Prostitution laws

[Moni_Gail]

i feel it does matter.


like assassination, slave trade or rape. legalize?

that something is 'part of the human condition' does not make it morally acceptable. and no, i don't care for 'puritanism'. i care about where to draw the line in regard to dehumanizing people. i care about that i don't want to live in a society where those who can't pay can be exploited for sexual gratification by those who can pay.

i care about the fact that most of the 'sex workers' in germany or the netherlands is trafficked from eastern europe or third world countries. that after legalizing prostitution in the netherlands child prostitution increased rapidly. i care about the fact that in the netherlands, 75% of the women in prostitution want to leave the industry.

If you go back and read my post you'll see that I clearly stated CONSENTING ADULTS.

you're being criminally naïve.

In what way is this conducive to a good debate. If you feel the need to fall back on this pettiness then perhaps it's best if you step away from the computer before submitting a reply. Stay on topic and don't pretend to know me or my opinions well enough. Otherwise engage someone else in the future as I have no patience for this kind of childishness.

Prostitution is often described as "the world's oldest profession." It has been thought prostitution (at least in the modern sense) cannot have emerged before the emergence of money, which can only have taken place after the emergence of several trades, and it has been claimed that - when counting out hunting - midwifery, or perhaps gardening or teaching, are really the world's oldest professions. However, prostitution in exchange for goods or services may have been common for many thousands of years and may date to early man. Additionally, prostitution has been noted in Bonobo chimpanzee behavior based around access to food and gifts of food, and in penguins in regard to access for suitable stones for nest building. Until the age of industrialization the world was basically agrarian, so goods and services were most often obtained by barter.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prostitution#History

As many are already aware, wikipedia isn't exactly the best source. Now, if you want to talk of old professions, many think of different types of labor. Well, before we had the knowledge to forge metal and other things, we had sex. We had the ability to physically please others be it for shelter or food. Did anyone specify what type of payment?

so it's essentially a question of what we mean by "profession"...but more importantly : "so what"?.

Again, you answered this earlier on by saying it did matter. You seem to be going in circles.

btw, let me throw out a question to anyone who's in favour of legalizing prostitution : would you feel comfortable with your family members selling their bodies? would you yourself 'take the opportunity'?

Some have compared marriage to prostitution. Love someone for sex and/or have sex with someone in the hopes of gaining love. I care not what my family member choose to do. No, I wouldn't 'take the opportunity', but that's neither here nor there. Just because I don't choose to do something does not mean that others shouldn't have the option. Again, how does this have anything to do with it being legal or not?

 

[Moni_Gail]

however, if we're talking about legalizing prostitution in the real world, the absolute majority of prostitutes are not people who 'physically enjoy' selling their bodies to men (most of the time) that could be practically anyone. legalizing prostitution in the netherlands, germany or victoria has not lead to this paradise of free choice and good treatment that you speak of. rather, it has been a gift to the pimps who are now considered legit businessmen, child prostitution and trafficking has gone up and ironically, illegal prostitution has also gone up. and the violence is consistent.

Blanket statements? Or did you take a poll?

why are you trying to push your morals on other people?

Conducive to the debate? This is getting monotonous. It's quite obviously the way things are done here in the states. Which, wasn't the OP from the states? Therefore my post centered around the way things are done here. If this was about Europe, I wouldn't probably be involved seeing as how I don't live there or know the culture well enough.

good question. why do we allow the porn industry?

Answering a question with a question? Was this suppose to make a point?

 

[Ryan2065]

Hrm... should we legalize prostitution? Well... lets see...

i care about the fact that most of the 'sex workers' in germany or the netherlands is trafficked from eastern europe or third world countries. that after legalizing prostitution in the netherlands child prostitution increased rapidly.

If we made cars illegal the number of speeders... Drunk drivers... and all those other crimes would go down drastically. If we legalized prostitution it would be a little bit easier to find the child sex workers... A greater percentage of the works on the street then would be child sex workers simply because the children would not be able to actually get jobs in the real sex shops.

i care about the fact that in the netherlands, 75% of the women in prostitution want to leave the industry.

Why not find stats showing how many maids love their job and would not leave the job for another, better job if given the opportunity. Should we legalize a profession based on employee sastisfaction?

btw, let me throw out a question to anyone who's in favour of legalizing prostitution : would you feel comfortable with your family members selling their bodies? would you yourself 'take the opportunity'?

Sure... if it is something they need to do to get by. I wouldn't want any of my family to be janitors, maids, etc etc either... But if they needed to pick up those jobs to get by then thats what they should do.

however, if we're talking about legalizing prostitution in the real world, the absolute majority of prostitutes are not people who 'physically enjoy' selling their bodies to men (most of the time) that could be practically anyone. legalizing prostitution in the netherlands, germany or victoria has not lead to this paradise of free choice and good treatment that you speak of. rather, it has been a gift to the pimps who are now considered legit businessmen, child prostitution and trafficking has gone up and ironically, illegal prostitution has also gone up. and the violence is consistent.

Yay... it happens in other countries so it will happen in this country! Too bad none of our states have prostitution legal so we could get a better idea of how much violence prostitutes would recieve in this country... Oh wait....

http://jiv.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/20/3/270.pdf

There is strong indication from the interview,
document analysis, and ethnographic data presented here that legal
brothels generally offer a safer working environment than their illegal counterparts.
Regulated brothels offer particular ways of dealing with pragmatic
safety issues and minimizing actual violence, including violence passed
from johns to prostitutes and back to johns through diseases, viruses, and
infections. Nevada brothels offer specific mechanisms to protectworkers via
theways transactions are organized, theways technology is ordered, the visibility
of customers, the bureaucratic relationships among customers, managers,
and workers, and the cooperation with police based on the mere fact of
their legality. All of these mechanismswork to eliminate systematic violence
and to discourage an atmosphere of danger and risk that, as a mirror image of
fact, is significant.

In sum, this work challenges assumptions that
prostitution and violence necessarily and inevitably coexist in predictable
ways. Safety, danger, risk, and violence are systems that operate in particular
ways, to particular degrees, in particular socioeconomic and cultural contexts.
Crafting good prostitution policies that minimize risk, combat violence,
contain fear, empower women, and strengthen communities requires
good data and a thorough understanding of the meaning of violence in particular
situations and institutional contexts.

 

[d.]

Blanket statements? Or did you take a poll?

i feel i've supplied sufficient statistics in previous posts...you've supplied none.

Conducive to the debate? This is getting monotonous.

i said : why are you trying to push your morals on other people?

in response to : No matter how much some may try to push their morals on the situation it's always going to be there.

It's quite obviously the way things are done here in the states. Which, wasn't the OP from the states? Therefore my post centered around the way things are done here. If this was about Europe, I wouldn't probably be involved seeing as how I don't live there or know the culture well enough.

there's a special forum for north american politics. since this wasn't placed there, and this is an international forum...the OP didn't mention anything about the US.

Answering a question with a question? Was this suppose to make a point?

consider it a cry for help...:sad4:

 

[d.]

If you go back and read my post you'll see that I clearly stated CONSENTING ADULTS.

yes, and i'm not saying that you're advocating trafficking. but my point is that a relation between lax prostitution laws and trafficking has been observed.

Stay on topic and don't pretend to know me or my opinions well enough.

i'm not talking about you. your statement 'it doesn't harm anyone' is at best naïve.

As many are already aware, wikipedia isn't exactly the best source.

that's not really the point. it was the first hit on google. you said i couldn't find anything that contradicted your statement.

Now, if you want to talk of old professions, many think of different types of labor. Well, before we had the knowledge to forge metal and other things, we had sex. We had the ability to physically please others be it for shelter or food. Did anyone specify what type of payment?

all speculation. i could make up a similar story, claiming that since before we had 'the knowledge to forge metal and other things', we had hair, and therefore hairdresser is the oldest profession. but this story holds little merit, because i made it up. see?

and again, how is this relevant to the legalization of prostitution today?

Again, you answered this earlier on by saying it did matter. You seem to be going in circles.

it matters because bad arguments need to be countered. saying that 'it's the oldest profession, so it can't be supressed' is an obscene simplification of a complex reality.

Some have compared marriage to prostitution.

if we're talking arranged marriage, the comparison holds some merit. but western, consentual marriage? i assure you the two experiences is very different.

Love someone for sex and/or have sex with someone in the hopes of gaining love.

what?

I care not what my family member choose to do. No, I wouldn't 'take the opportunity', but that's neither here nor there. Just because I don't choose to do something does not mean that others shouldn't have the option. Again, how does this have anything to do with it being legal or not?

it was clearly labelled as a question, not an argument...however it is important to remember that we are talking about real people, and the question also relates to the social stigma of being a prostitute. who is going to supply these 'services'? is it your children, or the children of the cleaning lady?

 

[d.]

If we made cars illegal the number of speeders... Drunk drivers... and all those other crimes would go down drastically. If we legalized prostitution it would be a little bit easier to find the child sex workers... A greater percentage of the works on the street then would be child sex workers simply because the children would not be able to actually get jobs in the real sex shops.

'child sex workers'? :sarcastic perhaps that wasn't a very successful wording.

'if we made cars illegal'...please.

Why not find stats showing how many maids love their job and would not leave the job for another, better job if given the opportunity. Should we legalize a profession based on employee sastisfaction?

i'm not sure i want to accept those premises. i don't like the idea of maids either.

it's ultimately a matter of where to draw the line.

it's not as simple as 'it's their choice'. as individuals, we rarely have control over what kind of circumstances we are born into. given different conditions, we are presented with different choices on how to get on in life. this is unfortunately the reality of living in western society. some kid growing up in poverty will not have the same freedom in making career desicions as paris hilton has had. i think most people can agree on this.

as a society, we have some choice regarding what options is presented to those that can't pay for themselves. legalizing prostitution (buying and pimping) attempts to make prostitution a profession like any other. meaning, it could be your only option. or your only reasonable option.

legalizing prostitution ultimately gives more power to those that can pay for themselves over those that can't. we can now buy their bodies and their consent too. the bodies of the poor, the junkies, the underclass. well, we can now, but it's officially shunned. legalizing prostitution makes that OK. it'll be OK for physically or mentally repulsive men and women to buy consent. or just any man or woman that doesn't want to bother with actual humans. that just wants a posable flesh mannequin.

which makes it an important psychological barrier too...i'd like to see some rape statistics where prostitution is legal.

Sure... if it is something they need to do to get by. I wouldn't want any of my family to be janitors, maids, etc etc either... But if they needed to pick up those jobs to get by then thats what they should do.

so you see no difference between mopping floors and helping strangers masturbate inside your body. that's interesting.

Yay... it happens in other countries so it will happen in this country!

experience of similar situations should have some merit...

http://jiv.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/20/3/270.pdf

i'll be getting back to this, as reading this requires a little more time that i have at the moment (i have a deadline this week)... so i'll just say that i'm in favor of decriminalizing the prostitute, and criminalizing the buyers and the pimps. this would also, properly enforced, serve to protect the prostitutes.

 

[Ryan2065]

it's not as simple as 'it's their choice'. as individuals, we rarely have control over what kind of circumstances we are born into. given different conditions, we are presented with different choices on how to get on in life. this is unfortunately the reality of living in western society. some kid growing up in poverty will not have the same freedom in making career desicions as paris hilton has had. i think most people can agree on this.

Well right... Thats how the world works... To make something illegal because the person doing the job might be unhappy would force you to make tons of jobs illegal... While there are some prostitutes who do prostitution out of necessity, there are some who actually do it because it is something they WANT to do. Currently it is illegal to be a prostitute and very dangerous (dangerous becasue it is illegal) so a majority of the prostitutes do it because they are forced to... If it were legalized people who wanted to be prostitutes would be able to go about their business.

as a society, we have some choice regarding what options is presented to those that can't pay for themselves. legalizing prostitution (buying and pimping) attempts to make prostitution a profession like any other. meaning, it could be your only option. or your only reasonable option.

Why shouldn't prostitution be a profession like any other? Its only sex... Just because sex is morally wrong to some people does not mean it should dictate the actions of a nation.

legalizing prostitution ultimately gives more power to those that can pay for themselves over those that can't. we can now buy their bodies and their consent too.

You don't buy their consent... You buy their services... You are not legally allowed to force anyone to do anything... If you hire a maid and they refuse to clean behind your fridge... You don't get out a gun and force her to do it and be legally right... In the same way if you buy a prostitute's services you are not legally allowed to do whatever you want to them. If the prostitute does not give you the services she promised you can get your money back.. But thats it.

the bodies of the poor, the junkies, the underclass. well, we can now, but it's officially shunned. legalizing prostitution makes that OK. it'll be OK for physically or mentally repulsive men and women to buy consent. or just any man or woman that doesn't want to bother with actual humans. that just wants a posable flesh mannequin.

Oh no... people who cannot get laid will be able to if prostitution is legal... :sad4:

which makes it an important psychological barrier too...i'd like to see some rape statistics where prostitution is legal.

So... look them up... The paper I cited looked at violence... They even included STD's as a form of violence so I doubt they overlooked rape... They concluded that violence and prostitution do NOT go hand in hand and precautions can be made so the prositute is not injured by the person buying her services.

so you see no difference between mopping floors and helping strangers masturbate inside your body. that's interesting.

Thats the problem with todays society... You see sex as something that is so taboo that should ONLY be done by lovers when that is not the case... I see no difference between a licensed prostitute and a licensed massage therapist.

experience of similar situations should have some merit...

Yes... they should... What is the best situation to bring in though? Another country thousands of miles away legalizing prostitution or a State IN our United States legalizing prostituion... Surely Nevada is more like the US than any other country you showed... Oh wait... its PART of the US.

i'll be getting back to this, as reading this requires a little more time that i have at the moment (i have a deadline this week)... so i'll just say that i'm in favor of decriminalizing the prostitute, and criminalizing the buyers and the pimps. this would also, properly enforced, serve to protect the prostitutes.

This does not make sense and would not fly...

 

[d.]

Well right... Thats how the world works... To make something illegal because the person doing the job might be unhappy would force you to make tons of jobs illegal...

as i said, it's a matter of where to draw the line.

there are some who actually do it because it is something they WANT to do.

a minority, yes. if the sex industry was made up by people that i'd feel comfortable with calling volounteers(meaning 'who have other options'), it'd be very small.

Currently it is illegal to be a prostitute and very dangerous (dangerous becasue it is illegal) so a majority of the prostitutes do it because they are forced to... If it were legalized people who wanted to be prostitutes would be able to go about their business.

'it's illegal so people do it because they are forced to'. what?

sex is morally wrong to some people

and who is saying that here? you're not debating the pope, ryan.

You see sex as something that is so taboo that should ONLY be done by lovers

no.

Yes... they should... What is the best situation to bring in though? Another country thousands of miles away legalizing prostitution or a State IN our United States legalizing prostituion... Surely Nevada is more like the US than any other country you showed... Oh wait... its PART of the US.

as i said, i'll get back to that. i want to read it and see what conclusions actually can be drawn from this study.

This does not make sense and would not fly...

because...

 

[Ryan2065]

a minority, yes. if the sex industry was made up by people that i'd feel comfortable with calling volounteers(meaning 'who have other options'), it'd be very small.

Can you supply any studies that show legal prostitutes in Nevada are "forced" into the profession they are in? I think its pretty obvious prostitutes who do prostitution illegally don't have many better options.

'it's illegal so people do it because they are forced to'. what?

If something is illegal people who want to do it are usually deterred by that fact... If you want to say prostitutes do not like doing their job get studies from Nevada from legal prostitutes so you will know what a LEGAL prostitute would be like.

and who is saying that here? you're not debating the pope, ryan.

So are you saying the fact that many people find sex morally wrong has nothing to do with the reason selling sex is illegal?

 

[d.]

Can you supply any studies that show legal prostitutes in Nevada are "forced" into the profession they are in?

i never said they were forced.

If something is illegal people who want to do it are usually deterred by that fact...

forgive me if i'm doubtful that there's busloads of people who would jump at the opportunity were it only legal.

If you want to say prostitutes do not like doing their job get studies from Nevada from legal prostitutes so you will know what a LEGAL prostitute would be like.

but there is nothing that suggests that legalizing prostitution does away with the illegal prostitution. on the contrary, in all areas of the world where prostitution has been legalized, illegal prostitution still prevails.

[FONT=Tahoma, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Prostitution Facts[/FONT]

[FONT=Tahoma, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] The average age of entry into prostitution is 13 years (M.H. Silbert and A.M. Pines, 1982, "Victimization of street prostitutes, Victimology: An International Journal, 7: 122-133) or 14 years (D.Kelly Weisberg, 1985, Children of the Night: A Study of Adolescent Prostitution, Lexington, Mass, Toronto). Most of these 13 or 14 year old girls were recruited or coerced into prostitution. Others were "traditional wives" without job skills who escaped from or were abandoned by abusive husbands and went into prostitution to support themselves and their children. (Denise Gamache and Evelina Giobbe, Prostitution: Oppression Disguised as Liberation, National Coalition against Domestic Violence, 1990) [/FONT]

[FONT=Tahoma, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] Estimates of the prevalence of incest among prostitutes range from 65% to 90%. The Council for Prostitution Alternatives, Portland, Oregon Annual Report in 1991 stated that: 85% of prostitute/clients reported history of sexual abuse in childhood; 70% reported incest. The higher percentages (80%-90%) of reports of incest and childhood sexual assaults of prostitutes come from anecdotal reports and from clinicians working with prostitutes (interviews with Nevada psychologists cited by Patricia Murphy, Making the Connections: women, work, and abuse, 1993, Paul M. Deutsch Press, Orlando, Florida; see also Rita Belton, "Prostitution as Traumatic Reenactment," 1992, International Society for Traumatic Stress Annual Meeting, Los Angeles, CA M.H. Silbert and A.M. Pines, 1982, "Victimization of street prostitutes," Victimology: An International Journal, 7: 122-133; C. Bagley and L Young, 1987, "Juvenile Prostitution and child sexual abuse: a controlled study," Canadian Journal of Community Mental Health, Vol 6: 5-26.) [/FONT]

[FONT=Tahoma, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] 80% of prostitution survivors at the WHISPER Oral History Project reported that their customers showed them pornography to illustrate the kinds of sexual activities in which they wanted to engage. 52% of the women stated that pornography played a significant role in teaching them what was expected of them as prostitutes. 30% reported that their pimps regularly exposed them to pornography in order to indoctrinate them into an acceptance of the practices depicted. (A facilitator's guide to Prostitution: a matter of violence against women, 1990, WHISPER - Women Hurt in Systems of Prostitution Engaged in Revolt Minneapolis, MN) [/FONT]

[FONT=Tahoma, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] 90% of prostituted women interviewed by WHISPER had pimps while in prostitution (Evelina Giobbe, 1987, WHISPER Oral History Project, Minneapolis, Minnesota). [/FONT]

[FONT=Tahoma, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] "About 80% of women in prostitution have been the victim of a rape. It's hard to talk about this because..the experience of prostitution is just like rape. Prostitutes are raped, on the average, eight to ten times per year. They are the most raped class of women in the history of our planet. " (Susan Kay Hunter and K.C. Reed, July, 1990 "Taking the side of bought and sold rape," speech at National Coalition against Sexual Assault, Washington, D.C. ) Other studies report 68% to 70% of women in prostitution being raped (M Silbert, "Compounding factors in the rape of street prostitutes," in A.W. Burgess, ed., Rape and Sexual Assault II, Garland Publishing, 1988; Melissa Farley and Howard Barkan, "Prostitution, Violence, and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder," 1998, Women & Health.) [/FONT]

[FONT=Tahoma, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] 78% of 55 women who sought help from the Council for Prostitution Alternatives in 1991 reported being raped an average of 16 times a year by pimps, and were raped 33 times a year by johns. (Susan Kay Hunter, Council for Prostitution Alternatives Annual Report, 1991, Portland, Oregon) 85% of prostitutes are raped by pimps. (Council on Prostitution Alternatives, Portland, 1994) [/FONT]

[FONT=Tahoma, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] Prostitution is an act of violence against women which is intrinsically traumatizing. In a study of 475 people in prostitution (including women, men, and the transgendered) from five countries (South Africa, Thailand, Turkey, USA, and Zambia): [/FONT]

[FONT=Tahoma, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] 62% reported having been raped in prostitution. 73% reported having experienced physical assault in prostitution. 72% were currently or formerly homeless. 92% stated that they wanted to escape prostitution immediately. (Melissa Farley, Isin Baral, Merab Kiremire, Ufuk Sezgin, "Prostitution in Five Countries: Violence and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder" (1998) Feminism & Psychology 8 (4): 405-426)[/FONT]

[FONT=Tahoma, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] A Canadian Report on Prostitution and Pornography concluded that girls and women in prostitution have a mortality rate 40 times higher than the national average. ( Special Committee on Pornography and Prostitution, 1985, Pornography and Prostitution in Canada 350.) In one study, 75% of women in escort prostitution had attempted suicide. Prostituted women comprised 15% of all completed suicides reported by hospitals. (Letter from Susan Kay Hunter, Council for Prostitution Alternatives, Jan 6, 1993, cited by Phyllis Chesler in "A Woman's Right to Self-Defense: the case of Aileen Carol Wuornos," in Patriarchy: Notes of an Expert Witness, 1994, Common Courage Press, Monroe, Maine.) [/FONT]
​

So are you saying the fact that many people find sex morally wrong has nothing to do with the reason selling sex is illegal?

who finds sex morally wrong? not even the jehova's witnesses.

 

[Ryan2065]

i never said they were forced.

I put forced in quotation marks becasue thats what is implied when someone has no other choice... If someone has no other choice other that becomming a prostitute then thats them being forced into that job.

forgive me if i'm doubtful that there's busloads of people who would jump at the opportunity were it only legal.

I never said there were busloads... I only used logic on this one... There are women who want to be prostitutes. If you find nothing morally wrong about sex and you use all the STD precautions that you can find then prostitution is as morally right as a massage and almost as safe as a massage (just a very very small risk for a STD).

Men are willing to pay for sex why is it so hard to envision a woman who wants to recieve money for sex for her job?

but there is nothing that suggests that legalizing prostitution does away with the illegalprostitution. on the contrary, in all areas of the world where prostitution has been legalized, illegal prostitution still prevails.

Er... whats the point you are getting at? So illegal prostitution is still around... Whats the biggie? There will be more people going to legal prostitutes rather than illegal prostitutes which would make the US a safer place. The person goign to the legal prostitutes will know that there are many precautions taken to make sure he/she does not get a std and the prostitute knows the person is not going to rape/beat them because then the prostitute can go to the police...

I fail to see how the argument "But some people will still practice illegally" holds any water... Just because a law is going to be broken by some people does not mean the law should not be made.

who finds sex morally wrong? not even the jehova's witnesses.

Er... lots of religions find sex morally wrong... As far as I know... many many religious groups ONLY find sex morally right when its in marriage. All other forms of sex are morally wrong... Including prostitution... which is what this debate is about.

 

[McBell]

who finds sex morally wrong? not even the jehova's witnesses.

Christianity for one.
Unless you are married to the prostitute, you are either engaging in premarital sex or adultry. Of course the prostitute is still either engaging in premarital sex or adultry other wise it would not be prostitution.

 

[Feathers in Hair]

What I love about the responses to my post so far is that no one seems to have cared that I noted that I don't think I know what's best in this situation. It's kind of 'heads up! Nothing you say will be treated with respect or even acknowledgement of you as another individual' warning about posting in a thread.

The reason that I believe sexual encounters that are paid for differ from other financial agreements for service is because there is not simply two persons that enter into the transaction. There are pimps, who beat women if they don't bring in enough money. (Or if they simply feel like it.) There are the unsuspecting mates of the people who interact with hookers, who risk getting the venereal diseases that those mates bring home from such encounters. There are the streets and the communities that become the focus of high-crime when prostitues move in- gang violence and drug dealing are what has come up most often when it's happened in places where I've lived. And, naturally, there's the higher cost of policing such areas along with it.

Again, I don't know if all of this could be changed by legalizing prostitution. If it could, and would remove the danger to the women, I might even support it. I just don't think it's as simple as buying someone's time.

 

[d.]

i'm going to bed so i'll just answer this one tonight :

Er... lots of religions find sex morally wrong... As far as I know... many many religious groups ONLY find sex morally right when its in marriage. All other forms of sex are morally wrong... Including prostitution... which is what this debate is about.

so 'sex' isn't morally wrong according to these religions. sex outside of wedlock is. or adultery. and so on. there is a difference.

 

[Pardus]

The reason that I believe sexual encounters that are paid for differ from other financial agreements for service is because there is not simply two persons that enter into the transaction.

Pimps: If legalised, the industry would move away from being run by criminals, because they will have to compete without using illegal methods. (1)

Unsuspecting Partners: Regulation would lead to not allowing infected workers. (2)

Drugs: Regulation could also work towards removing the drugs from the industry.

Cost: Currently it is an untaxed industry, at first it will cost more than in brings in because of the residual problems it brings from being illegal, but eventually it would bring in more than it cost.

1: can your boss hit you?
2: can pedophiles work with children?

 

[Ozzie]

Do you think that lawmakers have the legal right to make prostitution illegal?? If sex is legal, and selling things is legal, why isn't selling sex legal???

Lawmakers have the legal right to make anything illegal . Selling sex is not legal because it is not morally acceptable to conservatives. Pimps definitely require more regulation than persons selling ice-cream.

 

[Ozzie]

What I love about the responses to my post so far is that no one seems to have cared that I noted that I don't think I know what's best in this situation. It's kind of 'heads up! Nothing you say will be treated with respect or even acknowledgement of you as another individual' warning about posting in a thread.

The reason that I believe sexual encounters that are paid for differ from other financial agreements for service is because there is not simply two persons that enter into the transaction. There are pimps, who beat women if they don't bring in enough money. (Or if they simply feel like it.) There are the unsuspecting mates of the people who interact with hookers, who risk getting the venereal diseases that those mates bring home from such encounters. There are the streets and the communities that become the focus of high-crime when prostitues move in- gang violence and drug dealing are what has come up most often when it's happened in places where I've lived. And, naturally, there's the higher cost of policing such areas along with it.

Again, I don't know if all of this could be changed by legalizing prostitution. If it could, and would remove the danger to the women, I might even support it. I just don't think it's as simple as buying someone's time.

I respect your point of view. But what is your position on sex workers trained in catering for the intellectually disabled whose 'pimps' are profiting from a service that is more than about buying someone's time, and could be seen as being altruistic in some sense. The service is seen as reducing the risk of predatory behaviour towards intellectually disabled women.

 

[klubbhead024]

Lawmakers have the legal right to make anything illegal . Selling sex is not legal because it is not morally acceptable to conservatives. Pimps definitely require more regulation than persons selling ice-cream.

But they both sell a tasty product!
:sorry1: