Prostitution legalization would ensure protection

by Jasmine Barnes

Prostitution is a thing that a majority of Americans agree should be kept illegal; however, most people have never looked at the positive aspects of it. I know being a prostitute is seen as a sin by Christians, lower class in other countries and disgusting right here in America. In other words, it is seen as wrong all over the world. But what would it be like if prostitution were legal?

In the United States, according to procon.org, 1 percent of women are prostitutes or have been prostitutes before. One percent doesn’t seem like much until one discovers that there are 150 million women in the U.S. That means the one percent equals 1.5 million women. That is 30,000 women per state. A portion of that 1 percent needed this job to take care of themselves and their family. They depended on that form of income to buy food and pay for a place to live. We as Americans usually think that all prostitutes are women who love to have sex and are addicted to drugs. Keep in mind that there are some good women out there in prostitution just trying to survive.

One positive of the potential legalization of prostitution is that the women would be better protected. Brothels would be opened for the women to work in which would take them off of the streets. This would protect women from being attacked in alleyways or from being kidnapped by a potential client. Also, the brothels would help eliminate pimps. Without the pimp, women would receive more money since all their income would come to them. On top of that, they wouldn’t be beaten every day by their pimp for no reason except for him wanting to show his strength. According to an article from the Washington Post, “Decriminalization would better protect people in the sex industry from violence and abuse.” I fully agree with this statement for reasons stated above.

Another pro for legalization is that it would better protect women from contracting sexually transmitted diseases and stop women who have these diseases from spreading them to other people. According to Priscilla Alexander, a woman who helped found the National Task Force on Prostitution, making prostitution legal would provide women with means necessary to protect themselves. This would potentially involve monthly checks for diseases as well as access to contraception. All of these would be provided to women working within the safety of the brothel.

The thing that caught my eye most during my research was said by a professor from Northeastern State University. He stated, “It is estimated that if prostitution were made legal, the rape rate would decrease by 25 percent.” After some thought I made an assumption as to why this would be true. If men were able to go get safe sex from women whenever they wanted and were willing to pay for it, they wouldn’t feel the urge to force it out of someone who didn’t want to give it to them. I know rape would still occur due to the fact that there are people out there who have problems, but the number potentially going down would be a big deal.

As I said at the beginning, this is a different perspective to look at prostitution from. Just pay attention to the important facts that I stated: violence would decrease, the spread of sexually transmitted diseases would decrease and the number of rapes would decrease. So I finish this with a question. Would it be so terrible if prostitution were legal?

Barnes is a freshman majoring in English and secondary education. Comments can be sent to jbarnes15@my.whitworth.edu.