# Voluntary prostitution **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [December 15, 2002, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voluntary-prostitution/142914 "2002-12-15T17:55:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2002, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voluntary-prostitution/142914/1 "2002-12-15T17:55:32Z")
In [Cecil’s column on why prostitution is illegal](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/000114.html) 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? ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2002, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voluntary-prostitution/142914/2 "2002-12-15T19:03:25Z")
You want a cite for the studies? Is that what you’re asking? ---
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2002, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voluntary-prostitution/142914/3 "2002-12-15T19:05:21Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Duck Duck Goose \* > \*\*You want a cite for the studies? Is that what you’re asking? \*\* Yup. Sorry if I was unclear. ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voluntary-prostitution/142914/4 "2002-12-16T17:57:24Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voluntary-prostitution/142914/5 "2002-12-16T18:23:32Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Duck Duck Goose \* > You want a cite for the studies? And it’s Google in the lead, with jockey Duck Duck Goose vigorously spurring him on! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![rampisad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/858c86/32.png) [@rampisad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rampisad)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2002, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voluntary-prostitution/142914/6 "2002-12-17T15:16:27Z")
> [@](#): > > Today everybody is grateful that we have pure food laws and antitrust regulation. (Well, maybe Bill Gates isn’t.) 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!😉 ---
**Author:** ![senor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5f8ce5/32.png) [@senor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/senor)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2002, 8:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voluntary-prostitution/142914/7 "2002-12-18T08:32:08Z")
Hola! 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. Prostitution is a Catch 22!!! SENOR ---
**Author:** ![rampisad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/858c86/32.png) [@rampisad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rampisad)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2002, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voluntary-prostitution/142914/8 "2002-12-18T12:26:11Z")
## :smack: quote: Today everybody is grateful that we have pure food laws and antitrust regulation. (Well, maybe Bill Gates isn’t.) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------:smack: ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2002, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voluntary-prostitution/142914/9 "2002-12-18T20:12:35Z")
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. Cecil? \<\< walks horse back to stables \>\> ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2002, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voluntary-prostitution/142914/10 "2002-12-18T20:34:53Z")
> [@](#): > > quoth Cecil, in the paragraph concering drug habits– > Other feminists, it should be said, consider prostitution a form of “female sexual slavery,” to cite **the title of one well-known book**. That’d probably be a good place to start ---
**Author:** ![Loren\_Pechtel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d2c977/32.png) [@Loren\_Pechtel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loren_Pechtel)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2002, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voluntary-prostitution/142914/11 "2002-12-21T22:07:29Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by senor \* > \*\*Hola! > BBut, 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. > \*\* ``` 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. ``` ---
**Author:** ![jezzaOZ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a9a28c/32.png) [@jezzaOZ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jezzaOZ)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2002, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voluntary-prostitution/142914/12 "2002-12-24T11:56:22Z")
I remember hearing about a religious sect (christian of course) that makes its women-folk become prostitutes so they can be saved a-la Mary Magdalene. I’m not quite sure what the qualification requirement is. So many men? So many months? I’d be fascinated to get more details about this group. ---
**Author:** ![hawthorne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@hawthorne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hawthorne)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2002, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voluntary-prostitution/142914/13 "2002-12-24T16:30:48Z")
That’s David Berg’s “Children of God” group I imagine, **jezzaOZ**. “Flirty fishing”. Urk. ---
**Author:** ![SCSimmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e495f1/32.png) [@SCSimmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCSimmons)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2002, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voluntary-prostitution/142914/14 "2002-12-25T20:21:14Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Ethilrist \* > > > [@](#): > > > > quoth Cecil, in the paragraph concering drug habits– > > Other feminists, it should be said, consider prostitution a form of “female sexual slavery,” to cite the title of one well-known book. > > \*\*That’d probably be a good place to start \*\* Gee, that was hard. Maybe it’s [Female Sexual Slavery](http://search.barnesandnoble.com/textbooks/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?isbn=0814710697) by Kathleen L. Barry. :rolleyes: