Prostitution Essay, Research Paper

Prostitution is an issue which has caused controversy cross-culturally

and historically and which has many individuals reexamining the

logistics of it. If prostitution is decriminalized it will become

economically profitable and feasible for not only the prostitutes, but

also western society as a whole. Without the 20th century western laws,

which force prostitution underground, the profession of prostitution

could become a clean and safe occupation. Prostitution laws are

unconstitutional and deny the prostitutes what the American

constitution allows them. Prostitution is an illegal act in Canada and

large portions of the United States which, if legalized, would protect

and benefit 20th century western society. If sanctioned, prostitution

will become economically lucrative for the

governments involved. The colossal amount of money spent each year on

prostitute

prevention could be spent on more urgent issues, which is exactly what

the San Francisco

Task Force on Prostitution found.

The total costs accounted for in this report amounts to $7,634,750.00.

Given the many areas in which we found that information is not

available, or there are hidden costs, the over all expense to the

taxpayer exceeds $7.6 million annually.1

The San Francisco Task Force is a group of researchers, police

officers, members of the

San Francisco community, government officials and prostitutes, who

frequently meet to

discuss the issues of prostitution and to try to come to some solution.

Although they may

not always agree, two issues they are in agreement about are that the

$7.6 million dollars

would be better spent elsewhere and that prostitution should be

legalized.. Robert Noce

of Manitoba city council wants reform of the Canadian Justice System

and he would like

to see prostitution become worthwhile to Canadian taxpayers.

Quite frankly, for anyone to suggest to me a dating or escort agency is

just offering companionship is being quite naive. Let’s not try to

bury our heads in the sand and pretend nothing else is going on.

Instead of pretending these establishments don’t exist let’s instead be

logical about this and try to use the profits that we could be making,

in a wise and useful manner. I think that the highest paying customers

for prostitution is us Canadians, in the money we put into fighting

this futile cause.2

Instead of putting millions of dollars into stopping this consensual

act, the money saved

and made from the legalization of prostitution can be spent on fighting

child prostitution

and coerced prostitution. These two crimes are becoming rampant across

North America,

but lack of funds prevents a serious effort from being made to fight

against them. If

brothels and prostitutes were to be taxed like any other place of

business, millions of

extra revenue dollars would become available to the Canadian

government, for it to spend

as it sees fit. Although the monetary concerns are overwhelming one of

the most debated

issues is the health and safety of prostitution.

If prostitution were to be decriminalized, the profession of

prostitution could

become a healthy, publicly sanctioned place of business. Throughout

history and

throughout European cultures, prostitution has been legalized to

decrease the spread of

disease as historian Jennifer James reports.

Beginning with Prussia in 1700, most continental European governments

shifted their tactics from suppression of prostitution and sexually

transmitted disease to control through a system of compulsory

registration, licensed brothels, and medical inspection of prostitutes.

Although medical techniques were primitive there was a noticeable

decline in sexual diseases among prostitutes and their clients.3

European governments hundreds of years ago realized that since they

could not fight

prostitution, it was best to make it as safe and healthy as they could.

Their efforts saved

hundreds of lives and provided treatment to the prostitutes who

previously could not seek

medical attention without being arrested. A recent episode of 20/20

interviewed Joe

McNamara, former police chief of Kansas and San Jose, and vice squad

officers as they

discussed the physical harm that anti-prostitution laws inflict

JOE MCNAMARA: What we’re doing now is worse than prostitution.

JOHN STOSSEL: The law makes it worse? JOE

MCNAMARA: The law makes it a lot worse. It

drives up the profits.

It drives up the potential for corruption. It invites violence.

JOHN STOSSEL: It is true that when the vice

cops talk about the terrible things they

see…

2ND VICE SQUAD OFFICER: You see homicides. You see the narcotics. You

see the assaults.

JOHN STOSSEL: They’re talking about things

caused not by

prostitution itself, but by the law. Because the law drives

prostitution underground into the criminal world, where everyone’s

hiding from the police.

2ND VICE SQUAD OFFICER: We see the black eyes.

We see the rapes.

We see them crying. JOHN STOSSEL: Such problems occur much less often

where sex for money is legal. Here, in rural Nevada, for example, the

state has licensed 35 brothels. These businesses don’t have robberies,

rapes or beatings.4

The Nevada police force is an advocate for the legalization of

prostitution because they

have seen the difference that legalization makes. Crime rates drop when

prostitution is

brought to a setting where it is monitored. Prostitutes are forced to

work through

established brothels and are forbidden to work out of their homes. All

prostitutes and

brothels must be licensed and the brothels must provide the prostitutes

with personal

doctors who test all of the prostitutes for sexually transmitted

diseases, and HIV tests are

done on a monthly basis and condoms are mandatory. When prostitution is

legalized, not

only are the pimps, who are often involved in other illegal affairs

illuminated, but the

prostitute and the community are protected.

Anti-prostitution laws are unconstitutional in their nature and deny

the prostitutes

what the American constitution would allow them. In 1973 the case of

Roe v. Wade

established certain legal precedents concerning a woman’s body, the

court found that:

“a woman has a right of personal privacy, or a guarantee of certain

areas or zones of privacy, does exist in the Constitution and that it

is founded in the Fourteenth Amendment’s concept of personal liberty

and restrictions upon state action. This right of privacy is broad

enough to encompass a woman’s body and her decision of whether or not

to terminate her pregnancy.”5

Although the courts in the case of Roe v. Wade were referring to the

woman’s right to

abort her unborn fetus they inadvertently set a precedent for

prostitution as well. The

fourteenth amendment of the American constitution states that all

individuals have the

right to life, liberty, and the ownership of property. For the Roe v.

Wade court to find that

liberty encompasses the meaning of aborting what is, by definition, the

woman’s own

property, a woman should have the right, under the constitution, to not

only sell her

property, but to do it in privacy. In 1905 during the case of Lochner

v. New York Mr.

Justice Holmes made a closing statement appropriate to the issue of the

constitutionality

of Prostitution.

[The Constitution] is made for people of fundamentally differing views,

and the accident of our finding certain opinions natural and familiar

or novel and even shocking ought not to conclude our judgment upon the

question whether statutes embodying them conflict with the Constitution

of the United States.6

What Mr. Justice Holmes was trying to convey to the jury was that

certain subjects like

prostitution cannot be viewed as a moral issue but as a constitutional

legal issue.

Prostitution cannot be judged using preconceived notions, but rather by

viewing all of the

facts and determining logistically whether or not prostitutes are

receiving lawful

treatment. The answer to this question is that they are not.

Prostitution in the 20th century in Western society is an

illegal act which if were to

be legalized would profit and preserve not only the prostitutes but

society as a whole.

Legalizing prostitution is economically profitable for governments in

dire need of

resources. The anti-prostitution laws which are intended to help the

prostitutes and

society, instead force prostitution underground and without these laws

prostitution could

become a clean and safe occupation. Present day prostitution laws are

unconstitutional

and should be abolished because of their unconstitutional nature.

Prostitution and

prostitutes are issues that few individuals have taken the time to

fully understand, and so

the issues are misunderstood and their voices go unheard. Some issues,

like prostitution,

have been around for thousands of years and will never go away, so it

is for this reason

that, as Barbara Walter said, “Prostitution is a world that is here to

stay, like it or not it is

time to make the best of it”7.

Endnotes

1. San Francisco Task Force on Prostitution: Report.1994. www.bayswan.org/SFTFP.html

2. Jeffs, Allyson. Legalizing Prostitution. Edmonton Journal. October 21 1997.

3. James, Jennifer. Encarta: Prostitution. Microsoft. 1997

4. 20/20. Sex for Sale: Should Prostitution be legal in America? ABC. June 27 1997

5. Roe v. Wade 1973

6. Lochner v. New York. 1905

7. 20/20. Sex for Sale: Should Prostitution be legal in America? ABC. June 27 1997

Bibliography

1.20/20. Sex for Sale: Should Prostitution be legal in America? ABC. June 27 1997

2.20/20. Sex for Sale: Should Prostitution be legal in America? ABC. June 27 1997

3.James, Jennifer. Encarta: Prostitution. Microsoft. 1997

4.Jeffs, Allyson. Legalizing Prostitution. Edmonton Journal. October 21 1997.

5.Lochner v. New York. 1905

6.Roe v. Wade 1973

7.San Francisco Task Force on Prostitution: Report.1994. www.bayswan.org/SFTFP.html

The Futility Prostitution Laws

Alia Lamaadar

12 Law

Mrs. Gorski

May 14, 1998