Legalizing Prostitution

Today's criminal justice system faces many issues. Far too often we find that prisons are far too overcrowded and that the cities and states do not have near enough tax revenue to cover the rising costs of keeping inmates in prison, or to cover the costs of building larger prisons with sufficient space. While there is not a single solution to this problem, I propose one idea that could not only help to lower the current amount of inmates in prison, but also to provide tax revenue for various local and state programs. Prostitution has been a part of almost all recorded civilizations. Recently several states and even some other countries have questioned whether prostitution should be decriminalized. I propose that legalizing prostitution under an extremely strict set of rules and guidelines will be an improvement upon our criminal justice system.

Prostitution exists throughout every part of this nation, it continues no matter what punishments the laws provide, or how hard law enforcement officials work to fight it (Samaha, 2008, 430). Prostitution does not exist only in this country, but in every nation of the world, even the most conservative states and nations find prostitution in their midst. States such as Utah have cases of prostitution; some law enforcement officers from the state even consider it a "major business (Prichard, 2009)." Records of prostitution go all the way back to the 18^th Century B.C. Egypt when rules were established protecting some rights of prostitutes. Throughout history some countries have accepted prostitution and decide to make it a part of normal society, while usually being careful to keep a watchful eye to be sure that there was no other types of illegal or immoral activities within the brothel walls. Currently the states of Nevada and Rhode Island have legalized prostitution (Head, 2009). The country of Holland has taken a step forward and has legalized the establishment of brothels. As should be done, they did not do so with little to no regulation on the brothels, but have established strict guidelines that must be followed (Siegel, 2006, 436-437).

The question may arise as to why people become prostitutes. Since prostitution is illegal, the reason may differ than if it was legalized. Right now, law enforcement officials go after prostitutes and try to get them off the streets, this means that they are unable to work securely and often try to be very secretive about it. This kind of situation does not offer a very positive situation to attract typical men and women. The women that are attracted to this type of illegal work often come from broken homes, or come from desperation. These women often have had problems in their homes, come from poor neighborhoods, or have been some type of sexual abuse or other type of sexual issue either recently of stemming from their childhood (Siegel, 2006, 435). Would this change if the laws were changed? To get an idea one can take a look at escort services. Many people consider these as legal prostitution services. These are able to bypass the prostitution laws due to the fact that they do not sell sex, but in fact offer a dating service. A man or woman can pay a premium rate for one of the escorts to go out with them for an evening on a date or to a formal activity or whatever it may be. Escort service companies then say that whatever happens at the end or during the date is between the two individuals and is not to be considered part of the paid services. Escort women typically tend to be beautiful and from stable backgrounds. They also do not stay in the business for life, but are in for a time, receive a considerable amount of revenue from the business, and then move on to other professions ("Elite Miami Escorts," 2009). Another business that somehow bypasses the prostitution laws are pornography companies. They too have beautiful women that come from various backgrounds, and are often in the business for a few years before moving on to something different. If actual prostitution was legalized and highly regulated I believe that the people that become prostitutes would also move toward that trend. Under legalization, there would be no more need for secrecy, and it would not be work of desperation. Instead, women from different walks of life would be able to work for city or state sanctioned brothels and would not fear prosecution or punishment.

The necessity of prostitution is a bit confusing. There is no denying that sex is a major part of society today. It infiltrates all parts of life, we see it in our music, television, movies, and even in our daily lives we often see advertisements that use sex appeal to try to sell their products, often successfully. According to the Kinsey Institute "54% of men think about sex everyday or several times a day, 43% a few times per month or a few times per week, and 4% less than once per month ("Frequently Asked Questions," 2008)." While this may not be as much as the well used expression goes that men think about sex every seven seconds, it is considerable more than how much the women think about sex: "19% of women think about sex everyday or several times per day, 67% a few times per month or a few times per week, and 14% less than once per month ("Frequently Asked Questions," 2008)." Indeed we men think about sex quite often, and some men do not have partners with which they can release all the pressure and thoughts that invade their mind. How is it expected that people are not to think about sex when they are faced with it at every turn? With the legalization of prostitution men and women alike that do not have steady partners will be able to have a "pressure release" that will enable them to be able the occasional sexual activity without fear of punishment or scrutiny from the police, also with regulations and precaution they will able to do so without fear of obtaining HIV or other STDs.

Sex also provides other kinds of benefits. Many of these include health benefits. Science has shown that sex helps to relieve stress and lower blood pressure. It is also possible that sex leads to a boost in immunity. While not proven, having frequent sex has shown to lead in a certain antibody, this antibody can help your immune system and you from many infections and even the common cold. Sex may even be counted as a form of exercise; it has the ability of burning 85 calories in thirty minutes, this can quickly add up over extended periods of time, or through multiple sessions. Sex also tends to improve cardiovascular health. Research shows that men who engage in intercourse twice or more a week reduce their risk by half! Sex research has also shown that those having sex often experience a boost in confidence and self-esteem (Doheny, 2009). These are just a few of the health benefits obtained from frequently engaging in sexually activity. Not only will the government be able to lower the prisoner count and increase revenue, they will also be helping to increase the health of their citizens.

The FBI reports that there are on average eighty thousand arrests for prostitution per year (Puzzanchera, 2008). Unfortunately, most of the other agency reports do not list a separate category for information on the arrests for prostitution. How much time the prostitutes and would-be buyers actually spend in prison varies from state to state depends on their own laws. The report indicates that number of arrests, but does not state if each arrest is for a different individual or for arrests cumulatively. We are also unsure how many agencies actually give their arrest information to the FBI for these statistics; there may be many city and state agencies that are not reporting, and so the arrest count may actually be lower than actual counts. In recent years, more and more people have become receptive to the idea of prostitution. The report shows a decrease of arrests for prostitution from a period of 1994 to 2006. There are several reasons this may be occurring, they could be lowering due to a lack of prosecution of these "criminals." There is no research done to show why the number has declined, but I theorize that a liberalization of society and even some government officials has led to at least part of the decline. Interestingly, some of the government officials that should be expected to be anti-prostitution are active participants of prostitution. Media coverage has shown many government leaders that have come under fire due to their use of prostitutes. In 2008 Governor Eliot Spitzer was caught on wiretap trying to arrange for a prostitute to meet him in a Washington hotel room (Hakim, & Rashbaum, 2008).

The criticism against prostitution and the idea of legalizing it covers a wide variety of thoughts and ideas. Parts of the general population, especially conservative groups, view prostitution as highly immoral. I cannot say whether it is or isn't, as that depends on the ideals and beliefs of each and every person. The purpose of this paper is not to determine the morality of our society or the morals behind prostitution, but is to determine the benefits to the criminal justice system, thus, I will not be taking morality into consideration.

Others theorize that legalized prostitution may lead to such things as: increase in diseases, especially STDs and AIDS; sex trafficking and sex trade; increase in child molestation and child prostitution; will lower the sexual equality between men and women; and unwanted pregnancies. I will take a look a look at each of these individually and show that these things will not increase after the legalization of prostitution, but to the contrary, will decrease.

The first thing that should be understood is that I do not impose that we completely legalize prostitution and then leave it with no further laws or regulation, indeed this would be a huge mistake. I imply that with proper law and health enforcement the prostitution business would be able to flourish. Some ideas for regulations would be: frequent blood and health tests, special state issued identification cards for prostitutes, thorough background check on the prostitutes and small checks on customers. While this may seem like it would be expensive, the amount of money coming in from business and the money saved from arresting buyers and prostitutes, and the money saved from keeping them in jail would be more than sufficient to cover the expenses. During an interview done at a legalized brothel in Nevada it was determined that the prostitutes make between $300 and $1,500 per day (I can only dream that I could make that in a day), and have remained HIV-free (Siegel, 2006, 437).

As the interview showed, the women working at the brothels were not only able to remained disease and HIV-free, but they also felt safe and secure in their working environment, a much different feeling than that of the women that are found working on the streets. The women even felt pride in the work that they were doing. State regulated brothels would not only provide security from potentially dangerous buyers, but would also be able to protect the women from being taken advantage of by the brothel owners or from pimps. One of the issues of prostitutes working on the streets is that they receive no protection, they fear the punishment they would receive the law enforcement for doing the work that they do, and so when they are attacked by a buyer or by their pimp they are much less likely to report it to the police.

One of the biggest fears for legalizing prostitution would be an increase in child prostitution. At this current time, "it is estimated that about 293,000 American youth are currently at risk of becoming victims of commercial sexual exploitation ("Child Prostitution,")." This is a very disheartening number, to say the least. The number of teens and children living on the street that become involved in sex trafficking and prostitution is also of epidemic proportions. "Approximately 55% of street girls engage informal prostitution. The average age at which girls first becomes victims of prostitution is 12-14. It's not only the girls that are affected - for boys and trans-gender youth, the average age of entry into prostitution is 11-13 ("Child Prostitution,")." At this time, the amount of children affected by is not exactly at a good level so the fear associated with the possible rise in this number is understandable. I argue that the number will definitely decrease. Already at this point law enforcement agencies require the use of special investigative group to investigate the types of crimes of crimes. With more of the adult prostitutes off of the streets and placed into legalized brothels, it will become easier for these special agencies to be able to find child prostitutes and their traffickers. It will also be harder to find places for them to place the children for work as it will also be harder to find willing buyers. Right now there is a large number of prostitutes on the streets so buyers do not feel as much fear trying to buy services, but if brothels and prostitutes are legalized, the amount of street hookers will decrease drastically, making it more likely that any prostitute on the street, especially one that looks to be a child, is an undercover officer, thus the buyers will become more and more scarce. It is also determined that many of the pimp-controlled child exploitations do not actually occur in the street level prostitution rings, but actually occur through the less regulated escort and massage service providers ("Child Prostitution,"). Greater regulation must also be brought upon these providers to be sure that they are not trafficking young girls and other children. Also coming into play are my suggested state issued identification cards and thorough background checks. Currently sex traffickers will try to provide fake IDs for girls and women they traffic to try and hide their true identity. If legalized brothels are introduced that have special identifications and do require through background checks, it becomes harder for traffickers to hide the true identity of any girls or women they try to force into the trade.

The idea that more unwanted pregnancies will occur has no real basis, as it is not usually prostitutes that become pregnant as they are on birth control, as the ones in legalized brothels will be required to do, but teens and other women (women that meet men in bars, for example) that produce them. I am absolutely sure that unwanted pregnancies will not be an issue with legalized brothels and prostitution.

The idea that it will lower the sexual equality between men and women is a tough one to determine either way. With the trends the way they are right now, it does not seem that women have much sexual equality as men anyway. To be conclusive, I believe that women that work in prostitution services should be interviewed and questioned. Those that work in escort services seem to be pleased with the work that they do, and receive a substantial amount of income, also, the women that work at the legalized brothel commented that they are proud of the work they do.

The legalization of closely regulated prostitution will benefit the state and federal criminal systems immensely. Women and men that would have been labeled as criminals for this act would have faced further problems obtaining reliable work and living situations, leading them down a path of recidivism towards other more serious crimes (Siegel, 2006, 235-237). Furthermore it may be determined that those women that become prostitutes at this time do so because they have no other choice but to do so. Since it is considered a criminal act, the women that receive that label will rarely be able to rise above it and obtain better work, so they must return to do the same thing. With the legalization of prostitution the women will not have the criminal record hanging over their head, and since their services will be considered legal work, they will be able to move on to other things as they wish.

With fewer people being imprisoned the prisons, especially women prisons, will fill less pressure, and will provide the local and state governments with funding that they can then spend on other, more important projects. Not only will it allow states better funding through redistribution of previous funds, but it will also help states with an additional tax income. A proposed tax bill in Nevada that taxed legal brothels and prostitutes would have provided an additional $2 million a year, a much needed amount in their huge budget crisis (Gorman, 2009). The measures that will be needed to regulate legalized prostitution will in turn provide more jobs for many different industries, including healthcare, accounting, and others.

As I have explained multiple times throughout the paper, I feel that these changes in the law will have a positive effect on the criminal justice system, and the data tends to agree. I approve of these changes, only if the different levels of government are willing to provide a great amount of regulation on the legalized prostitutes and brothels. To leave them to their own whim will cause greater problems than having them being illegal. If all is done properly then people will begin to see the benefits of legalized prostitution, and we will see a positive influence in many things: government revenue, empty prison cells, law enforcement officials can focus on other issues, fewer cases of sex trafficking and child prostitution, and healthier and happier prostitutes and customers. I do not attempt to say that legalizing will completely rid the nation of all cases of sex trade, sex trafficking, and child molestation and prostitution; I only say that it will not increase the level, but will help bring the levels down a bit lower. I think anything that will help even save one child from that pain and kind of life is worth the effort.

Works Cited

Siegel, Larry. (2006). Criminology. Wadsworth Pub Co. 235-237; 435-437.

Samaha, Joel. (2008). Criminal Law. Wadsworth Pub Co. 430.

Hakim, D., & Rashbaum, W. K. (2008). Spitzer is linked to prostitution ring. The New York Times, Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/10/nyregion/10cnd-spitzer.html

Frequently Asked Questions to The Kinsey Institute. (2008). The Kinsey institute for research in sex, gender, and reproduction. Retrieved (2009, December 13) from http://www.kinseyinstitute.org/resources/FAQ.html

Doheny, K. (2009). 10 Surprising Health Benefits of Sex. Web MD, Retrieved from http://www.webmd.com/sex-relationships/features/10-surprising-health-benefits-of-sex

Gorman, S. (2009). Nevada lawmakers rebuff prostitution tax. Reuters, Retrieved from http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE53902T20090410

Child Prostitution. U.S. Justice Department: Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS). Retrieved (2009, December 13) from http://www.justice.gov/criminal/ceos/prostitution.html

Elite Miami Escorts. (2009). Retrieved from http://www.about.elitemiamiescorts.com/

Puzzanchera, C., Adams, B., and Kang, W. (2008). "Easy Access to FBI Arrest Statistics 1994-2006" Online. Available: http://ojjdp.ncjrs.gov/ojstatbb/ezaucr/

Prichard, L. (2009). KSL 5 News investigates prostitution in Utah County. ksl.com, Retrieved from http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=309&sid=8779114

Head, T. (2009). Prostitution: An Illustrated History and Timeline. About.com: Civil Liberties. Retrieved (2009, December 13) from http://civilliberty.about.com/od/gendersexuality/tp/History-of-Prostitution.htm