Prostitution should not be legalized in the United States

The illegal market will expand under normalization The preexisting illicit market will still exist under a normalized environment. A 2012 study [1] found that there were two major factors affecting the size of the illicit market post legalization "The scale effect of legalized prostitution leads to an expansion of the prostitution market, " while the substitution effect reduces demand for trafficked women as legal prostitutes are favored over trafficked ones." However, after an "empirical analysis for a cross-section of up to 150 countries" the authors found "that the scale effect dominates the substitution effect. On average, countries where prostitution is legal experience larger reported human trafficking inflows." Therefore not only does legalization expand the market for prostitution by creating a new legal market, but it also increases harms in the status quo by increasing the size of the illicit market. Legalization facilitates the transmission of HIV There exists a belief that legalization will reduce the transmission rate of HIV. However, legalization will actually exacerbate the problem in the status quo. First, simply as a result of the expansion of the illicit market we will see a net increase in the transmission rate of HIV. However, the transmission rate in a legal environment may be even worse than that is the illicit market. In one study [2] "47% of women in [(some districts in Nevada previously allowed legal prostitution)]U.S. prostitution stated that men expected sex without a condom; 73% reported that men offered to pay more for sex without a condom". One woman in the study [2] noted that "It"s "regulation" to wear a condom at the sauna, but negotiable between parties on the side. Most guys expected blow jobs without a condom". In other words any regulation advocated by my opponent is unlikely to be enforced in such an environment. The reason for this is explained by Chief Inspector Nancy Pollock, one of Scotland"s highest-ranking female police officers explains that "On the street, very few women will do anal sex and few do sex without a condom. But in the saunas, the owners, who obviously don"t want their punters going away disappointed, decide what the women will do, and very often that is anal sex and sex " oral and vaginal " without a condom"[3]. Legalization dehumanizes women Legalization inherently gives off the message that woman should be viewed as commodities to be bought and sold on a whim. As Melissa Farley, PhD, Founding Director of the Prostitution Research and Education center explains "Legal sex businesses provide locations where sexual harassment, sexual exploitation, and violence against women are perpetrated with impunity. State-sponsored prostitution endangers all women and children in that acts of sexual predation are normalized" [4]. This type of environment is obviously counterproductive if we ever wish to construct any form of progressive and just society in the United States. Conclusion: It is because legalizing prostitution increases humans sex trafficking, increases the spread of deadly STD"s and delegitimizes women in modern society that I ask you to affirm this resolution. 1) http://www.sciencedirect.com... 2) http://www.sagepub.com... 3) http://www.heraldscotland.com... 4) http://www.prostitutionresearch.com...