Legalise Prostitution
Introduction
In many countries, billions of dollars are used in fighting prostitution. On a closer look, these efforts do more harm than good. In this text, I discuss the benefits of legalizing prostitution and why doing so is likely to improve the quality of life in the society. I also look at the connection between prostitution and how prohibiting prostitution leads to an increase rather than a reduction in crime rates.
Legalize prostitution
Research has indicated that arresting those involved with prostitution especially female sex workers leads to a long term increase in crime rates (Matthews 2008). There are two ways to look at this. First, when a female sex worker is arrested and found guilty of engaging in prostitution, her fate is usually sealed and she may find it very difficult to get a job after serving a jail term. It is hence very likely that once such a person is released from jail, she will probably be easily lured into other illegal activities just to find some income to pay her bills. Hence in such a way, keeping prostitution only causes an increase in crime rates. The other way to look at how prostitution contributes to crime is by looking at the vulnerability of sex workers to crime. Criminals view them as very easy targets for crime because chances of a commercial sex worker reporting a criminal act against her are very slim because she might be arrested as she was engaging in an illegal activity when the crime took place in the first place. Governments around the world should hence consider legalizing prostitution not only because its ability to result in reduced crime rates but also for its ability to avoid any unnecessary wastage of public funds.Considering that the fight against prostitution is a largely a government effort it leads to a huge wastage of resources.
These resources could otherwise have been put to better uses like fighting the monster of drug trade as well as other serious crimes. Matthews (2008) argues that rather than using public funds to fight a harmless activity such as prostitution, such funds could be better utilized to eliminate white collar crime whose effects are much more significant than prostitution. He goes on to say that the damage white collar crime inflicts on the society is much more significant than the damage caused by a combination of all street crime. It might hence be more worthy to divert resources to fighting other serious crime not only because of the benefit it will have on society at large but for the individual members of the society as well.In that respect, it is important to note that the individual members of the society who choose to engage in prostitution derive their livelihood from it. It has been argued in some quarters that if selling is legal and sex is legal, then selling sex should not be illegal. It is in fact entrepreneurship and contributes towards a more vibrant economy by reducing unemployment. Apart from benefiting the commercial sex the client also benefits especially if he does not have the intention or the ability of investing in a serious relationship.
Conclusion
It is clear that prohibiting prostitution has a domino effect in triggering other social ills and therefore in makes more sense if governments concentrate their efforts not on situations of personal choice like prostitution but to real social ills and injustices like organized crime and drug dealing.
References
Matthews, R. (2008). Prostitution, politics and policy. Routledge
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