Should prostitution be legal?
 

Should prostitution be legal?

Why or why not?

I personally don't think so.

I think there should be laws to protect women who would be considered prostitutes. I mean, I don't think it should be legal, but I think it should be treated like attempted suicide, those who are into prostitution should not go to jail for it, but their pimps should and the women themselves should be offered help to get out of the cycle

I volunteer with an organization that helps women who are sex trafficked. Most of them are between ages 12-16. I imagine if prostitution were legal, we'd have more really, really young girls out there having sex with men for money that won't even go to them, but would go to their pimps and they'd get a small percentage that isn't even worth it in the end anyway.

I think pimps should go to jail for pimping young girls, but the girls themselves are victims and I don't think they should be punished.

I, personally, don't think that prostitution should be legal...but, if it were, I believe that it would be regulated and monitored for health and safety.
Personally I think that there are other services one can provide for money that does not involve being someone's temporary personal toy.

Ok so where I live prostitution is legal. There is a union for sex workers, and brothels are held to a very high standard of not only hygiene but also if the way in which their workers are treated. Pimps aren't really a thing, because if you aren't going to organise it yourself then there are safe and legal places to work where it will be organised for you.
Because of this, I think that prostitution should be legal. I feel like if you don't consider sex to be something reserved only for married people then why not pay to have sex in the same way that you can pay to go roller blading, you know? It's fun, and people benefit a lot from the act of sex so it's going to happen regardless.
Also, the stigmatisation of sex workers that comes from having it be illegal only increases the danger that they are in because if the customer feels they are doing something shameful or criminal they are more likely to become violent.
Legal sex work is safe sex work.

In the United States, most of the men who use sexual services of prostitutes are older, white men, who are already prone to violence. The girls that are prostituted are very young, usually black and Native American girls between ages 12-16.

Most of these men only prefer girls who are not legal and some of them even fly to other countries (such as Thailand) where it's legal for them to have sex with pre-pubescent girls. I don't think that should ever be legal. Firstly, that's not even sex if you have sex with someone so young, it's rape.

I feel that if there was a way to protect young girls from falling victim to such a thing, then maybe it may be a good idea for it to be legal. I don't agree that sex is only for married people, I personally, wouldn't have casual sex, but I'm not against people who do. It's just when the issue of girls, who are obviously not legal are being "paid" to have sex with older men, that is wrong and I don't think that making prostitution legal in America would fix that, I believe it would make it worse.

Yes. And I will tell you why.

First, people will do it whether it's legal or not.
Second, it can be regulated by health codes, drastically reducing the risk of infections.
Third, you can tax it.

Each individual would need to be licensed, and have training and education on safety. Additionally I would presume they would also need to be certified in CPR.

No matter what we do, we can't get rid of it. So at the very least we can make it safer for everyone involved. Additionally, all of that training and education on safety would look good on a resume for when they want out.

I'm all for people doing whatever they want with their bodies, but I also feel the sex industry in general takes advantage of both females and males. If they truly enjoy being a prostitute then by all means maybe it would be safer for females rather than being on the street. I've heard about The Bunny Ranch and it seems to be pretty well organized, but in the end it's selling your body. I feel like you are giving a piece of yourself to each of your clients, but again that's just my opinion. I just would rather have it legal to keep all those ladies safe and healthy.

I'm not entirely certain where I stand on this issue. I can see the argument in favour of legalizing it. As unionization, increased legal protections and benefits could definitely be helpful. However I am not certain whether or not this would curtail the abuses all that much. For instance physical labour is legal, yet we still have issues with immigrants being exploited illegally for cheap labour. The situation, to my knowledge, is quite bad in certain countries which have land borders with poorer countries. Even with the legalization of prostitution, we could potentially see this being an extra form of exploitation for undocumented immigrants.

Well exploiting immigrants is more of a national problem, and is more of an issue on another level. But if people are certified and tested, and overall required to be trained, people will be able to regulate the prices so as to make it harder for people to be illegally integrated into the system. This allows more police to be focusing on other problems.

The use of illegals would only then be funded by people who are unethical. As someone who is an illegal immigrant can not become certified, as the background check would reject them.

I agree that they will not be incorporated into the system. That the system does not, or can not, recognize their existence does not make their plights any less worthy of consideration. As you mention this is an issue which transcends any discussion of legalizing prostitution. I would also agree on this point. Indeed with current national and international inequalities in the current world system, neither option in this debate would be sufficient. That was the basic point that I was trying to make. That legislation does not sufficiently address the sociocultural factors.

I know this is an older topic, but I decided to comment on it.

Women already do things that put their bodies to work. Stripping or dancing is a way for them to earn money while giving a man something to look it. And many already illegally get paid for sex as well.

So saying that a prostitute would simply be a temporary play thing or that it specifically exploits a woman's body is really irrelevant considering women already have jobs that do so.