Prostitution Case Study

Firstly, I have researched America’s view point on prostitution where this is illegal (except in Nevada) since 1915 and leads to conviction. One fear of legalisation is that it will result in more sex workers than necessarily would have. Prostitution undermines human rights and dignities. My source (1) quotes “legalized prostitution cannot exist alongside true equality for women” this is against the legalisation due to exploitation and abuse of women. Empirical research studies show that prostitutes encounter physical violence such as being cut with knives, verbal abuse and have high death rate of homicide (Farley, Baral, Kiremire, & Sezgin, 1998). This information comes from a blog from St Edwards University. It is reliable due to being written

Furthermore the date of publish is not recent (1987). A feminist approach is biased and will have affected the reasoning and perspective overall would have been set out with a closed viewpoint.

Secondly, I have researched the Netherlands view point on prostitution where it is legal and regulated under normal labour law. According to my source (5) the most up to date figure for the number of prostitutes in the Netherlands was 25,000 in 1999. Prostitution has never been a criminal offence except in October 2000 where brothels and pimping were banned, however this was removed from the penal code. Regulation of prostitution means that they have a trade union. Thus their quality of lives are better as the labour law in place means they are protected from exploitation. My source states another way prostitution is regulated is by making it an offence if self-employed prostitutes aren’t registered by the government. Regulation is important to the Netherlands because of abuse such as human trafficking. Therefore, regulation is another way of improving quality of lives. Another way quality of lives have been benefited is through the legalisation of brothels making it easier for the government to have control over the sex industry abuse. Under the

Despite being illegal, there are brothels in Mumbai and Kolkota and other areas. My first source (7) is an argument between a Canadian representative (against legalisation) and an Indian representative called Bishakha Datta (for legalisation.) Bishakha begins by talking about how people have sex for different reasons stating “This is particularly striking in the Indian context, where I come from and where poverty is widespread. In 2010, the World Bank stated that 68.7 per cent of people in India live on less than $2 per day” This shows the reasoning of sex workers in India to try and improve their quality of lives otherwise they would be without money. The source quotes how The International Labour Organization accepted adult sex work as work in a 1998 report and called for its global recognition as a legitimate form of work. This source is reliable due to it referencing where the arguments gained their information from and when I investigated into these links, the information was reliable showing the speakers checked their facts. The arguments put across are strong however both are arguing on their subjective opinions not their country as a whole therefore being imbedded in their perspective. However, the source having two conflicting views acts as both perspectives despite the