Should prostitution be legalized in the United States?

Just like other things in the past (Prohibition for example), morality cannot be legalized. I hope all the drugs get legalized, then they can be regulated and taxed.

Same thing with prostitution...almost. I don't think the guy or girl selling their goods should be taxed (just like selling plasma).

It should be legal. If you think about it like this they do make money from this but they pay no taxes. In my state NC the hookers here make a lot of money off it but they go to the health department and get put on medicaid cause they make less then 500 a month (what they can see) they get free meds free everything. The money is not counted as income cause they have no proof of that money so they get a full ride from the state. Others that go in that are in true need of help get turned down cause they make a little over that.

I really think they should be legal get a W2 at the end of the year and pay taxes just like the rest of us do. I also agree that they should be tested for any STD and VD and should practice safe sex and not on any drugs. If this is what they want to do for a living and they charge an arm and leg and maybe the guys nuts they should make sure they are free of anything and everything. 2,500 is a lot of money to pay a person that might have something.

A few people I met in Philly when I was doing volunteer AIDs work were prostitutes raking in big bucks and on welfare and getting food stamps. They get caught for prostitution, released on misdemeanor charges and go back to the streets, strip clubs or escort service somethimes the same day. Many of them also have HIV.

I say make it a felony. There are enough people with loose enough morals you can pick up anywhere at anytime. Just remember to use protection because greater than half the adults out there carry herpes simplex two and even more carry HPV. Not to mention trich, chlamydia, and alphabet hepatitis.

The questions were confusing, as they contradicted each other enough to make a single response useless. Yes, I support legalized prostitution.

As my major was history, the whole concept of prostitution being 'morally wrong' in the first place was introduced in western civilization by religious dogma and carried on through the foundings of certain countries (ie: America, the Land of the Free - as Long as You're ONE OF US). For the most part in human history, prostitution fell into three categories: religious service, government regulation, and criminal activity.

Religious service was simple enough - the temple prostitutes of Ishtar who lived a pretty good life being the best example. The Sacred Harlot having a specific role in society by providing services for one of the most basic needs of man/woman. Retirement was pretty damn good and you had as much power as the priests and nobles.

Government regulation - Rome being the most documented in such practices, where there were certain grades, taxes, and laws regarding types of services offered. Like any other government agency, you had the top-of-the-line courtesans earning just as much as the emperor and you had the bottom-line grunt workers barely able to support themselves. It was a business, and you were your own business manager.

Criminal activity - usually decreed by whatever religion is in power, as the politicos usually had their own prostitutes and call girls so they had no interest in ending a perfectly good service. Brothels and the like were tolerated, but the women (and men) working there encountered so much stigma that it became a shameful means of supporting one's self. Making it criminal meant that law authorities did not have to ensure people's safety, diseases ran rampant (because 'you deserved it for going there in the first place'), and even if the place did get the attention of the rest of society, there was no sympathy from the masses.

Down to it - make it legal and that'll get rid of some of the 'forbidden fruit' aspects. Put them in mid-grade hotel rooms with a blood test in a waiting room, that'll cool everyone's jets.

(Although, I personally like the concept of Lady Sally's House created by Spider Robinson in his 'Callahan Universe' - an independently owned brothel run by a professional prostitute and business woman who has her own doctors and bouncers on staff, and who screens the clientele herself. The best food, entertainment, rooms, and intelligent prostitutes who can hold conversations as well as they perform their jobs. I'd love to go to a place like that.)

I don't see the difference between having an escort and having a prostitute. There are also phone sex services which appear to be legal also.
I think that the prostitutes should be held to higher standards, especially health standards that could potentially save lives.

Since the question is contradictory, any answer could mean:

"Yes, I think by making paid sex a mainstream and legitimate profession, it would prevent prostitutes from being killed and contracting diseases."

or

"Yes, I think it would make the sexual health and deviancy of America worse."

I think so, not that I would use it (but who really knows if it was legal, lol) But if that is what someone wants to for a living and they enjoy why not, my only stipulation to that would be they they would have to give blood/hiv tests every so often. It would clean the jails out! lol

I think it should be as long as it is heavily regulated and controlled. In certain situations I don't see the difference between prostitution and dating, but that is just my opinion.

I've no interest in paying for a prostitute, but I am all for legalization and regulation of it. It is not something that is going to go away, so it should be made safer and cleaner for everyone involved.

Right now there is a huge to-do up here in Canada about some of our archaic and idiotic prostitution laws being kicked out. The right wing is going absolutely bursar over it. Matter of fact, just today I was yelling at my newspaper because some vapid, willfully ignorant fuckwit wrote a huge column in the paper about it being the end of Canada. Of course, he is a Wildrose Party member - very Fundamentalist right wing party, essentially Canadian teabaggers, but more popular and they know how to spell.

I was spitting bile for a few hours after reading it...

Yes.

Brothels are legal in Nevada and civilization has no come crumbling down yet. If well regulated, prostitution should be legal. It will always exist, legal or otherwise. Campaigns for its eradication, such as in Mexico under Porfirio Diaz, just sent it furher underground. Hell, it took an entire military unit to control prostitution in Washington D.C. during the Civil War, when most of what is now the federal triangle was a giant red light disctict.

The aussies are ahead of us on this one..I believe in some places in Australia it's legal.. personally I think we should follow them, they've got themselves on the right track with literally everything.

i think it should be legal

if it's legal, it's better for the men and women that are sex workers. gives them better protection and they are much healthier. besides, you can tax the hell out of it.

Of course it should be legal. If you can buy tobacco, alcohol, and guns you should be able to buy sex (that is between two consenting adults).

I think we should legalized it if it is at a licensed parlor or through a licensed person. This would allow the government to regulate it and require a cleaner environment. It could also be taxed.

There is a chance it would cause a rise in sex slave industry, but we can always rise the penalty and create a new branch in the government just for the sex industry. This branch would make more jobs, and the branch would watch over all the aspects of the industry.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned this, but I'd be concerned with what legal prostitution could lead to in easily-influenced young people. I would hate to see bright young minds choose to prostitute themselves because they felt it was easily obtainable and/or all they were good for, rather than study hard and pursue higher education, that could one day revolutionize our future. (What if notable women like Amelia Earheart, Emily Dickinson, Jane Goodall, and Betty Ford chose prostitution instead?) I think these young people could easily be lured in by the temptation of money and the illusion of financial security. Also, I'd be worried how legalization could contribute to social disorders (Ex. Anti-Social Disorder, Anxiety Disorder). If the individuals had simple access to sex in the form of prostitutes, what incentive would they have to develop and enhance their communication skills? The skills that they would normally use in courting someone of their liking. And like some other posters mentioned it could lead to a significant increase in STD's, kidnapping, sex trafficking (immigration issues?), drug use, (because it often goes hand in hand with prostitution) infidelity and broken marriages, and a whole slew of other issues. Perhaps in an ideal world legalized prostitution could work, but as things are now, I don't see how it could work without serious consequences.

Plus, people are in absolutely no shortage of ways to get their rocks off, with their being easy access to the internet. There are ways which are a lot safer, (in the physical sense) and less likely to cause a negative impact in our society. Sex toys and erotica being two of the better ways.

I'm fine with it IF they actually find a way to verify that it is consensual. Which is impossible, b/c there are always going to people people that get taken advantage of and forced into the business.

Regulate it and make it safe. Maybe throw in some counseling and special programs so people know that they want to do it and have help in getting out if they desire.

I actually did my ethnography project on this very topic last semester. It was nothing major, just an undergrad project. But I did get the opportunity to meet with a number of sex workers as well as an activist who had been trafficked as a child by her own middle class suburban parents.

The numbers overwhelmingly agreed that there would be benefits to making prostitution legal. Safety of workers, and health codes being a major point. I am not big on the idea of prostitution, but it is just about impossible for me to discern the difference between pornography and escort services being legal while prostitution is illegal. I don't think the laws regarding prostitution are really effective in stopping it, but just keeping it under the rug. Which I consider to be unhealthy for society's attitudes about sex.

...but I am still not a fan.