American society suffers from something approaching a split personality when it comes to human sexuality. Humans are varied sexual beings and we seem increasingly aware that good mental health requires us to recognize this. But laws and common attitudes often punish individual expressions of sexuality that do not conform to ancient taboos, especially when it comes to prostitution. It gets less press than the War On Drugs, but the state is engaged in a longer running and equally destructive War On Sex. Other cultures suffer from this war as well, but not all and to different degrees, so readers must evaluate for themselves how well this diagnosis applies where they live.
Few people admit to enjoying pornography, yet sales indicate a wide and growing market.
Sex workers are said to be victims, but few ask them if they are unhappy and fewer still would help them if they said they were. We say that we abhor poverty, but sex work is possibly the easiest way for many people to lift themselves out of poverty through honest hard work. I could go on and on, but I think the point is made. The criminalization of a good or service for which there is a demand takes the economic activity underground, spawning corollary criminal activity that is usually much more harmful than whatever ills the prohibitionists imagine they will avoid. The high prices caused by prohibition create a huge profit motive for people to go into illegal businesses, setting the stage for violent conflict with the state.