Pros And Cons Of Legalizing Prostitution

705 Words2 Pages

Prostitution has been called the world’s oldest profession yet it is still criminalized. In the United States, Prostitution is illegal except for the state of Nevada, where only certain counties have legalized prostitution. Prostitution has been criminalized in our society and we associate prostitution with something illegal and immoral because we are taught that it is detrimental to our society. Stigmatization of prostitution is as conventional as any other form of social constructions we are taught to follow. Prostitution is victimless and is nothing but an exchange of currency for services. Fifty-eight percent of American prostitutes reported a violent assault at the hands of clients and as a society, it is our duty to minimize the struggles
However, we as a society we need to realize that prostitution has been in our society since the beginning of civilization and calling it immoral when sex workers are just trying to earn money to survive is morally wrong because they are not hurting anyone. As a matter fact, the majority of the women who enter prostitution do it because they are financially disadvantaged and have no other options. Furthermore, criminalizing someone because of their profession is immoral because it's how they are trying to survive. Providing people with a safe way to live their life is the moral thing to do. I’m aware that in our society there are those who have the sentiment that prostitution is inherently immoral, however, I would argue that universally, exchanging services for money is a business ideal that is considered permissible in every society and even encouraged in most, so there really is no harm in legal prostitution. As long as no one is harmed in the process of prostitution can be an honest way of earning
Sex workers who are younger and poorer tend to suffer from more violence than other victims of sexual violence. Therefore legalization would mean that there would be a legal age to enter prostitution and social services would be able to protect at-risk youth from being hurt. Sex workers who are violently assaulted by a client do not report the crime because prostitution is illegal. Sexual predators and criminals get away with committing a crime because they find the most vulnerable people in our society. “Rates of sexual and physical violence against sex workers are lower in contexts where sex work is not criminalized” (Koster). Legalization of prostitution would decrease violence against sex workers because they would be able to report when they are a victim of a

Open Document