Resolved: Prostitution should be legalised

Premise 1-Definition of Prostitution Con has yet to provide a clear definition to what prostitution is. Prostitution is the act of offering one’s self for hire to engage in sexual relations. (1) This means that there is consent between all parties involved, to exchange a service (sex). 1-http://bit.ly... Premise 2-Purpose of Laws For prostitution to be illegal there needs to be laws against it. So that ultimately leads to the question, why do laws exist? Laws are in place to protect citizen’s general safety and their rights from external forces. (2) This means that as long as one is not harming another person’s rights or safety, they are not acting outside the law, and are free to make any decisions they wish. This overall allows people to have individual autonomy and free will, as long as they are not affecting another. 2-http://bit.ly... Premise 3-Regulations Countries which have legal prostitution tend to regulate it (such as Germany and the Netherlands). Two of the main problems which face prostitutes and/or johns (people who buy prostitutes), which threaten their safety, are rape/assault and STDs. There are already laws against rape/assault (which I’ll get more into later), but STDs cannot be prevented the same way. However, many areas where prostitution is legal have put laws in place which make STDs among prostitutes a lot less likely. For example, in counties where prostitution is legal in Nevada, condom use and weekly tests for STDs are required by law. (3) There are also similar laws in Germany. (4, 5) In fact, even without laws requiring things such as condoms, most prostitutes won’t work without one, which is how it is in the Netherlands. (6) As a result of these policies, areas which have legal prostitution see less STDs. This can be observed in Nevada, Germany, Australia, and Rhode Island (where prostitution was temporarily legal). (3, 4, 7, 8) Regulation has worked so well in Nevada, to the point where STDs are less likely among Nevada prostitutes than among California porn stars. (3) 3-http://huff.to...4-http://bit.ly...5-http://bit.ly...6-http://bit.ly...7-http://bit.ly...8-http://bit.ly... Premise 4-Dangers of Illegal Prostitution Con mentions a stat that says about 80% of prostitutes have been raped, which I agree with. In fact, most prostitutes are too scared to even report violence from customers to the police, because they don’t want to be prosecuted. (9) So, one would expect rape of prostitutes to go down in areas where prostitution is legal, because they don’t have to worry about being arrested or otherwise punished. The stats support this. For example, despite other crimes happening at about the same rate, rape decreased dramatically when rape was legal in Rhode Island. (8) The opposite ended up happening when Queensland banned brothels, with a 149% increase in women being raped, compared to a 49% increase in other offenses against women. (10) Overall, studies have shown that if rape was legalized throughout the US the rape rate would decrease by about 25%. (10) Another major problem, that doesn’t exist nearly as much when rape is legal are abusive pimps. Studies have shown that 89% of women in prostitution want to escape. (11) In fact, pimps often manipulate, threaten, and abuse women in order to make sure they remain prostitutes. (12) However, if women were protected under the law they would no longer have to serve pimps and could work for a brothel, which could not abuse their employees or force them to leave. 9- http://bit.ly...10-http://bit.ly...11-http://1.usa.gov...12- http://bit.ly... Argument 1-Regulated Prostitution Should be Legal As already shown prostitution in its pure form is done with consent, so no one’s rights are harmed. Also, as shown regulations can make it safer. Plus, having it be illegal makes it more dangerous than it has to be. For that reason prostitution should be legal. Premise 5-Profit from Legal Prostitution Legalizing prostitution would also provide a huge profit. Prostitution is a huge industry, which costs a lot to enforce laws against. For example, in the US $200,000,000 is spent annually on enforcing laws regarding prostitution. (13) However, potentially billions of dollars could be made from taxing prostitution, in the US alone. (14) 13-http://bit.ly...14-http://bit.ly... Argument 2-Financial Benefits As already shown prostitution would bring a lot of money into the government. This could be great for many reasons. This money could be spent on things such as police, social services, or even awareness of why people shouldn’t hire prostitutes. Argument 3-Justice Benefits If the police have to focus less time on prostitution they can focus more on more serious crimes such as murder, rape, and assault. Plus, it would lead to less people being arrested for a crime which harms no one. Rebuttal 1-Encoragement of Prostitution P1: I disagree with Con’s reasoning for the necessity of laws to maximize people’s welfare. As mentioned in my 2nd premise, laws are better off to protect others from external forces, but otherwise they should have completely free autonomy. This way the government treats all people equal, assuming they don't harm others. P2: Sex Tourism: A culture of promiscuity is not inherently bad. One may subjectively see it as a bad, but it’s not objectively bad. Con does say it hurts the city’s reputation, along with its tourism industry. However, having legal prostitution may improve the city’s reputation, to some people, specifically libertarians. Plus, Amsterdam is still one of the world’s most popular tourist destinations, having more tourists than cities such as Tokyo and Los Angeles. (15) Plus, even though Con’s argument came from tourism workers in Amsterdam, it’s still essentially a subjective opinion with no evidence. Divorce: Con suggests that divorce would increase if prostitution is legal. However, no evidence is provided to support this. In fact, divorce rates in Germany and the Netherlands have increased at roughly the same rate as other Western countries and are in many cases lower: Germany (16): Netherlands (17): France (18): Belgium (19): Italy (20): Drug Use: Con provides no insight on the cause of this correlation. It could simply be because they feel like they can’t leave, which is must less of a problem in legal prostitution as mentioned above. However, the cause could easily be something else as well. For example, most prostitutes are poor, and drug abuse tends to be higher among poor people. (21, 22) Also, drug use is not notably higher in Germany or the Netherlands compared to their European neighbours. In fact, both countries have among the lowest amount of people injecting drugs per capita. (23) As for the prostitutes almost everything I addressed responds to Con’s concerns. Essentially, keeping it illegal just causes things such as rape and murder to occur a lot more in prostitution. C1: I disproved both premises to build this conclusion (although I only had to disprove one). P3: I accept that prostitution would increase. C2: C1 has been disproved, so C2 therefore has been as well. 15- http://read.bi...16- http://bit.ly...17- http://bit.ly...18- http://bit.ly...19- http://bit.ly...20- http://bit.ly...21- http://bit.ly...22- http://bit.ly...23- http://bit.ly... Rebuttal 2-Human Trafficking P1: I accept this premise. P2: I accept this premise. P3: If you follow the view of personal autonomy you know the prostitutes are responsible for their own actions to enter human trafficking, an illegal activity, even with legal prostitution. However, even if you follow Con’s view, legal prostitution would still provide a net benefit. Currently in the US there are estimated to be 14,500-17,500 people in human trafficking. (24) Let’s say the 17,500 numbers grows 100% if prostitution is legal, meaning 17,500 more people are negatively affected. However, let’s examine the decline in rape. There was a 31% decrease in rape rate after rape was legalized in Rhode Island. (8) We’ll be conservative and say the decline would only be 25% nationally. Con uses the stat that 80% of prostitutes have been raped. We’ll use that stat as well. It is also estimated that there are 1,000,000 prostitutes in the US (we’ll just account for them in the calculations, not any new prostitutes who most likely haven’t been raped). (25): Decline rate*(Number of Prostitutes*Rape Rate)=Drop in Rapes -0.25*(1,000,000*0.8)=-200,000 So it appears that at least 200,000 less women will be raped. So: 17,500-200,000=-182,500 net loss in people being harmed under legal prostitution. Not to mention, this is a very conservative estimate. I said human trafficking would increase 100%, which is likely larger than it would be. Plus, I took the largest estimate of people currently in human trafficking in the US. Also, I dropped Rhode Island’s rape decline rate 6% and didn’t even account for the fact that stat was for overall rapes, not just prostitutes (suggesting it’d be larger drop among prostitutes). This also doesn’t account for the fact less people would have STDs, less people assaulted/murdered, and less people feeling trapped as prostitutes. Finally, it doesn’t account for the potential benefit from greater revenue for the government and more time for police to focus on serious crimes (such as human trafficking). C: Disproved premise 3. 24-http://bit.ly... 25-http://read.bi...Conclusion:As can be seen. There is no reason laws should exist against regulated prostitution. Plus, if legalized, many of the harms associated with prostitution would become much more minor. Finally, the benefits outweigh the costs regarding legalizing prostitution.