Series 1 Episode 7 : Legality of Prostitution.

Rebuttals should occur in Round 3 . The Case from Morality- It is wrong to ban prostitution as it is not inherently an immoral behaviour and this is because it doesn't include the initiation of force . A sexual act between one person and another in which one person agrees to pay for the service is a voluntarily relationship , a contract . It is possible for one of the people included in the act to end up with an STD this is however the result of the person being irresponsible and choosing to have sex and taking that risk. It is my opinion that we should stop making excuses for irresponsible behaviour as this is counter-productive . Unless my opponent also advocates for people not being aloud to eat foods that contain high-fat , high-sugar and high-salt content he cannot make the argument that we should not legalise prostitution because of the spread of STD's . Not mentioning the fact that if there was a legal market for prostitution it would be safer than the current one. The Case from safety- As it has been shown through the alcohol prohibition in 1920s and early 1930s when you criminalize certain parts of culture crime increases . 'In a study of more than thirty major U. S cities during the Prohibition years of 1920 and 1921, the number of crimes increased by 24 percent. Additionally, theft and burglaries increased by 9 percent, homicides by 12.7 percent, assaults and battery rose by 13 percent, drug addiction by 44.6 percent, and police department costs rose by 11.4 percent. This was largely the result of "black-market violence" and the diversion of law enforcement resources elsewhere. Despite the Prohibition movement's hope that outlawing alcohol would reduce crime, the reality was that the Volstead Act led to higher crime rates than were experienced prior to Prohibition and the establishment of a black market dominated by criminal organizations. ' -Charles Hanson Towne (1923). The Rise and Fall of Prohibition: The Human Side of What the Eighteenth Amendment Has Done to the United States. New York: Macmillan. p. 159–62. Prostitution has been a part of human culture for a long time and we haven't seen it end . The fact that it is illegal in so many nations means that there has to be a black market and this black market cannot be regulated which leads to poor management and violence . The Economist says (. http://www.economist.com...) ' Governments should seize the moment to rethink their policies. Prohibition, whether partial or total, has been a predictable dud. It has singularly failed to stamp out the sex trade. Although prostitution is illegal everywhere in America except Nevada, old figures put its value at $14 billion annually nationwide; surely an underestimate. More recent calculations in Britain, where prostitution is legal but pimping and brothels are not, suggest that including it would boost GDP figures by at least £5.3 billion ($8.9 billion). And prohibition has ugly results. Violence against prostitutes goes unpunished because victims who live on society’s margins are unlikely to seek justice, or to get it. The problem of sex tourism plagues countries, like the Netherlands and Germany, where the legal part of the industry is both tightly circumscribed and highly visible. ' If prostitution was legal we could regulate the market in ways to make prostitution safer such as require prostitutes every couple of years to test for STD's. Marjan Wijers in her article in the book Global Sex Workers wrote "Criminalizing the sex industry creates ideal conditions for rampant exploitation and abuse of sex workers. .. [I]t is believed that trafficking in women, coercion and exploitation can only be stopped if the existence of prostitution is recognized and the legal and social rights of prostitutes are guaranteed. " To this I can only add that I agree 100% . The case from Economics- We already addressed Morality and Safety . Now let's address legalising prostitution from an economic stand point . If prostitution was made legal the market itself could be taxed and this would produce large amounts of money for the government . 'Another benefit of legalizing prostitution resides in the ability to generate tax revenue. Once the applicant has successfully obtained licensing she may work at a brothel, enjoying legal income taxable at the appropriate rate. The average annual income of an employee at one Nevada brothel working only one week per month is at least $100,000 (Ayres). Based on this figure, each legally licensed sex worker would contribute more than $20,000 in federal income taxes per year. ' -(. http://people.emich.edu...) There is massive potential for a new booming industry and not just in the USA , this new field of legal work could provide jobs and money not only for those seeking employment but it would also help the state through tax revenue . Let me reference back to the quote from the Economist that I included in my case from safety - 'old figures put its value at $14 billion annually nationwide; surely an underestimate. More recent calculations in Britain, where prostitution is legal but pimping and brothels are not, suggest that including it would boost GDP figures by at least £5.3 billion ($8.9 billion). '. These are large sums of money which can improve the conditions of many countries economically. In addition as this is my last argument I would like to point out that legalising prostitution would also lower rape rates . Legalising prostitution could make it easier to access and make it more available . 'If prostitution were legalized in the United States it is rational toassume that prices would resemble those in the Netherlands, this would result in an I of80 and a decrease in the rape rate of 10 per 100,000. The population of the United Statesif roughly 275 million so this should result is a decrease of approximately 25,000 rapesper year. ' -(. http://www.independent.org...) I hope that I have made a well thought-out argument for legalising prostitution and I wish good luck to Con.