Post by Icarus on Feb 19, 2007 12:18:47 GMT -5
Ok, so, one of my recent assignments was to write an essay on my view of legalizing prostitution. I thought I would share this with you and hopefully, get some of your ideas on the matter. Now, I wrote this fairly quickly, and could have done a much better job, but well, I just did it like this. Hope it's something to talk about, anyway.
In dealing with the world’s oldest profession, our society has chosen to deem prostitution as immoral and illegal. The reasons for this insistence of the illegality of this profession range from the idea that it violates the rules of a “godly” lifestyle to the profession causes harm to family stability. I have to oppose these notions and firmly believe that prostitution should be legal. There are many reasons for this belief, which will be discussed in the following paragraphs, but suffice to say, the benefits of legalizing prostitution outweigh the antiquated laws that keep it illegal.
If prostitution was a legal enterprise, the government would have the ability to regulate the activities of bordellos and other places of the night. Mandatory testing and routine health exams would enable the men and women working as prostitutes to live healthier lifestyles, but it would also ensure that the clients of these prostitutes would not contract any disease and unknowingly pass it to others.
By the government regulating prostitution, the bordellos would also stress the importance of the testing and encourage competition between the different service centers by maintaining the highest health standards of those that offer the sexual services. They would mandate certain physical health requirements, and advertise these qualities to the public, thereby bringing in more business, decreasing the AIDS epidemic and spread of venereal disease, and encouraging healthy lifestyles to all that paid any notice to the prostitution practice.
If prostitution was not illegal, police officers would not have to waste their efforts on arresting prostitutes, jailing them, and then releasing them out onto the streets just to have to re-arrest them at a later time. Police officers could focus on the real criminals out there that are causing harm to society and individuals. Efforts could be focused on capturing murderers, rapists, and thieves, among others.
This also brings up another point. Tax dollars that are wasted on the jailing of these prostitutes, as well as paying for the man-power to capture them in the first place, could be funneled into more productive enterprises such as feeding and sheltering the destitute, education programs, and general populace-safety efforts.
When looking at prostitution as the world’s oldest profession, society cannot deny that it has always been in practice and always will be. However, these men and women that work as prostitutes have no legal recourse against those that assault them, rob them, rape them, or otherwise violate them in some way. Police do not take the claims of prostitutes very seriously, as a general rule, but if prostitution was a legal profession, and a prostitute was violated in some way, they would have every right to go to the police and file a report and actually expect something to be done about it. They would have the same legal recourse as a banker, a lawyer, or a teacher. As it stands right now, prostitutes are just as much a victim of their clients as they are the provider of a service.
It is generally believed that the vast majority of prostitutes are women. Most are looked down on as being dirty or “used-up.” If these prostitutes were working in a government regulated profession, society would come to look at them as just another employee of the world trying to make their way. Women would learn of their own sexual natures and how to use that nature, thereby empowering, instead of denigrating, women. The profession would come to be seen as something that women had the choice of doing openly, instead of it being seen as a “dirty” secret that they must keep from family and friends. So, when looked at in this way, women would not only become empowered by their profession, but family relations could also be strengthened, thereby creating a more solid and stable society.
From a functionalist point of view, prostitution provides many different things that allow our society to “function” at a successful level. The profession allows an outlet for those that are sexually desperate. It enables the lonely and the heartbroken to find someone to spend time with when no one else is available. It allows people to act out their sexual fantasies that they otherwise may not be able to act out with a partner for fear of refusal, or embarrassment, or the fear of dishonoring their significant other. If the outlet was not there, then some people may repress those emotions, turning them into something far more negative and dangerous and actually end up “exploding” on a part of society that would otherwise have been fine, had that person had an outlet for their frustrations. Prostitution may even lead to more mentally healthy people in the world, seeing as they have that outlet for their darkest natures and desires.
Though there are many more reasons that prostitution should be legal, these above few are more than enough to see why the legalizing of the practice would actually help society in general. It could almost be seen as unconstitutional for prostitution to remain illegal. The bottom line is that the world’s oldest profession will continue on. Nothing has made it go away, and nothing ever will. If society would just accept that it is a functional part of our world, we could all benefit from the legalization of prostitution.
In dealing with the world’s oldest profession, our society has chosen to deem prostitution as immoral and illegal. The reasons for this insistence of the illegality of this profession range from the idea that it violates the rules of a “godly” lifestyle to the profession causes harm to family stability. I have to oppose these notions and firmly believe that prostitution should be legal. There are many reasons for this belief, which will be discussed in the following paragraphs, but suffice to say, the benefits of legalizing prostitution outweigh the antiquated laws that keep it illegal.
If prostitution was a legal enterprise, the government would have the ability to regulate the activities of bordellos and other places of the night. Mandatory testing and routine health exams would enable the men and women working as prostitutes to live healthier lifestyles, but it would also ensure that the clients of these prostitutes would not contract any disease and unknowingly pass it to others.
By the government regulating prostitution, the bordellos would also stress the importance of the testing and encourage competition between the different service centers by maintaining the highest health standards of those that offer the sexual services. They would mandate certain physical health requirements, and advertise these qualities to the public, thereby bringing in more business, decreasing the AIDS epidemic and spread of venereal disease, and encouraging healthy lifestyles to all that paid any notice to the prostitution practice.
If prostitution was not illegal, police officers would not have to waste their efforts on arresting prostitutes, jailing them, and then releasing them out onto the streets just to have to re-arrest them at a later time. Police officers could focus on the real criminals out there that are causing harm to society and individuals. Efforts could be focused on capturing murderers, rapists, and thieves, among others.
This also brings up another point. Tax dollars that are wasted on the jailing of these prostitutes, as well as paying for the man-power to capture them in the first place, could be funneled into more productive enterprises such as feeding and sheltering the destitute, education programs, and general populace-safety efforts.
When looking at prostitution as the world’s oldest profession, society cannot deny that it has always been in practice and always will be. However, these men and women that work as prostitutes have no legal recourse against those that assault them, rob them, rape them, or otherwise violate them in some way. Police do not take the claims of prostitutes very seriously, as a general rule, but if prostitution was a legal profession, and a prostitute was violated in some way, they would have every right to go to the police and file a report and actually expect something to be done about it. They would have the same legal recourse as a banker, a lawyer, or a teacher. As it stands right now, prostitutes are just as much a victim of their clients as they are the provider of a service.
It is generally believed that the vast majority of prostitutes are women. Most are looked down on as being dirty or “used-up.” If these prostitutes were working in a government regulated profession, society would come to look at them as just another employee of the world trying to make their way. Women would learn of their own sexual natures and how to use that nature, thereby empowering, instead of denigrating, women. The profession would come to be seen as something that women had the choice of doing openly, instead of it being seen as a “dirty” secret that they must keep from family and friends. So, when looked at in this way, women would not only become empowered by their profession, but family relations could also be strengthened, thereby creating a more solid and stable society.
From a functionalist point of view, prostitution provides many different things that allow our society to “function” at a successful level. The profession allows an outlet for those that are sexually desperate. It enables the lonely and the heartbroken to find someone to spend time with when no one else is available. It allows people to act out their sexual fantasies that they otherwise may not be able to act out with a partner for fear of refusal, or embarrassment, or the fear of dishonoring their significant other. If the outlet was not there, then some people may repress those emotions, turning them into something far more negative and dangerous and actually end up “exploding” on a part of society that would otherwise have been fine, had that person had an outlet for their frustrations. Prostitution may even lead to more mentally healthy people in the world, seeing as they have that outlet for their darkest natures and desires.
Though there are many more reasons that prostitution should be legal, these above few are more than enough to see why the legalizing of the practice would actually help society in general. It could almost be seen as unconstitutional for prostitution to remain illegal. The bottom line is that the world’s oldest profession will continue on. Nothing has made it go away, and nothing ever will. If society would just accept that it is a functional part of our world, we could all benefit from the legalization of prostitution.