Prostitution should be legal

Danger of Prostitution Prostitution is not without risk. The death rate of fisherman is 200. The homicide rate for prostitutes was 229. Murders of African American: 18-24: 102. (rates are per 100,000, per year) Sources: . http://jobs.aol.com... . http://www.feministcritics.org... . http://aje.oxfordjournals.org... In other words, being a prostitute is about as dangers as being a fisherman, and twice as dangerous as just being and African American male between the ages of 18 to 24. The homicide rate of prostitutes is likely to be exaggerated. The homicide rate of prostitutes was measured during the period 1967-1999 (32 years) during which overall homicide rates were higher. Also the sample sizeis small (117) and uses only samples from one town (Colorado Springs) that cannot represent all of the United States. The risks of illegal prostitution in Colorado is still relatively high. Prostitution can be safer. The only state in the USA where prostitution is legal is Nevada. A study about prostitution in Nevada brothels says: “Of more than 40 prostitutes we interviewed, from large and small, sub- urban and rural brothels across Nevada, only one reported any personal experience with violence in the brothels. ” “There is strong indication from the interview, document analysis, and ethnographic data presented here that legal brothels generally offer a safer working environment than their illegal counterparts. Regulated brothels offer particular ways of dealing with pragmatic safety issues and minimizing actual violence, including violence passed from johns to prostitutes and back to johns through diseases, viruses, and infections. Nevada brothels offer specific mechanisms to protect workers via the ways transactions are organized, the ways technology is ordered, the visibility of customers, the bureaucratic relationships among customers, managers, and workers, and the cooperation with police based on the mere fact of their legality. All of these mechanisms work to eliminate systematic violence and to discourage an atmosphere of danger and risk that, as a mirror image of fact, is significant. ” . http://esplerp.org... The publication below shows, that few clients asks for sex without condoms in Nevada Brothels, and no clients had penetrative sex without condoms: . http://ajph.aphapublications.org...; “Since those rules for Nevada brothels went into effect in 1988, the report said, there have been no cases of HIV infection and a negligible rate of STDs, the Los Angeles Times reports. ” Source: . http://www.huffingtonpost.com... The issue with “risks of promiscuity” seems misplaced. If condoms are always used, the probability of the ripping of a condom, one of the partners being infected by an STD, and one of the partners being infected by the others, are relatively small. It is not an unreasonable risk. So: Prostitution CAN be relatively safe, especially if it is legal. My opponent claims that the number of prostitutes grew tenfold in Germany after legalization. This number is probably fiction, at least I did not find this number in any of the references he gives (but perhaps he can point it out to me where he got this number from). Clearly, after legalization, prostitutes do not have to hide their profession. So this may cause an increase in the number of known prostitutes. But in any case, there is nothing wrong with prostitution, as long is it is practiced safely between two consenting adults. So an increase in prostitution should not be necessarily be considered as a bad thing, especially if legalization also makes it possible to make prostitution safer. New Zealand study The New Zealand study shows that legalization in New Zealand was a success. Let me rebut the criticisms of my opponent: CON wrote:1. There was a move from managed (brothel and escort) to private sector following decriminalization. Danger to sex workers from both violence and disease increase when the go from a “managed environment” to “private sector. ” – “Street-based workers were more likely . . . to report refusal of a client to pay, having had money stolen by a client, having been physically assaulted by a client, having been threatened by a client with physical violence, having been held against their will and having been raped in the last 12 months. ” Rebuttal: I think CON confuses the 3 categories. There is “managed environment” (like brothels etc. ), “private sector” (prostitutes working for themselves indoors) and “street prostitutes”. Street prostitutes is definitely more dangerous than “managed environment” and “private sector”, but there is not a big difference between “managed environment” and “private sector”. “Private workers reported moving into private work because it provided a safer working environment, where they could earn more and attract better clients. “ In other words, the move to private sector was a GOOD thing! It made them safer! !! CON wrote: 2. The sample was not a random. The majority of participants were white, “between the ages of 22 to 45 years, had entered the industry after age 18, and had education levels of at least three to five years at the secondary school level with many having tertiary levels of education” – the New Zealand study is irrelevant to our situation where our demographic is much different. Demographics: Maori (non-white) 31.7%, NZ European (white) 50.7%, Pacific Island (non-white) 5.1%, Other: 12.5%. So barely a majority is white. This is probably not much different in the USA. What do you mean not random? The age group, demographics, education simply reflects the demographics of the prostitutes of New Zealand. Studies like the one in New Zealand haven’t been done in the USA as far as I know. Because of the illegality it is difficult to get reliable surveys on prostitutes in the USA. I have no reason to assume that the age demographic is very different from that of New Zealand. CON wrote: Even with these survey participants, the picture is horrifying. For example- “87% of all survey participants have a regular doctor but only half of these participants disclose their occupation to their doctor. ” This means 13% have no doctor at all, and 51% have not told a doctor that they are in the sex trade. THIS IS AFTER LEGALIZATION! 87% is not bad (probably higher that the percentage of people in the USA with health care). Half of the prostitutes disclose their work with their primary care physician. But many of them get check-ups from other institutions as well. They get regularly checked for STD’s even if they don’t tell their primary care physician. Conclusion: Prostitution can be legalized in a way that makes work safer for prostitutions as the Nevada and New Zealand examples show. Opponents of legalized prostitution like to depict prostitutes as helpless victims. This is not the reality of prostitution. Most prostitutes choose their profession freely, and we should be allowed to do so. But in the end, the most important argument, in my opinion, is freedom. Two consenting adults should have the freedom to have sex in exchange for money. Government does not have the right to take away the livelihood of a sex worker.