Essay, Research Paper: The Futiity Of Prostitution Laws

historically and which has many individuals reexamining the logistics of it. If prostitution is decriminalized it will become economically profitable and feasible for not only the prostitutes, but also western society as a whole. Without the 20th century western laws, which force prostitution underground, the profession of prostitution could become a clean and safe occupation. Prostitution laws are unconstitutional and deny the prostitutes what the American constitution allows them. Prostitution is an illegal act in Canada and large portions of the United States which, if legalized, would protect and benefit 20th century western society.
If sanctioned, prostitution will become economically lucrative for the
governments involved. The colossal amount of money spent each year on prostitute
prevention could be spent on more urgent issues, which is exactly what the San Francisco
Task Force on Prostitution found.
The total costs accounted for in this report amounts to
$7,634,750.00. Given the many areas in which we found
that information is not available, or there are hidden costs,
the over all expense to the taxpayer exceeds $7.6 million
annually.1
The San Francisco Task Force is a group of researchers, police officers, members of the
San Francisco community, government officials and prostitutes, who frequently meet to
discuss the issues of prostitution and to try to come to some solution. Although they may
not always agree, two issues they are in agreement about are that the $7.6 million dollars
would be better spent elsewhere and that prostitution should be legalized.. Robert Noce
of Manitoba city council wants reform of the Canadian Justice System and he would like
to see prostitution become worthwhile to Canadian taxpayers.
Quite frankly, for anyone to suggest to me a dating or escort
agency is just offering companionship is being quite naive.
Let's not try to bury our heads in the sand and pretend
nothing else is going on. Instead of pretending these
establishments don't exist let's instead be logical about this
and try to use the profits that we could be making, in a wise
and useful manner. I think that the highest paying customers
for prostitution is us Canadians, in the money we put into
fighting this futile cause.2
Instead of putting millions of dollars into stopping this consensual act, the money saved
and made from the legalization of prostitution can be spent on fighting child prostitution
and coerced prostitution. These two crimes are becoming rampant across North America,
but lack of funds prevents a serious effort from being made to fight against them. If
brothels and prostitutes were to be taxed like any other place of business, millions of
extra revenue dollars would become available to the Canadian government, for it to spend
as it sees fit. Although the monetary concerns are overwhelming one of the most debated
issues is the health and safety of prostitution.
If prostitution were to be decriminalized, the profession of prostitution could
become a healthy, publicly sanctioned place of business. Throughout history and
throughout European cultures, prostitution has been legalized to decrease the spread of
disease as historian Jennifer James reports.
Beginning with Prussia in 1700, most continental European
governments shifted their tactics from suppression of
prostitution and sexually transmitted disease to control through
a system of compulsory registration, licensed brothels, and
medical inspection of prostitutes. Although medical techniques
were primitive there was a noticeable decline in sexual diseases
among prostitutes and their clients.3
European governments hundreds of years ago realized that since they could not fight
prostitution, it was best to make it as safe and healthy as they could. Their efforts saved
hundreds of lives and provided treatment to the prostitutes who previously could not seek
medical attention without being arrested. A recent episode of 20/20 interviewed Joe
McNamara, former police chief of Kansas and San Jose, and vice squad officers as they
discussed the physical harm that anti-prostitution laws inflict
JOE MCNAMARA: What we're doing now is worse than prostitution.
JOHN STOSSEL: The law makes it worse?
JOE MCNAMARA: The law makes it a lot worse. It drives up the profits.
It drives up the potential for corruption. It invites violence.
JOHN STOSSEL: It is true that when the vice cops talk about the terrible
things they see...
2ND VICE SQUAD OFFICER: You see homicides. You see the narcotics. You see the assaults.
JOHN STOSSEL: They're talking about things caused not by
prostitution itself, but by the law. Because the law drives prostitution
underground into the criminal world, where everyone's hiding from the
police.
2ND VICE SQUAD OFFICER: We see the black eyes. We see the rapes.
We see them crying.
JOHN STOSSEL: Such problems occur much less often where sex for money is legal. Here, in rural Nevada, for example, the state has licensed 35 brothels. These businesses don't have robberies, rapes or beatings.4
The Nevada police force is an advocate for the legalization of prostitution because they
have seen the difference that legalization makes. Crime rates drop when prostitution is
brought to a setting where it is monitored. Prostitutes are forced to work through
established brothels and are forbidden to work out of their homes. All prostitutes and
brothels must be licensed and the brothels must provide the prostitutes with personal
doctors who test all of the prostitutes for sexually transmitted diseases, and HIV tests are
done on a monthly basis and condoms are mandatory. When prostitution is legalized, not
only are the pimps, who are often involved in other illegal affairs illuminated, but the
prostitute and the community are protected.
Anti-prostitution laws are unconstitutional in their nature and deny the prostitutes
what the American constitution would allow them. In 1973 the case of Roe v. Wade
established certain legal precedents concerning a woman's body, the court found that:
"a woman has a right of personal privacy, or a guarantee of
certain areas or zones of privacy, does exist in the Constitution
and that it is founded in the Fourteenth Amendment's concept
of personal liberty and restrictions upon state action. This right
of privacy is broad enough to encompass a woman's body and
her decision of whether or not to terminate her pregnancy."5
Although the courts in the case of Roe v. Wade were referring to the woman's right to
abort her unborn fetus they inadvertently set a precedent for prostitution as well. The
fourteenth amendment of the American constitution states that all individuals have the
right to life, liberty, and the ownership of property. For the Roe v. Wade court to find that
liberty encompasses the meaning of aborting what is, by definition, the woman's own
property, a woman should have the right, under the constitution, to not only sell her
property, but to do it in privacy. In 1905 during the case of Lochner v. New York Mr.
Justice Holmes made a closing statement appropriate to the issue of the constitutionality
of Prostitution.
[The Constitution] is made for people of fundamentally
differing views, and the accident of our finding certain
opinions natural and familiar or novel and even shocking
ought not to conclude our judgment upon the question
whether statutes embodying them conflict with the
Constitution of the United States.6
What Mr. Justice Holmes was trying to convey to the jury was that certain subjects like
prostitution cannot be viewed as a moral issue but as a constitutional legal issue.
Prostitution cannot be judged using preconceived notions, but rather by viewing all of the
facts and determining logistically whether or not prostitutes are receiving lawful
treatment. The answer to this question is that they are not.
Prostitution in the 20th century in Western society is an illegal act which if were to
be legalized would profit and preserve not only the prostitutes but society as a whole.
Legalizing prostitution is economically profitable for governments in dire need of
resources. The anti-prostitution laws which are intended to help the prostitutes and
society, instead force prostitution underground and without these laws prostitution could
become a clean and safe occupation. Present day prostitution laws are unconstitutional
and should be abolished because of their unconstitutional nature. Prostitution and
prostitutes are issues that few individuals have taken the time to fully understand, and so
the issues are misunderstood and their voices go unheard. Some issues, like prostitution,
have been around for thousands of years and will never go away, so it is for this reason
that, as Barbara Walter said, "Prostitution is a world that is here to stay, like it or not it is
time to make the best of it"7.
Endnotes
1. San Francisco Task Force on Prostitution: Report.1994. www.bayswan.org/SFTFP.html
2. Jeffs, Allyson. Legalizing Prostitution. Edmonton Journal. October 21 1997.
3. James, Jennifer. Encarta: Prostitution. Microsoft. 1997
4. 20/20. Sex for Sale: Should Prostitution be legal in America? ABC. June 27 1997
5. Roe v. Wade 1973
6. Lochner v. New York. 1905
7. 20/20. Sex for Sale: Should Prostitution be legal in America? ABC. June 27 1997
Bibliography
1.20/20. Sex for Sale: Should Prostitution be legal in America? ABC. June 27 1997
2.20/20. Sex for Sale: Should Prostitution be legal in America? ABC. June 27 1997
3.James, Jennifer. Encarta: Prostitution. Microsoft. 1997
4.Jeffs, Allyson. Legalizing Prostitution. Edmonton Journal. October 21 1997.
5.Lochner v. New York. 1905
6.Roe v. Wade 1973
7.San Francisco Task Force on Prostitution: Report.1994. www.bayswan.org/SFTFP.html
The Futility Prostitution Laws
Alia Lamaadar
12 Law
Mrs. Gorski
May 14, 1998





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