Last week's "friday five" on mignuna's blog addressed the issue of prostitution. I would like to present my opinion, and hope that you respond with your own thoughts/comments.
First of all, morally, I am against prostitutes. I don't patronize them, don't desire to patronize them, and realize that the patronage of them has been a factor in many a divorce in this country. That being said, I am actually pro-legalization.
The first thing to consider is, banning prostitution has worked about as well as prohibition did. In every community in which I ever lived, it has been very well known where one could go and find a prostitute; and as long as they "knew their place", the cops generally limited their busts to around election time (for the sheriff and DA's sake), or whenever they needed a little more cash in the coffers.
The second is the time worn argument about legislating morality. While many people disagree, I question the value/effectiveness of being overly zealous to create a judeo-christian utopia, especially in light of seeing what kind of fruits religious states tend to bear (in the middle east, for instance). One of the great freedoms we have had in this country is the right to be wrong.
The third is (and I don't say this as flip as it sounds), there are some people in society with a full sexual appetite and no way to fill it. An excellent example would be some of the higher functioning of the developmentally disabled population. When a person's sexual appetite goes unfulfilled without the hope of fulfillment, there's a significant danger of that person becoming a sexual predator (I realize that rape is about control rather than sex; however, there's a REASON that the person chooses to exert sexual control rather than other forms of control).
I live in an area where prostitution is legal. It is confined to the brothels, heavily regulated, and heavily taxed. The brothels are very restrictively zoned and, except for certain billboards, you would be hard pressed to know this is a brothel town. We have a very low incidence of sexual crimes, and most impressively for me, there are NO streetwalkers in town. It is ironic that a brothel town could actually be a desirable place to raise children, but the simple fact is, it IS. This is a rural area, and the taxes on brothels have been instrumental in our having adequate emergency services, and many other niceties which assist in creating a rather decent quality of life. Another perk I consider is the prostitutes themselves are safe. In many areas of the country, if a prostitute is murdered, the authorities tend not to care unless her family comes looking for her (this is how the Green River killer got away with it for so long). Here, if you assault a prostitute, you're likely to find yourself experiencing "western justice": a long walk home through the desert tends to be an excellent deterrent to further crime.
anyway, that's just my two cents. Feel free to add your own.
signing off,
Gideon MacLeish
