Is the legalization of Prostitution in America a good idea?

by Sam Ackels

 Prostitution has long been a heavily debated topic in the United States. It was made illegal in the United States between 1910-1915 [1]. However, before that, prostitution was widely practiced, and even encouraged in the United States.What provoked the US government to criminalize prostitution? If it was so common in the 18th and 19th centuries, why have they decided to make such a drastic change?

 The first problem is that many prostitutes are not even from the United States. There is a significant chance that a prostitute was not even born in the United States. Tragically, many women, and even men and children, are forced into sex slavery and shipped out to various underground brothels all over the world. The United States State Department estimates that 50,000 to 100,000 females are shipped into the United States for sexual services each year [2]. This is a significant number of illegal people being brought in. This is obviously a huge problem for the Department of Immigration; having all of these undocumented people in the United States.

 Another large problem is the amount of violence committed against prostitutes. A lot of people will target prostitutes because they commonly carry large amounts of money from previous clients they have visited on their shift. Since prostitution commonly occurs in discreet, out of the way areas, it is the perfect scene for an attacker to get away with killing their victim. Jack the Ripper, a well known British serial killer active in the late 1800's, actually killed at least five prostitutes working in London. In fact, there are many serial killers who have targeted prostitutes as their victims, simply because it is so easy to kill and dispose of their body without being seen.

There are also many arguments advocating the legality of prostitution in the United States. The state of Nevada has been experimenting with prostitution for a while now. Prostitution is actually legal in the remote counties of Nevada and there are even established brothels there. If prostitution was legal nationwide, the amount of violence against prostitutes would decrease significantly due to the fact that prostitutes would be able to call the police to ward off potential attackers. Prostitution would also bring in a massive revenue to the United States and would allow massive additions to many aspects of our infrastructure such as the education system, healthcare, etc [3].

Personally I feel that prostitution should be legal solely because of the massive revenue the United States would gain from it. Just like the already massive revenue the state of Colorado is receiving from marijuana legalization, imagine the financial impact of prostitution legalization on our country. In fact, the worldwide prostitution revenue is estimated at almost $190 billion dollars! [4]. The most we can do now is wait and see if any states will attempt to follow in Nevada's shoes.
 

References 
[1] - "The Mann Act." Accessed January 31, 2014. http://prostitution.procon.org/sourcefiles/MannAct.pdf. 

[2] - Shafer, Jack. The Slate Group, "Sex Slaves, Revisited." Accessed January 31, 2014. http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/press_box/2005/06/sex_slaves_revisited.html. 

[3] - Fuchs, Erin. Buisness Insider, "7 Reasons Why America Should Legalize Prostitution." Accessed January 31, 2014. http://www.businessinsider.com/why-america-should-legalize-prostitution-2013-11. 

[4] - Havoscope, Accessed January 31, 2014. http://www.havocscope.com/tag/prostitution/.