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Should prostitution be legal?

Should prostitution be legal?

  • Yes

    Votes: 92 83.6%
  • No

    Votes: 18 16.4%

  • Total voters
    110
Yes, but we live in a capitalistic society based on the supply and demand of labor and services.

In other words people enter the sex industry because it's the only way they can find work to get paid to clothe and feed themselves.

If we're going to be restricting such forms of labor then we should use the state to provide incentives and guarantees to keep them out of that field.

And no, I wouldn't want a business next door to my house.

But, on the other hand, I wouldn't mind if such a business was zoned so they could operate only in certain areas.

Why, if there's no downside to it?
 
Walk in and observe them.

So you don't think adults have a right to be in a room together in private, in case they might engage in prostitution? How exactly do you plan to enforce that? Are you going to ban pre marital sex?
 
It should be legal with reasonable regulations.
 
Why, if there's no downside to it?

It's not because of any downsides. It's because of zoning for residential, commercial, and industrial areas.

I don't want a Denny's or a pawn shop or a Wal-mart next door to me, but that's no reason to make those businesses illegal.

But if you had a legal brothel zoned for its own location, I may start up a business in the same plaza. Perhaps an after hours bar, or an after hours diner where customers or even prostitutes of the brothel could come to.

Or I may even place a competing brothel next door and the two of us could compete for business but gain the advantage of nearby location of our businesses together, such as increased police patrols to deal with dangerous situations. Much like what is done with areas with many night clubs or the diamond district in New York City.
 
So you don't think adults have a right to be in a room together in private, in case they might engage in prostitution? How exactly do you plan to enforce that? Are you going to ban pre marital sex?

Believe me! Some people would like to. They are no fun at all. :lol:
 
"Sanctioning" may not have been the best word. "Legitimizing" would be better.

Legitimate basically means legal, so we come full circle.

It's not a victimless crime. People don't get into prostitution because their lives are going well. Would you be ok with someone doing "business" in the house next to yours?

Couple things wrong with this statement.

1) Some people do get into prostitution when their lives are going well.

2) In and of itself, being a prostitute is not being a victim, though it can certainly lead to victimization in some cases, and many women who are prostitutes have been victimized causing self esteem issues and seeing prostitution as their best option. In niether case though is prostitution itself victimization, one comes in part from a lack of regulation and oversight, the other happens before one becomes a prostitute.

Simple question.

It is not a simple question. Trying to simply things which are not creates wrong impressions. Some things you did not specify in your question, but need to be known to answer accurately.

  • Are you referring to all prostitution? Street walking, brothels, escorts all included? The arguments are different for each
  • Completely legal or with regulations?
  • On a federal, state or local level?

To illustrate just with the first question: Escorts are largely unprosecuted for a variety of reasons(the biggest being it is virtually impossibly to catch them in the act so to speak) and have little to no effect on any one outside of their customers. Brothels on the other hand create an issue of where exactly do you want to let them set up(the NIMBY effect). Street walkers have that same NIMBY effect, but even moreso. Most people do not want prostitutes out walking by their house and businesses, and for legitimate reasons.
 
Legitimate basically means legal, so we come full circle.



Couple things wrong with this statement.

1) Some people do get into prostitution when their lives are going well.

2) In and of itself, being a prostitute is not being a victim, though it can certainly lead to victimization in some cases, and many women who are prostitutes have been victimized causing self esteem issues and seeing prostitution as their best option. In niether case though is prostitution itself victimization, one comes in part from a lack of regulation and oversight, the other happens before one becomes a prostitute.



It is not a simple question. Trying to simply things which are not creates wrong impressions. Some things you did not specify in your question, but need to be known to answer accurately.

  • Are you referring to all prostitution? Street walking, brothels, escorts all included? The arguments are different for each
  • Completely legal or with regulations?
  • On a federal, state or local level?

To illustrate just with the first question: Escorts are largely unprosecuted for a variety of reasons(the biggest being it is virtually impossibly to catch them in the act so to speak) and have little to no effect on any one outside of their customers. Brothels on the other hand create an issue of where exactly do you want to let them set up(the NIMBY effect). Street walkers have that same NIMBY effect, but even moreso. Most people do not want prostitutes out walking by their house and businesses, and for legitimate reasons.

Good points. I wouldn't support street walking. I would be okay with brothel-type establishments though, and they should have to abide by the same types of laws and regulations that cover night clubs. They have to close at a certain time depending upon the district, regulations regarding alcohol and large crowds hanging around outside the establishment, etc.
 
Good points. I wouldn't support street walking. I would be okay with brothel-type establishments though, and they should have to abide by the same types of laws and regulations that cover night clubs. They have to close at a certain time depending upon the district, regulations regarding alcohol and large crowds hanging around outside the establishment, etc.

Would you be ok if there was a brothel on your street? On the route your children walk to school? Next to where you go shopping with your kids? There are legit reasons why people might not want a brothel in those places. It is far from an easy question.
 
Besides the morality question, there is a nagging problem with legalizing prostitution. How does one observe the prostitute at work to ensure they are working safely? Very few customers would be willing to be observed while having sex, and without watchful eyes, anything can happen, the main issue being condom usage. Plenty of customers would be willing to pay a premium for not using a condom, and the prostitute would pocket the extra gains and not have to share with the brothel owner. STD testing will of course catch a problem, but only after it becomes a problem.

More importantly, how does one observe to make sure that they are engaged in prostitution willingly? People who answer "yes" to this question either don't know or don't care about the prevalence of human trafficking in the world-- including in the US-- and that the majority of people trafficked are women and girls intended for the sex industry.
 
Would you be ok if there was a brothel on your street? On the route your children walk to school? Next to where you go shopping with your kids? There are legit reasons why people might not want a brothel in those places. It is far from an easy question.

They should be in appropriate zoned areas, such as is the case with shopping plazas, etc. They shouldn't be smack dab in the middle of some residential neighborhood. I wouldn't care if I had to walk by a brothel honestly. As a matter of fact, I think I might find it quite interesting! :mrgreen: Maybe it could be the muse for a lot of good jokes. Who knows?
 
They should be in appropriate zoned areas, such as is the case with shopping plazas, etc. They shouldn't be smack dab in the middle of some residential neighborhood. I wouldn't care if I had to walk by a brothel honestly. As a matter of fact, I think I might find it quite interesting! :mrgreen: Maybe it could be the muse for a lot of good jokes. Who knows?

How do you think the businesses in a shopping plaza are going to react when they find out a brothel is moving in. Bet it is not well, and it could quite possibly be bad to very bad for business.
 
How do you think the businesses in a shopping plaza are going to react when they find out a brothel is moving in. Bet it is not well, and it could quite possibly be bad to very bad for business.

If the store is good store, I don't think they'd have a problem. If someone simply doesn't like it, too bad. :shrug: How do they do it in Nevada? There are legal brothels in Nevada right?
 
Would you be ok if there was a brothel on your street? On the route your children walk to school? Next to where you go shopping with your kids? There are legit reasons why people might not want a brothel in those places. It is far from an easy question.

I would support zoning to limit where brothels could be established.
 
It was for most of our history................................
 
Yes, it should.

Absolutely it should be legal, if we're talking about sex. If we're talking about the prostitution of Congressmen/women in D.C., then, no, it shouldn't be legal. We have it backwards.
 
How do you think the businesses in a shopping plaza are going to react when they find out a brothel is moving in. Bet it is not well, and it could quite possibly be bad to very bad for business.
In all fairness, I think being in a shopping plaza would probably mean bad business for the brothel as well. It's hard to think of a worse place for a brothel than in between Best Buy and Payless, LOL.

Brothels would probably end up in the same places that nightclubs, bars, casinos and other places that cater to "vice" end up. Problems with zoning isn't really a legitimate concern when it comes to legalizing prostitution, in my mind. There are plenty of places from nightclubs to liquor stores that people don't want in certain areas, but we always find some place to put them.
 
This thread is nuts...what about pimps...who have a stable of girls..who get beaten up on a regular basis if they don't comply..They get them addicted to drugs..then they have to ''work'' to buy more drugs..

No more than a meat market...

Men who use prostitutes should be ashamed of themselves..
 
If the store is good store, I don't think they'd have a problem. If someone simply doesn't like it, too bad. :shrug: How do they do it in Nevada? There are legal brothels in Nevada right?

Not all over the state, it's by county and the zoning is very specific as to where they can set up. The legal brothels are in the boonies. You know Mustang Ranch used to have a sign up certain months of the year, "closed for winter - beat it!"
 
This thread is nuts...what about pimps...who have a stable of girls..who get beaten up on a regular basis if they don't comply..They get them addicted to drugs..then they have to ''work'' to buy more drugs..

No more than a meat market...

Men who use prostitutes should be ashamed of themselves..

And legalizing it and regulating it would prevent some of those things from happening. Plus, one of the biggest reason prostitutes are abused don't seek help is because what they are doing is ILLEGAL. If it was legal, these women would have more options to escape if they so choose. Right now it's an unregulated industry, so nefarious things are naturally going to happen. My biggest concern is for little girls as opposed to grown women though.
 
Not all over the state, it's by county and the zoning is very specific as to where they can set up. The legal brothels are in the boonies. You know Mustang Ranch used to have a sign up certain months of the year, "closed for winter - beat it!"

That would work for me.
 
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