Prostitution Should be Legalized

I will start this round by making my rebuttals then apparently conclude this entire debate afterwords. "Prostitution should be legalized, but be carefully regulated. Laws should protect prostitutes from abuse from their bosses and clients. Rates must be regulated, and lack of paying will be considered rape in a court. " - ProProstitutes have the same rights as any other woman in the United States because they are human beings. The only problem is that the laws are either biased or the prostitutes are afraid to speak up. A prostituted woman might be afraid of what her pimp will do to her and afraid for her life if she tries to leave; pimps often threaten the lives of the women who work for them, which may prevent a woman from leaving prostitution(1). Pimps assume psychological, biological, social, and economic control over the lives of the women they sell to johns (clients) through the use of chronic terror, cunning use of various aspects of captivity, and isolation from others who might offer support and validation. In addition they employ starvation, sleep deprivation, protein deprivation, conditioned physiologic hyperarousal, unexpected sexual violence, and learned helplessness(4). Also, most women in prostitution do not report rape or other crimes committed against them to the police because of the stigma associated with prostitution(2). In other words, whether or not prostitution is legalized, there will still be cruel judgement against them. Quote(2):"None of us went to the police. .. There was lack of trust. You didn't know which policemen to trust. Half the girls were being touched up by them. .. It would be like you chose to do this job: get out and do it, or get a life. .. The police have no compassion. They think the girls and women put themselves in that danger, so why should they be helped. " - Maria, a prostitution survivor. "Rates must be regulated, and lack of paying will be considered rape in a court. " - ProI understand the rate regulation, but lack of paying considered rape. .. ? Not only is this ridiculous, but I don't see this happening in a real court case. As I have stated before, rape is unlawful sexual intercourse or any other sexual penetration of the vagina, anus, or mouth of another person, with or without force, by a sex organ, other body part, or foreign object, without the consent of the victim(7). If a prostitute consents in the beginning, she can't just change her story and cry rape because a client fails to make payment. Let's say prostitution is legalized and you have a customer; he chooses the consenting prostitute he wants but he isn't satisfied by her type of experience so he refuses to pay, or he already paid for her services and demands a refund. Is the manager (pimp/boss) supposed to call the police and say this client "raped" one of his prostitutes with no valid evidence of the accusation? No pay is NOT rape. "If prostitution were legal, more men and women would be able to have jobs they enjoyed[5]. " - ProMy opponent has only quoted an outdated statement by some "professional" escort from 1995 as a source, instead of at least showing statistics of who would honestly "enjoy" the life of prostitution. "In fact, it is estimated that if prostitution were legalized in the United States, the rape rate would decrease by roughly 25% for a decrease of approximately 25,000 rapes per year. " - ProA 25% decrease isn't very impressive considering that there's 630,000 women raped each year(3). "If properly overseen, no one would be stolen from or financially, physically, or mentally damaged in any other way in prostitution. " - ProHow do you know? Women can enter prostitution legally and still be financially, physically, or mentally and emotionally damaged. A study has found that PTSD resulting from exposure to physical danger is more common among prostitutes than among troops who have weathered combat duty(7). "Prostitutes are also similar to promiscuous people, with the exception of the fee. " - ProMost prostitutes are NOT similar to promiscuous people. Promiscuous people have sex with random people of their choice for their own entertainment for no amount of money. Prostitutes don't choose their clients, clients choose them, and often times, pimps choose their clients. And unlike promiscuous people, most prostitutes don't enjoy the sex they have with clients because, again, they don't choose them. If prostitutes don't obey their clients, they either don't get money to survive, feel the wrath of their pimps, or worse. At least promiscuous people can reject whoever they want because it's not their job. Responses to MissLenaElan's rebuttal's:"It promotes children to be trafficked""In fact, it would do quite the opposite. Children being trafficked, especially for sex, is terrible and unfortunately happens very often[4]. However, they're an easier target because children are not as smart or strong as adults and therefore more vulnerable. If prostitution were legal, there would be more willing adults in the business, causing the demand for child trafficking to dive[5]. It would also decrease human trafficking in general[6]. " - ProProstitution IS human trafficking. There's no difference between them. Both are part of a system of gender-based domination that makes violence against women and girls profitable to a mind-boggling extreme, and both prey on women and girls made vulnerable by poverty, discrimination, and violence and leaves them traumatized, sick, and impoverished(4). Legalizing prostitution won't make a significant difference, it'll just be legal trafficking. As long as there are perverts/pedophiles in this world, there will always be child sex trafficking. I don't find one of my opponent's sources that she cited in her statement very useful to her offense because it has several flaws. My opponent stated, "If prostitution were legal, there would be more willing adults in the business, causing the demand for child trafficking to dive," but in her source, [. http://www.listland.com...], in the section where it mentions "legal prostitution would protect minors", it says, "A lot of pro-decriminalization of prostitution believethat if people can legally buy sex from women 18 years or older, it will significantly reduce child exploitation". This statement alone is based on beliefs and not estimated facts. According to a study of 218 "johns" (clients) who were warned that the women they were looking at online were actually minors, 42% still wanted the underage girl(5). Hypothetically speaking, how are prostitution businesses supposed to keep up with the demands of the other half of their customers if laws are regulated for only 18-year-old or older prostitutes? They would still have to resort to child trafficking in the US. "Most of the prostitutes are victims""Right now that is true. But like I mentioned, if it were legal, there would be ore willing participants and thus a much lower demand for people to be forced into prostitution against their will. In a world without sex trafficking, prostitution would be a victimless crime[5]. " - ProPeople don't have to be forced into prostitution to be involved in it. A vast majority of them are involved because they lack basic human services such as a home, job training, health care, counseling and treatment for drug or alcohol addiction. Also, for many women, prostitution and sexual exploitation might be the only life they know(1). If the US ever legalized prostitution, that would mean having a set age limit. Have you ever thought to yourself what would become of all the underaged prostitutes and future runaways in America trying to survive? Without the right help, they would most likely die on the streets or be forced into still illegal child prostitution. In other words, it would still not be a victimless crime. "Whether or not it's legal, it's still a dangerous job""There will always be risks, as there are with any profession. Making prostitution legal will decrease these risks. Nevada was the first state in the US to legalize prostitution. They have very smart laws set to keep their workers safe that could not be enforced if prostitution were considered a crime. The employees are given monthly STD tests, have a "safety button" in the case of a client getting too aggressive, and brothels can"t seek to recruit new prostitutes[7]. " - ProNevada may have legalized prostitution, but 81% of the Nevada women still want to escape it, regardless of its legal status. One of them even stated, "It"s all the same emotionally, no matter where we work," referring to other " illegal " locations where she had been rented for sex(4). I do not understand what my opponent means by a "safety button" because she did not elaborate. And as for some of her sources, I find them invalid because some of them lead me to the main pages and not to anywhere that proves my opponent's point. Such as:. http://www.history.com...http://www.huffingtonpost.com...http://www.womenslaw.org...And a site with blank parts. .. . http://www.usdebtclock.org...Prostitution is wrong beyond all means and legalizing it will not make it any better for this country or for the victims involved in it. America needs to help these prostitutes get out of their lifestyle instead of making it worse. Vote ConSources:(1)-. http://www.womenslaw.org...(2)-http://www.thefword.org.uk...(3)-http://listen.nycagainstrape.org...(4)-http://www.prostitutionresearch.com...(5)-http://www.ksufreedomalliance.org...(6)-http://www.nytimes.com...(7)-google dictionary