Why Should Prostitution Be Legal in the United States
Why people are uncomfortable listening to sex workers talk about legalizing prostitution has nothing to do with concerns about women`s health and safety. If that were the real concern, prostitution would now be legal in the United States. The reason people don`t agree with legalizing prostitution is because prostitution is considered amoral because it involves (mostly) women selling their bodies for financial gain. However, telling women what they can and cannot do with their bodies does not come from a place of morality: it comes from a place of control. SEATTLE, Washington – Looking at sex work through the lens of women`s empowerment versus oppression, there is evidence that legalizing prostitution can have individual and economic benefits. In the Netherlands, prostitution has operated under an effective regulated system for almost two decades. Regulatory practices that restrict sexual behaviour are essential to understanding how different societies perceive sex and sexual activity, and to understanding the benefits of legalizing prostitution. The United Nations Development Programme released a report on illicit sex work in Asia and the Pacific last year, highlighting how criminalizing sex work can harm women`s health. Here is what he said: Prostitution does not allow the public to take advantage of these pretexts. On the contrary, the industry is honest about how sex and money are directly related.
And for many people, it`s an uncomfortable idea. It is even more uncomfortable for some people to believe that women should have control over their bodies that would allow them to voluntarily engage in prostitution; You cannot afford to believe that women would choose such a profession. But instead of acknowledging this reality, those who oppose the legalization of prostitution advance with arguments about concern for women`s safety. They don`t realize that criminalizing prostitution doesn`t help sex workers, and their arguments lead to legislation that harms women while operating under the morally motivated pretext of wanting to protect them. In collaboration with the London School of Economics, economist Axel Dreher of the University of Heidelberg analysed the relationship between human trafficking and prostitution laws in 150 countries. “If prostitution is legal, there is more human trafficking, simply because the market is bigger,” he says. Sex workers in all countries in the region, except New Zealand and the state of New South Wales (Australia), do not have the labour rights accorded to other workers, including the legal right to a safe and healthy workplace and decent employment conditions. Labour laws and social security laws that do not recognize sex work as legitimate work contribute to the stigmatization and marginalization of sex workers. At least, that`s not the case in the United States. There are many countries where sex work is legal, such as New Zealand, which decriminalized sex work in 2003. The results of the Prostitution Reform Act have been beneficial for sex workers.
A study from the Christchurch School of Medicine found that “90% of sex workers believed PRA gave them employment, legal, health and safety rights. A remarkable 64% found it easier to reject customers. Significantly, 57 per cent said police attitudes towards sex workers had changed for the better. Prostitutes also said they could go to the police if they were hurt or threatened, and a sex worker successfully sued a brothel owner for sexual harassment. The desire to protect women from sexual abuse will always be valid, and if anything is a desire that should be more prevalent in the United States. What is dishonest is the rejection of legalized sex work on grounds that claim to be women`s safety, but actually stem from a place of discomfort towards women who openly engage in sexual interactions for financial gain. If you are not comfortable with the idea of women having sex for money, then you should also have a problem with pornography, exotic dances, and dating for money. If you don`t have a problem with all these socially accepted practices, but a problem with prostitution because it is “morally questionable,” then you have lost your right to any forum where decisions about women`s safety and rights are made. Sex workers aren`t always part of the conversation about police brutality, but they should be. Police regularly attack sex workers or people they believe to be sex workers, such as: Trans women of color. The police usually get away with it because sex workers fear arrest if they file a complaint. If we lived in a world that did not criminalize sex work, sex workers could better protect themselves and seek justice when they are hurt.
When we decriminalize sex work, the lives of sex workers improve. This allows them to go to the police when dealing with unruly clients instead of reluctant to do so because it is illegal. This gives them labour rights, which means that when they are employed, they can expect clean and healthy workplaces from their employers. In Nevada, in legal brothels, 84% of prostitutes noticed that their work felt “safe.” This is “mainly due to the fact that police, employers and employees were there to protect them.” On Trans Day of Remembrance, we should honour those who have been killed and dismantle the structures that cause anti-trans violence. Dershowitz also told MSNBC`s Michael Smerconish, “Every hour spent looking for prostitution is an hour that could have been spent pursuing terrorists and persecuting people who become victims.” However, criminalizing prostitution – or websites that facilitate sex work transactions – and driving them further underground is not necessarily seen as helpful in ending human trafficking. Decriminalization refers to the elimination of criminal penalties for buying and selling sexual acts, particularly those classified as prostitution. Decriminalization is not the same as legalization. People, especially women, sell their bodies daily for financial gain in a legalized way.