Prostitution should be decriminalized in the United States

Much apologies, I should have set it to five rounds just in case. In retrospect, I think I would have organized it differently in some other ways, too (including a 10,000 word limit! I’m learning the ropes!), as well as not started immediately before spring break, but it was still worthwhile in my opinion, and I hope from others’ perspectives as well. v Specific impact on those who choose to be sex workers but want to stop The cycle of punishment and payment As mentioned before, a common reason of becoming a sex worker is needing money. They are often out on the streets because they cannot afford to stop, whether this is because they have children that need to eat, or some other reason. A typical result of criminalization is fining sex workers. For those that wish to leave the industry, this can become a hole that dig them deeper and deeper into the ground, as with not enough income, they are forced right back out onto the street in order to pay the fine. This practice is debilitating and contradictory to the purpose of the law, as it facilitates the need for these people to sell sex and acts as a barrier to them stopping. Attempts to gain employment Not surprisingly, those who want out of the sex industry attempt to find legal employment, as they may have been trying to do when they turned to prostitution in the first place, if they were unable to find one in time. Criminalization presents two major barriers to these women attaining the employment that would allow them to stop working as sex workers. First, as they have to keep their illegal activities a secret, they have what appear to be potentially large gaps of unemployment that there are essentially unable to account for. This can be a detriment to getting a job. Secondly, if they have ever been taking in and fined, it will show up on their criminal record during a background check, which, again, increases their odds of being rejected significantly. The result of criminalization is reducing the odds that women who want to leave the sex industry have the means to do so. Seeking help Like sex workers who wish to continue working in the sex industry, who cannot turn to the police when they have been raped or assaulted, those wishing to leave the industry likewise have nowhere to turn for help, as telling anyone about their situation could result in imprisonment. This may be extremely intimidating to those who have a family that depends on them, and it may keep them from even seeking help from friends or family. v Impact on those forced to be sex workers Resources put towards consenting adults VS victims There are a finite amount of resources that can be put towards enforcing any kinds of legislation, and putting money, time, effort, and other resources (# of law enforcement officers) means it is being taken away from something else. Someone cannot simultaneously make one phone call and another at the same time; one cannot get question one individual and another at the same time. The billions of dollars and vast amount of time put towards policing the streets, questioning, taking in, and fining consenting adults is time and money that cannot be put towards finding and helping people who are actually being forced into sex work against their will. These could be children, people trafficked from other countries, people who have been kidnapped… whatever their status or situation, these people are the ones wishing someone would show up and free them from the victimization they are enduring, and these people deserve 100% of law enforcement resources and effort. Human trafficking This is probably the biggest and most difficult result of decriminalization to justify, as it does, in fact, increase the incidence of human trafficking. However, I will mention briefly a comparison here that I will elaborate on later. Simply because alcohol is toxic, and can lead to drunk driving, poor decisions, alcohol poisoning, spousal abuse, date rape, and a myriad of other things does not mean it should be criminalized. It will still happen, and billions of adults who do not use it as irresponsibly will be fined, punished, and thrown in jail. It is clear that the incidence of drunk driving and all these other things increases when alcohol is legalized, but at the same time, resources that had been wasted on responsible adults can then be focused on eliminating the truly harmful behaviors. Increases cannot be looked at outside of context, as it is very possible that the increase of police resources being poured into fighting trafficking would counterbalance or outweigh the increase. As far as I am aware, unfortunately, there are no good statistics on this at the moment, and solid conclusions can’t be drawn. Risk of arrest Victims may be reluctant to turn to police for help for fear of being arrested or fined themselves. It does happen (2). v Other Taxation If decriminalized, taxing the industry would produce revenue to put towards publicly funded projects, or to generate even more resources that could be put towards helping people who are truly victims of child or sex trafficking, or towards helping those who are victims of other crimes, in the form of hiring more officers, funding technology (i.e. more accurate DNA testing or rape kits that are effective more than 72 hours after an assault). The logic behind the law It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to punish someone for doing something that they can legally do for free. Unconstitutional The issues arise when children are involved, as they cannot give consent, when someone is being forced or coerced, because it is non-consensual, and when some other crime is going on, such as assault. These things, however, are not simply prostitution; they are things that happen in the context of prostitution, as they happen in the context of other situations. We cannot get rid of entire industries and human activities just because negative uses are associated with them. We cannot prohibit alcohol because sometimes it leads to beating your wife, date rape, alcohol poisoning, and drunk driving. What we can do, however, is focus our efforts NOT on outlawing the behavior in its entirety, but by stopping the mis-uses of it. Transactional sex between adults who are consenting is not what is wrong with these crimes, and not only is criminalizing it unconstitutional, it does not get rid of these problems. Inherently immoral? Often an argument about controversial human activities is the claim that they are “wrong,” simply by virtue of what they are and regardless of the circumstances. The claim that something is bad “just because it is” is a poor argument. Claiming that this is because “I just know it is” suggests decisions that were made based on an emotional impression embedded at some point in the life that was most likely not based on evidence or a deep understanding of the topic at hand. It is often assumed, then, that it is inherently and always harmful to the people involved. This is generally not the case, nor is it the case here. Benefits for general public Decriminalization, from evidence gathered in Rhode island when there was an unintentional loophole that decriminalized indoor prostitution, appears to reduce the incidence of rape, likely because sex is now more available, and to decrease the incidence of gonorrhea among the population, likely because of better health access (1). v The problem with legalization While in theory, legalization would be ideal, the problem is that because of the strict guidelines and requirements, people may not conform to them, and many or a majority may continue to work illegally. For all of those people, the issues with criminalization are still present. Legalizaton seems to be a great solutions for a few and a lack of improvement for many. (1) http://economics.emory.edu... (2) http://www.americanbar.org...