An essay on why prostitution should be legalized

Prostitution should be legalized Prostitution was estimated to date back to at least 2400 B. C, along withdoctor, scribe, barber and cook (Little known facts in the prostitution debate, n. d. ). Despite this length of service, whether sex industry should be legalized or not is still a controversial issue that takes a lot of time to find the best decision. In my opinion prostitution should be legalized for a better prostitutes’ working condition, for a lower sexually transmitted diseases rates and an enhanced power of governments toward this job.

To begin with, prostitution’s legalization with rules setting prostitutes’ rights and duties will help to provide them with a better working condition. In present situation, sex workers are being treated in a subhuman way. Suraya, a sex worker was reported to have been beaten, threaten by a knife, raped many times, stolen allmoneyand finally thrown out of the car by her own customer (Pauw and Brener, 1998).

Not only be customers’ victims, prostitutes also are exploited by their pimps. Kudlow (2006) found that “ even though the girls take home the cash, make no mistakes, the pimp gets all the money. There is no such thing as a commission, percentage, cut, kickback, or dividend”. Moreover, according to Fighting sexual exploitation and trafficking in Indonesia (2004), in Indonesia, one third of sex workers are being underage girls. These girls have not grown up both physical part and mental part, but they are swept into this job too early, which can turn them to a disastrous end.

These raw facts, which are requiring for an urgent action from the government, set an alarm to wake us up. If there is an official legalization along with rules setting about prostitutes’ rights and duties, the pimps will no longer be able to coerce these sex workers, these workers can receive their salary fairly and underage girls will be prevented from entering this job too early. Secondly, prostitution’s legalization with rules requiring periodichealthchecks will help to reduce sexually transmitted rates through this service. Sexually transmitted diseases, which are haunting a number of infected people and their families, are all society’s interest.

The sex industry’s legalization with a requirement to access periodic health checks is an intelligent method for this problem. Prostitutes with sexually transmitted rates will be found out and treated in time, and also the number of people catching diseases through prostitution will be reduced. Some third countries have gained a significant fall in sexually transmitted rates in this way such as Kenya and Senegal. After the prostitution’s legalization, the number of condoms used by sex workers in Kenya had increased to more than 80%. In Senegal, by special clinical services such as offering regular examinations and treatments for registered prostitutes, HIV prevalence among pregnant women had fallen into under 1% (Steen, as cited in Liberator, 2005).

Obviously, prostitution’s decriminalization with rules requiring periodic health checks is the best way to lower STDs rates through prostitution as well as improve the social health. Finally, present laws with its prohibition against selling sex have not come up with people’s expectation. Almost everywhere in the United States, sex workers and their customers are penalized for what they did as consenting adults. However, after having paid the fines, sex workers come back to streets with their work and no decrease in the number of them has been reported. Also in this review of legalization’s benefits, they added that “ Making prostitution legal will allow the act to be managed instead of ignored”. In addition to this situation, present laws do not provide prostitutes with enough protection.

A prostitute murder confessed to have killed a total of forty eight sex workers “ because he knew he would not be held accountable” and it took police 20 years to detect his crime (Ditmore, 2007). Some people may argue that prostitutes and their job break the society’s morality. This opinion only focuses on the merit of the surface, considering prostitutes as criminals and criticizing them, not regarding to the fact that they are also human, they also have to labor inturn of money. According to a survey (Lobert, n. d. ) named “ What do you need” conducted among prostitutes, 78% need home and safe places, 58% need health care and 42% need legal assistance.

These girls are living in a subhuman life, they are requiring all basic needs. Moreover, prostitution will always exist because its serving important function in societies (Kingsley & Davis, as cited in Kendall, 1998). Without customers’ demand, prostitution would no longer be able to continue. Consequently, prostitutes deserve to work under the laws’ patronage. In conclusion, based on the real situations, prostitution should be legalized. Along with the legalization, there will be rules setting about allowed age, working condition and health check requirement. This legalization not only brings about a better working condition for those sex workers, but also contributes to reduce sexually transmitted diseases, and thus build up a better world.

References

• Kendall, D. E. (1998). Social problems in a diverse society. Chapter 7, p. 136, p. 141. United States. Kudlow, M. (2006). Selling sex. Retrieved November 21, 2009, from http://thegauntlet. ca/story/10365
• Liberator, M. (2005). Legalized prostitution: Regulating the oldest profession. Retrieved November 21, 2009 from http://liberator. net/articles/prostitution. html
• Little known facts in the prostitution debate (n. d. ). Retrieved November 21, 2009, from http://prostitution. procon. org/view. resource. php? resourceID= 000116
• Lobert, A. (n. d. ). Prostitution statistics-the real truth. Retrieved November 21, 2009, from http://powerhouse-ministry. rg/annielobert_prostitution. aspx Pauw, I. & Brener, L. (1997). Naming the danger of working on the street, p. 80. Agenda Feminist Media. Available online at http://www. jstor. org/pss/4066227
• Raymond, J. & Ditmore, M. (2007). Debating legalized prostitution. Retrieved November 21, 2009, from http://humantrafficking. org/updates/643 UNICEF (n. d. ). Fighting sexual exploitation and trafficking in Indonesia. Retrieved November 21, 2009, from http://www. unicef. org/infobycountry/indonesia_23650. html