prostitution should be legalised essay

To Protect Women, Legalize Prostitution

by | Oct 1, 2019 | Amicus , Criminal Justice , Labor and Employment , Sex Equality |

Prostitution is a sensitive subject in the United States. Frequently, arguments against prostitution center around concern for the health and safety of women, and those concerns are not unfounded. Prostitution is an incredibly dangerous profession for the (mostly) women involved; sexual assault, forced drug addiction, physical abuse, and death are common in the industry. For the women who work in this field, it is often very difficult to get help or get out. Many sex workers were sold into sex trafficking at a very young age and have no resources with which to escape their forced prostitution, or started out as sex workers by choice only to fall victim to sex trafficking later on. Moreover, since prostitution is illegal in most places in the United States, there are few legal protections in place for prostitutes; many fear that seeking help will only lead to arrest, and many who do seek help are arrested and then have to battle the stigma of a criminal record while they try to reintegrate into society.

So why is the response to such a dangerous industry to drive it further underground, away from societal resources and legal protections?

When people argue prostitution should be illegal, in many cases their concern comes from a place of morality , presented as concern for the health and safety of women. People believe that legalizing prostitution will only lead to the abuse of more women, will make it harder for prostitutes to get out of the industry, or will teach young women that their bodies exist for the sole purpose of sexual exploitation by men.

However, legalizing prostitution has had positive benefits for sex workers across Europe . The most well-known country to have legalized prostitution is the Netherlands , where sex work has been legal for almost twenty years. Bringing the industry out of the black market and imposing strict regulations has improved the safety of sex workers. Brothels are required to obtain and renew safety and hygiene licenses in order to operate, and street prostitution is legal and heavily regulated in places like the Red Light District . Not only does sex work become safer when it is regulated, but legalization also works to weed out the black market that exists for prostitution, thereby making women safer overall. Also, sex workers are not branded as criminals, so they have better access to the legal system and are encouraged to report behaviors that are a danger to themselves and other women in the industry. Finally, legalizing sex work will provide many other positive externalities , including tax revenue, reduction in sexually transmitted diseases, and reallocation of law enforcement resources.

It’s true that current efforts by various European countries to legalize prostitution have been far from perfect. In the Netherlands, certain components of the legislation , such as requiring sex workers to register and setting the minimum age for prostitution at 21, could drive more sex workers to illegal markets. Not only that, but studies indicate that legalizing prostitution can increase human trafficking.  However, even those who are critical about legalizing prostitution can recognize the benefits that legislation can have on working conditions for sex workers. If countries with legislation in place spend more time listening to current sex workers, the results of decriminalizing prostitution include bringing safety, security, and respect to a demographic that has traditionally been denied such things.

The underlying reason that people are uncomfortable listening to sex workers about legalizing prostitution has nothing to do with concern for the health and safety of women. If that were the genuine concern, prostitution would be legal in the United States by now. The underlying reason people disagree with legalizing prostitution is that prostitution is viewed as amoral because it involves (mostly) women selling their bodies for financial gain. However, telling women what they can and cannot do with their bodies does not come from a place of morality: that comes from a place of control.

People, especially women, sell their bodies for financial gain in legalized fashions on a daily basis. Pornography is legal, and so is exotic dancing. It’s common for people to have sexual relationships with richer partners so as to benefit from their wealth, whether this is through seeking out wealthy life partners or through the less formal but increasingly prevalent phenomenon known as sugar-dating . It’s also common for people to remain in unhappy relationships because they do not want to lose financial stability or spend money on a divorce.

So, what’s the difference? Why are these examples socially acceptable, even encouraged, but prostitution is seen as so appalling?

The difference is that in all of these other situations, it is easy for people to pretend that the women involved are not actually selling their bodies directly. It’s easy to pretend that the pornography actors are just people having consensual sex that the viewing public just happens to be privy to observing . It’s easy to pretend that exotic dancers are not actually selling their bodies because they are not directly engaging in the act of sex. It’s easy to pretend that people who enter into or remain in sexual relationships with wealthy partners could be there for reasons other than financial gain or security.

Prostitution does not allow the general public to have the benefit of these pretenses. Rather, the industry is honest about how sex and money are directly related. And for many individuals, this is an uncomfortable notion. It is even more uncomfortable for some people to believe that women should be allowed to have the control over their bodies that would permit them to engage in prostitution voluntarily; they cannot allow themselves to believe that women would choose such a profession. Yet rather than recognize this reality, those who oppose the legalization of prostitution march forth with arguments about concern for the safety of women. They fail to realize that criminalizing prostitution does not help sex workers, and their arguments lead to legislation that harms women while operating under the morally-driven guise of wanting to protect them.

Instead of forcing sex workers to conduct their business in unregulated black markets where their lives are in danger, all for a mislabeled purpose of “saving” women, take actual action to save women. Legalize prostitution, impose strict regulations, and construct comprehensive support systems that allow sex workers to do their jobs safely.

The desire to protect women from sexual abuse will always be valid, and if anything is a desire that should be more widespread in the United States. What is disingenuous is opposing legalized sex work for reasons that purport to be women’s safety, but that are actually coming from a place of discomfort over women openly engaging in sexual interactions for financial gain. If you are uncomfortable with the idea of women having sex for money, then you should also have a problem with pornography, exotic dancing, and people dating for money. If you do not have a problem with all of these socially accepted practices but have a problem with prostitution because it is “morally questionable,” then you have lost your right to any forum where decisions about the safety and rights of women are being made.

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Should Sex Work Be Decriminalized? Some Activists Say It's Time

Jasmine Garsd

LGBTQ, immigrant rights and criminal justice reform groups, launched a coalition, Decrim NY, in February to decriminalize the sex trade in New York. Erik McGregor/Getty Images hide caption

LGBTQ, immigrant rights and criminal justice reform groups, launched a coalition, Decrim NY, in February to decriminalize the sex trade in New York.

Sex work is illegal in much of the United States, but the debate over whether it should be decriminalized is heating up.

Former California Attorney General and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris recently came out in favor of decriminalizing it , as long as it's between two consenting adults.

The debate is hardly new — and it's fraught with emotions. Opponents of decriminalization say it's an exploitative industry that preys on the weak. But many activists and academics say decriminalization would help protect sex workers, and would even be a public health benefit.

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RJ Thompson wants to push back against the idea that sex work is inherently victimizing. He says for him it was liberating: Thompson had recently graduated from law school and started working at a nonprofit when the recession hit. In 2008, he got laid off with no warning and no severance, and he had massive student loan debt.

Thompson became an escort. "I made exponentially more money than I ever could have in my legal profession," he says.

He says the possibility of arrest was often on his mind. And he says for many sex workers, it's a constant fear. "Many street-based workers are migrants or transgender people who have limited options in the formal economies," he says. "And so they do sex work for survival. And it puts them in a very vulnerable position — the fact that it's criminalized."

Thompson is now a human rights lawyer and the managing director of the Sex Workers Project at the Urban Justice Center. It's among several organizations that are advocating bills to decriminalize sex work in New York City and New York state. They already have the support of various state lawmakers .

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Due to its clandestine nature in America, it's extremely hard to find reliable numbers about the sex trade. But one thing is for sure: It's a multi-billion-dollar industry. In 2007, a government-sponsored report looked at several major U.S. cities and found that sex work brings in around $290 million a year in Atlanta alone.

Economist Allison Schrager says the Internet has increased demand and supply. "Women who pre-Internet (or men) who wouldn't walk the streets or sign with a madam or an agency now can sell sex work, sometimes even on the side to supplement other sources of income," she says.

So what happens when you take this massive underground economy and decriminalize it? Nevada might offer a clue. Brothels are legal there, in certain counties.

In Shrager's book, An Economist Walks Into A Brothel , she investigated the financial workings of the Nevada brothel industry. She found that on average it's 300 percent more expensive to hire a sex worker in a Nevada brothel than in an illegal setting. Shrager thinks it's because workers and customers prefer to pay for the safety and health checks of a brothel.

"Sex work is risky for everyone," she says. "You take on a lot of risk as a customer too. And when you're working in a brothel you are assured complete anonymity. They've been fully screened for diseases."

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But many activists and academics say decriminalization would help protect sex workers and could also have public health benefits.

Take the case of Rhode Island . A loophole made sex work, practiced behind closed doors, legal there between 2003 and 2009.

Baylor University economist Scott Cunningham and his colleagues found that during those years the sex trade grew. But Cunningham points to some other important findings : During that time period the number of rapes reported to police in the state declined by over a third. And gonorrhea among all women declined by 39 percent. Of course, changes in prostitution laws might not be the only cause, but Cunningham says, "the trade-off is if you make it safer to some degree, you grow the industry."

Rhode Island made sex work illegal again in 2009, in part under pressure from some anti-trafficking advocates. That's the thing: The debate about sex work always gets linked to trafficking — people who get forced into it against their will.

Economist Axel Dreher from the University of Heidelberg in Germany teamed up with the London School of Economics to analyze the link between trafficking and prostitution laws in 150 countries. "If prostitution is legal, there is more human trafficking simply because the market is larger," he says.

It's a controversial study: Even Dreher admits that reliable data on sex trafficking is really hard to find.

Human rights organizations including Amnesty International support decriminalization. Victims of trafficking might be able to ask for help more easily if they aren't afraid of having committed a crime, the groups say.

Cecilia Gentili is the director of policy at GMHC, an HIV/AIDS prevention, care and advocacy nonprofit in New York. Erik McGregor/Getty Images hide caption

Cecilia Gentili is the director of policy at GMHC, an HIV/AIDS prevention, care and advocacy nonprofit in New York.

Former sex worker Cecilia Gentili says she might have been able to break free much sooner had it not been for fear of legal consequences. She left her native Argentina because she was being brutally harassed by police in her small town. She thought she'd be better off when she moved to New York, but as a transgender, undocumented immigrant, she says she had few options.

"Let's be realistic," Gentili says, "for people like me, sex work is not 'one' job option. It's the only option."

Gentili says that when police busted the drug house in Brooklyn where she was being held, she debated whether to ask for help. She figured she was in a very vulnerable position, as a trans, undocumented person. She stayed quiet.

These days Gentili is the director of policy at GMHC , an HIV/AIDS prevention, care and advocacy nonprofit in New York. She's advocating for New York City and state to decriminalize sex work.

Rachel Lloyd is the founder of Girls Educational and Mentoring Services, a nonprofit for sexually exploited women in New York. Jasmine Garsd/NPR hide caption

Rachel Lloyd is the founder of Girls Educational and Mentoring Services, a nonprofit for sexually exploited women in New York.

But many believe the sex industry is just fundamentally vicious and decriminalizing it will make it worse. Rachel Lloyd is the founder of Girls Educational and Mentoring Services , a nonprofit for sexually exploited women in New York. She says there's nothing that will equalize the power unbalances in the sex industry.

"The commercial sex industry is inherently [exploitative]," she says. "The folks who end up in the commercial sex industry are the folks who are the most vulnerable and the most desperate."

When she was a teenager, Lloyd sold sex in Germany, where it's legal. But she says that didn't make it any less brutal for her.

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"Those power dynamics of exploitation were still there," she says. "When ... legal johns came in, they were the ones with the money."

Lloyd says she doesn't want sex workers to be persecuted or punished. But she doesn't think men should be allowed to buy sex legally. She says that would be condoning the same industry that brutalized her and the women she works with today.

But decriminalization activists say that sex work has and always will exist. And they say bringing it out of the shadows can only help.

Read more stories from NPR Business.

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The Case for Fully Decriminalising Prostitution

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Editor's note: This post contains discussion of themes involving sexual exploitation and sexual violence.

During the research for this article, 15 dancers and 4 full-service sex workers were interviewed. The research helped provide a fuller picture of how legislation does and would operate for them and the unique struggles they face.

I.  Introduction

The sex work industry is diverse, and there are many sex workers operating within the United Kingdom (UK). The University of Bristol published a report on the nature and prevalence of sex work in the UK in 2019, [1] which identified 14 settings and services of sex work such as brothels and glamour modelling. The report made it clear that sex work involves a wide variety of jobs, including independent and agency escorting – referred to here as prostitution to reflect the use of the term in legislation – lap-dancing, and webcamming. Additionally, the report estimated that there are 85,714 individuals operating as street-based and indoor sex workers within the UK. The large numbers of sex workers and the variety of areas that they operate in make it clear that sex work cannot be ignored, and ways must be found to support the individuals who work in this industry.

Within the UK, some forms of sex work such as lap-dancing are legal, whilst prostitution is partially decriminalised. This means that although it is not a criminal activity to exchange sex for money, many of the activities surrounding prostitution are criminalised. For example, it is currently illegal to manage a brothel, advertise sexual services in the immediate vicinity of a public telephone, and persistently loiter or solicit on a street or public place for the purposes of prostitution. [2] One negative consequence of this criminalisation is that sex workers must operate in a situation of danger - if they are exposed to physical or sexual violence from clients, they are discouraged from going to the police for fear of prosecution. Criminalisation also makes it harder for those involved in sex work to move out of the industry because of the resulting criminal records.

This article will argue for the full decriminalisation of prostitution in order to foster safer relationships between sex workers and clients and reduce the societal stigma of sex work. This decriminalised system should be accompanied by limited legislation, making certain aspects of prostitution legal, subject to regulations. This article will examine the UK’s laws surrounding lap-dancing to argue that any government-led system of legislation will be unsatisfactory, thus, any legislation should be sex worker-led.

II.  The distinction between prostitution and sex slavery

It should be noted that the sex trade, otherwise known as sex trafficking, is not the same as prostitution. The sex trade involves the illegal practice of transporting individuals from one place to another for the purposes of sexual exploitation. Prostitution should be decriminalised, whereas sex trafficking should remain criminal. The fact that prostitution and sex trafficking are both currently criminalised perpetuates the negative stereotype that all sex work is inherently exploitative of sex workers. Victims of sex trafficking are sex slaves, not prostitutes.  Exemplifying this difference is the relationship of the prostitute with the brothel-owner, versus that of the sex slave with their sex trafficker. Brothel owners are business people, owning establishments where prostitutes can meet and engage with clients whilst working as independent contractors. They support a safer and more organised environment for prostitutes to work in. Conversely, sex traffickers sell individuals for sex against their will, often in unsafe environments and to unsafe individuals. An important difference between sex slaves and prostitutes is the relationship of trust between the prostitute and the brothel owner and/or client as compared to the relationship of fear and coercion between the sex slave, sex trafficker and sex purchaser. The law should act to protect individuals from being forced into sex work, and punish those who force them into it.

In Julie Bindel’s article, ‘Why prostitution should never be legalised’, she writes that ‘prostitution is inherently abusive’. She notes that ‘every sex trade survivor [she has] ever interviewed’ believes so. [3] However, the ‘sex trade’ that she talks of is trafficking, which is not a form of sex work. She has interviewed women who have been victims of sex trafficking, an inherently abusive area of crime. If Bindel were to talk to those in the sex work industry, not the sex trade, she would find that prostitution has the potential to be life-saving, empowering, and a positive experience for individuals in the industry. Lap-dancers, for example, work in a legalised area of sex work in the UK; they sell a sexual service, similarly to prostitutes. Their experience is a useful indicator of the way that individuals involved in sex work can maintain ownership of their lives and livelihoods, even using their profession to take greater ownership. In a recent survey of 300 lap-dancers by the University of Leeds, not only was it established that 84% of lap-dancers were satisfied with their job and had a positive body image, but also that one third were using their job to fund new forms of education and training. [4]

Legislation currently makes both sex trafficking and many elements of prostitution illegal. Both the legislation and those who wrote it seem to refer to prostitution and sex trafficking interchangeably. Dame Diana Johnson proposed the ‘Sexual Exploitation Bill’ on December 9 th 2020. It aimed to make it illegal to pay for sex. In the first reading of this bill, Johnson justified this by drawing on testimonies of those who had been sex trafficked. There is a clear legal link between prostitution and sex trafficking, which perpetuates the stigma that sex work is ‘dirty’ and all sex workers are forced into it. This does not reflect reality. One of the darker consequences of the law perpetuating this stigma is that it manifests in hate and violence towards sex workers. [5] Often, those who have participated in the industry are unable to leave due to the negative association that their prospective employers have with sex work. Legislators should act to remove the stigma to allow sex workers to move out of the industry more seamlessly, and to reduce violence against sex workers. This requires the decriminalisation of prostitution, as will be explored.  

III.  Is sex work a legitimate form of work?

Though this may perhaps not be the view of the general public, it is argued here that sex work is a legitimate form of work. Women should be able to choose what to do with their bodies, and legitimising sex work supports this assertion. Decriminalisation and legislation would be a step towards convincing the public of this, as minds will not change unless the law does. For example, the 1983 British Social Attitudes Survey found that 17% of respondents thought that same-sex partnerships were ‘not wrong at all’. In 2010, the same survey found this increased to 45%. After homosexual marriage was legalised in 2013, this percentage rose to 64%. Though this may be a reflection simply of a shift in attitudes, these statistics illustrate how society can grow to accept some things it once condemned. The law can do much to reduce the stigma against sex work and promote its acceptance, as it has done for homosexual relationships. It can be argued that, unlike homosexuality, sex work is a choice, one that women do not have to make. A further objection is that sex work is inherently dangerous, putting women at risk unduly. Finally, the same opponent may argue that, in any case, could the government not simply invest more into social care, preventing the need for prostitution at all? To answer this, the first response is that sex work does not have to be dangerous. Decriminalisation will be the first step towards making prostitution a safer form of sex work, whilst legislation can ensure that women working in the industry as lap-dancers are safe, being surrounded by appropriate security measures. Further, the ability to earn more in this industry provides independence for mothers and women as well as a level of financial stability that cannot be provided by government social care. These benefits, with the mitigations of risk which legislation will bring, would outweigh the detriment to sex workers.

IV.  The consequences of criminalising prostitution

The stigma around sex work, particularly prostitution, manifests in violence against sex workers. In a 2013 report, the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommended the decriminalisation of sex work to reduce the physical, sexual, and emotional violence experienced by sex workers. [6] The WHO found that the stigma against prostitution, perpetuated by its criminalisation, can cause prostitutes to become isolated by family and friends, a form of emotional violence. In some cases, this can result in increased difficulty for sex workers to leave abusive relationships. The criminalisation and resulting stigma surrounding prostitution put power in the hands of abusive partners; for example, it means they can threaten sex workers with the loss of custody of their children. The report also found that measures against prostitution can provide the police with a cover for the abuse of prostitutes, where prostitutes are detained or arrested on criminal charges associated with their work. [7]

Another way in which the criminalisation of prostitution empowers abusers is through discouraging sex workers from reporting violence they experience to the police. The 2013 report by the WHO found that, due to the fear of prosecution for participating in prostitution, individuals are heavily discouraged from going to the police. [8] This results in acts of physical and sexual violence towards sex workers going unreported; in this way, the law operates to allow their rapists and abusers to walk free. Thus, sex workers are forced to trade their safety for financial gain, exposing themselves to more dangerous interactions with clients who believe that they can harm their provider and remain unpunished. Criminalising prostitution results in an unbalanced power dynamic between the prostitute and their client, often resulting in physical and sexual violence. The current illegality of prostitution means that environments where sex workers operate are unsafe. The University of Bristol’s report on the nature and prevalence of sex work revealed that those in illegal brothels were told not to report violence occurring within the premises, [9] as to do so would alert the police to the existence of the brothel, leading to raids. Managers would be arrested for running the brothel, and prostitutes would lose their livelihoods. [10] In some cases, the managers of the brothel could be the sex workers themselves. [11] Prostitutes working at the brothel could be arrested on criminal charges for trying to report violence they experienced while simply trying to make a living. If prostitution were decriminalised, brothels would be able to provide greater safety for prostitutes, which they are unable to do so at the moment due to the risks involved. The stigma perpetuated by criminalisation not only fuels violence against sex workers but causes that violence to go undetected. Fear of police persecution and stigma may also prevent sex workers from accessing health and social care, including HIV treatment and support. It was reported that HIV cases in sex workers could decrease by as much as 25% if physical and sexual violence against them was reduced. Such a reduction can clearly be facilitated by decriminalisation, [12] as the removal of legal barriers could help prostitutes feel more comfortable and supported in going to the police and health and social care services.

Many prostitutes engage in the industry for survival purposes. The current welfare system in the UK has serious flaws, meaning that many feel they have no better choices. There are 390,687 social homes in the UK [13] , whilst there are 1.16 million households on relevant waiting lists. [14] Improving the welfare system and encouraging other opportunities would be a starting point, but for many sex work is the best option, especially when many households remain on council house waiting lists for years. Making the industry safer for those who feel it is the easiest and most lucrative option respects the bodily autonomy of women. In this sense, it is particularly relevant to consider the effect of increasing criminalisation on sex workers. The ‘Sexual Exploitation’ Bill proposed by Dame Diana Johnson criminalises another element of sex work, which will further harm sex workers. Criminalising those who pay for sex is harmful to sex workers because it means that prospective clients are more likely to be dangerous, and they will be more difficult to find. This means that to get work, providers may be forced to make risky trade-offs between their physical and financial health due to the elevated bargaining position of the client. In some cases, this involves offering ’bare-back’ services, which are services involving sex without a condom.

It follows that there should be decriminalisation of prostitution. Decriminalising prostitution will do much to reduce the stigma surrounding the industry. This illustrates that prostitution is legitimate work as opposed to underground crime, whilst supporting the distinction between sex trafficking and sex work. Prostitution could take place in a safer environment, where prostitutes are less afraid to go to the police and face a decreasing stigma from friends and family.

V.  The possibility of legislation

Along with this decriminalisation should come some form of legislation. Legislative rules, however, are often put together by a team of government agents who have little idea of how the sex work industry works best for sex workers. This includes an intricate net of processes that come before the physical relationship between provider and client begins. One can imagine a perfect system of legislation which works well for sex workers, but this will likely only be achieved where sex workers are involved in developing the legislation which will govern their industry. Government-led legislation is more likely to be damaging than beneficial. [15]

The issues with the likely system of legislation are evident upon close examination of the lap-dancing industry, a legalised sector of the sex work industry. This sector of British nightlife is governed by section 27 of the Policing and Crime Act 2009, together with Schedule 3 of the Local Government (Miscellaneous Policies) Act 1982. Previously, lap-dancing was governed by the Licensing Act 2003, but the 2009 Act reclassified lap-dancing venues as ‘Sexual Entertainment Venues’ (‘SEVs’), [16] and lap-dancing is now regulated under the 1982 Act. Following a House of Commons briefing paper on how lap-dancing clubs are licensed, Schedule 3 of the 1982 Act means that local authorities can choose to renew the license of a SEV based on factors such as the ‘character of the relevant locality’. [17] Their powers are far-reaching. Local authorities can issue or renew a license whilst imposing conditions or restrictions on the individual license or all licenses issued in that locality more generally. This can include restrictions on the venue’s opening hours, the way dancers and customers interact, and the sale of alcohol at SEVs.

Regulations imposed upon SEVs due to the 1982 Act can be very harmful to both the dancers' independence and safety, since they can affect the way dancers and customers interact. [18] Regulations introduced into SEVs allow local authorities to ban certain aspects of a dancer’s performance, despite what the dancers themselves may feel comfortable with. Most local authorities ban touching within SEVs. However, customers to the SEV often know that they can barter with dancers to get increasingly sexual services, such as touching for a higher price. In speaking to dancers during the research for this article, it became abundantly clear that the current regulations increase the danger which dancers are exposed to, despite the fact that the legislation purports to reduce the presence of such dangers. When dancers provide these touching services, which are against the licensing conditions, they are forced to hide their activity. If the touching is banned, one might argue that the dancer should not be doing it. This would, after all, remove all danger. However, the potential of profit is enticing for those dancers who do not mind being touched. How dancers conduct their business should be based on their comfort, not the views of a local authority. They are independent contractors. One might argue that touching should be banned because it presents a danger to dancers. However, the current situation is more dangerous for dancers. Rather than closely monitored touching, they expose themselves to greater risks by doing it secretly. If dancers could choose the activities they did within their dances and would not be penalised by their club for doing so, the transaction between dancer and customer would be much safer. Dancers would be able to openly enforce their boundaries. This fully respects the bodily autonomy of dancers. Dancers who are tempted to choose the risk for the potential profit would feel less pressured to offer services they are uncomfortable with because they would no longer be able to charge a much higher price based on the secrecy of the service. If local authorities could not impose such rules against the will of dancers, then those dancers who are comfortable with offering certain services would not need to do so in secret. In this way, the far-reaching nature of the current legislation is harmful to dancers.

Finally, dancing is not a salaried job. As dancers are independent contractors, the money they make is entirely dictated by their skill and negotiating power. This applies to all forms of sex work and is essential to understanding why, if the government adopts legislation relating to prostitution, it should be sex worker-led. The current legislation yields regulations which restrict the business choices of the dancers themselves, illustrating a picture of a government which does not view sex workers as individuals who have agency over their bodies. Further, a government which does not view sex workers as individuals who can make intelligent choices about how to run their businesses. The benefit of sex worker-led legislation on prostitution is its facilitation of the independence that dancers have been struggling to have for decades. It would embrace the comfort levels they already have in their job as independent contractors – for example, the choice to offer touch services. It would promote safety in the exercise of these choices and uphold the bodily autonomy of dancers.

VI.  Conclusion

Prostitution and sex trafficking are not the same. The former involves a choice to participate in trading sex for money, whereas the latter does not. There should be complete criminalisation of sex trafficking. The current criminalisation of prostitution, however, is unsustainable. It perpetuates the harmful stigma towards sex work; this results in sexual, emotional, and physical violence towards sex workers. Full decriminalisation, on the other hand, presents an image that sex work is accepted by society and by law.  An appropriate legalised system is possible, but only with the full input of the sex workers involved. They have been operating their businesses for years and have built valuable skill sets and unique knowledge of their needs. The downfalls of a legalised system designed without the input of those involved can be seen from the lap dancing industry's legislative framework, which reduces dancer independence where they are self-employed and forces them to make riskier choices.

[1] Marianne Hester, Natasha Mulvihill, Andrea Matolcsi, Alba Lanau Sanchez, and Sarah-Jane Walker, ‘The nature and prevalence of sex work in England and Wales today’ (Centre for Gender and Violence Research, University of Bristol, October 2019). <https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/842920/Prostitution_and_Sex_Work_Report.pdf> , accessed 23 February 2022.

[2] Natalie Smith, ‘Overview of the Criminal Law and the Sex Industry in the UK’ ( Adult Industry Services, 11 June 2019) <https://adultindustryservices.com/2019/06/11/criminal-law-and-the-sex-industry/> accessed 23 February 2022.

[3] Julie Bindel, ‘Why prostitution should never be legalised’ The Guardian ( 11 October 2017) <https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/oct/11/prostitution-legalised-sex-trade-pimps-women> accessed 23 February 2022.

[4] Teela Sanders and Kate Hardy, ‘Research on lap-dancing in England: Preliminary findings’ (University of Leeds, 2010) <https://democracy.towerhamlets.gov.uk/documents/s68743/The%20Regulatory%20Dance%20-%20Midway%20findings.pdf> accessed 23 February 2022.

[5] Womenstrikeuk18, ‘It’s time for the decriminalisation of sex work in the United Kingdom’ ( Decrim Now, 8 February 2019) <https://decrimnow.org.uk/2019/02/08/its-time/> accessed 23 February 2022.

[6] World Health Organisation, Addressing Violence Against Sex Workers (2013) Ch 2 < https://www.who.int/hiv/pub/sti/sex_worker_implementation/swit_chpt2.pdf > accessed 23 February 2022.

[9] Marianne Hester, Natasha Mulvihill, Andrea Matolcsi, Alba Lanau Sanchez, and Sarah-Jane Walker, ‘The nature and prevalence of sex work in England and Wales today’ (Centre for Gender and Violence Research, University of Bristol, October 2019). <https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/842920/Prostitution_and_Sex_Work_Report.pdf> accessed 23 February 2022.

[11] https://news.sky.com/story/hundreds-arrested-for-running-brothels-as-sex-workers-say-its-the-laws-that-are-criminal-12117653

[12] World Health Organisation, Addressing Violence Against Sex Workers (2013) Ch 2 <https://www.who.int/hiv/pub/sti/sex_worker_implementation/swit_chpt2.pdf> accessed 23 February 2022.

[13] Ministry of Communities, Housing and Local Government, Local Authority Housing Stock <https://data.london.gov.uk/dataset/local-authority-housing-stock> accessed 23 February 2022.

[14] Lucie Heath, ‘Just one social home delivered for every 175 households on waiting lists’ ( Inside Housing , 17 December 2020) <https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/just-one-social-home-delivered-for-every-175-households-on-waiting-lists-69035> accessed 23 February 2022.

[16] Policing and Crime Act 2009 s 27.

[17] Local Government (Miscellaneous Policies) Act 1982.

[18] Kashmira Gander, ‘How laws are putting strippers in greater danger’ ( Independent , 21 February 2017) <https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/love-sex/strippers-uk-laws-licencing-act-2004-dancers-nighttime-economy-sex-trafficking-sexual-offences-a7590071.html> accessed 23 February 2022.

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This summer Amnesty International passed a resolution supporting the decriminalization of sex work. The organization decided that decriminalization is the best way to defend sex workers’ human rights and lessen the risk of abuse they face. But will making prostitution legal only increase the demand for sex workers, without actually protecting them from the violent abuse and exploitation that is common in the industry?

Should prostitution be legal?

Rachel Moran, the founder of Space International, which advocates the abolition of the sex trade, argues in this Op-Ed that prostitution should not be legal:

I entered the sex trade — as most do — before I was even a woman. At age 14, I was placed in the care of the state after my father committed suicide and because my mother suffered from mental illness. Within a year, I was on the streets with no home, education or job skills. All I had was my body. At 15, I met a young man who thought it would be a good idea for me to prostitute myself. As “fresh meat,” I was a commodity in high demand. For seven years, I was bought and sold. On the streets, that could be 10 times in a night. It’s hard to describe the full effect of the psychological coercion, and how deeply it eroded my confidence. By my late teens, I was using cocaine to dull the pain. I cringe when I hear the words “sex work.” Selling my body wasn’t a livelihood. There was no resemblance to ordinary employment in the ritual degradation of strangers’ using my body to satiate their urges. I was doubly exploited — by those who pimped me and those who bought me. I know there are some advocates who argue that women in prostitution sell sex as consenting adults. But those who do are a relatively privileged minority — primarily white, middle-class, Western women in escort agencies — not remotely representative of the global majority. Their right to sell doesn’t trump my right and others’ not to be sold in a trade that preys on women already marginalized by class and race. The effort to decriminalize the sex trade worldwide is not a progressive movement. Implementing this policy will simply calcify into law men’s entitlement to buy sex, while decriminalizing pimping will protect no one but the pimps.

Gillian Abel, an associate professor and head of the Department of Population Health at the University of Otago in Christchurch, New Zealand, argues in this Room for Debate piece that prostitution should be legal:

Sex work is an occupation that many women voluntarily choose. To deny that prostitution is work not only infringes on women’s right to choose their work, but also on that of men, transgender and gender-diverse individuals. And denying sex workers the right to do their work legally infringes on other rights, such as their access to legal aid and recourse. In 2003, New Zealand was the first country to decriminalize sex work for the workers, their clients and third parties (minders, pimps, landlords, or anyone else who may receive money from sex workers’ earnings). This move allowed sex workers to operate under the same legal and labor rights as any other occupational group, and makes them less vulnerable to exploitation. New Zealand sex workers are now able to govern their own work, collaborating with their peers or electing to use third-party management, such as a brothel operator. Sex workers can now request police assistance if they are exposed to violence, report crimes without fear of being held accountable for involvement in the illegal acts themselves, and seek support services. This has already begun to play out. A police officer went to jail in 2010 for coercing a sex worker into providing free sex by threatening her with traffic fines. In another case last year, a sex worker was awarded $21,000 after successfully bringing a sexual harassment lawsuit against the operator of the brothel where she worked. (The sex worker liked her work but objected to the manner in which the operator of the brothel was treating her.) Prior to decriminalization, it would have been impossible for a sex worker to legally challenge bullying and exploitative behavior.

Students: Read both articles, then tell us …

— Should prostitution be legal?

— Is sex work an occupation that many women voluntarily choose? Does denying sex workers the right to do their work legally infringe on other rights, including their access to legal aid?

— Does making prostitution legal make women less vulnerable to abuse by criminals? Does it give sex workers the same labor rights as other occupational groups? Would it make women safer?

— Or, will making prostitution legal lead to higher rates of human trafficking without solving the issues of abuse and exploitation?

— Ms. Moran recommends the “Nordic Model” (or the “Equality Model”) as a better way of protecting prostitutes than decriminalization. She explains:

The concept is simple: Make selling sex legal but buying it illegal — so that women can get help without being arrested, harassed or worse, and the criminal law is used to deter the buyers, because they fuel the market.

Do you think arresting and inhibiting johns is a better approach?

Students 13 and older are invited to comment below. All comments are moderated by Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.

What's Next

Is Legalizing Prostitution the Best Way to Tackle Sex Trafficking?

That seems to be the consensus among readers of our new piece on trafficking in the U.S . The most up-voted comment:

Over the course of his tenure, [Detective Bill Woolf with the Northern Virginia Human Trafficking Task Force has] interviewed over 300 victims. In many cases, those who have been exploited believe that they are offenders, Woolf told me. “They fear law enforcement…because they’re technically committing a crime and that is prostitution,” he said. Which is one reason why prostitution should not be a crime, and laws against prostitution play into the hands of the traffickers. Just as with drug laws, and prohibition laws about alcohol, all laws forbidding consensual sex for pay should be struck down. The prostitute needs to be able to get help from the police, and should not be subject to criminal penalties.

Another reader emails a long piece published in The Washington Post by Maggie McNeill, a former call girl and blogger : “This essay seems like a good place to start a discussion on fuzzy and conflated definitions, as well as shoddy research and misrepresented findings, found in alarmist articles about commercial sex work and sex trafficking.” Here’s McNeill:

Sex-work prohibitionists have long seen trafficking and sex slavery as a useful Trojan horse. In its 2010 “national action plan,” for example, the activist group Demand Abolition writes, “Framing the Campaign’s key target as sexual slavery might garner more support and less resistance, while framing the Campaign as combating prostitution may be less likely to mobilize similar levels of support and to stimulate stronger opposition.” But as sex worker rights organizations have repeatedly pointed out (as have organizations like UNAIDS , Human Rights Watch , and Amnesty International ), those who are truly interested in decreasing exploitation in the sex industry would be better off supporting decriminalization of prostitution .

New South Wales, Australia, decriminalized sex work in 1995, and a subsequent government-sponsored 2012 study found “ . . . no evidence of recent trafficking of female sex workers . . . in marked contrast to the 1990s when contacted women from Thailand were common in Sydney . . . ” New Zealand legalized prostitution in 2003. A study by the New Zealand Ministry of Justice five years later found “no incidence of trafficking,” and sex worker advocates say the law has made it easier for sex workers to report abuse, and for law enforcement to make arrests for crimes against sex workers.  

McNeill also insists that “most of the scary articles about sex trafficking are larded with inflated figures and phony statistics that don’t survive any serious analysis.” A few of her examples:

Another common claim is that there are 100,000 to 300,000 children locked in sex slavery in the U.S. (For just a few examples, see here , here , here , here , and here . ) That number is a distortion of a figure from a 2001 study by Richard Estes and Neil Weiner of the University of Pennsylvania, which estimated that number of “children, adolescents and youth (up to 21) at risk of sexual exploitation .” (Emphasis added.)  “Sex trafficking” was the least prevalent form of “exploitation” in their definition. Other forms included stripping, consensual homosexual relations, and merely viewing porn. Moreover, two of the so-called “risk factors” were access to a car and proximity to the Canadian or Mexican border. In a 2011 interview , Estes himself estimated the number of legal minors actually abducted into “sex slavery” was ” very small . . . {w}e’re talking about a few hundred people.” Yet the myth persists. The Dallas Morning News recently took the figure to new levels of preposterousness, claiming in an editorial last November that, “In Houston alone, about 300,000 sex trafficking cases are prosecuted each year.” As defense attorney Mark Bennett pointed out on his blog , the actual figure was two. Not 200,000. Just two.   The paper did print a correction , though the correction simply deleted the original 300,000 figure from the editorial. The paper still didn’t bother to mention the actual number, perhaps it didn’t support the alarmism in the rest of the editorial.

One of the most prolific skeptics of the new crusade against sex trafficking is Reason ’s Elizabeth Nolan Brown . In a November piece for her magazine , she makes a direct parallel to the disastrous War on Drugs:

The tactics employed to “get tough” on drugs ended up entangling millions in the criminal justice system, sanctioning increasingly intrusive and violent policing practices, worsening tensions between law enforcement and marginalized communities, and degrading the constitutional rights of all Americans. Yet even as the drug war’s failures and costs become more apparent, the Land of the Free is enthusiastically repeating the same mistakes when it comes to sex trafficking. This new “epidemic” inspires the same panicked rhetoric and punitive policies the war on drugs did—often for activity that’s every bit as victimless. Forcing others into sex or any sort of labor is abhorrent, and it deserves to be treated like the serious violation it is. But the activity now targeted under anti-trafficking efforts includes everything from offering or soliciting paid sex, to living with a sex worker, to running a classified advertising website. What’s more, these new laws aren’t organic responses by legislators in the face of an uptick in human trafficking activity or inadequate current statutes. They are in large part the result of a decades-long anti-prostitution crusade from Christian “abolitionists” and anti-sex feminists, pushed along by officials who know a good political opportunity when they see it and by media that never met a moral panic they didn’t like.

What do you think? Are skeptics like McNeill and E.N.B. misguided? Drop us an email and we’ll post the strongest counterpoints.

Should the US Legalize Prostitution?

Laws should punish buyers and brokers of sex, not prostitutes, argues SPH researcher

Prostitutes are at increased risk for assault, homicide, and sexually transmitted infections. Photo by microgen/iStock

Lisa Chedekel

As debate continues around the world about whether prostitution should be decriminalized, a Boston University School of Public Health (SPH) researcher argues in the American Medical Association Journal of Ethics for a middle ground in the US that would punish buyers and brokers of sex, but not the people who sell sex (i.e., prostitutes).

Emily Rothman , an SPH associate professor of community health sciences and expert in sexual abuse and violence, says that both the criminalization and legalization of commercial sex have ethical pitfalls because they can “disempower and burden sellers” and put vulnerable people at increased risk of harm.

She argues that the so-called “Nordic model,” which criminalizes only the buying and brokering of sex, “offers the advantage of eliminating punishment for sellers, while potentially preventing the expansion of the commercial sex market and limiting the number of people trafficked.”

Rothman says that despite global controversy about the regulation of commercial sex, there is widespread agreement that sellers, or prostitutes, are at increased risk for a host of negative health and social consequences, including assault, homicide, and sexually transmitted infections. Complicating the debate is a lack of data on the percentage of those engaged in commercial sex who sell sex willingly, or who are coerced by force (i.e., trafficked) or by financial pressures.

Whether people who engage in commercial sex are consenting or non-consenting is important, she says, because supporters of decriminalization “assume that most paid sexual encounters are entirely consensual.” Problematically, she adds, some accept the argument that people living in dire poverty, with no other options, sell sex with consent.

Rothman argues that biomedical ethics disallows the coercive practice of using financial inducements to compel people to participate in medical research, so it is “logically consistent” to object to the use of financial incentives to compel people to have sex.

“There are those who argue that people work at all kinds of jobs that they don’t like because of financial pressure, and that working at sex is no different,” Rothman says. “But that is not a universally held opinion by the people who have sold sex. Some feel that having their bodies penetrated by customers is fundamentally, qualitatively different than standing behind a cash register. We simply don’t know what percentage of sellers enjoy selling sex, and what percentage are being assaulted or traumatized regularly.”

While criminalization has the potential to reduce the likelihood that people will be trafficked, arrests can “compound adversity” for sellers, especially those from marginalized populations, and enforcement can be used “selectively” against buyers and brokers, Rothman says. Legalization, meanwhile, may not stem trafficking and may continue to put sellers at high risk of violence and exploitation.

She notes that, counter to expectations, the decriminalization or legalization of commercial sex in New Zealand, the Netherlands, and Germany has not resulted in uniformly safer conditions, successful unionization of sex workers, or destigmatization. She cites economists’ analyses showing that countries where commercial sex is legal appear to experience higher sex-trafficking inflows.

“On the question of decriminalizing the form of commercial sex known as prostitution in the US, the potential harms to individuals and the public must be considered as carefully as the benefits of the expansion of individual rights,” Rothman says.

She says that while there is “no perfect solution,” the Nordic model, or any other policy changes, should be rigorously evaluated after being implemented.

Prostitution is illegal in all 50 US states, with the exception of some counties in Nevada, where it is allowed in local government-regulated brothels.

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Palak Sharma

December 10th, 2019, legalising sex work: both sides of the debate.

7 comments | 114 shares

Estimated reading time: 10 minutes

Sex workers are on the periphery of social and economic life in many countries. Increasingly, even governments look down upon sex workers as subjects unworthy of benefits or legal protection. There are 3 million commercial sex workers in India alone, of whom an estimated 40% are children, according to a study conducted by the Indian Ministry of Women and Child Development. There have been no further official statistics released on this section of population since, and both acceptance and acknowledgement are a distant prospect in developing countries.

Some jurisdictions have decriminalised prostitution-related activities, including New Zealand, parts of Australia, Germany, Netherlands, and parts of the USA. Yet although India has legalised sex work, issues remain.

How far can we go in legalising sex work?

The limited scope of sex education in schools makes clear that sex is considered a taboo in countries like India. And, in a social and cultural context that makes sex a taboo, legalising sex work is almost blasphemous. That taboo thrives on lingering homophobia and transphobia. For instance, Section 377, which decriminalised homosexuality in India, has still not been fully enacted. Despite India’s rich historical legacy of emancipation and female empowerment, extending as far back as ancient and medieval Buddhist literature that celebrated prostitutes who rose up to be monks (Amrapali), the inherent notion underlying sex work inspires widespread disgust and abhorrence.

The legalisation of sex work itself remains a conundrum. For example, one option for legalised sex work could make use of urban zoning centres where prostitution is permitted (although this strategy reported bleak results in Britain ). Alternatively, sex workers could be licensed, but this could promote discrimination and bias on the basis of identity ( e.g. , caste) and infringe on the sex workers’ privacy.

Legalisation is therefore contentious. But legalisation’s only alternative may be exploitation.

How do international laws restrict legalisation of sex work?

International laws and conventions such as the 1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) endanger sex workers. Article 6 of the CEDAW requires states to take “all appropriate measures to suppress all forms of traffic in women and exploitation of prostitution of women.” Such measures threaten counterproductive laws to suppress trafficking that could seriously harm sex workers.

Furthermore, international aid programmes such as the US Leadership Against HIV/AIDS , Tuberculosis, and Malaria Act condition funding on a pledge of opposition to prostitution. This conditioning restrains the ability of aid recipients to chart their own courses of legalisation.

Is the grass really greener on the other side of legalisation?

In the face of growing support for the legalisation of sex work, critics worry about ignorance of legalisation’s true consequences. Studies show that most female sex workers enter into prostitution out of necessity, not personal choice. We might wonder whether continued criminalisation that keep workers trapped is justifiable, when we could instead focus on helping sex workers escape prostitution. Licensing or some other certification of sex work that adds to their résumé would be conventionally considered a possible blot on their record.

A second concern focuses on the risk that legalisation might increase human trafficking. Greater legitimacy for sex work could lead fuel that sector’s economy, yet sex workers would likely not benefit from such growth. Most sex trafficking networks operate in a shadow economy, and the profits are concentrated beyond the sex workers’ reach. We should be mindful that legalisation alone would not in itself transfer profit to lower reaches.

Lastly, sex work is still a fairly unorganised sector with many women operating from their homes. Legalisation would push many workers outdoors, and further stigma would soon follow. Some neighbours may forbid sex workers from living nearby. Those sex workers too reticent to come forward would also be excluded from the protections of labour law under a legalisation scheme.

It is important to listen to voices coming from within this community, in the form of unions like Organización de Trabajadoras Sexuales (OTRAS) from Spain or the DecrimNow campaign in Britain. Sex work legalisation is more than mere legal debate and affects sex worker health. At this time, legalisation perhaps requires the emergence of a consensus in the community more than a governmental diktat.

Note:  This article gives the views of the authors, and not the position of the Social Policy Blog, nor of the London School of Economics.

About the author

Palak Sharma is a student of MSc International Social and Public Policy (Development) in the Department of Social Policy since September 2019.She is also the co-founder of the think tank Green Governance Initiative in India.

Palak I appreciate you that you have courage to write on this topic as most of the bloggers have not because they think this is a wrong topic. They have to consider that this is the topic we need to pull out to help those who have stuck in this industry without their wishes.

This is really a very amazing blog. I like very much these types of blog please keep it up

Thanks for the wonderful share. Your article has proved your hard work and experience you have got in this field. Brilliant. I love it reading.

I love to visit your website here is good information for us thanks for us.

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Thanks a lot very helpful and interesting content…it’s article very nice… thanks you

great post keep posting thank you!!

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Criminalize vs. Decriminalize Sex Work: The Debate Continues

The matter of how to legislate sex work is complex and nuanced..

Posted July 22, 2022 | Reviewed by Ekua Hagan

• The Fundamentals of Sex
• Find a sex therapist near me
• Policies that criminalize sex work exist on a broad spectrum: from prohibition to abolition and neo-abolition.
• Views about sex work have shifted in many countries, resulting increasingly in public support for the decriminalization of prostitution.
• Decriminalization and criminalization policies and implications typically vary from country to country.

This post was co-written by Mellissa Withers and Tasfia Jahangir.

Prostitution, a form of sex work, is a longstanding, yet highly stigmatized occupation. Sex work is an umbrella term that includes any type of labor where a sexual service is provided in return for a benefit. Sex work includes prostitution (direct sexual services), as well as other activities like pornography , and phone sex. It is important to note that sex work refers to a consensual transaction between adults and should not be mistaken for sex trafficking, which can involve violence, threats, deception , or other forms of coercion and exploitation.

Contentious debate surrounding the nature of prostitution exists. Because most individuals in this occupation are either cis- or transgender women , and the majority of sex buyers are male , conversations around sex work are deemed as crucial feminist issues.

However, the discourse on prostitution is also highly polarized among feminists. On one hand, many perceive sex work in general as a means of improved conditions for working people through which they can gain economic liberation from a patriarchal system. On the other, it is viewed as an entrenched system of gendered violence built upon the sexual and economic exploitation of the most marginalized.

Over time, these contradictions have globally influenced a wide range of legislative approaches to sex work in general and prostitution in particular. Here, we examine some of the empirical research that is available within different legal approaches to sex work, particularly as they relate to the health, safety, and overall well-being of sex workers.

Criminalization

Feminists who demand the eradication of commercial sex argue that framing sex work as work normalizes the sex trade and silences the violent and exploitative reality of the sex industry.

Criminalization policies broadly aim to reduce the perceived individual and societal harms of prostitution by introducing laws and regulations explicitly targeting those engaged in prostitution. Such approaches exist on a broad spectrum, from prohibition to abolition and neo-abolition. Prohibition policies directly make prostitution illegal and have been adopted in the United States (Nevada is an exception), 30 nations in Africa, over 25 countries in Asia, and at least 20 in Europe. Abolition, the most prevalent approach worldwide , makes all formalized activities related to prostitution illegal, such as pimping, brothel-keeping, and procuring. As of 2022 , at least 62 countries around the world are implementing policies making prostitution illegal.

Neo-abolitionism, otherwise known as the “Nordic model,” involves policies that make the purchase of sex work illegal, while the sex workers themselves are not penalized. Neo-abolitionism is unlike the prohibitionist or abolitionist models where sex workers who are charged with the crime of prostitution or crimes related to prostitution can be fined or arrested. Proponents of the Nordic model view prostitution as inherently harmful and aim to end sex work by reducing the demand for commercial sex. This viewpoint has been a contentious issue within the women’s rights community in many countries and globally.

Decriminalization

Views about sex work have shifted in many countries, resulting increasingly in public support for the decriminalization of prostitution . Organizations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, as well as prominent anti-trafficking groups like Anti-Slavery International and the Global Alliance Against Trafficking in Women, all support the decriminalization of all adult prostitution on human rights grounds.

Criminalization of sex work is a social justice issue because it disproportionately impacts women, people of color, immigrants, and LGBT individuals (particularly transgender ), communities that are already over-policed and heavily criminalized, as well as more vulnerable to negative health outcomes, such as HIV. Such groups favor a harm reduction approach to sex work; instead of attempting to prevent a behavior, harm reduction efforts prioritize the safety, rights, and dignity of individuals engaging in the behavior.

Other drivers of the increasing public and governmental support for decriminalizing prostitution exist:

• Clear evidence from around the world shows improved health outcomes. Studies in settings where prostitution is criminalized have reported higher drug use, lower condom usage, higher STI rates, and a host of other negative health outcomes as compared to settings that have decriminalized or legalized it. Studies have shown access to and utilization of health services among sex workers is also significantly better where prostitution is decriminalized.
• Decriminalization can also improve worker protection and labor rights . Redirection of the attention to the occupational dimension of prostitution may enable sex workers to secure labor rights, unemployment benefits, health care, and life insurance if sex work is decriminalized.

Decriminalization also improves safety for sex workers . Human Rights Watch has consistently found in research across various countries that criminalization makes sex workers more vulnerable to violence, including rape, assault, and murder. Criminals may see sex workers as easy targets because they are unlikely to receive help from the police and, in fact, intentionally avoid the police. Criminalization of prostitution exposes sex workers to abuse and exploitation by law enforcement officials, such as police officers. Reports of extortion, harassment, and physical and verbal abuse of sex workers by police officers are common. Sex workers will be more likely to secure police protection to deal with threatening or violent situations. Criminalization further marginalizes sex workers, by pushing them underground. For example, in Sweden, where the Nordic model originated, sex workers say the policy resulted in sex work shifting to clients’ homes because of fears of clients being arrested. But this shift means that sex workers have fewer escape options if a client becomes violent . It also undermines sex workers’ ability to seek justice for crimes against them. A 2014 report by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) found that decriminalization of prostitution contributed to a large decrease in rapes.

The opposition to the decriminalization of prostitution suggests that the anticipated benefits of decriminalization have been exaggerated. Critics cite research examining the experiences of sex workers that points to the inherently marginalizing and violent nature of the profession itself, suggesting that decriminalization is not the magic solution that has been suggested.

For instance, in New Zealand, where sex work is decriminalized , one study that utilized qualitative interviews conducted with sex workers in the city of Christchurch revealed that a majority of them did not feel that decriminalization has curbed the violence that they experience. Even in areas where prostitution is decriminalized, sex workers may confront exceptional risks of assault and murder . Similarly, it has been found in Austria and Netherlands that legalizing and regulating sex work has not decreased the prevalence of the illegal, underground practices of the sex industry , therefore suggesting that the abusive work environments of sex workers have not improved. In fact, despite legalization efforts in countries such as Netherlands and Denmark, licensed brothels did not welcome regulatory inspections , and sex workers still had to resort to anonymity, secrecy, and informal cash transfers. However, more recent evidence indicates that there are highly frequent inspections, as well as sanctions for non-compliance.

In the real world, sex work legislation is much more complex and nuanced and “not monolithic." Decriminalization, and criminalization policies and implications will rarely be identical from country to country. For example, the selling of sex is considered legal in both Bangladesh and Netherlands. However, the Netherlands enforces a high level of organization and regulation, while Bangladesh has a much more informal sex work industry. Moreover, the legality of sex work can vary not only between countries but also within them, across different legal jurisdictions. Countries like the United States, Mexico, El Salvador, and Australia demonstrate such regional variations .

Domestic sex industries do not exist in a vacuum, and these complexities are further exacerbated when considering the potential impact of the domestic sex trade on international sex trafficking. According to the International Labor Organization , an estimated 11% of trafficking cases worldwide constitute forced commercial sexual exploitation. Research on human trafficking is riddled with reporting biases. Given its subversive nature, there are numerous methodological constraints to gathering conclusive and accurate evidence on this topic.

Although the wide range of differences in policies within and across countries theoretically provide ample opportunity for “natural experiments," the nature of the sex work industry is largely covert and stigmatized. As such, it is difficult to gather sufficient data and conclusively understand the effect of different legal frameworks and policies, preventing experts in the field from coming to a consensus on the best legislative approaches to address the impact of sex work. Furthermore, while many current or former sex workers have vocalized their own rich perspectives from having worked within the industry, they are often excluded from these larger conversations in research and policymaking, in part due to stigma . This gap, as well as the contextual differences that give rise to variations in sex work legislation, requires proposed solutions on this issue to utilize more community-informed approaches. These inconsistencies reflect the multifarious debate surrounding the legal stances on sex work.

Mellissa Withers , PhD, MHS, is an Associate Clinical Professor of Preventive Medicine and Director of the Master of Public Health (MPH) Online Program at the University of Southern California.

Tasfia Jahangir worked as a Research Assistant with Mellissa Withers at the Institute of Inequalities in Global Health at the University of Southern California. She is currently a Master of Public Health Candidate at Emory University, and an incoming Fulbright Research Grantee at the University of Toronto.

Weatherall, Ann and Anna Priestly. 2001. A feminist discourse analysis of sex “work.” Feminism Psychology 11: 323-40.

Saunders, Penelope. 2005. Traffic violations: Determining the meaning of violence in sexual trafficking versus sex work. Journal of Interpersonal Violence 20: 343-60.

McMann, J, Crawford, G, and Hallett, J. 2021. Sex worker health outcomes in high-income countries of varied regulatory environments: A systematic review. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 18(8): 3956.

Weitzer, R. 2007. Prostitution as a form of sex work. Sociology Compass, 1(1): 143-155.

Weitzer, R. 2021. Legal prostitution systems in Europe. In H. Nelen & D. Siegel (Eds.), Contemporary Organized Crime , 2: 47-64, Springer International Publishers, 2021.

Mellissa Withers, Ph.D., MHS , is an associate professor at the Institute on Inequalities in Global Health at the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine.

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Home — Essay Samples — Law, Crime & Punishment — Prostitution — My Arguments For The Legalization Of Prostitution

My Arguments for The Legalization of Prostitution

• Categories: Prostitution Sexual Health Society

About this sample

Words: 1038 |

Published: Sep 1, 2020

Words: 1038 | Pages: 2 | 6 min read

Works Cited

• Dalla, R. L. (2006). Legalizing prostitution: From illicit vice to lawful business. New York University Press.
• Farley, M., & Barkan, H. (Eds.). (2013). Prostitution, Trafficking, and Traumatic Stress. Routledge.
• Jeffreys, S. (2009). The industrial vagina: The political economy of the global sex trade. Routledge.
• Klinger, A., & Brunovskis, A. (Eds.). (2015). Human trafficking and exploitation: Lessons from history. Springer.
• Levine, P., & Walcott, S. (2011). Prostitution, harm, and gender inequality : Theory, research and policy. Routledge.
• Maher, L., & Daly, G. (Eds.). (2011). Trafficking and prostitution reconsidered: New perspectives on migration, sex work, and human rights. Paradigm Publishers.
• O'Connell Davidson, J. (Ed.). (2008). Sex, tourism and the postcolonial encounter: Landscapes of longing in Egypt. Berghahn Books.
• Outshoorn, J. (2012). The politics of prostitution: Women's movements, democratic states, and the globalisation of sex commerce. Cambridge University Press.
• Sanders, T. (2016). Paying for pleasure: Men who buy sex. Routledge.
• Weitzer, R. (2009). Sociology of sex work. Annual Review of Sociology, 35, 213-234.

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Should Prostitution be legalized?

• should prostitution be legalized?

*Updated 2023

The oldest profession is rigorously recorded in the  bible   depicting instances of prostitution by career professionals as well as prostitutes prompted by circumstance. today, with over 42 million prostitutes worldwide and  around two million prostitutes in the us alone, it’s not surprising that every country on the planet has laws governing it. whether prostitution should be vigorously opposed or tacitly accepted is a subject of much debate, and it seems no one policy holds a monopoly on success or failure., so, when it comes to prostitution, should we legalize it or keep it criminal here are both sides of this debate., keep it criminal.

Legalizing prostitution has failed to check its illegal counterpart

When the Netherlands legalized prostitution in 2000 , one of its main objectives was to curtail human trafficking and the criminal prostitution enterprise. In spite of its best intentions, illegal brothels still proliferated and prostitutes continued to  suffer abuses  at the hands of pimps. The government is continuing to try to clean up the Red Light District by relocating its sex workers, but they fear this forced change may further put their rights and safety at risk . Similarly, Nevada’s illegal prostitution industry is estimated to be about  four times as large  as its legal gambling enterprise. If legalization does not protect prostitutes , then it proves nothing more than a cynical revenue source for government.

It reinforces the darkest attitudes of capitalism, in which people are reduced to commodities

How does one quantify value for an hour of her time? How about for a pound of her flesh? Exchanging money for sexual interaction, an interaction that is commonly regarded as both an expression and vehicle of intimacy reduces this bond-solidifying act to a mere transaction. And while some buyers voice disillusionment with the services rendered, others draw extreme satisfaction from the leverage one gains from paying for sex, allowing them to “ do things with [prostitutes] that real women would not put up with .” But, let’s not forget that prostitutes are as real as girlfriends and wives. The essence of this statement, which was taken as part of an international research project researching men who buy sex, shows just how effective sex-for-pay is at removing all traces of humanity from its practitioners.

Prostitution promotes degrading attitudes toward women, and invites violence against them

The fact that sex workers are  80% female  cannot be overlooked, nor should the fact that a sizable portion of sex workers are coerced by physical means or by economic hardship. Female prostitutes are more likely to be  raped or murdered than any other population .

And so, by the necessity to protect themselves, either from physical harm or from destitution, an overwhelmingly female contingent of sex workers find themselves at the mercy of the men they serve. Cruelly, society blames women for the violence committed against them, often postulating how she might have brought the trouble on  herself . The only way to oppose such attitudes (and realities) is to increase legal measures against those who perpetuate the prostitution industry.

Legalize it

Legalization circumvents the most dangerous aspects of prostitution

The criminalization of prostitution leaves prostitutes on the fringes of society, making them vulnerable to violence, poverty, and health risks. Decriminalization allows sex workers to call the police in incidences of violence. In the Netherlands , decriminalizing prostitution gave sex workers access to social security and public health care.  India’s union of sex workers improved prostitutes’ financial security by teaching them how to  identify counterfeit bills .

Sexually transmitted infections are also statistically lower in areas where prostitution is decriminalized. In rural Nevada, where prostitution is legal (and condoms and regular HIV tests mandatory), there has not been one case of HIV/AIDS diagnosed in a registered sex worker  since 1986 . Beyond all the practical benefits, legalizing prostitution brings sex workers into the fold of society, increasing their sense of belonging, and thereby enhancing their feelings of responsibility toward others.

Legalization can harness the sex industry’s potential to contribute to society

One formerly illicit trade that is now legal in many US states, marijuana, has done wonders for economic and social rejuvenation in these states. In 2021, a handful of states grossed tens of not hundreds of million of dollars in  pot tax revenues , with California earning more than $1 billion. At city and county levels, such states are using their share to ramp up public initiatives , such as funding alcohol and drug treatments, school construction, veterans’ services and more. Imagine how different prostitution would seem if a portion of its proceeds went to providing child-care support for working parents, or to supplement medical research that helps cure disease or to help fund drug rehabilitation programs.

Legalization reflects the victimless nature of consensual prostitution

The internet abounds with sex worker  testimonials  who attest to the satisfaction of a career in sex, and these personalities carefully draw a distinction between themselves and those who are coerced. Some prostitutes marvel at their great financial success and draw feelings of “empowerment” from their work. Stories of satisfied practitioners and customers beg the question: Why isn’t prostitution simply viewed as a normal business transaction? As the great  variation in prostitution laws across the globe reflects, the illicit nature of prostitution is by no means an objective reality. And even if the ethical parameters of prostitution are unclear, free societies should, in principle, avoid restricting business transactions that do not harm individuals or society.

The Bottom Line: Prostitution is not a hegemonic practice. Because it comes in so many mediums and is practiced by willing and unwilling parties, governments are unlikely to effectively address the ills (or the benefits) that accompany prostitution with one-size-fits-all policies – nor should they try. What do you think?

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Guest Essay

Legal Weed Is Coming. It’s Time to Come Up With Some Rules.

By Maia Szalavitz

Ms. Szalavitz is a contributing Opinion writer who covers addiction and public policy.

The beginning of the end of illegal weed is here.

On May 16 the Justice Department formally moved to reclassify marijuana from Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act to Schedule III. This move will not affect the legality of recreational use and sales on the federal level. It is, however, the biggest step yet toward abolishing the legal fiction that cannabis is as dangerous as heroin. And it puts marijuana — used more than any other illicit drug in the world — on a pathway for fully legal recreational use, which a majority of Americans support .

Nothing short of full legalization will end the injustice that leads to hundreds of thousands of arrests annually for marijuana offenses and leaves millions of people of color disproportionately scarred by criminalization.

But the recent move will ease research, permit sellers in states that have legalized to deduct business expenses on their federal taxes and allow the Food and Drug Administration to regulate medical marijuana if it chooses to do so. It also offers an opportunity to start ironing out the details of what federal cannabis oversight ought to look like if the time comes — both to redress past harms and protect public health. Effective regulation requires balancing opposing risks to reduce the harm we’ve seen caused by dangerous black-market products while preventing misleading marketing from promoting excessive use.

Learning from the experiences of states that have legalized marijuana is essential. For one, they have not seen the much-feared explosion of youth use. An April 2024 study in JAMA Psychiatry analyzed survey data from 1993 to 2021 and found that teen cannabis use was no more common in the 24 states that legalized adult recreational use than elsewhere. According to a systematic review published in 2022, 10 earlier studies found increases in adolescent use, but 10 others showed no effect, and two showed reductions.

Other drug use didn’t increase, either. Use of the deadliest drugs — opioids — dropped significantly among youth as marijuana legalization spread. Prescription opioid misuse by 12th graders fell from 9.5 percent in 2004 to 1 percent in 2023; heroin use declined similarly. Most states showed little change or even a decline in opioid misuse and overdoses after passage of recreational or medical marijuana laws. And legalized cannabis products have not been linked to fatal poisonings or injuries. (Deaths linked to lung injuries from vape pens seem to have been caused by illegal products and tended to be less common in legal states.)

Legalization isn’t without risks, of course. Some studies show that it increases stoned driving, with one linking a 16 percent rise in fatalities with recreational legalization. Others, however, find no effects or even a reduction , due perhaps to people using cannabis instead of alcohol. And some studies have associated marijuana with psychosis in some populations, but there has been no spike in psychotic disorders in legalized states, as evidenced by a recent study of medical records in 64 million Americans age 16 or older.

Bottom line: The most dire predictions about legalizing marijuana have not been borne out at the state level, which bodes well for federal legalization.

One serious issue that federal regulation is needed to resolve is the persistence of the black market. Historically, West Coast states have supplied most of the domestically grown cannabis in the United States. Since federal law bars interstate sales, Western markets are oversupplied with cannabis, keeping prices low. This makes it difficult for growers to profit without diverting some cannabis to the illegal market. Individual state licensing policies have also inadvertently protected black markets: New York, for example, is now flooded with illegal weed stores because it was slow in licensing legal ones.

Experience with regulation of other substances could guide the creation of federal marijuana policy. One key finding from alcohol and tobacco research is that price matters . Taxes that elevate prices reduce youth use and lower consumption by those who have substance use disorders, in part because the heaviest users pay the most. But to be effective, taxes on marijuana must target potency and not just quantity — and may have to be adjusted regularly to deal with introductions of products with varied strengths. Regulators need to find sweet spots where prices are low enough to minimize illicit sales but high enough to discourage overconsumption.

Federal oversight also matters in managing the relative risks associated with psychoactive substances. Marijuana is generally less harmful than alcohol, tobacco and opioids — and if consumers are incentivized through pricing and regulation, some can be nudged into picking the less dangerous high. But when relative risks are ignored, disaster can strike: Cutting the supply of medical opioids pushed many people who were misusing them onto far more dangerous street drugs, and overdose death rates more than doubled.

The government can further curb risky behavior by putting controls on advertising. The opioid crisis has shown that current restrictions on pharmaceutical promotion are too lax. Alcohol and tobacco products are also too freely marketed. It would make little sense to hold marijuana alone to a higher standard, given that these other products can do more harm than cannabis does. Instead, marketing for all these substances should be far more restricted, if not banned entirely.

Regulators should also pay particularly close attention to potent new cannabis products, which some states allow without much oversight. Stronger products are more likely to be addictive and therefore pose a greater hazard to health. Protecting consumers requires finding a way to regulate these substances that isn’t as arduous and expensive as F.D.A. approval for pharmaceuticals but controls quality and minimizes harmful exposures.

On May 1 the Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, reintroduced a bill that would end federal criminalization of the drug, expunge certain marijuana-related offenses and create a framework for regulating recreational-use products.

Though the bill is unlikely to pass Congress this term, the current clash between federal and state policies is not sustainable — all while public support for change remains strong. To move forward, we must find a middle ground between inundating children with marijuana advertisements and incarcerating people for smoking or selling weed. The Biden administration has taken only the first step.

Maia Szalavitz (@maiasz) is a contributing Opinion writer and the author, most recently, of “Undoing Drugs: How Harm Reduction Is Changing the Future of Drugs and Addiction.”

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips . And here’s our email: [email protected] .

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