Legalizing 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