Prostitution should be legalised

I thank InsertnameHere for her response and look forward to a good debate. "While it's true that revenue could come from such services is it really that significant of a difference? How would it be any different if any other service was legalized? For example, legalizing marijuana across the United States and taxing it would generate between $10 billion and $14 billion annually alone. http://www.prohibitioncosts.org...... Not only is this a significant amount, but it's also now a victimless crime." --> I completely agree with the legalisation of Marijuana. Furthermore, like Marijuana, prostitution is a victimless crime. A victimless crime is defined, as per Wikipedia, as "an infraction of criminal law without any identifiable evidence of an individual that has suffered damage in the infraction." [http://en.wikipedia.org...] Through prostitution, no individual suffers damage. The prostitute involved is involved in the act willingly. As is the buyer. If either party was not doing so willingly, it would be rape, which is not prostitution. Therefore, for my opponent to support he Legalisation of Marijuana, but not support the legalisation of prostitution on the basis of the former being a victimless crime is false. "Legalizing prostitution could lead to problems in these areas such as STD's, unwanted pregnancies, abusive pimps, etc. " --> In terms of STD's, at current, STD's are only responsible for between 3 - 5% of all STD's. "The U.S. Department of Health consistently reports that only 3-5% of the sexually transmitted disease in this country is related to prostitution (compared with 30-35% among teenagers). There is no statistical indication in the U.S. that prostitutes are vectors of HIV. Although a small percentage of prostitutes may be HIV positive, William Darrow, CDC AIDS epidemiology official, cites no proven cases of HIV transmission from prostitutes to clients." [http://www.bayswan.org...] Of course, should prostitution be legalised and strict regulations be put in place, STD's would drop significantly. A good model for this is Nevada, where women are tested for Gonorrhoea and Chlamydia weekly, and monthly for HIV and syphilis [http://www.leg.state.nv.us...]The benefits of Nevadas system are clear as "roughly half of the street prostitutes in Washington, D.C., and New York City are HIV-positive. In Newark, New Jersey, the estimate is that close to 60% of all prostitutes carry the AIDS virus. Yet, in the relatively "free market" of Nevada, where prostitution is legal, not one (as of 1989) of the state-licensed prostitutes has ever tested positive for AIDS. " [http://www.fff.org...] As for unwanted pregnancy, this is easily prevented through the use of contraceptive pills, and abortion methods if necessary. Prostitute, and their managers, would be aware that much less business would be forthcoming for prostitutes should they be pregnant. As for abusive pimps, abusive pimps already exist. Currently, prostitutes have no legal recourse for being abused by pimp, and have no workers right. For example, no trade union exists to allow prostitutes to negotiate better wages or better working conditions. In a free market of prostitute, these would come into existence. "They would be able to unrestrictedly engage in sex trade activities with little regulation, many of whom do it against their will. Legalizing prostitution also means legalizing pimps. These same pimps may also be engaged in other activities such as the drug trade which is illegal. A prostitute working for a pimp may also be greatly restricted in where she can go, whom she can see, and even abuse her for disobeying." --> As for little regulations, this has already been addressed. The Nevada model with regular health heck-ups, coupled with actual legal recourse for prostitutes s legal workers would work out better for prostitutes. Indeed, legalisation would allow for government intervention, and allow for the aforementioned legalisation of the industry to happen. As for women doing it against their will, what you define as against their will is subjective.I may work in an office cubicle and dream of running a Multi-national corporation, but I am in no way doing the job against my will. As I have said before, prostitutes have no legal rights. Legalisation would allow them to leave their jobs without repercussions. This would allow prostitutes who have been trafficked to leave the industry. As for the legalisation of pimps, these pimps will now have to obey workers right laws. Should they not obey this, then they will be incarcerated. Again, legalisation provides prostitutes with the protection of the law. Saying hey may be involved in the drug trade is irrelevant. If a Wal-Mart store is secretly peddling cocaine, that doesn't mean all Wal-marts, and convenience stores, are peddling cocaine, and thus convenience stores should be illegal. So, Non sequitur. "Another issue worth noting is the fact that in many cases, prostitution can led to the objectification of women. This is of particular concern to feminists, many of whom oppose prostitution on those grounds." --> As for the feminist stance on prostitution, feminists are still split over the issue {[http://www.feministissues.com...]. The objectification of women argument fails on the ground that it presumes prostitution is an exclusively female trade. Male prostitutes do exist, and so prostitution leads to the objectification of men. Thus, prostitution objectifies both sexes, and is not an exclusively female issue. Regardless, every trade objectifies women, or men. A shoe factory worker can be objectified into something that makes a shoe. A secretary can be degraded into something that answers the phone and type memos, among other things. Prostitution isn't a special case of this. Prostitution, regardless of its legality, will objectify women. Legalising it will give legitimacy to prostitutes as real people, who aren't repressed because of their choice of career. "Lastly, there is the issue of STD's. According to some studies the rates of STD's among women in prostitution is much higher, some as high as 85% coming into contact with some form of sexually transmitted disease. http://www.uri.edu...... Although a much smaller number of these cases are serious it would no doubt be uncomfortable walking around with these viruses. Another problem would be the risk of spreading them among other clients. Both the client and the prostitute would be at risk rather than just the prostitute." --> I have addressed this above, but to re-iterate, since 1989 no occurrences of HIV have been recorded in the Nevada sex trade. As for my opponents, it only discusses the instances of STD's in the current, non-legalised sex trade, which has no legal instances for women to get medical check-ups. Referring back to Senegal in Round 1, STD's have declined significantly since prostitutions legalisation, even in a country with a low HDI of 0.464 and per Capita GDP of $1,743 [http://en.wikipedia.org...]. I await my opponent's response.