Should Prostitution Be Legalized?

A very simple question that was inspired by a thread I saw in the Intl' Politics section. Simply put do you think prostitution should be legalized or criminalized? Why or why not? I personally support legalization, but I'll take an OP's prerogative and elaborate on why later.

Edit: Just to elaborate on associated regulations, a common position I've encountered is that prostitution should be decriminalized, but that online services, street walkers, advertising, and other mechanisms and 'infrastructure' of prostitution should be pursued and clamped down on while keeping the actual act and exchange of cash for sex should be decriminalized.

Sherman123 said:

A very simple question that was inspired by a thread I saw in the Intl' Politics section. Simply put do you think prostitution should be legalized or criminalized? Why or why not? I personally support legalization, but I'll take an OP's prerogative and elaborate on why later.

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I don't believe in moralistic laws, so yes, it should be legalized. If something is conducted between two consenting adults then the worst that can be described of the event is that it is a poor life decision. Do people really want poor life decisions to be illegalized?

Legalized? Yes. But if there is anyone underage their "pimp" should be sent to prison for the rest of their life.

It commodifies women. No.

I haven't made my mind up on this honestly. On one hand, while I don't morally agree with it, I do believe 2 adults should be able to consensually exchange money for any service they please. However, if prostitution is made legal, I'm not confident the gov't could put the proper restrictions and laws in place to prevent it from running rampant on the streets. Imagine street walkers soliciting in front of Toys R Us or Macy's during Christmas. That would be awful IMO. I'm not someone who's going to pin their beliefs on confidence in the gov't to do something competently either lol.

EcoFemSoc said:

It commodifies women. No.

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Good word. Commodifies.

MarineTpartier said:

Good word. Commodifies.

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You're a marine. I wish you knew more than commodification in your life.

We might as well, half the dates and relationships going on this weekend are very little different from legal prostitution...

EcoFemSoc said:

You're a marine. I wish you knew more than commodification in your life.

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:damn:

I wish you knew something other than lame cliches...

No. Gross.

Goshin said:

:damn:

I wish you knew something other than lame cliches...

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I do. What would you like me to share with you? :2razz:

EcoFemSoc said:

I do. What would you like me to share with you? :2razz:

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Preferably not a damn thing.

Legalize it. Regulate it. Tax it.

Outlawing it and driving it into the shadows gives power to the pimps, makes it easier to abuse the women (and some men), and increases the likelihood of underage prostitutes and transmission of diseases.

When legalized the prostitutes no longer need to pay protection money to pimps, thus allowing them to keep more, or all, of their profits. They can feel safe in going to the police if they need to and they can be required to undergo frequent STD screenings.

As for the complaint that it commodifies women (and let's not forget their are plenty of male prostitutes out there as well), well, yeah, in some ways it does commodify that particular person. They are renting out their body and services for a period of time.

But so do strippers, and models, and construction workers, and police, and soldiers, firefighters, crab fisherman, janitors.....

Seriously, when I hire a mechanic to work on my car, I am not all that interested in him as a person. I want a service from him and I am going to pay him for it. When our transaction is done I probably won't give him a second thought.

I can already hear people thinking "No, it isn't the same, because prostitutes are often forced into this dangerous line of work and can't get out."

Sure, but that is most likely to happen when it is criminalized. Legalize and it becomes just another service industry. As a feminist I am annoyed by this infantilizing of women that our culture is fond of, claiming that women aren't capable of making their own choices and that they shouldn't have dominion over their own bodies.

Legalize it and regulate it by licensing requirements (if hairdressers have to have licenses, I doubt prostitutes could object).

When government criminalizes acts between consenting adults, it has crossed a line that I do not believe should ever been crossed. Legalized prostitution is a victimless crime. Prostitutes can congregate in brothels for comfort, safety and easily-accessed clientele. Clientele can see by the prostitute's displayed license that she maintains regular STD/HIV checks and undergoes routine health monitoring.

Criminalized prostitution creates victims... the consenting adults themselves, as both prostitutes and their clients can be arrested and even imprisoned for the "crime" of consentual sex between willing adults, not to mention the jeopardy of street prostitutes being at mercy of not only violent johns but violent pimps, who abuse and steal from them.

It should be legalized immediately, and free tens of thousands of vice cops nationwide to pursue crimes perpetrated against unwilling victims and real criminals. :shrug:

I see absolutely no benefit in preventing prostitution from taking place through the criminal system. I confess that I don't truly understand the difference between legalizing and decriminalizing. Either the force of law is enacted to stop something, or it isn't. Decriminalizing means not having a punishment, maybe? There's no strength in a regulation without penalty, though.

So yeah, the law should not act to stop prostitution, the trading of sex for money between consenting adults.

it already is-how else did Obama win the election? but seriously, we have better things to do than policing the actions of consenting adults that harms no one.

I think it was about 20 years ago or so the feds swooped in on Wallace Idaho and shut down the "legal" bordello. The place is a tourist attraction now but back in the day it was where every bachelor party around here ended up and it was considered good clean fun. The madam used to buy the football uniforms for the HS football team and did alot of good stuff around town, yes it should be legal.

Oasis Bordello Museum, Wallace, Idaho

Sherman123 said:

A very simple question that was inspired by a thread I saw in the Intl' Politics section. Simply put do you think prostitution should be legalized or criminalized? Why or why not? I personally support legalization, but I'll take an OP's prerogative and elaborate on why later.

Edit: Just to elaborate on associated regulations, a common position I've encountered is that prostitution should be decriminalized, but that online services, street walkers, advertising, and other mechanisms and 'infrastructure' of prostitution should be pursued and clamped down on while keeping the actual act and exchange of cash for sex should be decriminalized.

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So the common position is keep doing the same thing we've been doing.

prostitution has been legal in this country for years- we call them lawyers and lobbyists.

But seriously we have many examples elsewhere of legal prostitution. Where properly regulated, and taxed the Toy R Us storefront isn't part of the ho stro'.

Pimps have little incentive to try and run a string of girls and underage boys and girls have a much better chance of being found out if regularly screened and a backround check is done.

It wouldn't be what I'd want my daughter to do, but then again I wouldn't brag about her if she was a lawyer or lobbyist either...

EcoFemSoc said:

You're a marine. I wish you knew more than commodification in your life.

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I wish you knew Marine was capitalized.

notquiteright said:

prostitution has been legal in this country for years- we call them lawyers and lobbyists.

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A great point lol.

notquiteright said:

But seriously we have many examples elsewhere of legal prostitution. Where properly regulated, and taxed the Toy R Us storefront isn't part of the ho stro'.

Pimps have little incentive to try and run a string of girls and underage boys and girls have a much better chance of being found out if regularly screened and a backround check is done.

It wouldn't be what I'd want my daughter to do, but then again I wouldn't brag about her if she was a lawyer or lobbyist either...

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The US doesn't really have a good sample size or area of brothels. The only legal brothels in the US are in Nevada and are in very rural areas. I'm sure the reason they are there is to keep them away from the public eye. Another issue I thought of that will rear it's ugly head with this is brothel location. Sure, we all agree that most potential brothel owners would currently be plenty happy if the gov't did legalize brothels and zone them to be outside city limits or at least all tucked onto the same street. However, once they are legal, it will eventually occur to one of the owners that they are not being allowed to practice their business in the same manner as other businesses. Thus, a brothel owner sues, it makes it to the Supreme Court, and now we have brothels in Times Square. Yes, it sounds like a slippery slope. However, what justification would any court have to ban any particular business from building where they want? Are there good examples of this happening already where a business is zoned to a different place simply for moral reasons? I can't think of any off the top of my head. I would wager that most Americans do not want to see a brothel in Times Square or on Mainstreet in Smalltown, USA.

Sherman123 said:

A very simple question that was inspired by a thread I saw in the Intl' Politics section. Simply put do you think prostitution should be legalized or criminalized? Why or why not? I personally support legalization, but I'll take an OP's prerogative and elaborate on why later.

Edit: Just to elaborate on associated regulations, a common position I've encountered is that prostitution should be decriminalized, but that online services, street walkers, advertising, and other mechanisms and 'infrastructure' of prostitution should be pursued and clamped down on while keeping the actual act and exchange of cash for sex should be decriminalized.

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It should be legal but heavily regulated to ensure the health of the prostitute and and customer are protected and for the financial protection of the prostitute. Frequent checks for STDs, no unprotected sex by both the prostitute and customer,and frequent frequent health inspections of the place of business regardless if that business is private home or cat house.There should also be wage/pay protections to ensure that the prostitute gets to keep the majority of her pay earned from her services so that she is not taken taken advantage of by the agency, brothel, cat house or some other employer.

The Giant Noodle said:

Legalized? Yes. But if there is anyone underage their "pimp" should be sent to prison for the rest of their life.

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If we decide to legalize prostitution, shouldn't we decide to lower the underage requirement as well? If we do that, less people will have to go to those awful prisons.

Dooble said:

If we decide to legalize prostitution, shouldn't we decide to lower the underage requirement as well? If we do that, less people will have to go to those aweful prisons.

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How about teaching men to control themselves??

MarineTpartier said:

A great point lol.


The US doesn't really have a good sample size or area of brothels. The only legal brothels in the US are in Nevada and are in very rural areas. I'm sure the reason they are there is to keep them away from the public eye. Another issue I thought of that will rear it's ugly head with this is brothel location. Sure, we all agree that most potential brothel owners would currently be plenty happy if the gov't did legalize brothels and zone them to be outside city limits or at least all tucked onto the same street. However, once they are legal, it will eventually occur to one of the owners that they are not being allowed to practice their business in the same manner as other businesses. Thus, a brothel owner sues, it makes it to the Supreme Court, and now we have brothels in Times Square. Yes, it sounds like a slippery slope. However, what justification would any court have to ban any particular business from building where they want? Are there good examples of this happening already where a business is zoned to a different place simply for moral reasons? I can't think of any off the top of my head. I would wager that most Americans do not want to see a brothel in Times Square or on Mainstreet in Smalltown, USA.

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many other countries have had legal brothels and escorts for quite awhile now. There are 'red light' districts in all the major cities and smaller establishments out in the country. While the potential for abuse is always there, I'd say zoning to keep brothels away from schools, churches and other sensitive areas would follow the same model adult bookstores use. Adult bookstores have been around for decades and I don't know about what you have seen but I can't recall any adult bookstores near a school or church.

It wasn't that long ago Times Square was crawling with ho's. Better they be in a building than on damn near every street corner. (I'd also opine many people would LOVE a brothel or two in Times Square as long as the motif doesn't clash with the over-hyped commercialization of the district... )