Sex Sells. The word “sex” can make some people happy, some people crack up laughing, and others turn red with embarrassment. We live in a society where sex is the “thing,” we see it on TV, on billboards, in fashion magazines, and on cd covers. Why is that? Simple answer, sex sells. We all came to live with it and may not even think twice about it when it is presented right in front us. However, when it comes to the branch of prostitution, on the darker side of the sex industry, for the most part everyone would agree on how immoral and dishonorable that “work field” is. Although I don’t necessarily support prostitution, I believe that instead of making naïve judgments towards it we should see the harm that comes with criminalizing prostitution. Countless of unsolved rape cases, and the undeniably high STD spread is almost part of the illegal prostitution business; now if we take the illegal part away and keep the business, we can control, like Nevada did, the negativity that surrounds prostitution. Legal, regulated and well maintained prostitution can be more superior and effective than putting a law against prostitution. Rape is one of the worst actions that can be committed to a person. It is something that frequently happens to sex workers because of the vulnerable position they find themselves in. If a prostitute is raped, she will most likely not go to the police for the fear of getting arrested because of her work. Rapists take full advantage of this fact and specifically target prostitutes to commit this crime, without the alarm of getting caught they can go on a raping frenzy and probably never get caught. A study in Washington D.C. found that more than 50% of sex workers who went to the police for assistance were either ignored or further abused by officers, verbally and psychologically. It must be hard for a sex worker to know that not even the police will do their job and look after them or at least intend to. The lack of protection against violent acts and human rights abuse that sex workers receive from state agents is unbelievable. In a study, the standardized mortality rate for death by homicide among sex workers was nearly 18 times higher than the general population. While we have women, who are trying to make a living the way they chose to be raped and even killed, we know something must be done. "It is estimated that if prostitution were legalized in the United States, the rape rate would decrease by roughly 25% for a decrease of approximately 25,000 rapes per year…” Kirby R. Cundiff (2004). 25,000 is an incredible amount. If we can save that many women a year from getting raped, what exactly are we waiting for? Not only would the fight against rapists improve but also the fight against STDs. Prostitutes have hundreds of customers a year and because of this, they are obviously more prone to contracting and spreading STDs. About 20% of female prostitutes have an STD, either the “John” doesn’t want to use a condom or the prostitute simply doesn’t have the condom to use. This can cause a domino effect spread of HIV or STDs. According to the article in Vice magazine, “New York Cops Will Arrest You for Carrying Condoms,” a woman in New York City was arrested for wearing tight clothing, hanging around the street for 30 minutes, and having a condom in her purse. She was taken into custody and charged with “loitering for the purpose of prostitution” using the one condom she had as evidence. This has instilled a fear into prostitutes and because they don’t want to get arrested; they carry, if any, only 1 to 2 condoms with them. Of course, if they run out of condoms before their night is over, they have absolutely no way to protect themselves and their customer.
The evidence of the legalized brothel system in Nevada highlights that sex work environments that are legitimated and bureaucratized have the effect of empowering sex workers to control their working conditions and interactions with