*Please Note: In this essay the words “prostitute” and “sex worker” are interchangeable and refer specifically to consensual sexual acts sold by one person to another, generally from a woman to a man. This will be used interchangeably because in scholarly articles it is common to consider these terms one in the same.

Prostitution is one of the oldest professions. In recent years the debate about whether to legalize sex work has been brought forth to different committees and legislators, including Amnesty International. However, a consensus has not been reached about how to handle prostitution and possible legalization of it within the United States of America. This paper will aim to answer the question about whether or not legalizing prostitution will be beneficial to society, both locally and internationally, or if it will cause a rise in sexually transmitted diseases as well as human trafficking.

The first thing that needs to be addressed is the morality debate surrounding sex work. This debate is outdated and not conducive with our current society and how we think. The issue with this argument is that America is not an inherently Christian nation, it is a religiously free one. The most common morality issue with prostitution is that it is seen as “not christian” and a “sin” (Hyland, paragraph 3).  It does not matter if the bible, torah, or quran says that sex work is immoral and evil, because we also have a legal obligation to separate church and state. This separation means that legislator’s personal religions can not affect lawmaking decisions. With that in mind if a legislator has heard the facts with an unbiased ear and still believes that sex work legalization is not in the best interest of the people and the public, then that is a valid belief. Conservative christians are the most vocal opposition to the legalization of sex work, but one of Jesus’ most trusted followers, Mary Magdalene, was a prostitute. And even though she repented, she is still portrayed in most renderings as a woman with a past.

When the moral objections are put to the side it is easy to see that there are multiple benefits to legalizing prostitution, not just for the prostitutes and their buyers but for everyone. With sex work as a legalized business it then becomes taxable. Sex work can be a very lucrative business, meaning that the government would make a lot of money off of taxing brothels. While most businesses want to avoid taxes brothels in Nevada are actively seeking taxation. It is a win win situation because the government gets more tax money, which could in turn lower taxes on citizens, and the brothels get to be seen as legitimate businesses who are not above or below the law (Friess, Paragraph 3). Americans are always outraged at the idea of having their taxes raised, so this would be beneficial to common people. This arrangement could also give more money to the workers because they will get a set amount for each client that they must receive, instead of having it go to pimps on the street. These taxes will also force sex workers to get off of the streets and organize into actual brothels, to avoid persecution by the law for tax evasion. In order to make this happen though some people believe that the people paying for sex must be legalized as consumers, while the sex workers must be legalized as providers. This legalization makes the act of sex working a legitimate business, and helps to stop the fear of the law that these people usually face (Raymond, 2). 

An important benefit to legalizing prostitution is one that actually seems counter intuitive. Legalization would most likely stop the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, not increase them. When compared to disease spread through illegal prostitution, disease spreading in legal prostitution is actually very rare. When one looks at studies conducted in Nevada at legal brothels that must adhere to regulations the numbers for diseases are very low, so they can not be the ones spreading all the diseases during epidemics (Campbell, 3). Prostitutes are often unfairly blamed when there is a rapid spread of sexual diseases, but with these regulations people would be forced to look for the actual cause of the outbreak. One of the reasons disease spreads less within legal prostitution is because the sex workers and their clients are not worried about getting caught, and can take the time to be safe with what they are doing. When a person is worried about getting caught they tend to move as quickly as possible, and in sex work that means skipping the condom and sexual history discussions. Another large factor is the cleanliness of the space. Most sex workers currently use seedy and dirty motels to avoid law enforcement. However, with a legalized system they would have a space to use that is held to strict health and safety codes. Legalized sex work could help stop the spread of disease as well as help find the actual causes and hopefully stop them. Since prostitution is illegal it perpetuates the idea that sex is bad and should not be talked about. This idea is the main reason that sexual health education is only mandatory to be taught in twenty four states (NCSL, paragraph 3). And even though it is mandatory to teach sex ed, a lot of schools still use an abstinence only program. Abstinence only programs were heavily funded by the United States government in the 1980’s. These courses only teach about abstinence until marriage and nothing else (Perrin et al., 446). This idea of sex being bad could possibly be weakened by the legalization of prostitution because it would show younger people that sex is something that can and should be openly discussed. These open discussion would help decrease teen pregnancy rates because it would open teens up to learning about safe sex, instead of abstinence which does not stop teen sex but only makes it so teens do not know how to be safe.

Arguably the most important positive outcome of legalized sex work is the work it would do to help end human sex trafficking. By February of 2016 the U.S. National Human Trafficking Resource Center had received more than four thousand cases of sex trafficking, with an estimated many more going unreported because the victims were smuggled over international borders (Alvarez, paragraph 3). These numbers are disturbing and increase dramatically when looked at internationally, where the International Labor Organization estimates that there are 20.9 million people caught in human trafficking with approximately twenty two percent forced into sexual labor (ILO, paragraph 4). Sex trafficking is a result of people wanting to pay for sex and not having a legal way to get it. It is hard to find an actual consenting sex worker when they are too afraid to advertise themselves for fear of law enforcement. It becomes more convenient to simply find a sex trafficker and utilize one of their victims. With legalized prostitution the demand for illegal sex trafficking will decreases. While the United States state department website claims that legalizing prostitution will cause an increase in the number of women and children trafficked into commercial sex slavery (U.S. Department of State, paragraph 1), several case studies prove the opposite. In fact Germany, The Netherlands, and Australia all have some of the lowest rates of human trafficking reports annually. While Sweden, which has been praised by anti prostitution activists for a 1998 law that criminalizes the customer of sex workers, has had a mass increases in human sex trafficking (Feingold, 28). This law also exposed the sex workers to more dangerous clients and less safe sex practices. The legalization of prostitution may not completely eradicate the illegal sex trade but, if done right with the correct steps taken, it could help severely decreases it and protect many innocent people.

I am not proposing that the United States simply legalize sex work in any way, shape, or form. There need to be proper regulations in place making sex work a legitimate business and profession, with legal requirements to uphold. Most of the regulations that should be imposed are based off of the current system in Nevada, with a few minor changes since it would be nation wide not just in rural towns in one state. The regulation that all the other requirements fall under is the necessity of having organized brothels for the sex workers with a madame at the head. The term madame is used as a blanket term for anyone running a brothel because it is generally a job done by a woman. This is because the demand for female prostitutes is much greater than the demand for male prostitutes. This organization of a brothel also turns the sex work and workers into taxable corporations and employees. This idea of a taxable corporation directly relates back to the idea of legalized sex work benefiting the economy as a whole. The brothels and madams in charge will guarantee that everyone follows the restrictions and rules. One of the most important rules is the required use of a condom for every sex act. This will help stop the spread of diseases between sex worker and customer. There will also be required health checks for all workers which can aid in the prevention of diseases. These checks will start once the worker has been completely cleared by a physician and given a clean health card before being employed. The time periods of these checks will be based off of Nevada with weekly PAP smears for gonorrhea and chlamydia and monthly blood tests for syphilis and HIV. If a sex worker were to test positive for any disease other than HIV the worker must stay out of work until she has been completely treated and cleared by a physician. However, if they test positive for HIV they may no longer continue as a worker because of a 1987 law that makes it illegal to  continue work as a brothel prostitute with HIV (Brents, 314). Another helpful requirement would be for customers to bring their sexual history records and proof of testing. This would stop sex workers from coming into contact with sexual diseases unknowingly. If someone were to forge their medical documents then they would be reported to the authorities and banned from all brothels in that state. There will be a state registry that the workers may look up telling them if someone is banned. This would only be available to the managers in a brothel and not to the general public or future employers in any other field. This list is not meant to destroy someone’s life outside of brothels, it is simply to keep sex workers safe from someone who could potentially give them a disease. The only time this list would be brought to the attention of anyone but the managers is if the person has faked medical documents and caused a sex worker to lose time at work because of contracting a sexually transmitted disease. It would only be brought up in a proper court of law and be protected by the law.

When discussing the benefits legalizing sex work can have it is usually focused on the benefits for the general public. However, the most important part of legalization is helping the sex workers themselves. It is vital to remember that these workers are people too. They are not “whores”, or “sluts”, or “damaged”. They are actual living people who are just trying to live their life and do what they want with their own bodies (Buzzfeed, Youtube). The stigmas surrounding sex workers has made prostitution a very dangerous job. Sex workers, who are typically female, “have a 45 to 75% chance of experiencing sexual violence at some point in their careers and a 32 to 55% chance of experiencing sexual violence in a given year” (Koster, paragraph one). It has been proven in multiple studies that the stigma against sex workers is a direct cause of the increased risk of violence. In part because the workers themselves feel less than and that they must deserve this treatment (Penhold et al., 377). Another issue facing sex workers is the criminalization of the workers themselves. Since prostitution is still illegal the women are often treated as criminals themselves and prosecuted by the law. The issue with this is that the police are not doing anything to actually help the sex workers by jailing them and perpetuating the idea that they are hardened criminals (Roby, 109). Prostitutes are being victimized and demonized by the public and the judicial system because it is often forgotten that they are not objects and they are not society's stereotypes. The legalization and regulation of sex work would help protect a lot of women. If sex work is legal the women will not only be protected by the brothels and the other sex workers, but also by the law. They will no longer have to live in fear of reporting abuses and being arrested themselves. This would also help clear up the debate surrounding whether or not trafficked underage girls should be arrested and prosecuted. If it is legal then the only people who can be prosecuted will be the people trafficking these girls and forcing them into sex work.

It is a tragic truth that some people are forced into sex work, some at a very young age. This is not an issue that can be easily solved but it can be helped with legalization because of the legal protections it will afford, as well as the easier access to willing sex workers. None of the issues presented in this paper can be easily solved, they are all very complex. The idea behind legalizing prostitution is not to fix the world, but to first and foremost help a marginalized and victimized group of people. Prostitution is not a dirty word, or a dirty occupation. We have been trained by society to think of it and the workers in a certain way. One step toward erasing the prejudice is to simply legalize it to make it not as taboo. The benefits that legalization would have on society is simply an added bonus. The economy in the United States of America would thrive from the money made through legal brothels. They would help provide tax cuts to everyone as well, because it is already a thriving business that would only see more income when it is easily accessible. While sex workers can not be blamed for the spread of diseases the constant stigma surrounding sex can be. Many people do not know how to be safe when having casual sex or sex with a new partner. With legalized sex work the discussion about sex could become much more open and informative about safe practices. The regulations set in place on the legal brothels would also help stop sexually transmitted infection outbreaks, because proper protection would be required. The country would be safer as a whole because there would be less risk of human trafficking, as is the case with multiple other countries who have legalized sex work. There would also be a decrease in domestic violence against sex workers because they will not be alone and scared for their own lives and freedom. The first step to all of these benefits is not legalization of sex work, it is the acceptance of and understanding that sex workers are people too! They deserve respect and safety just as much as, and more than, the nation deserves the benefits that legalizing their profession would bring.
