Less Control for the Government Prostitution is one of the oldest professions in the world not just the United States, but the world! Women have been in the “field” of prostitution for centuries, whether it was by force or choice. I think that prostitution should be legalized because the fact that it is not creates more issues and problems in the long run, when legalizing it would be a cure to many issues that are created because it is not. . In the article titled The Case for Legalized Prostitution written by Paul Armentano. According to the article: Recent research indicates that over one million women in the United States earn their living by full-time prostitution. Furthermore, roughly one in every six American men has been a willing client of a prostitute within the past five years. (Armentano, 2011, para.2).
Based on this information alone it is clearly revealed that the laws placed on prostitution are clearly implemented to impact and control women. This is a clear violation of freedom of choice. Even though people may not agree with the concept of receiving money for sex, which does not mean that it should remain illegal. There are groups of people who disagree with abortions, but that process is not illegal. The laws prohibiting prostitution is just another example of how the government discriminate against women. Discrimination is apparent in regards to women and prostitution because the government knows that women would be given a dependency and has more control, which the government for some reason does not want to fully give to women. I will state that there are men who engage in prostitution, but for this paper I am only focusing on the impact to women. In Nevada prostitution is legalized in brothel form. Women are still not able to “street walk,” but they can work in a brothel. A woman cannot walk the street and sell herself freely, but she can go work at a brothel. A man, who is making more than the woman prostituting herself, normally owns this brothel. The issue that I have with this is that even though it is legal, the government and the brothel owner are the ones that are benefiting. The female who is prostituting herself, in 9 out of 10 situations is not prostituting because she enjoys it. Most women are prostitutes because they see their body as their most valuable possession, and their only way to make income. Prostitution should be legal not just to make the government and brothel owners money, but mainly because the government benefits from this through taxing brothel owners. I must add that most brothel owners in Nevada are men. So once again, men are benefiting from a woman in a low state who feels that selling her body is her only option to provide stability for herself. In the same article by Paul Armentano, according to the article: Let's look at the price tag for a moment. It is estimated that one in every ten police officers works on vice-related activities. Currently, it is assumed that as much as one-half of a typical urban city's prison female population are prostitutes. In fact, the city of Los Angeles alone spends close to 100 million dollars annually dealing with illegal prostitution. The real cost, of course, is that these public resources could have been used to protect law-abiding citizens from real criminals. (Armentano, 2011, para.5).
This article further justifies my position that prostitution should be legalized. Money is being spent on placing women in prison for prostituting their own bodies. The government is not looking at the bigger picture, and instead is focused on having control over the moral intentions of people. The fact that prostitution is not legalized, has not stopped the behavior. This alone bothers me because so much focus and energy can be only truly protecting people that need it, versus controlling people who should have freedom of choice over their bodies. If people