Prostitution ought to be legalized

“An unjust law is no law at all”- St. Augustine I opened this case with this quote from St. Augustine, which was later repeated by Martin Luther King, Jr. in his Letter from a Birmingham Jail, in order to begin to illustrate the nature of my affirmation of the resolved. This law that oppresses women by taking away their bodily autonomy clearly cannot be seen as a just law. To be perfectly clear, in supporting this resolution, it’s not that I want women to become prostitutes, but just that I understand prostitution to be an issue of personal choice, and I assume that women and people in general have the agency to make that decision for themselves. Now, while reading this debate, it is important to understand not only this, but also that despite the current illegality of prostitution, prostitution still happens to a large degree, and I sincerely doubt my opponent will deny this fact. So essentially, this debate should be seen with this question in mind- should people be punished for this action that they do anyway? C1. Self-Sovereignty From a fundamental standpoint, all major forms of government recognize the concept of rights within their legal systems, and at the most basic level exists the right to self-sovereignty- i. e. , the notion that we have ownership over our own bodies. In market economies, people have the right to sell or rent out their property, and to keep the exchange of sex for money illegal, to allow the government to forbid you from monetizing what you rightfully own, would be to claim that the government has more ownership over your body than you do, which is, frankly, insulting. Additionally, the fact that women are generally more likely to be prostitutes is something that we need to acknowledge here, because it means that laws prohibiting prostitution are essentially targeting women and depriving them of their self-sovereignty, therefore creating an unequal level of oppression as enforced by the government. To have this in place would seem fundamentally wrong if equality or empowerment of women is any sort of goal for society. C2. Reducing Rape While discussing the legality of prostitution, it is important to separate genuine negatives of prostitution from negatives caused by the prohibition thereof. For example, there is a problem with prostitutes being raped. So one might ask, why is this problem as bad as it is? Well, it is so bad because with the illegality of prostitution, it creates an incentive against reporting rapes. If you are doing something illegal, are you going to go to the police and say that you got raped and risk punishment for yourself? Though some might be willing to, the status quo heavily discourages it, therefore making it so the punishment for raping prostitutes is essentially moot, making it so the problem is exacerbated. In legalizing prostitution, we would, if not solve for the problem, actually be reducing the problem, making it a safer environment for the prostitutes. C3. Patriarchy and Rape Culture When taken together, the previous two contentions form the foundations for this one- patriarchy and rape culture. Just imagine- a world where old men in politics can decree what a woman can and can’t do with her own body, and where that leads to them not reporting rapes. It’s not too hard to imagine, because that’s what we currently have with prostitution being illegal. Making prostitution legal removes both of those problems, and therefore reduces the problems of patriarchy and rape culture. C4. Reducing the Spread of STDS Additionally, we can solve for a few other issues of safety if prostitution is legalized, both for the prostitutes and for the consumers. Currently, prostitutes face a dangerous work environment. They are working with pimps who beat and abuse them, and selling to customers without knowing whether or not the customer has an STD. A government cannot regulate something that is illegal, so we must legalize it and regulate it so prostitutes can actually experience the benefits of a safe work environment, as any human being should. The logic from C2 extends here, insofar as if a pimp is abusive, it is difficult for the prostitute to report it under the status quo of illegality without fear of being punished, which only allows the problem to persist. Legalizing solves for that, and also adds potential for regulations that create a safer work environment. Regulations can also insure for STD checks and awareness, making it safer for both the prostitute and the customer. C5. Political/Economic Costs Currently, prostitution only represents a cost to society. Police efforts are spent on catching prostitutes, while no tax revenue is being brought in from the industry. If prostitution were legalized, police efforts wouldn’t be spent on stopping it, which removes that cost, and the prostitutes would be paying taxes, which adds a benefit, as this tax revenue could go towards things like education or healthcare. From an economic standpoint, legalizing prostitution makes sense. C6. Female Empowerment On a more individualistic level, we need to acknowledge that very often, there are low-skilled female workers who end up working for minimum wage jobs, because a minimum wage job is better than no job at all, right? However, what would happen if prostitution were legalized? It seems more likely than not that this would at least be a moderately high paying job, and it would therefore allow for the empowerment of women, helping them to pay for higher education, better health care, to future business ideas, or whatever else it is that they want. Given the higher amount of spending money, these women would be able to have a stronger path towards upwards mobility. On a fundamental level, we’ve got to acknowledge the potential here. No longer would someone who can’t afford to go to college be forced to live at a low income. No longer would someone born into poverty be stuck in poverty. Legalizing prostitution creates a legitimate path for female empowerment. C7. Victimless Crime To be absolutely clear, prostitution has no victim. Someone goes up to a prostitute, and offers to pay her money for sex. The prostitute accepts. They then have sex, and go their separate ways. It was voluntary, no third party was harmed by this, and neither party was harmed, unless there was an issue with one not informing the other of an STD or something (which, as shown before, could be solved for by legalizing and regulating prostitution). Nobody was a victim here, and to say that the prostitute or the customer was a victim would be to say that they have no agency to make decisions for themselves over their own bodies. So given the fact that people are already doing it, there is no victim, and the main harms that can come with prostitution can be solved for by legalization, it seems clear that we should stop punishing those involved and that prostitution should be legalized. Conclusion So to conclude this debate, it is absolutely clear that prostitution ought to be legalized. In legalizing prostitution, we can actually regulate it and therefore reduce pimp on prostitute violence, reduce prostitute rape, and reduce the spread of STDs. It means that women will be able to actually have ownership of their own bodies, rather than being told what they can and can’t do with them by disconnected men in politics. It means that low-skilled women will not be forced into working for minimum wage and will have the option available to them. It means that a victimless crime will not be punished, and that we can actually have additional tax revenue that could go to things like education, rather than be solely a cost on government. So to draw the debate back to the initial question, “should people be punished for this action that people do anyway? ” it is clear that there is little to gain and everything to lose by keeping it illegal.