The United States Federal Government should legalize prostitution.

Thanks again to kasmic, and let's kick this debate off in style! I'll start by presenting my policy, which expands the system currently available in U.S. a state where prostitution is legal (Nevada) to all states by federal legislative means. This means that legal brothels will be opened and regulated like any other business, including wage laws, employment laws, and taxation. Brothels will be required to allocate a fair amount of money to their prostitutes rather than taking out a huge cut for themselves, as is currently the case. They will be required to have clean facilities, hire only adults, get their prostitutes tested regularly for STDs, and require the use of contraception to prevent the spread of disease and pregnancy. Now that that's out of the way, let's move into advantages. 1) Safety The reality is that prostitution is alive and well in this country, and that it will happen whether or not we do anything about it. That system, however, allows the widespread harms that currently exist for them, and as this encompasses as many as 2 million people, it's not a problem we can ignore. The women involved in this system are often so afraid to leave it due to abuse by their pimps that even those who find it untenable cannot leave.[1] Beyond that, many women are simply dependent upon the money they earn in this system as other job opportunities are not available to them, often because they have suffered so much abuse as children, including rape and incest, that they simply don't have the wherewithal to take on another job.[2] This means that we're currently forcing them into these abusive situations in order to survive. Enforcement is, itself, harmful. 62,668 people were arrested in 2010 are arrested each year for solicitation of sex, taking up valuable police time and crowding our prisons and jails at huge cost through both the trial and incarceration.[3] This isn't just a cost issue (more on that later). There are actually two substantial problems with this. The first is a lack of reporting actual crimes like rape and forced sex, both things that happen in the current system. In many countries, police are actually contributing to the problem, and police in the U.S. have actively shut down information services that would ameliorate the problem.[4, 5] The second is that the psychological implications go well beyond the duration of imprisonment. Whether we're talking about PTSD, diminished self-worth, severe difficulties with reintegration into society, social withdrawal, interpersonal distrust, or any of the many other documented psychological harms to prisoners, this is a tremendous problem, and one that leads to breaking down families and lives.[6] The law also consigns prostitution to being a criminal enterprise, which is the reason why things like human trafficking are such tremendous concerns " an industry built on crime is not going to care if they add a few more illegal practices to the mix. A legal industry has a lot more to lose by engaging in blatantly illegal activities. Criminalization of prostitutes has actually done more harm than good, as "anti-trafficking discussions on demand have historically been stymied by anti-prostitution efforts to eradicate the sex work sector by criminalizing clients," which means that these efforts have simply "not reduced trafficking or sex work".[7] Looking at STDs, even the World Health Organization advocates for decriminalization for the sake of public health.[8] Nevada has substantially lowered their prevalence and incidence, to the point that a job that's more broadly legalized, namely porn stars, are actually in worse shape than prostitutes.[9] Even decriminalization, a very basic response that is only the most basic part of my policy, has been effective in other states like Rhode Island at reducing STD rates, as well as rape.[10, 11] Please note that this isn't just a benefit for the prostitutes themselves " sexual violence and STD incidence both decreased in the state population as a whole. Other studies have found that reduced homicide and rape rates country-wide are "anti-correlated with the availability of prostitution. 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."[12] The protection from physical abuse is even stronger. There are fewer instances of violence, rape and disease in the Nevada system.[13] I solve for a great deal of this just by allowing prostitutes mobility out from under abusive pimps and johns, who are responsible for an average of 16 and 33 reported rapes per year, respectively.[14] 82% are physically assaulted, 83% are threatened with a weapon, and nearly 70% have been raped since becoming a prostitute.[15] If implemented on a country-wide basis, it's estimated that we would have 25,000 fewer rapes in this country.[14] Murder, which goes at 20 times the national average among prostitutes, would also be ameliorated by both regulation and dramatically improved reporting structures.[15, 16] All of these impacts to life loss and suffering are dramatic. 2) Justice There are a number of reasons why prostitution should be legal for the sake of justice. But in order to understand this, I first need to frame what a job is. Fundamentally, a job is a negotiated task agreed to by legally consenting individuals, usually involving some pay being given to the person completing the task. As adult human beings, we have the freedom to take on any number of jobs, ranging from the mundane and safe to the extraordinary and dangerous. And the only thing that gets in the way of any individual adult's ability to acquire these jobs is finding someone who will hire you for the purpose. I would say that the ability for these negotiations to proceed is itself a civil liberty. Human beings have a fundamental right to work, something that can easily be established by looking at international law. We can look to any number of sources. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states it plainly in Article 23.1.[17] The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights is unequivocal as well, and this can be found in Part III, Article 6.[18] I think these all firmly establish the right to work quite clearly, and as long as this right exists, it must be extended to all adult, capable human beings. So what does it mean to deny this right? It's dehumanizing. Denying work to people who would otherwise be able to get it denies their agency as individuals. The law is currently engaging in this dehumanization, engaging in the unjust decision to illegalize a line of work that 1% of all American women have engaged in at some point in their lives.[9] Since this is an industry dominated by women, it's even more unjust, as it's a discriminatory practice that predominantly affects a single sex. 3) Costs This breaks down into 2 sources of cost savings included in my policy. A) Arrests, court and incarceration fees Taken together, these average roughly $2,000 per arrestee. For cities, this means an average of $7.5 million on prostitution, and taken country-wide, that cost adds up to roughly $200 million per year.[19, 20] While the costs of regulation replace some of these, those costs are already built into basic regulation systems already in place, and the cost of expanding them to a new industry are minimal by comparison. B) Taxation Prostitution is an $18 billion industry, and even if we assume 0 growth following legalization, the government stands to earn $6 billion in federal income taxes and $2 billion in licensing fees.[21] In both cases, the resulting finances are substantial. Most of the costs and bureaucracies of regulation, as in Nevada, are borne by the brothels themselves, creating a barrier to entry that also ensures that unsavory owners simply cannot even start in the industry.[22] But these costs aren't the only ones that affect the capacities of criminals to engage in basic harms like human trafficking. A black market keeps prices high. Legalization reduces the pricing schemes for prostitutes, mainly as a result of competition and increased availability.[23] As such, those engaging in human trafficking garner reduced compensation. results in much reduced revenue for human traffickers. This might seem like a small issue, but a human trafficker is doing it for the money, and it costs quite a bit to kidnap someone, hold them against their will, transport them over long distances, and keep them docile after they arrive. These are not small concerns, and these costs are actually enhanced by regulations that would screen many of these women regularly, regulate these brothels directly, and allow these women contact with police that doesn't result in their incarceration. All of these reduce the economic benefit of acquiring sex slaves, and thus reduce their value. All of this means the government is receiving billions in revenue and paying hundreds of millions fewer to boot. Those funds can be spent on better enforcement of human trafficking, more effective education systems and rehabilitation facilities to give these women more job options, better health care systems, the list of possible options is tremendous. Any of them is a more effective choice than a failed system of enforcement that drives prostitution underground, leading to pimps controlling law enforcement with sexual favors and feeding organized crime.[24, 25] Over to Con! 1. bit.ly/1yfSJuL 2. bit.ly/1E7wL4w 3. bit.ly/1CVL5rx 4. bit.ly/1G2q1Dj 5. bit.ly/1ITpOpo 6. 1.usa.gov/1FOkAu5 7. bit.ly/1ETll3H 8. bit.ly/1qLoOpK 9. huff.to/1E7wpLI 10. on.wsj.com/1n3kAx5 11. wapo.st/1G4iy9E 12. bit.ly/1xjgS8z 13. bit.ly/1EI2KU2 14. bit.ly/1Cfg4Ra 15. bit.ly/1xDkByi 16. bit.ly/19pV7YM 17. bit.ly/1bnFjmW 18. bit.ly/J1E1V3 19. bit.ly/1HO6Yzy 20. bit.ly/1BPdv4F 21. bit.ly/1FOjv5h 22. read.bi/1H2Rggx 23. ti.me/1cU8ICJ 24. bit.ly/1Bx22Yz 25. bit.ly/1m3Hllw