove to be yet another example of improper imprisonment. Realizing that many of them have no choice due to the necessity of survival or the enforced new-aged slavery, we must learn to be more proactive. Judging and imprisoning a woman based upon her downfalls has never been the solution to solving any issues, and daily there are antifeminist who choose to dedicate their…

    • 703 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Legalize Prostitution

    • 876 Words
    • 4 Pages

    In this day and age the underground world of prostitution is becoming less underground. Many cities have certain red light districts or areas of prostitution where cops turn a blind eye. This is becoming the normal scene in cities across America. These areas are going to get bigger and bigger if there is no intervention from an outside source leading to an unregulated trade of a service for money. Where there is an unregulated source of money, crime is close behind. They need to be able to be monitored and controlled. Prostitution should be legalized and decriminalized so that taxes can be collected, laws can be reformed, and new policies that will help protect working girls from being abused can be created. Prostitution is the exchange of…

    • 876 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    What is a prostitute? Possibly you know one. A prostitute is a person who engages in sexual activity for payment. Many people in the United States frown upon the idea of selling your body for a profit, but what if there was a way to make prostitution a better situation for everyone. If handled properly prostitution can become just another job for those who struggle to find a source of income. Prostitution also has the potential to become another good source of income for the United States. Did you know that there are an estimated 1-2 million illegal prostitutes in the United States alone? This problem is not just local it is a national epidemic, however some countries are actually putting legal prostitution…

    • 1247 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Persuasive Speech

    • 1070 Words
    • 5 Pages

    According to an article titled “The Oldest Profession” Published in 2009 by Prostitute’s Education Network in New York, Arrest figures in 2009 range over 500,000 and over 2 million people in the US have worked as prostitutes. Anti-prostitution laws are not working the frequency of prostitution is not been affected by anti-prostitution laws. For instance over the…

    • 1070 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    % of prostitutes are from their homeland (Poulin). If legal prostitution has seemed to go wrong in these countries, then it seems logical to believe it wouldn’t work in the United States; however, the element that has made this legalization fail in other countries is the lack of government effort to shut down the illegal prostitute organizations and brothels. These countries still let pimps and criminals run this legal act. The idea isn’t to legalize prostitution and leave the subject alone; it is to legalize prostitution and regulate it heavily. With a crackdown on human trafficking and close inspection of licensed brothels, prostitution can begin to be more open and regulated, not underground and dangerous. This newly found “open prostitution” would damage the morality of women. Many women activists view prostitution as degrading, but “Jane Roe II, argued that if a woman had the right to an abortion (a right originally granted in the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade), then the right to privacy implicit in that decision also gave her the right to sell her body for sexual purposes” (“Prostitution”). Some feminists argue that prostitution is wrong because men are using them for their bodies and not their personalities, but “a woman has the right to completely control--and even sell--her sexual and reproductive capabilities…women are being punished for not conforming sexually to…

    • 1411 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    They examine legal components that address and define trafficking, pointing out that distinctions between prostitution and trafficking in women are relatively recent and have been promoted by organizations and governments working to legitimize and/or legalize prostitution as work. With all the violence, drugs, and negative effects that contribute to prostitution, these are the many reasons why prostitution should not be…

    • 1975 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Janice G. Raymond states that, “In an interview of one hundred and forty six victims of trafficking in five counties, eighty percent of the women interviewed have suffered physical violence from pimps and buyers and endured similar and multiple health effects from the violence and sexual exposure.” Many argue that legalizing prostitution will not be able to reverse the effects of these dangers (Raymond, 2004). These dangers can, and already have been improved in other parts of the world. For example Germany, New Zealand, and Nevada have already made efforts to improve the stigma against the industry. Lifes have been and are still put into danger today because of this negative industry. Although many have already been affected, by legalizing prostitution, the safety of those involved in the industry will be taken more…

    • 882 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Prostitution much like any other moral debate is filled with numerous aspects in which everyone has their particular view on. People attack prostitution from all sides, and then others support it claiming that it has benefits or that what someone does with their life is of “no concern to me”. So in the wake of this discussion I decided to compare and contrast how a utilitarian and a Kantian might approach or type of moral conclusion they may have of prostitution.…

    • 400 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Prostitution thrives because of gender inequality and lack of respect for women’s human rights clearly manifested on the false notion that women are inferior, sexual objects and commodities while men are superior, decision-makers and owners of properties. The system also thrives because of complex socio-cultural and economic factors -- poverty, under-education, unemployment and economic disparity and power relations, making it easier for those who have more money and power to exploit more vulnerable people and lead them into prostitution and the sex trade. Women do not make a rational choice in entering prostitution; they settle with the limited options available to them bearing conditions of inequality that are set by the customers who pay women to do what they want them to do. At some point, State policies which are gender blind on the issue of prostitution may even result in compromising Filipino women’s bodily integrity to sex tourists, foreign and local, military and big business. Our society has made prostitution “hidden in plain sight” –…

    • 1217 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays