The Process of Legalizing Prostitution

Prostitution is a service that has been around ever since the beginning of human existence. It’s a highly controversial subject that is left on whether it should be legalized or not. Even though the whole concept has been looked down upon as dirty and immoral ever since biblical times. For example, in Deuteronomy 23:17 it states “And the women of Israel were forbidden to practice prostitution” (Meier 2006). However, why should a women not be able to decide on what she wants to do with her life and body? Therefore, prostitution should be legalized because women should be able to decide what profession they pursue, it will lower rape and killings against prostitutes, and lower sexually transmitted diseases(STD) being spread by prostitutes. Every women should merely have her free choice of what they want to be their occupation. Prostitution should be an option for women due to a lot of advantages that could be beneficial. For instance, even though in most cases it’s not a woman’s first choice of work, it is an alternative that can generate a good source of income. Not only do prostitutes have very flexible schedules but they also have a direct contact with different diversities and backgrounds of men (Meier 2006). Although I do agree that in order for prostitution to become legal, there needs to be a system set up. Prostitutes would need to go through various trainings where they learn the basic aspects of their work in order to become licensed (Meier 2006). There will also be consequences imposed for violation of specified regulations just as any other job would have. Second of all, after legalizing prostitution there will be a dramatic decrease in the amount of prostitutes raped and murdered. According to a research done in San Francisco in the late 1990's, it indicated that threats, rape, and killings were commonly done to prostitutes. About eighty-three percent of prostitutes have been physically threatened by a weapon and sixty-eight percent reported having been raped at least once since entering prostitution (Farley 1998). The reason for such high percentages are that a prostitute doesn’t have any source of safety besides if she works under a pimp. They can’t go to police upon being threatened because of the fact that what they are doing is illegal in the first place. Thus meaning after legalizing it, the percentages would drop because if she received a threat; she could sue the customer and take him to court. In addition, it is estimated that the rape rate would lower by about twenty-five percent for a decrease of approximately 25,000 rapes per year (Farley 1998). Lastly, the amount of sexually transmitted diseases being passed through prostitutes would significantly decrease too. As of now the percentage of prostitutes that have any type of sexually transmitted disease are significantly high. This is due to the fact that not that many prostitutes make their customer wear a condom when performing sexual acts. Although it is difficult to actually find a percentage of prostitutes testing positive for STDs because it nearly impossible to find out how many prostitutes there are; moreover, how many have STDs. However, after legalizing prostitution these numbers would lower because of the requirements that would be needed to receive their prostitution license. These requirements would consist of monthly check ups, always requiring the “john” to wear a condom, and being informed about the risks of catching something (Meier 2006). It is already proven that if you follow those regulations, the percentage of sexually transmitted diseases would lower to a small percent. For example, Nevada is the only state in America where prostitution is legal. Following the decision of legalizing it, after 20,000 tests, there still has not been a single positive result for a licensed Nevada Prostitute. Even though there are many pros to legalizing prostitution, the ignorance is still