Abstract
The paper deals with the problem of the legalization of prostitution. It presents two major arguments in favor of and against making the trade a legal occupation. The proponents of legalization argue that legality is directly responsible for the reduction of violence, human trafficking, and the use of children in the sex market. The adversaries of legalization are of the opinion that legality contributes to the higher rates of violence, women trafficking, and child sexual exploitation. Multiple examples observed in countries like the Netherlands, Germany, the USA, and Sweden that have either made the trade legal or declared it outlawed show that legalization only contributes to violence, child exploitation, and women trafficking. The author deprecates the efforts of legalization prostitution based on numerous examples indicating the disadvantages of liberalization.
Keywords: prostitution, legalization, USA, Sweden, Germany, Netherlands, Holland
Prostitution is a highly notorious trade of engaging in a sexual intercourse with clients for a financial reward. The trade has existed ever since the holy antiquity and gained a measure of notoriety for a reason since then. The act of selling body for money is associable with violence against women in the shape of abuse, whether sexual or physical, to say nothing of children’s involvement and the use of captured women against their free will. To address the problem, some countries like Sweden and the USA have either proscribed or left prostitution illegal while others like the Netherlands and Germany have allowed it to operate unrestrained or receive a legal status. The advocates of liberalization incline towards legalization reducing violence, children’s involvement, and women sex trafficking while the adversaries of making prostitution a legal taxable occupation skeptically rule that legalization only adds to the rate of violence and intensifies trafficking due to the economic benefits and the possibility of legal manipulations. Arguments produced by the adversaries of legalization far outweigh those provided by the proponents of the legal status since for as long as illegal activities like trafficking keep yielding revenue prostitution-related crimes will remain unaddressed, legalization or no legalization.
Legalization May Reduce Violence and Make Human Socium Safer
The advocates of legalization often claim that the illegality of prostitution is at the root of the crime problem. Shuster (1992) and Weitzer (2008) argued that illicit body selling trade was linked to the higher levels of violent crime (as cited in Bowen, 2013). Hence, making it legal may arguably contribute to crime reduction. The USA is the country where prostitution is legal is a few states. The Rhode Island is the shining example of how legality can contribute to a drop in violence proliferation. According to Hong (2014), when it comes to the decriminalization of prostitution, the Rhode Island legislative liberalization is a good case in point. There is a correlation between the accidental legalization of indoor prostitution implemented for the period between 2003 and 2009 and a decrease in the incidence of rapes and sexually transmitted diseases.
UCLA Public Policy Professor Manisha Shah along with Scott Cunningham of Baylor University has scrutinized the data related to the 6-year period that witnessed the rate of rapes falling exponentially. Both scholars gave a careful consideration to the data on forced rape crimes from Uniform Crime Reports prepared by the FBI. The major finding demonstrated that there were 824 fewer reported rape episodes over the studied period, as compared with the period before decriminalization. In statistical terms, an 824-drop in rape occurrence is equivalent to 31%. The tendency observed during the investigation indicates that not only the participants of the sex market, but also the society as a whole could derive benefits from legalization (Hong, 2014).
Such benefits may come in the shape of a closer cooperation between police and the sex industry representatives. According to Brents and Hausback (2005), brothels in Nevada and outside the USA given green light to operate legally report the legalization of prostitution and parlor houses to enable both the owners of the establishments and commercial sex workers to turn to police for protection against aggression and violence (as cited in Bowen, 2013). Bailey (2010) suggested that the regulated Dutch legal system of prostitution made women more predisposed to reporting violent felonies to the local officials. Bowen (2013) noted that prostitutes declared outlawed enjoyed no right of seeking the aid of the law enforcement agency if they should have their life endangered by inadequate customers. Legal whorehouses have panic buttons that enable owners to pacify troublemakers via police if need be. Brents and Hausback (2005) suggested that it is to police, the providers of extra security measures, that towns owe a reduction in the number of battery and rape (as cited in Bowen, 2013).
According to Shuster (1992) popular accusations were suggestive of the trade of comfort women breeding such violent and criminal activities as illicit substance trafficking, the use of drugs, pimping, burglary, theft, organized crime, assault and battery, children exploitation, and the trafficking of women. However, the reality would be different if the trade were to be legalized (as cited in Bowen, 2013). Legalization makes comfort women more available without the fear of punishment for seeking intimate services.
Cundiff (2004) studied the connection between the frequency of rape occurrence and prostitution availability. The idea was for the research to find out whether rape is resultant from the lack of sexual outlets. The results of the study demonstrated that the level of rape was lower in those countries that had granted the industry of comfort women a legal status, making it universally available. The expert conjectured that lifting legal barriers to prostitution would be accountable for a decrease in rape victims by about 25.000 on an annual basis (as cited in Bowen, 2013). The downward trend may be attributable to the cooperation of the industry with law enforcers that used to be impossible prior to legalization. The involvement of police must have led rowdy males to refrain from brute force while in brothels. Either that or men received an unrestrained, nay, unprosecuted outlet for their sexual energy that remained inaccessible before.
Cundiff (2004) stated that the analysis he had conducted confirmed the main hypothesis that making prostitution readily available had the potential to reduce the scope of the rape issue. In the USA where prostitution is mostly outside the law, the bottom price for most night workers amounts 200 dollars, with the monthly per capita income within the area of 2.820 dollars. In the capital of the Netherlands, Amsterdam, the trade is legal while the price is not higher than 30 dollars. If prostitution should be legalized in the USA, it should adjust the price by the Netherland’s standards. If so, the incidence of rape will be 10 victims per 100.000 residents. Since the American population numbered 275 million at the time of writing, legalization was likely to lead to the reduction of violence instances of about 25.000 rapes a year (Cundiff, 2004). For now, the high payment for intimate services may drive some men to commit the acts of sexual harassment. Obviously, the affordability of comfort women motivates men to pay rather than attack them and leave their services unpaid.
Legalization Induces Violence against Women and Jeopardizes the Society
That prostitution disparages and victimizes women is a weighty argument against the legalization of the ancient trade. According to Shuster (1992), who pose the biggest threat to street prostitutes are souteneurs and clients (as cited in Bowen, 2013). Silbert and Pines (1982) cited a study conducted on 200 women prostitutes in San Francisco. About two-thirds of the interviewees admitted to having sustained bodily harm inflicted by their clients while upwards of 70% claimed to have been raped (as cited in Bowen, 2013). Weitzer (2000), however, questioned the outcomes of the research referring to the oversampling of commercial pleasure workers overexposed to the acts of violence over the searched period (as cited in Bowen, 2013). Weitzer (2008) opined that some studies established a relationship between prostitution and the intensification of violent felonies like rape, assault, and homicide while others claimed countries often allowed the trade to go legal to curb violence related to the intimate industry (as cited in Bowen, 2013).
The abundance of statistics-backed evidence confirms the notorious relationship between the legal status of the industry and increasing violence indices. Nevada is one of few places where prostitution is not subject to prosecution as it is in the majority of other American states. States other than Rhode Island and Nevada do not welcome brothels and their employees. Ruggieri, Miethe, and Hart (2009) stated that Nevada was one of two American states that have given parlor houses the chance to operate unrestrained in a wide variety of counties except for some. Eleven rural counties have provided legal status to the trade. However, as of 2007, the level of rape in the areas with legalized prostitution was 5 times as high as that in rural counties with zero permission of the trade. The median rape index in rural regions where prostitution is legal is 46 victims per 100.000 inhabitants, which is higher than the level of rape displayed by urban regions within Nevada, with the index of occurrence of 42 victims per 100.000 residents (Ruggieri et al., 2009). The figures convincingly show the negative trend of a rise in rape occurrence in the areas where the authorities dropped prostitution-related restrictions that were hoped to have reduced the instances of sexual abuse against women.
Of course, banning prostitution reduces the number of comfort women available, which, in itself, decreases the incidence of violence. According to Schulze, Novo Canto, Mason, and Skalin (2014), based on a 2008 study, the prostitute population of Sweden was about one-eighth of that in Sweden and one-tenth of that in Denmark despite the fact that both countries have a smaller size of inhabitants. Street prostitution in Sweden had declined by 50% by year 2008. As of then, a total of 300 comfort women were working on the streets and about as many engaged in body selling on the Internet (Schulze, 2008). The prohibition of the sex trade decreases the number of prostitutes on the streets and the likelihood of them being raped or physically harassed. It appears that criminalization makes the society and women safer. If Sweden had not banned prostitution, it would have higher street prostitute rates and subsequently the higher incidence of rapes and attacks.
Legalization Allows Controlling and Critically Reducing Sex Trafficking and Child Prostitution
According to Bailey (2010), the advocates of making voluntary prostitution legal in the Netherlands claimed that doing so enabled law enforcement agencies to concentrate their efforts on sex trafficking. The illegal occupation may prove unnecessary in countries with legalized prostitution if there is a substantial internal supply. Cho, Dreher, and Neumayer (2013) stated that the composition of comfort women and substitution effect from illegally brought women to domestic or legally residing counterparts were important variables of human trafficking incidence. The illegal status of prostitution increased the portion of sex industry workers trafficked illegally since recruiters face the difficulty of finding women ready to work of their own free will in such an illicit market. If legalized, the trade will lead the segment of trafficked courtesans to shrink. Business ventures willing to avail themselves of the legal status of the trade would wish to hire domestic prostitutes or those with a work permit. Businesses will do so not to expose their newly acquired legal status to danger by recruiting women residing illegally or smuggled to the country.
It stands to reason that legalization will not diminish the number of trafficked women to zero. Insufficient internal supply from among Holland-born or women residents with work permit may not eradicate trafficking completely. Plenty of women may find the trade too unattractive and risky for them to engage in, however profitable. Given the vulnerability of trafficked women and their exposure to the demands of procurers, a certain share of trafficked women may still be seen working as prostitutes after trade being legalized. While generally positive, legalization may still allow illegal activities to exist since procurers can extract large amounts of prostitutes’ earnings. Finally, a certain amount of trafficked women will still exist, with customers sometimes preferring exotic comfort women from far-flung regions who tend not receive a legal residential permit (Cho, 2013). While it does not eliminate the issue completely due to the reasons produced above, legalization has the potential of reducing the number of trafficked women working for low payment.
Legalization, as per the opinion of scientific elites, may possibly tackle the problem of child prostitution. Professor of Economics at George Mason University, Donald Boudreaux claimed that men would be less likely to patronize children if they have access to commercial industry workers aged 18 and higher. Under such conjuncture, sex entrepreneurs will have one less reason to arrange children supply. The illegality of the trade subjects commercial sex suppliers and customers to prosecution irrespective of the age of female prostitutes. Granting the industry a legal status will allow prostitution to become open to public analysis while the participant of market of the commercial sex will avoid legal responsibility for hiring females who are under 18. The incentive of turning young girls into comfort women will subsequently decline (Carter, 2013). As likely as the advantages of legalization may seem, the do not seem to work in countries like the Netherlands. The economic benefits of sex slavery and cheap foreign labor and the possibility of legal manipulations can boost illicit trafficking, legalization, or no legalization.
The Legalization of Prostitution Breeds Sex Trafficking, Human Slavery and Child Prostitution
Bailey (2010) stated that the representative of the Salvation Army’s Liaison to Abolish Sexual Trafficking, Lisa Thompson, made a declaration is her report that the Netherlands was a principal West European destination country for trafficked women. If that is the case, the country must have an enormous demand for intimate services that has resulted in the numerical expansion of comfort houses. Thompson (2005) noted that an estimated 2000 parlor houses and countless escort services employ approximately 30.000 women. An alarming trend is indicative of 68% of comfort women being from countries other than Holland. Less optimistic calculations place the number of foreign ladies of negotiable affections at 80% (as cited in Bailey, 2010). All of these figures clearly demonstrate that the Netherlands sex industry is dependent on a large number of foreign women, with four-fifth of all employees coming from abroad, which cannot but raise the question of whether it is free will and the quest for a higher-salaried occupation that bring them to Holland.
Liz Kelly and Julie Bindel conducted a 2003 study on prostitution policies in four countries only to reach conclusion that Carl Hofstra was wrong to claim that women from abroad freely migrate to Holland in hopes of finding work in the sphere of sex trade (Bailey, 2010). According to Bindel and Kelly, some believed that it was only to find a means to enter the country for want of legal migration routers that women resorted to sex traffickers (as cited in Bailey, 2010). According to Stuijt (2008), Amsterdam councilor, Lodewijk Asscher stated that about 50% of prostitutes in the capital of Holland were laboring against their will. Amsterdam was rapidly becoming the hub of the sex-slave industry (as cited in Bailey, 2010). Liz Kelly and Julie Bindel were of the opinion that the concept of “migrant sex workers” was a mere euphemistic replacement of the notoriously known concept of “trafficked women,” which toned down the gravity of the problem. With plenty of foreign women entering the country, there must be a certain economic interest that makes sex industrialists engage in smuggling women to the Netherlands.
Bailey (2010) opined that women from abroad appeared more economically advantageous to the owners of the houses of ill repute. The economic aspect made smuggled women similar to African slaves in the sense that such women were slaves who required no wage. According to Skinner (2008), a study conducted by the Dutch National Rapporteur established the fact that a Holland procurer could score an annual gaining to the amount of 250.000 dollars by having one sex slave work for no fiscal reward (as cited in Bailey, 2010). In what is an alarming revelation, Bailey (2010) stated that from 68% to 80% of commercial pleasure workers were trafficked to the Netherlands against their will. If the country has enforced prostitution-related legislation, it should have curbed illegal trafficking and slavery by now through legal mechanisms.
Since slavery and women’s smuggling continue, the national legal system and law enforcement agencies turn out unable to handle the problem, which speaks volumes for how dangerous and futile legalization may be. As with the Netherlands, Australia faces similar human trafficking problem despite the legal status of the sex trade. Kloer (2009) stated that mere 10% of the industry was operating in parlor houses. As many as 90% of such were claimed to be operating in illicit underground sex markets plagued by human trafficking and forced prostitution. Prostitution-related have failed in the country, as per the Working Group on human Trafficking in the University of Queensland (as cited in Kristie, 2014).
Unfortunately, women forcedly brought to Holland to sell their bodies for no payment is not the sole problem faced by the country and the victims of the sex trade. The Netherlands has gained a measure of notoriety due to child prostitution. Bindel and Kelly (2003) referred to the estimates made by the NGO Child Right based in Amsterdam claiming that in 2003 upwards of 15.000 children were a part of the prostitution industry, which signified an eleven-thousand increase, as opposed to 1996 (as cited in Bailey, 2010). If the estimates are to be believed, half of all comfort workers in the country are females under 18 years of age. Even if some of children decided to enter the industry not under duress, the Dutch Law still considers them the victims of the trade (Bailey, 2010).
The reason for the number of child and slave women prostitutes to be this high is that the legalization of prostitution, according to Bailey (2010), makes the work of law enforcer more difficult, with traffickers concealing their activities in the guise of legality. Since the sale and purchase of sex are absolutely legal, law enforcers tend to disregard bordellos where traffickers hold children and women captive. Hughes (2002) noted that legalization, by itself, makes it hard for the authorities to call traffickers to account for their illegal activities. NGO suggested that sex traffickers trended as though women had given their consent to work at the brothel. Under this scenario, prosecutors have difficulties finding the line between forced and voluntary prostitution (as cited in Bailey, 2010). Seeing that it is the free will of the majority of women, while eventually deceived, to arrive to Holland, granting the status of the victim of human trafficking is another difficulty (Bailey, 2010). As follows from this practice, traffickers seem to be using loopholes in the Dutch legislation to avoid legal responsibility for their felonies. Unless specifically revised, any legislative systems is far from flawless, which makes legalization a dangerous move to make.
Holland officials do not refute the presence of trafficking and women exploitation. According to Charter (2008), Job Cohen, the mayor of Amsterdam, admitted that recent years had seen an increase in the number of forced prostitution instances and women trafficking. A city councilor and ex-prostitute, Karina Shaapman stated that upwards of 8.000 to 11.000 comfort women stemmed from Asia, Africa, and Eastern Europe (as cited in Bailey, 2010). Bailey (2010) noted that numerical proofs from Holland were suggestive of the connection between a demand for sex trafficking and prostitution. A history of a tolerant attitude towards the trade and legalization have produced a booming and expanding sex trade in the country. That such high rates of women work in the industry shows that many have fallen victim to human trafficking (Bailey, 2010).
Holland is not the only country to experience the influx of foreign prostitutes. Raymond (2003) noted that Germany recognized in 1993 the fact that during the initial stages of legalization an estimated 75% of women in the prostitution trade came from foreign countries like Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, and other South American countries. Ten years thereafter, in 2003, which is a year following legalization, the number of foreign comfort women was 10% up on 1993, which planted the seed of doubt as to whether all these women entered the country legally (as cited in Kristie, 2014). Sweden is the country that has abolished prostitution and enjoyed palpable success after doing so, which means legalization would only harm human trafficking and other prostitution-related issues. Schulze, Novo Canto, Mason, and Skalin (2014) suggested that the prostitution trade became criminal in 1999, which resulted in demand falling by half since then largely due to criminal investigations, which has discouraged illegal traffickers.
Conclusions
Prostitution is the trade of selling body in exchange for a monetary reward. It has sparked plenty of speculations and gained a lot of notoriety over its rich history. The advocates of legalizing prostitution claim that doing so does reduce the incidence of violence against women like battery and rape. The accidental legalization of the trade in USA’s Rhode Island has surprisingly reduced the number of rape episodes, as per scientific observations. Prostitutes and whorehouse owners in Nevada are reported to cooperate with law enforcers more eagerly than they used to. Hence, the pacification of rowdy customers seems easier than before. In Holland, prostitutes also become more motivated to report the cases of violence. The proponents of prostitution claim that the legal status would help address illicit substance trafficking, the use of drugs, pimping, burglary, theft, organized crime, assault and battery, children exploitation, and the trafficking of women. Experts also claim that the availability of prostitutes and lower prices like in Amsterdam are responsible for a decrease in violence, with more men deciding to pay rather than beat.
In San Francisco, the presence of prostitution is accountable for the high rates of rape and assault. Legalizing it would make things a lot worse than they are presently. In Nevada, rural counties, in which the trade had legal status displayed higher rates of violence, as compared with those where it had no such status. In Sweden, the number of both customers and prostitutes has decline exponentially since prohibition, which naturally decreases the incidence of violence. Speaking of trafficking, all legalization does is blur a legal line between free will and coercion, which helps trafficker hide their activities, breeds child prostitution that is on the rise in Holland, and increases the number of women in the industry victimized by illegal trafficking.
Germany and the Netherlands experience the inflow of foreign prostitutes most likely brought illegally, which proves legalization does not solve the problem of human trafficking. Nor does it decrease the number of children under 18 engaged in the Holland sex industry. The negative experience of Germany and Holland best exemplify the disadvantages of making prostitution legal. Swedish prohibition and the subsequent decline in the number of prostitution has proved beneficial. The lack of availability despite the claims of trade proponents has not rendered the society brutal for want of sex outlets, as argued by those supporting legalization. Hence, there is no use whatsoever making prostitution a legal occupation in any country of the world.
References
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