DJScherr wrote:
From the link quoted above:
“Homeowners and families are telling us that they are frustrated and threatened by the prostitution they see on their streets, sidewalks and alley ways.”
They’re threatened by the prostitution they see? What, are the hookers breaking into peoples’ homes and forcing people to have sex with them now?
lamia:
i’ve spent several years in asia, i know of no place in asia where prostitution is legal. there are places where it is quite common however.
Indeed, Tracer. Excellent point.
Prostitution isn’t legal in Las Vegas or Reno. The reason? Men gamble more when they’re with their wives (think about it :D).
I don’t think we should encourage people to be prostitutes (there are, after all, better and more reliable ways to make money), but we shouldn’t comdemn it.
so in the usa you can watch whores having sex ( what is a porn star ??, someone who has sex for money perhaps ? ) BUT you can’t pay her to screw you…
bizarre
Another thing came to my attention last night as I waas trying to fall asleep. Porn actors and actresses are doing nothing other than having sex for money. In a way, is this not prostitution? 
There is a great book that argues for the legalizing of a lot things from drugs to gambling to prostitution.
Once when I lived in OKC they did a story about the ‘ladies’ that worked the downtown area. They didn’t talk to the hos but to the people bothered by them. Each person said that they didn’t want to see them on the street. Not one person said that they wanted them stopped, just that they didn’t want to see them.
I wonder if a law could be passed that made laws come up for review every 100 years or so. This would allow outdated laws to expire.
Think about legal prostituion.
The state does not spend money arresting/prosecuting/jailing but rather makes money by licensing/taxing the business. Also because of the nature of the crime police have to do sting operations which could lead to entrapment or least entrament defences.
Personally I want the cops looking for the guy who rapes women, not the woman who gets paid for it.
I believe that “decriminalisation” usually refers to the lifting of all legal restrictions and controls — moving the activity entirely outside the scope of the criminal law — whereas “legalisation” usually implies some kind of regulatory system.
Depends what you mean by “voluntary”. If a drug addict consents to have sex for money becuase it is the only way she can feed her habit, is that voluntary? If a woman consents to have sex with a third party because she is scared that her partner will beat her if she doesn’t (even in the absence of an explicit threat to that effect) is she acting of her own free will? If a girl is made to have sex with strangers by her parents from the age of 14 or 15, by the time she reaches adulthood and is still on the game, has she really made an informed choice?
I believe you are referring to " Ain’t Nobody’s Business If You Do : The Absurdity of Consensual Crimes in Our Free Country " by Peter McWilliams, which is an exhaustive examination of exactly what the title says. It’s about 700 amusing pages and footnoted to beat the band, so if you ever wanted a top notch reference for arguing the insanity of our victimless crimes, this is it.
If a woman marries a man because she will lose her house and needs the financial security of a well-off man, is that voluntary? Yes, it is. The fact that there are options make it a choice. Nobody says the options have to be equally sunny.
It seems that what most people who want prostitution illegal fear is not really prostitution. I don’t think the legal status of prostitution has anything to do with immigrants being kidnapped and forced into service. That’s happening when prostitution is illegal. Why do you think legalization would be worse?
And while I believe in legalization, I don’t share some other posters view that the laws against prostitution are just vestiges of old society. I’m fairly certain that most people believe that prostitution should be illegal. That attitude might be changing, but it certainly hasn’t changed completely.
Zebra I agree with you 110%. Through licensing we receive regulations, through regulations we would receive continual std testing and should be able to cut down on the spread of some stds and this would also lead to the prostitutes safety from the pimps which essentially they would be put out of business.
With prostitution properly controlled, there would be none of the problems that most people would believe. The government should just get their heads out of their ass’, stop placing morality before legislature and get a move on. I mean, come on, if you can legalize alcohol (which can have greater repercussions then prostitution) then this should not be a problem. Hell, once they get this in the works, then the people can apply the same to marijuana, which is another morale issue.
that’s the problem with sound bite arguments, it only allows for a ten second quip to attempt a 3 minute answer.
The reasons, in general, that the homeowners etc. are ‘threatened’ by the prostitutes, streetwalkers etc.:
they find it offensive and harmful to their neighborhood to have people engaging in sexual activity in the cars on their streets. They tend to try and keep their children indoors.
They find it offensive, frightening, harmful, stressful etc. that if they are a female living in an area where street walkers ply their trade, that even walking to the corner store can elicit attempts to pick them up.
They find it distateful, harmful, dangerous, offensive etc. to deal with the physical litter involved (used condoms, tissues, drug paraphenalia etc.)
They find it harmful financially when they attempt to sell their home and find they cannot or only get very low offers due to the activity in their neighborhood.
my office is located near an area known for street walkers. I have personally observed problems with all of the above.
Regarding the OP : there was a recent thread on this. I spoke my mind there.
Zoff,
I don’t accept is that everybody who goes into prostitution is making a free choice. It’s not a question of the options not being “equally sunny” but of some options being unconscionable. And I don’t believe that drug addicts or people who are acting under the (implied) threat of violence are necessarily making free choices. You might as well say that the bank teller volunteers to give the money to the armed robber: after all, he could always choose to be shot.
Actually, I believe in legalisation. It’s the best way to safeguard the interests of those people who have no choice but to go on the game.
TomH,
My point was really that these issues of coercion are not because of prostitution. People make choices (outside of prostitution) all the time because the alternative is bad. Obviously, a woman going into prostitution to avoid being beaten is horrible. But the problem is really that she is threatened with abuse, not that her alternative is prostitution.
It actually looks like we’re close to agreement. I just interpreted your post to mean that prostitution should be illegal because some people do it for less than ideal reasons. That might be true, but it’s not prostitution’s fault.
You’ll find many people responding to this same question over in the recent thread Why do people hate sex work? started by Stoid.
wring wrote:
I would argue, of course, that all 4 of these reasons would pretty much evaporate if prostitution were legalized and sequestered away in bona fide brothels. Such brothels would, of course, be subject to the same zoning laws as other commercial endeavors, which pretty much means they couldn’t be set up in a residential area.
this society has too many long standing sexual hangups for it to be a RESPECTABLE profession.
but what is it about the socio-economic structure that causes so many women to end up doing it?
Dal Timgar
I was under the impression that it was illegal in Thailand and the Phillipines, but I just checked on the Web and you’re right. Prostitution is not technically legal in those countries. But at least according to this site http://www.sexwork.com//coalition/whatcountrieslegal.html, prosititution is regulated by the government in the Phillipines and is literally illegal only in name.
**Originally posted by tracer
**
Feel free to argue the point. While you’re doing so, I suggest that you come up with evidence to suggest that even where prostitution is legalized, there aren’t problems with illegal prostitution.
For example, drinking alcohol is legal for those who are over 21 (in most areas). Serving alcohol for $$ is legal with specific authorization from the government but illegal ‘blind pigs’ still exist.
I have a direct relative who works for the IRS. Per her, The IRS does not care what you do for a living as long as you report your income. In addition they do not report people who claim illegal means as income. It takes some kind of congressional involvement to get those records released to a law enforcement agency. Look at alot of your mafia types, many of them get busted for what?
Income tax evasion
Many of them would not be in jail if they had just paid their taxes