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Prostitution
Prostitution is an issue which has caused controversy cross-culturally and
historically and which has many individuals reexamining the logistics of it.
If prostitution is decriminalized it will become economically profitable
and feasible for not only the prostitutes, but also western society as a
whole. Without the 20th century western laws, which force prostitution
underground, the profession of prostitution could become a clean and safe
occupation. Prostitution laws are unconstitutional and deny the prostitutes
what the American constitution allows them. Prostitution is an illegal act
in Canada and large portions of the United States which, if legalized,
would protect and benefit 20th century western society.
If sanctioned, prostitution will become economically lucrative for the
governments involved. The colossal amount of money spent each year on
prostitute prevention could be spent on more urgent issues, which is
exactly what the San Francisco Task Force on Prostitution found.
The total costs accounted for in this report amounts to $7,634,750.00.
Given the many areas in which we found that information is not available,
or there are hidden costs, the over all expense to the taxpayer exceeds
$7.6 million annually.1
The San Francisco Task Force is a group of researchers, police officers,
members of the San Francisco community, government officials and
prostitutes, who frequently meet to discuss the issues of prostitution and
to try to come to some solution. Although they may not always agree, two
issues they are in agreement about are that the $7.6 million dollars would
be better spent elsewhere and that prostitution should be legalized..
Robert Noce of Manitoba city council wants reform of the Canadian Justice
System and he would like to see prostitution become worthwhile to Canadian
taxpayers.
Quite frankly, for anyone to suggest to me a dating or escort agency is
just offering companionship is being quite naive. Let's not try to bury
our heads in the sand and pretend nothing else is going on. Instead of
pretending these establishments don't exist let's instead be logical about
this and try to use the profits that we could be making, in a wise and
useful manner. I think that the highest paying customers for prostitution
is us Canadians, in the money we put into fighting this futile cause.2
Instead of putting millions of dollars into stopping this consensual act,
the money saved and made from the legalization of prostitution can be
spent on fighting child prostitution and coerced prostitution. These two
crimes are becoming rampant across North America, but lack of funds
prevents a serious effort from being made to fight against them. If
brothels and prostitutes were to be taxed like any other place of business,
millions of extra revenue dollars would become available to the Canadian
government, for it to spend as it sees fit. Although the monetary concerns
are overwhelming one of the most debated issues is the health and safety
of prostitution.
If prostitution were to be decriminalized, the profession of prostitution
could become a healthy, publicly sanctioned place of business. Throughout
history and throughout European cultures, prostitution has been legalized
to decrease the spread of disease as historian Jennifer James reports.
Beginning with Prussia in 1700, most continental European governments
shifted their tactics from suppression of prostitution and sexually
transmitted disease to control through a system of compulsory registration,
licensed brothels, and medical inspection of prostitutes. Although medical
techniques were primitive there was a noticeable decline in sexual
diseases among prostitutes and their clients.3
European governments hundreds of years ago realized that since they could
not fight prostitution, it was best to make it as safe and healthy as they
could. Their efforts saved hundreds of lives and provided treatment to the
prostitutes who previously could not seek medical attention without being
arrested. A recent episode of 20/20 interviewed Joe McNamara, former police
chief of Kansas and San Jose, and vice squad officers as they discussed
the physical harm that anti-prostitution laws inflict
JOE MCNAMARA: What we're doing now is worse than prostitution. JOHN
STOSSEL: The law makes it worse? JOE MCNAMARA: The law makes it a lot worse.
It drives up the profits.
It drives up the potential for corruption. It invites violence.
JOHN STOSSEL: It is true that when the vice cops talk about the terrible
things they see... 2ND VICE SQUAD OFFICER: You see homicides. You
see the narcotics. You
see the assaults. JOHN STOSSEL: They're talking about things
caused not by prostitution
itself, but by the law. Because the law drives prostitution
underground into the criminal world, where everyone's hiding from
the police. 2ND VICE SQUAD OFFICER: We see the black eyes. We see
the rapes.
We see them crying. JOHN STOSSEL: Such problems occur much less
often where sex for money
is legal. Here, in rural Nevada, for example, the state has
licensed 35 brothels. These businesses don't have robberies,
rapes or beatings.4 The Nevada police force is an advocate for
the legalization of prostitution because they have seen the
difference that legalization makes. Crime rates drop when
prostitution is brought to a setting where it is monitored.
Prostitutes are forced to work through established brothels and
are forbidden to work out of their homes. All prostitutes and
brothels must be licensed and the brothels must provide the
prostitutes with personal doctors who test all of the prostitutes
for sexually transmitted diseases, and HIV tests are done on a
monthly basis and condoms are mandatory. When prostitution is
legalized, not only are the pimps, who are often involved in
other illegal affairs illuminated, but the prostitute and the
community are protected. Anti-prostitution laws are
unconstitutional in their nature and deny the prostitutes
what the American constitution would allow them. In 1973 the
case of Roe v. Wade established certain legal precedents
concerning a woman's body, the court found that:
"a woman has a right of personal privacy, or a guarantee of
certain areas or zones of privacy, does exist in the Constitution
and that it is founded in the Fourteenth Amendment's concept
of personal liberty and restrictions upon state action. This right
of privacy is broad enough to encompass a woman's body and
her decision of whether or not to terminate her pregnancy."5
Although the courts in the case of Roe v. Wade were referring to the
woman's right to abort her unborn fetus they inadvertently set a precedent
for prostitution as well. The fourteenth amendment of the American
constitution states that all individuals have the right to life, liberty,
and the ownership of property. For the Roe v. Wade court to find that
liberty encompasses the meaning of aborting what is, by definition, the
woman's own property, a woman should have the right, under the
constitution, to not only sell her property, but to do it in privacy. In
1905 during the case of Lochner v. New York Mr. Justice Holmes made a
closing statement appropriate to the issue of the constitutionality of
Prostitution.
[The Constitution] is made for people of fundamentally
differing views, and the accident of our finding certain
opinions natural and familiar or novel and even shocking
ought not to conclude our judgment upon the question
whether statutes embodying them conflict with the
Constitution of the United States.6
What Mr. Justice Holmes was trying to convey to the jury was that certain
subjects like prostitution cannot be viewed as a moral issue but as a
constitutional legal issue.
Prostitution cannot be judged using preconceived notions, but rather by
viewing all of the facts and determining logistically whether or not
prostitutes are receiving lawful treatment. The answer to this question is
that they are not.
Prostitution in the 20th century in Western society is an illegal act which
if were to be legalized would profit and preserve not only the prostitutes
but society as a whole. Legalizing prostitution is economically profitable
for governments in dire need of resources. The anti-prostitution laws
which are intended to help the prostitutes and society, instead force
prostitution underground and without these laws prostitution could become
a clean and safe occupation. Present day prostitution laws are
unconstitutional and should be abolished because of their unconstitutional
nature. Prostitution and prostitutes are issues that few individuals have
taken the time to fully understand, and so the issues are misunderstood
and their voices go unheard. Some issues, like prostitution, have been
around for thousands of years and will never go away, so it is for this
reason that, as Barbara Walter said, "Prostitution is a world that is here
to stay, like it or not it is time to make the best of it"7.
Endnotes
1. San Francisco Task Force on Prostitution: Report.1994.
www.bayswan.org/SFTFP.html 2. Jeffs, Allyson. Legalizing
Prostitution. Edmonton Journal. October
21 1997. 3. James, Jennifer. Encarta: Prostitution. Microsoft.
1997 4. 20/20. Sex for Sale: Should Prostitution be legal in America? ABC.
June 27 1997 5. Roe v. Wade 1973 6. Lochner v. New York. 1905 7.
20/20. Sex for Sale: Should Prostitution be legal in America? ABC.
June 27 1997
Bibliography
1.20/20. Sex for Sale: Should Prostitution be legal in America? ABC.
June 27 1997 2.20/20. Sex for Sale: Should Prostitution be legal
in America? ABC.
June 27 1997 3.James, Jennifer. Encarta: Prostitution. Microsoft.
1997 4.Jeffs, Allyson. Legalizing Prostitution. Edmonton Journal.
October
21 1997. 5.Lochner v. New York. 1905 6.Roe v. Wade 1973 7.San
Francisco Task Force on Prostitution: Report.1994.
www.bayswan.org/SFTFP.html
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