Prostitution should be legalized

1. The health consequences to women from prostitution are the same injuries and infections suffered by women who are subjected to other forms of violence against women. The physical health consequences include: injury (bruises, broken bones, black eyes, concussions). A 1994 study conducted with 68 women in Minneapolis/St.Paul who had been prostituted for at least six months found that half the women had been physically assaulted by their purchasers, and a third of these experienced purchaser assaults at least several times a year. 23% of those assaulted were beaten severely enough to have suffered broken bones. Two experienced violence so vicious that they were beaten into a coma. Furthermore, 90% of the women in this study had experienced violence in their personal relationships resulting in miscarriage, stabbing, loss of consciousness, and head injuries.This is exactly the kind of issues you can expect to see when prostitution is labeled as a public menace and cast of to the streets. However, in countries where prostitution is legal, crime rates show a completely different picture. I read an interesting article by Kirby R. Cundiff that shows prostitution and rape cases to be inversely proportional. His data and models show that rape could be expected to drop by as much 25% with a 90% confidence interval. (http://www.independent.org...). An article from Liberater.net holds similar findings (http://www.liberator.net...).2. If cigarettes became illegal, there would be a lot of people that still smoked, but the overall numbers of smokers would most likely dramatically decrease simply because citizens do not want to get in trouble with the law. As I stated before, the numbers of prostitutes would most likely rise, then the younger generation would be affected. Have you ever heard of the phrase, "Strict parents create sneaky kids?" Again, you are holding society to your particular set of morals. Having morals is not bad, but expecting others to heed them can often yield unpleasant results. Say I were to throw a curve ball and claim that the fact that you are trying to keep prostitution is immoral? "However disturbing the idea of commercial sex may be to some of us, it's naïve to believe that prostitution can ever be eliminated. The demand will be met with supply one way or another, no matter what is legislated. Turning our backs on the women (and men) who do this work may be far more immoral - even criminal - than prostitution itself. Only when we recognize and validate the work of professional prostitutes can we expect them to practice their trade safely and responsibly." -Alexa Albert, MD. I acknowledge that the immorality of prostitution is controversial, but it is based solely on personal opinion and has no actual evidence to back it up one way or the other. It's a futile effort to back an argument with morality as the banner. By leaning on it, you will appeal people who already agree with it, but people against it and critical thinkers will be less apt to lean to your side. (I don't mean any offense with this, I just want to explain the issue with leaning on morality in a debate.)3. The emotional health consequences of prostitution include severe trauma, stress, depression, anxiety, self-medication through alcohol and drug abuse; and eating disorders. Almost all the women in the Minneapolis/St. Paul study categorized themselves as chemically-addicted. Crack cocaine and alcohol were used most frequently. Ultimately, women in prostitution are also at special risk for self-mutilation, suicide and homicide. 56% of the women in the Minneapolis/St. Paul study had attempted suicide, and 19% had tried to harm themselves physically in other ways. Again, these studies are performed in the streets where there is much more going on then prostitution. Pimps, drug dealers, rapists also share the streets with prostitutes, and I'm certain that they would have very similar issues. "This study provided evidence that female indoor sex workers in the Netherlands do not exhibit a higher level of work-related emotional exhaustion or a lower level of work-related personal competence than a comparison group of female health care workers (mostly nurses)... The fact that findings were partly contrary to expectations and contrary to suggestions from others that sex work is intrinsically traumatizing may be explained by sample differences. Here, indoor sex workers were studied, whereas many other studies focus almost exclusively on street workers..." -Ine Vanwesenbeeck, PhD.My above arguments also apply to the rest of the points you made, namely more citations from your Minneapolis/St. Paul reference. This is the last round to bring up new points and then the last round will be conclusions. I await your next reply.