Content warning: Non-consent (statutory and otherwise)
Sex work should be decriminalized and regulated to protect people in the industry and to better root out despicable practices like human trafficking.
Criminalization makes sex workers (prostitutes, strippers, escorts, porn and cam actors/actresses, people adjacent to the various kinds and depths of the industry) more vulnerable to assault, rape, and even murder. The stigma can prevent victims from seeking the help of the police, work in unsafe conditions and locations, and even if law enforcement becomes involved, the victims may not be taken seriously. If anything goes to court, a sex worker may not wish to testify for fear of being identified by their real name in relation to their job. It is much harder for sex worker victims to seek justice for crimes committed against them, and violent and dangerous people know this, and abuse it.
Police tactics can also prevent sex workers from even attempting to protect themselves, using possession of condoms as evidence of prostitution (https://www.hrw.org/report/2012/07/19/sex-workers-risk/condoms-evidence-prostitution-four-us-cities).
If sex work were legal and regulated, sex workers could work in safer conditions, organize to protect their rights, have access to health care, and report crimes without fear of retribution. Police could concern themselves with actual problems like human trafficking, people too young to consent getting involved by any means, pimps, and other problems that naturally arise from the underworld that criminalization fosters and materializes.
Sex work should be decriminalized and regulated to protect people in the industry and to better root out despicable practices like human trafficking.
Criminalization makes sex workers (prostitutes, strippers, escorts, porn and cam actors/actresses, people adjacent to the various kinds and depths of the industry) more vulnerable to assault, rape, and even murder. The stigma can prevent victims from seeking the help of the police, work in unsafe conditions and locations, and even if law enforcement becomes involved, the victims may not be taken seriously. If anything goes to court, a sex worker may not wish to testify for fear of being identified by their real name in relation to their job. It is much harder for sex worker victims to seek justice for crimes committed against them, and violent and dangerous people know this, and abuse it.
Police tactics can also prevent sex workers from even attempting to protect themselves, using possession of condoms as evidence of prostitution (https://www.hrw.org/report/2012/07/19/sex-workers-risk/condoms-evidence-prostitution-four-us-cities).
If sex work were legal and regulated, sex workers could work in safer conditions, organize to protect their rights, have access to health care, and report crimes without fear of retribution. Police could concern themselves with actual problems like human trafficking, people too young to consent getting involved by any means, pimps, and other problems that naturally arise from the underworld that criminalization fosters and materializes.