Artifact 3 and 4- The Other Side

GEORGETOWN JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS. Terry Coonan and Robin Thompson. Winter 2005. SIRS Knowledge Source, Dec. 13 2006
<http://sks.sirs.com/cgi-bin/hst-article-display?id=SMD1409-0-7957&artno=0000216031&type=ART&shfilter=U&key=&res=Y&amp;amp;ren=Y&gov=Y&lnk=Y&ic=N>

To give an opinion, of course you must first have a balanced understanding of the issue on which you give your opinion. This having been said, I did research on why so very many people are against prostitution. According to this article, human trafficking, or more commonly know as forced prostitution, is the most ever-present "evil" in the twenty-first century. Between 15000 and 18000 people are trafficked to the USA every year for the purpose of labor. When immigrants enter this country, especially illegal ones, it is very hard for them to find decent work. Often times, they turn to prostitution because they have no other option. But to me, these are two different issues; The former, is in my opinion, illegal and unacceptable, being forced into labor, especially of a sexual type, is horrible. However, the second one is fine in my book; if an alien comes to this country, and does not try to become a citizen, and she ends up turning to prostitution, fine. No one "forced" them, they're here illegally, and if life as a prostitute is so horrible, then they shouldn't live here anyway.

MIAMI HERALD. Amy Driscoll. July 1999. SIRS Knowledge Source, Dec. 13 2006


Though that article gave some facts about prostitution, it still didn't clearly state what true "evils" lie in it. This is where i would have posted the other side of the view. I have searched at least twenty different sites, searching for descriptions of why legal and voluntary prostitution is corrupting and destroying America. I found none. However, I found many accounts of the horrors of forced prostitution. One survivor says "They came to this country seeking better lives for themselves and their families. Instead, they found sexual enslavement, their bodies sold to a different man every 15 minutes, often for 12 hours a day, in sex houses that were little more than rundown trailers with partitions separating one mattress from another. Beatings, forced abortions and armed guards were routine parts of brothel life." This is grotesque and disheartening to read about; stories of humanity at its worst. But Prostitution is NOT humanity at its worst; human trafficking is. In this article a girl, who snuck into America, with the help of an illegal organization that specializes in this, had hoped to make a better life for herself. Instead she ends up a prostitute. Now; though this story and the one stated in the previous paragraph start and end the same, it's the middle that makes one ok in my mind, and the other an abomination. In the previous paragraph, the girl comes here, tries, fails and ends up a prostitute, but in the second one, the girl never had a chance. As soon as she arrived here, the very organization that smuggled her here, immediately FORCED her into prostitution, with threats against her family. This is where the line lies, as to the difference between prostitution, and the image that human trafficking has made prostitution out to be.

Artifacts 1 and 2

Edwards, Chris. "Q&A: Chris Edwards discusses where is prostitution legal, the Galileo global positioning system, the most commonly spoken language, the origins of Timor's Ocussi enclave and British troops overseas." Geographical 78.4 (April 2006): 12(2). Student Resource Center - Gold. Thomson Gale. Centennial High School (MD). 6 Dec. 2006

Since researching the topic on which this blog was made, I have learned much about prostitution. The very first article I read on it had only a small amount of information, but the information it contained surprised me very much. It said two things; first, I was correct in stating that prostitution was legal in Nevada, but I learned it isn't legal everywhere there. In Nevada, it's only legal in an official brothel, and brothels aren't legal in all counties in Nevada. Second, I learned in this article, that in 2001, a loop-hole in the legislation that outlaws prostitution made it legalized in Alabama as long as it is done on a rural highway, and not an urban street.

Freedom Daily. James Bovard. September 1998. The Future Of Freedom Organization, Dec. 3 2006 <http://www.fff.org/freedom/0998d.asp>

After reading another source posted by a best selling libertarian author, who has also had articles published in the Wall Street Journal; I am more in favor of prostitution then ever. The source goes into great detail as to the methods with which illegal prostitutes are busted. It describes cases of police over reaction, and ridiculously over the top and unnecessary procedures, which are used to uncover prostitution. For example, the article states "Since neither prostitutes nor their customers routinely run to the police to complain about the other's conduct, police rely on trickery and deceit in order to bust people. In San Francisco, the police wired rooms in the city's leading hotels to make videotapes of prostitutes satisfying their customers. But given the minimal control over the videotaping operation, there was little to stop local police from also watching and videotaping ordinary married couples engaging in coitus solely for the purpose of procreation."

To me this is ridiculous and uncalled for. What’s worse is how the article states how much time and money is wasted on busting prostitutes. It states that there are as many arrests made for prostitution in this country as there are for all violent crimes. On top of that, only 28% of reported violent crimes end in arrests. When I see that number, all I can think of is how many murderers and rapists got away clean while police were trying to end prostitution, a victimless crime. "Last year, police in Boston, Cleveland, and Houston arrested twice as many people for prostitution as they did for all homicides, rapes, robberies, and assaults combined, while perpetrators evaded arrest for 90% of these violent crimes." Many key figures in law enforcement aren't even in favor of arresting or prosecuting prostitutes. Gerald Arenberg and Dennis Martin, executive director and president, respectively, of the National Association of the Chiefs of Police, along with one of Maryland's own Judges, Darryl Russell all find prostitution to be a waste of time, a waste of police manpower, and simply not a big issue. When a study was done on Nevada brothels, results showed none of the brothel workers to have HIV, all of the workers to be perfectly healthy, and the owners to be upstanding citizens with strong initiative. In my opinion, prostitution's illegality is what casts it in such a negative light; in another survey taken on street walkers, illegal prostitutes who don’t work in brothels, over-all about 45% of them had HIV. This study was taken in cities where prostitutes were illegal, so they were not given the option of working in legal brothels where prostitutes were healthy rather then diseased. Thus, it's not prostitutes that are hurting society; it's the laws banning prostitution that's doing it. (http://www.fff.org/freedom/0998d.asp)

What I Want To Know

As it is stated in my first post, I want to know mainly why Prostitution is portrayed so negitively in todays society in America. I plan to learn this by reasearching the answers to two questions. First: what aspect of prostitution makes it illegal? And second: why are most people, states, and politicians against prostitution. I hope to get information on both sides of the issue; for prostitution and against it, even though I am for it, so I may get a better, more well-rounded view of this topic.

What I Know

Ok, so, in America, there are prostitutes. Not nearly as many as there are in other Countries, but, yeah, they're here. From what I know, prostitutes are illegal in every state in the US except Nevada. That means that the other 49 states dont approve of it. My question is "why?" Humans are sexual beings; people try to avoid talking about sex because it is seen as "taboo", but it's there and it's important to a great deal of society. So, my question is, if people are sexual, and these prostitutes are doing what they do out of choice: why is it illegal? In America, we have the freedom to choose. If a man or a woman feels that they want to, or even need to do it to make ends meat, don't they have the right to? In my opinion, a law is made for one of three reasons: to protect the person breaking the law, to protect people from whomever is breaking a law, or to keep America moving smoothly with necessary actions or perameters, such as taxation. If i am correct in my classification of laws, under which of these lables does prostitution fall? Honestly, none of these. If one feels that buying a prostitute will make them happy, and the prostitute is of this profession willingly, then how is prostitution such a evil, and destructive profession?