In Cecil’s column on why prostitution is illegal he mentions that there are people claiming that women are always, one way or another coerced into prostitution, but that this “seems to victimize prostitutes more than the reality warrants. Suffice it to say studies of prostitution have generally found that women who become prostitutes do so voluntarily, often to support a drug habit.”
I’m not sure that becoming a prostitute to support a drug habit can count as voluntary, but what I’d really like to know is the cite for this. I’m in a heavy on-going discussion about prostitution and would really like to back my opinions up with facts. Does anyone know where Cecil got this from?
In any case, drug habits are a recent development, socially speaking. On the other hand, so are anti-prostitution (as opposed to anti-soliciting) laws.
I’m lost. Why would Bill Gates be ungrateful for pure food laws. Many of the photos of him as a young genius show a mass of pimples on his beaming face - now they’re gone! SUrely, a fine sign of the efficiency of pure food!
Prostitution carries with it the possibility of disease. There is also great abuses of people in the “trade” especially children. Don’t believe it? Got to Thailand or any other south eastern Asian nation. Also, I believe that hookers can comprimise a marriage.
But, I am also a libertarian and would like to propagate a belief that prostitiution between two people is acceptable as long as the person selling (mainly the woman) consents to the sex involved. This would be my consensus if there were not ugly ass diseases out there like AIDS, Syphillis, gonherrhea (sic) and God only knows what. To prevent this, prostitution should be legalized and controlled legally and brothals should be licensed. BUT this would go back to the problems of abuse and legalized infedelity between a man and his wife.
I think Cecil needs to come in here and give us his cites. There’s no lack of stuff out there saying there’s a link between prostitution and drug use, but I can’t find a study that says specifically “people become prostitutes in order to support a drug habit”. I can find references to books written about prostitution, in which people opine that that’s why people become prostitutes, but no studies.
How does legalized prostitution make for legalized infidelity? If prostitution were legal a guy would be in exactly the same situation if he went to a prostitute or picked up someone at a singles bar. The only wrong done would be to his relationship and it would be the same wrong.
