Argumentative Essay: The Decriminalization Of Prostitution

Prostitution is the act of engaging in sexual activities in exchange for immediate payment in money or other valuables. Prostitution “has existed throughout history” (World). Some high class women have been prostitutes throughout history, it is even practiced in some religions where all girls must take part in prostitution before they can be considered women. Prostitution should be legal due to the fact that the workers and townspeople alike want it to be, legalization of this practice would also ensure a safer working environment for the workers, also this would create a increase in tax revenue. For many of the workers prostitution is a chosen profession. The group COYOTE is a organization for prostitutes rights. They “advocate for decriminalization

This is because it would now be considered a real job, therefor if one of the workers was hurt because of their job there would be a serious investigation in to it and they would not also be prosecuted. Gary Ridgway was a serial killer in the 1980’s and 90’s. He said himself that he “targeted sex workers because he thought they might not be reported missing”(Gary). This shows how prostitution is a job that currently leaves the workers open to a considerable amount of risk, and because of the fear of getting in trouble with the law the workers are not inclined to go to the police. This means the workers can be victims of crimes not reported, like rape because they fell the police will not believe them because of their profession and the legality of it. In New Zealand, it is legal to be a prostitute, and the workers are much safer because of it. The prostitutes there report that the “police [are] coming up and down the street every night, and even … coming over to make sure that we were all right” (Glazer). This shows that, because prostitution is legal in New Zealand, the police are walking around the workers are not scared of cops, therefore they feel that it was okay to report anything that threatens them. Indoor prostitution is legal in Rhode Island, and because of that STD rates fell drastically. This may be because a “prostitutes’ legal status gave them increased negotiating power to demand condom

In 1898 the Everleigh sisters opened a brothel, and “in less than two years the Everleigh sisters had doubled their investment” (Tikkanen). This shows that if prostitution was legal then all people or business involved with it would have to pay appropriate taxes on their earnings and business, just as other business have to pay certain taxes too. That means that in the two years the Everleigh sisters had doubled their investments the government could of collected a large amount of the money made from the sisters business for taxes. Prostitution was legal in Europe during the Middle Ages and it “constituted a considerable source of public revenue” (Jenkins). Many of the women in a Rhode Island jail would be spending $320 a day on drugs, however while in jail they would go through detox and rehab so they could be clean. One of the women who was there said that it would only take “three hours to earn enough” (Gaouette). This shows that the workers could make a lot of money from one day working, and if prostitution was legalized they would then have to pay taxes on all of their earnings, therefore creating a considerable amount of tax money off of a group of workers who would of before not been reporting taxes. Prostitution used to be legal in some cities in France, and the “profits were shared between the city and the university” (Jenkins). If prostitution was legal and