The Legalization Of Prostitution In The United States

Prostitution is often referred to as the world's oldest profession. The harsher the laws get the more people need to do to avoid getting caught. A growing number of experts in health and law argue for removing all criminal prohibitions for consenting adults. What needs to be done instead is focusing on protecting, not persecuting, sex workers. Legalization would allow sex workers access to government and international resources so they could better respond to threats of violence. Reasons for legalization are so people can support themselves, have access to treatment of sexual diseases, and eliminate violence against sex workers. Prostitution is defined as the practice of engaging in sexual activity with someone for payment. “Sexual conduct
Under criminalization, the current system in place, prostitution is illegal and all involved parties are subject to criminal punishment. “The current prostitution laws penalize people, especially the poor, who want to use sex as a way to earn a living” (Hayes-Smith 47). Under legalization, the state licenses and regulates prostitution. One assumption about the criminalization of prostitution is that it will deter the soliciting of such services. This is not true. In places where prostitution is criminalized it is easier for sex trafficking to thrive. It costs a lot of money to transport someone in and out of a country and that is why sex trafficking costs more than legal prostitution. In the countries where prostitution is illegal it is shown that there is a higher number of people involved in sex
Nevada was the first to legalize gambling in the 1930s and is the only state to currently have prostitution legalized. In the 1920s the United States had prohibition, but today drinking alcohol is an everyday thing for many people. “If the law were to treat the sex trade as it treats any other trade, then the stigma associated with being a prostitute would eventually wear thin” (Liberto 140). Just recently marijuana has been voted to be legalized in a few states. Legalizing marijuana has eliminated certain undertones associated with the drug. Since prostitution is a victimless crime hopefully legalization will allow prostitution to be looked at as just a sale of a service with no surrounding stigma. Another reason people want prostitution criminalized is that it has shown to create social disorder in the community. Currently the state of Nevada only allows brothels in towns of less than seven hundred thousand people. The reason it is believed to cause social disorder is because of street prostitutes who walk the streets asking people for sex. Legalized prostitution would exist solely indoors. Moving prostitution off the streets and into a building would get rid of social disorder in the community. The only way to create laws on the location of where sex is allowed to be sold is to legalize