Our society is accustomed to believe that prostitution is a choice, even I used to believe that. In the contrary, the reality is that women, including men don’t chose to work in this industry, rather they have been forced or pressured to go against their will. Prior to being sex workers and taken advantage of, prostitutes are being neglected by society and dehumanized by many.
There is not an exact number of how many prostitutes there are, but there is an estimate of 1 million in the United States and 40 to 42 million or even more prostitutes in the entire world. (cite) Nevada in the only state in the U.S.A. that has some legal prostitution in several counties. Besides that, prostitution is illegal everywhere else in the U.S. As of right now the average age of entry into prostitution, in the United States, is between 12 and 14 years old, although it could be younger (Smith, 2009). However, most prostituted individuals are victims of sex trafficking, especially at this age. Traffickers and pimps, which are anyone who receives money or something of value for the sexual exploitation of another person, make promises to persuade children or young individuals to work in the industry of prostitution. According to the HG Organization of Legal Resources, “Every year in the U.S., between 70,000 and 80,000 people are arrested for prostitution, costing taxpayers approximately $200 million. The breakdown of arrests: 70% female prostitutes and madams, 20% male prostitutes and pimps,
Prostitution is a controversial issue that has been around since the beginning of time and has recently became a major problem in today’s society. Prostitution is defined as the practice or occupation of engaging in sexual activity with someone for payment. Prostitution is often times referred to as “the oldest profession in the business”. It is prohibited in several countries, the United States included, though in some countries it is accepted and is legal in many others. Today, prostitution is so controversial because of the number of youth involved in it. Those who oppose prostitution are against it because it endangers a big portion of women with diseases and can also be considered as a form of slavery. Due to the fact that prostitution increases the risk of sexually transmitted diseases, or STDs, while also destroying the image of areas it has heavily polluted, along with the morality of the women involved in it, it is seen as a practice that needs to be done away with, or mandated by the government.
Policies and laws fail to stop prostitution, and it will not stop. It is more costly to keep prostitution illegal. Prostitutes will be more vulnerable to getting criminal records, which then makes it harder for them in society, to obtain legal jobs. Also, with prostitution being illegal the workers may not be able to protect themselves from crimes against them. As prostitution is not legal, then they have to find discreet places to work, which usually is not in a safe environment. If some kind of crime against them did happen, they may feel that, they aren’t able to go to the police for help, as their work is illegal. It actually makes it harder on the worker, in turn making it harder for the client. There are all sorts of people who turn to prostitutes. From blue collar workers to high executives of companies, business owners and more. With prostitution being illegal, the clients are facing criminal charges as well. This does not only hurt the client, but communities as well. The author believes that people around the world have changed their older views and sexual norms to adapt to a more modern society. Brents, B.A., Jackson, C.A., & Hausbeck, K. (2010) concludes that prostitution is better being legalized than being criminalized (p.233). And with this change, people should reevaluate and learn from Nevada’s policies on prostitution being legal. While the author has shown many reasons why
Often, when people think of sex work and sex workers their minds immediately go to human trafficking. Yet, I believe it is essential that one marks the difference between the two, because as social workers we will have clients who come to us who have chosen to be sex workers. As social workers we recognize that every individual has the right to self-determination and we must know how to best serve them. In Janice G. Raymond’s book Not a Choice, Not a Job, she explores the world of sex work and though her views conflict with social work values she presents great information into the world of sex work. I will be presenting the ideas from her book and also be offering other views that are important when working with clients.
Prostitution is known to many as “the oldest occupation”, but when examined, the harsh reality of the sex industry is exposed and it is visible that prostitution is more of a form of oppression than it is a profession. The oldest occupation has many names: prostitute, streetwalker, hooker, escort. These types of terms are just examples of how the women who participate in this industry are reduced to labels and objectified. This social oppression is met with physical violence among sex workers, making it the most dangerous profession in human history. If it is so violent and horrible to participate in though, then why has it existed for all of these centuries? The answer is that the entire
“Most women in prostitution did not make a choice to enter prostitution from among a range of other options”. This is shows many women do not really want to become prostitutes. Since they have harsh living conditions, reality changes for them and they become prostitutes and do things they don't want for their needs of money. Even though they are breaking their norms and morals it still okay because since they are struggling financially, they may have to do things they do not want to in order to survive .
The sex industry is highly divided between those who call themselves “sex workers”, and former prostitutes who call themselves “survivors” (Glazer 340). Women should have the right to choose what they do for a living, including prostitution. The criminalization of prostitution does more harm than good when often women are left unprotected, both socially and legally, and therefore, the United States should make efforts to decriminalize and regulate prostitution instead.
A girl named Jessi was walking down the streets of Reno City, homeless after being discharged from the army. Soon, she began using drugs, and her drug dealer told her to prostitute to make money. This is a problem today around the world. Women think it’s okay to be a prostitute because it earns them money. Well, it’s the total opposite of that, according to victims of this terrible wrongdoing. Human trafficking is wrong and irrational, because it publicly embarrasses women, causes problems in their life, and can end up killing the females if it is continued. Prostitution is a lot more than it seems to be.
Legalizing prostitution has become a vexed topic of discussion when it comes to feminism. Approximately 80% of prostitutes around the world are women who are either deeply affected by their sexual career negatively or not affected by the business at all. There are several cases in this debate that imply that once prostitution is legalized, the tremendous amount of women involved in prostitution would be elevated in terms of feminism, would be protected, and would help the economy. While legalizing prostitution can have its positive effects on the country and it’s economy, it is no lie that this business could possibly negatively impact someone’s life. It also leaves the position of women, universally, a step back from achieving full equality
As a part of the legalization and support for prostitution, we need to clearly identify the definition of prostitution. The act of prostitution is defined as the willing participation in the use of sexual acts in exchange for compensation whether it was money or any other means of value gained from the use of the body of sexual pleasure. Prostitution is considered the world’s oldest profession that has been secretly practiced for centuries. Prostitution is not biased to gender or sexual orientation in any class. Prostitution is a multi-billion dollar industry that is very alive and visible according to law enforcement reports and arrest. Experts have determined that approximately 2 million prostitutes currently participate in the illegal sex industry for profit. Unfortunately, in the current state of illegal prostitution, people who
The prostitution lifestyle has come under debate on whether it should be legal or not. The lifestyle has gotten an immensely horrific reputation due to the aspects of “The Game” or “The Life”. This has been caused by horror stories and slang terms like exit fee, meaning an unattainable amount of money being placed as a ransom of sort on a sex workers freedom. This isn’t the case for all tales of prostitution as some are freelance women who employ themselves and have no abusive man to answer too, called Renegades. Many of these women have become prostitutes for reasons like poverty, the so-called “easy” money, and being “turned out”, which is being forced into the life. Other terms like “Johns” or “Tricks” refer to the clientele which keep the oldest profession alive. The client base has been cited as saying that they partake in prostitution because they lack time for real relationships, size insecurities, and have intense sexual urges. These reasons have given many causes to both side of the argument of decriminalization. Despite the many
“However you dress, wherever you go, yes means yes and no means no” -Dr. Suese. Within 48 hours of leaving home, one in three teens on the street will be lured toward prostitution. Approximately 300,000 children are at risk of being prostituted in the United States. In fact, human trafficking generates $9.5 billion yearly in the United States. The median age of entry into prostitution for a child victim in the United States is 13-14 years old. The average victim may be forced to have sex up to 20-48 times a day.
America’s perception of the sex industry is oddly backwards. We allow pornographic films and strippers, but we do not allow women to work in the sex industry. Women should be allowed to make their own decisions for the career or job they enjoy working. A law that prohibits them doing so is an example of taking away their fundamental rights. Moreover, this increases the risk of street prostitution that makes it more susceptible to diseases such as, HIV and AIDS (Sonntag, 2009). It is essential that if prostitutes are allowed to work, there should be management and responsibilities, but prostitutes should have their own freedom of
When many people hear the term prostitution they automatically have a negative thought in their heads. They see the violence, the drugs, and the manipulative things that are said and done to these people, all due to their pimps. What people fail to realize is there is a fine line between human trafficking and prostitution, many people get these two confused. Human trafficking is a different level of prostitution defined as the action of illegally transporting people from one area to another for sexual exploitation. Technically the definition of prostitution is the act or practice of engaging in sexual intercourse for money. Nowhere in this definition did it involve it being forced by another
Prostitution is a profession that has been around for thousands of years despite being a controversial topic in many parts of the world. In the modern world, the ethics of prostitution have been debated with many people viewing the profession as immoral. Prostitution is an exploitative and harmful profession for the sex workers. Since women account for a majority of those who engage in prostitution, these negative impacts affect women more. Also, prostitution is a gendered institution that strengthens and
One of the oldest known jobs in history is Prostitution, otherwise known as the sex labor industry. It is a major part of our society as an illegitimate source of income and employment. The prohibition of Prostitution creates a larger number of issues in society. Before, prostitution was a more individual decision, where countless women picked it as a last resort in emergencies; whereas now these women are coerced into the industry and experience abuse, murder, etc. The involvement and trauma prostitutes experience results in mental disorders. Furthermore, I investigate how the prohibition of prostitution has greater drawbacks on our society and introduce three policies that may help resolve the social issue within sex workers. Some policies I believe will provide the most benefits are first, the legalization of prostitution, second, enforcing and strengthening the law enforcement for human trafficking, and third, development of availability of medical resources.