Legalization of prostitution Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Legalization of prostitution - Essay Example Given the time period, poverty, disgrace and lack of education was a primary cause of young women becoming prostitutes. Sanger asked many women why they became prostitutes, and often they answered the same. They had been kicked out of their homes or deserted, were forced into it to survive, or, in some cases, they would turn to it as a remedy of their current situation, and only wanted to pursue it until something better came along. In the 19th century, prostitution evolved again into a highly profitable, visible and industrialized business. Women became commercial products, and were â€Å"sexed bodies for hire† and the business of prostitution was of high profit from the women’s ‘owners’ as â€Å"illicit sex increasingly became an attractive form of capital investment† (Barry, p 97). The labor market of the time saw the decrease of women in ordinary domestic labor into prostitution because of this rapidly developing industry (Barry, p 97). As prosti tution grew, society could no longer ignore the problem that it was creating, but they could not stop the men that went to visit these houses of ill repute. It went so far as to create a book that became known as the â€Å"gentlemen’s guide†, which included â€Å"better houses, giving addresses, benefits to be gained from particular establishments and the names of favorite prostitutes† (Pivar, p 31). ... They were ultimately forced to stay in the business, whether they wanted to or not (Bullough, p 245). The police and doctors that supported the regulation of prostitution were concerned with the control of venereal diseases, crime and sanitation (Pivar, p33). Today, prostitution is still seen by the majority of society as a crime against the morality of humanity (Scambler, p 7). These women are commonly referred to as hookers, whores, sluts or simply prostitutes. They are seen as trash, a bane on society with no moral compasses and whose bodies are ravaged by venereal diseases. There is a plethora of opinions of prostitution, but it is not something that is sick, wrong or unjustified. The argument has been made by opposition to prostitution that they are merely desperate women with cloudy judgment because of the economic issues that they suffer from (Stolba, 2000). This may be true in some cases, but if it were completely true, then the number of women in the business would do someth ing else. There are over one million women in the United States today that make their living by prostitution. Oppositely, about one in every six American men has been a client of a prostitute at some point in the past five years. Oddly, the threat of AIDS and other venereal diseases is now the most compelling argument for the legalization of prostitution. Roughly, half of all street prostitutes in New York City and Washington, D.C. are HIV positive. In Newark, New Jersey, nearly 60% of all prostitutes there have HIV. Despite this, in the state of Nevada, not a single prostitute in a state-licensed facility has ever tested positive for HIV/AIDS (Armentano, 1993). The brothels in Nevada require that their prostitutes