Summary: The Decriminalization Of Prostitution

Prostitution Decriminalization: Empowering Women

My thesis is that prostitution should be legal because it empowers women. Its decriminalization will be the best way to protect the human rights of sex workers. It will aim to remove the stigma from prostituted women to ensure that sexual workers enjoy full and equal protection from discrimination, exploitation, and especially equal opportunities to possess the much needed proper health regulations in the system. If enacted, prostitution could move from being such a risky business to a more secure and accepted form of trade. In 2003 when the Rhode Island District Court Judge decided to decriminalize indoor prostitution the community experienced a decline for both forcible rape offenses and gonorrhea incidence in the overall population. Their synthetic

control model found 824 fewer reported rape offenses (31 percent decrease) and 1,035 fewer cases of female gonorrhea (39 percent decrease) from 2004 to 2009. (Cunningham, Scott)
Abolitionist disagree.

They claim that the decriminalization of prostitution will interfere with the morality of our society. Women in the sex industry will keep being discriminated since its legalization won’t remove the implications of their job. If prostitution was to be legalized we will be portraying the idea that selling our bodies is morally correct, and therefore young generations could be inclined to entering the shadows of the sex industry instead of looking for a more educated lifestyle or career path. Even with its legalization, abolitionist believe that the stigma of prostitutes won’t go away keeping them for seeking law enforcement or medical aid in case of exploitation or violations. Further, those women that will not comply with the pre-requisites that the government may place, will be pushed underground to offer their services for a lower cost and once again live under the fear of facing death, rape or beating every day. At the same time, another of the points abolitionist hold is that prostitution is inherently linked to sex trafficking and by criminalizing the profession, the government would be able to better protect potential victims. (Deady,

Gail)
In spite, of the abolitionist counter, many organizations as well as sexual workers have kept fighting for the decriminalization of prostitution. Amnesty International (a non-governmental organization focused on human rights with over 7 million members and supporters around the world) announced its support for decriminalizing prostitution between consenting adults. As stated by their policy advisor, they have decided to assess how best to prevent human rights violations especially among sex workers, who have to live outside the law and in multiple occasion are denied of their most basic human rights (Murphy, Catherine.) This organization advocates for the decriminalization of sex work where coercion, exploitation or abuse is not involve. For the majority of sex workers the illegality behind their job is one of the main reasons of why they suffer from rape, harassment, and discrimination silently. If prostitution becomes legal, prostitutes wouldn’t have to hide anymore at the time to denounce a violation. Prostitution then, would pass from being a market where women get discriminated and exploited, to one where they are able to establish their own rules, and those who don’t follow them will therefore, walk out empty handed.
Abolitionist consider that Amnesty International support to decriminalizing prostitution among consenting parts fails to recognize the case of most sexual workers. They explain that even though sexual workers may have consent to have such sexual transactions, the majority of them seeks them as the only way out because of dire economic need, childhood sexual abuse or even coercion employed by pimps. So their acceptance into the sex industry becomes more ambiguous if looked through this angle. They are truly ripped of their right to freely choose at the time where the before mention issues start affecting them, not when prostitution is target as illegal.