Why not legalize prostitution?

Alright, let's touch upon some of the issues you guys have been glossing over and/or dodging altogether:

Before we can willy nilly legalize prostitution, there are a lot of things that need to be considered. First, we run with the failure that is the Nevada prostitution system. In Nevada, brothels impose inordinate restrictions on prostitutes, requiring them to stay within (inside) the brothel for weeks, or months at a time. You don't like the rules, don't work legally, of which the vast majority of prostitutes opt for in Nevada. Then there's the underage prostitutes, being brought in with fake IDs, the stigma associated with being registered with the State as a prostitute, which can prevent them from obtaining other jobs (based on laws and on discrimination), the pimps that still manage virtually all legal prostitutes, the claims by ex-prostitutes of pimp abuse, brothel owner abuse, brothel bouncer abuse, and customer abuse, with prostitutes having no witnesses & no credibility, and thus no legal recourse. Then there's also such issues as what constitutes a legal prostitute. I.e., what laws would be in place to define prostitution as a business, whether it be individual, business entity, and/or location of business. Then there are the issues of legal prostitutes losing custody of their children, and/or giving custody as wards of the State, for the compounding problems of State/Federal regulations, individual brothel rules, child safety concerns and, again, the stigma of the industry biasing their day in court. Then we have all the ex-prostitutes that denounce legal prostitution, not merely for how it is virtually ungovernable, but for the psychosocial, and sometimes physical, damage that prostitutes incur. And we move onto touching upon how all of sex industries, legal or otherwise, are rife with abuse, corruption, exploitation. Then we discuss the issue of defining a legal prostitute, and how in Nevada there ar so many illegal prostitutes because they simply cannot qualify to be legal (drug history, etc).

And the list goes on: dehumanization, fostering sex addiction, escalation, infidelity, adultery (breach of marriage), etc.

So yes on your guys end, you're grossly oversimplifying this issue. On your end, it's slipping on a condom. But it's far more complex than a little latex barrier.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

No, I realize that it's been dead for awhile but I wasn't sure if I should start another thread. I noticed this place has been quiet for almost a month now and wanted to see if anyone would like to pick this particular discussion back up.

Also, I don't understand what the original thread maker has to do with this. As far as I could tell, he wasn't even participating in the discussion.

Another point I would like to add: The job of a liberal democratic government is not to enforce any subjective morality but to protect the physical and mental well-being of its people. I would like to suggest that although prostitution is not necessarily physically harmful, there is certainly mental harm or degradation involved, the root cause of which can only have come from physical causes (drug addiction, coercion etc.) For that reason prostitution is both immoral and harmful to society as a whole and should therefore be illegal.
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There's nowhere I can't reach.

Go back and read my argument. That's not what I said at all.

I'll quote it because I think this is the main thing you may be overlooking:

Quote:

The job of a liberal democratic government is not to enforce any subjective morality but to protect the physical and mental well-being of its people. I would like to suggest that although prostitution is not necessarily physically harmful, there is certainly mental harm or degradation involved, the root cause of which can only have come from physical causes (drug addiction, coercion etc.) For that reason prostitution is both immoral and harmful to society as a whole and should therefore be illegal.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by Shin

But Grail, we all know you were only working there to feed your crack habit.

History has shown that prohibition achieves nothing except making more money for criminals. You can find something as distasteful as you want but that's not going to stop other people from wanting to do it and when you ban whatever that is, you only force it underground, making any regulation impossible, making money for criminals and lessening the protection for those involved. It really is as simple as that, banning things is a shit way to stop people hurting themselves or others doing them.

Legalizing is a rubbish way to stop people hurting themselves or others doing them.

Funny how turning around comes to the same conclusion.

Point being, it's not an on/off switch. If prostitution is to be legalized, it needs to be done correctly. Interestingly enough, the same solutions that can be applied during legalization can also be applied during illegalization. That's the point of all this. Legalization is not the point, it is a distraction to the greater concern, which is that of ensuring people are not exploited, abused, misused, or otherwise injured by the business of prostitution.

Originally Posted by Bradylama

Criminalizing a health issue is a surefire way to turn it into a social one. Assuming that the majority of prostitution results from some form of coercion, how does the criminalization of the behavior and the subsequent punishments and records from enforcement help prostitutes break the chain of coercion? A criminal record involving a sexual taboo is like being relegated to a caste.

Legalization of prostitution essentially says, "it's okay to exploit, abuse, misuse, or otherwise injure people, as long as the government get's a percentage of the profits."

Until there is a sincere and direct effort to address the REAL problem here, it cannot be legalized. If, in this direct effort, legalization is included, that's fine, but legalization, in and of itself, is not a solution, and is in fact counterproductive by by its very acceptance of dehumanizing commerce.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?