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.