Opinions on Prostitution

Should prostitution be legallized?

Yes	61.0%	[ 61 ]
No	24.0%	[ 24 ]
Not Sure	15.0%	[ 15 ]
Total Votes:			[ 100 ]

[CLTWS]

Due in most part to a friend, I've been forced to re-examine my beliefs and opinions regarding prostitution. After having a long discussion on the issue with said friend; I have found I still disagrees with the idea of paying for sex, but under certain circumstances I find I now can actually respect the profession and its practitioners based on how some (not all) have gotten into that line of work.

Regardless of how I feel, people will do whatever it is they will do, and it is with that understanding I examine the issue of whether Prostitution should be legallized.

I'm going to argue for its legalization based on the following arguments:
Once legallized, it can be regulated, which means fair prices, benefits for the girls, then end of abusive pimps, required registration/license and regular checkups to avoid the spread of infectious STDs. As a legalized service, the money charged to prositutes can then be taxed in accordance with state sales taxes for increased state revenues. Legallizing prositution will end the days of "scandal" everytime someone of interest hires one. Legallizing prostitution will also protect the girls from having to work in backalleys and unsafe conditions because they'll be able to set up offices which will then be sugject to inspections for health and safety. Legalizing prostitution will also save communities and the government money as then girls will no longer be clogging up court systems, using public defenders, and filling holding cells at the taxpayer's expense.

All in all, legalizing prostitution seems to be a good idea since wealthy and/or lonely people are going to resort to it anyways, we might as well try to find ways to make it safer and beneficial to the communities where it's happening.

I'm willing to hear arguements against. This is a debate after all, but lets try and keep it mature if we can. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on the matter as well.

[Sekhmet-chan]

Even if prostitution were leagalized, none of that would work. People will still get STDs, prostitutes will still get cheated, and due to competitive pricing, prostitutes will get the short end of the stick.

[I Shall Grant You NoMercy]

amen

[British Tourettes]

I'm for legalizing prostitution. I can't think of a reason not to other than some people will get pissed of because it goes against what they believe, but they're doing it anyway so I don't see the big deal.

[Madicka]

I did my final essay in my law course in uni on legalizing prostitution and I am 100% for it. I read so much material on it and the benefits are staggering. Because it's illegal, the girls are often pressured into unprotected sex. They're more at risk on the street, too. I went through a bunch of transcriptions from a place in BC that was essentially a therapy centre for prostitutes, and it was amazing. If it's legalized, the girls will have a safe, designated place in which to conduct their business, they'd get medical care, the chances of them being murdered/raped are significantly decreased, the chances of them being abused by pimps is decreased, and the chances of girls being forced into it is heavily decreased because they would need to be registered. The services could also be taxed to bring up revenue. There's really no reason not to do it; in early modern Europe, prostitutes were legal and they stayed in their red light districts, and the numbers were staggering. I think it was Rome that had over 3000 prostitutes in the one city alone, although I might be wrong on the city name.

[Itherial]

Well I would never sleep with one so I could care less if it is legalized or not.

[CLTWS]

Sekhmet-chan

Even if prostitution were leagalized, none of that would work. People will still get STDs, prostitutes will still get cheated, and due to competitive pricing, prostitutes will get the short end of the stick.

The Bunny Ranch in Nevada boasts very low rates of the girls getting STD's due to the much higher prices of doing anything without a condom or dental damn. The prostitutes in that establishment don't get cheated as the door out only unlocks after you've paid the receptionist. As far as lower profits through competitive pricing, as with any buisness, dealing with competitiors is a necessary evil. I think competition would breed a better prostitute, and proper advertising will almost always supplement and buisnesses bottom line. Which is something else they could do once legallized.

[Mameoyashi]

Madicka

I did my final essay in my law course in uni on legalizing prostitution and I am 100% for it. I read so much material on it and the benefits are staggering. Because it's illegal, the girls are often pressured into unprotected sex. They're more at risk on the street, too. I went through a bunch of transcriptions from a place in BC that was essentially a therapy centre for prostitutes, and it was amazing. If it's legalized, the girls will have a safe, designated place in which to conduct their business, they'd get medical care, the chances of them being murdered/raped are significantly decreased, the chances of them being abused by pimps is decreased, and the chances of girls being forced into it is heavily decreased because they would need to be registered. The services could also be taxed to bring up revenue. There's really no reason not to do it; in early modern Europe, prostitutes were legal and they stayed in their red light districts, and the numbers were staggering. I think it was Rome that had over 3000 prostitutes in the one city alone, although I might be wrong on the city name.

Rome certainly had it's fair share of prostitutes, I'd imagine one of the bigger numbers anyway considering the sheer population size. And that goes way back to the days of Romulus and Remus (figuratively speaking, of course).

But a law essay on the subject? Your essay sounds like it would be interesting.

[Madicka]

Mameoyashi

It was a wonderful topic. I learned a great deal about prostitution, which I was against legalizing prior to the essay because I thought it would allow more people to be forced into it. But reading the news articles about women asking for it to be legalized and seeing exactly what they were requesting helped a lot.

[Mameoyashi]

CLTWS

The Bunny Ranch in Nevada boasts very low rates of the girls getting STD's due to the much higher prices of doing anything without a condom or dental damn. The prostitutes in that establishment don't get cheated as the door out only unlocks after you've paid the receptionist. As far as lower profits through competitive pricing, as with any buisness, dealing with competitiors is a necessary evil. I think competition would breed a better prostitute, and proper advertising will almost always supplement and buisnesses bottom line. Which is something else they could do once legallized.

I just hope that once it's legalized it's treated like a skilled trade rather than something like retail so things stay as well as they are at those legal establishments. Though, aside from the caution of things getting horribly twisted which isn't terribly likely but I don't have enough faith in the world to call them impossible (in other words amusing paranoia aside)... I'm all for legalized prostitution, regardless it will be better than keeping things illegal and then what force is spent trying to shut down prostitution in general could really be expended to go after traffickers and abusers in particular.

[Burning Bonus]

Yea it definitely needs to be legal and the help that this status comes with
:T

from first-hand experience I can definitely say that the kinds of people who do the job of pimping can tend to be kinda psychotic and violent

Abusive doesn't really cover the spectrum

We're talking about people who, in my experience, really really want to kill you, and are disgusted by you, but won't kill you because you make them money, so they'll just hurt you and rape you as punishment for being such a filthy disgusting whore

o -o

ON the plus side, though, those pimps are more than happy to spend a good ammount of money on you to spruce you up

Somehow I get the feeling that the caretakers that will come in when it's legal will be a lot more tight-fisted on what kinds of things you can requisition in order to be more appealing

You know, like fetish gear

[La Chocolate Bliss]

Sekhmet-chan

Even if prostitution were leagalized, none of that would work. People will still get STDs, prostitutes will still get cheated, and due to competitive pricing, prostitutes will get the short end of the stick.

Agreed.

[SchizoSpazz]

Honestly, I'm not sure. It would give consenting prostitutes more freedom to call the shots, and lower the risk of STDs.

In theory, it works like that. There would still be an underbelly of it. It would likely still be in a form of slavery because it would probably be cheaper with pimps and streetwalkers or whoever is mostly benefitting from it would mark it down from a legitimate prostitute on purpose, and who doesn't want to save a few bucks in that department. And the illegitimate ones would probably not make a john wear a condom because if she makes him, he'll go elsewhere and she'll lose the money, therefore continuing the spread of STDs. And they probably wouldn't get checked or registered.

I guess it works in Nevada (parts of it), but it is hard to say that would carry over to everywhere else. There's greed in benefitting from sex, and I don't think that will go away. I guess I'm pessimistic about the end result, where nothing really changes.

[Pale Maiden April]

If people wanna be prostitutes, then let them be prostitutes.

The government should have no say in what people do with their own bodies.

[X sansmerci]

To put it very briefly, keeping prostitution illegal is not helping the cause of ending human trafficking. But there is no simple solution since whatever changes legally, the society that formed these laws remains.