The United States Should Legalize Prostitution

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Imagine a world where your basic human needs and desires are not being met. Each day you sink further into a vacuity of spiraling self-deprecation and hatred. You lose all sight of your self-esteem, both physical and sexual. In 1970, Abraham Maslow published his completed hierarchy of needs, providing undeniable evidence that sexual stimulation is necessary for proper human functioning and self-esteem (McLeod). Sex, a basic physiological and psychological need, which is essential to the proper development of the psyche, has been reviled as base and ‘impure’ for hundreds of years. Particularly, the practice of prostitution (the exchange of currency for sexual intercourse of any kind) has been targeted as a source of villainy. This bias caused the United States Government to make prostitution illegal under the allegation that prostitution led to violence against women. This collection of laws was supported by the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union. Over the years, prostitution has become illegal in many more nations for the same reason. Modern thinkers and sociologists see prostitution in two ways. One view is that regulated prostitution helps protect women from rape and abuse. The other is that prostitution is the highest form of misogyny and sexism in modern society (Marsiglio, Scanzoni, Broad). These opposing views are supported by a mélange of evidence on both sides. However, the evidence that supports the argument against prostitution is based around preexisting social stereotypes. For this reason and many more the United States should legalize regulated prostitution because the legalization of this practice would increase tax revenues and decrease prison population, arrest rate, and the frequency or rape. In addition, the l...

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