When referencing prostitution, we are talking about the mutually beneficial exchange of sexual favors for money by two or more consenting partners; not forced human trafficking.
The study, titled: Decriminalizing Indoor Prostitution: Implications for Sexual Violence and Public Health examined a period of time in Rhode Island in which the state accidentally decriminalized prostitution.
In an incredibly ironic move, Rhode Island lawmakers sought in 2003 to strengthen its laws on prostitution. When the law was rewritten, however, its careful wording accidentally left out the language to explicitly forbid indoor prostitution. This created a loophole which essentially legalized indoor prostitution.
Because changes in government come at such a gruelingly slow pace, this newly created loophole - effectively the function of a bureaucratic typo - stayed on the books for a whopping six years after they noticed it.
Since it was now technically legal to operate indoor brothels, the trade exploded in Rhode Island, creating a larger market and driving down prices. While this expansion of the market would be easy to predict given the legislation, the other factors were not.
What the authors of the study found was the decriminalization of prostitution sent sexual violence rates plummeting.
According to the study, the decriminalization of prostitution reduces sexual violence rates by 30%.
What's more, not only does it decrease the rates of rape but it also saves the taxpayers dearly.
Rape has high direct costs to society. McCollister et al. (2010) using contingent valuation techniques estimate that the cost per rape offense is $240,776 in 2008 dollars. This estimate includes both tangible cost such as criminal justice costs and intangible costs such as pain and suffering. Therefore, decriminalization has the potential to result in large savings in terms of rape offenses.Decriminalization also has a dramatic effect on the rate of sexually transmitted diseases. Because prostitutes aren't forced to conduct their trade in back alleys and on the street, facilities provide a far safer environment by providing condoms and testing their workers.
The result of decriminalization cut the spread of Gonorrhea nearly in half.
Gonorrhea rates among women in Rhode Island fell 40 percent between 2003-2009 and 25 percent among men.
The study found that such a dramatic reduction in the rates of STDs positively affected those outside of the sex market as well.
The results suggest that decriminalization could have potentially large social benefits for the population at large - not just sex market participants. Almost 19 million new cases of STDs occur in the U.S. each year, and the annual direct medical costs of treating STIs (including HIV) is estimated at 11-17 US billion in 2003 dollars (Chesson, 2006). For the female gonorrhoea estimates we calculate that approximately 5-50% of the decline in gonorrhoea could be from female sex workers. The rest is likely from non-sex workers. While we cannot do the same calculation for rape offences, we believe some proportion of the decrease in rape offences is coming from non-sex workers. Sex workers are more likely to report rape after decriminalization, so the fact that we are finding overall decreases suggests that non-sex workers are likely part of this decrease.Sadly, because the state is more interested in bolstering arrest records, filling prisons, and prosecuting victimless crimes, all these incredible benefits came to a grinding halt in 2009 when the government finally got around to correcting their typo. Shameful, indeed.
It's called the "oldest profession in the world" for a reason. Sex is a basic human need. One need only observe the explosive population growth of humans in the last 10,000 years to see that desire to mate is inherent in each and everyone one of us.
When one takes this into consideration, the notion of outlawing consensual sex is seen for what it is, sheer insanity.
Just like the war on drugs creates crime by pushing the unending demand for illicit substances into the black market, the war on the sex trade creates crime in the same manner.
Because the demand for sex is pushed into dark alleys and late night street corners, a woman working in the sex trade becomes far more vulnerable than if they were legally allowed to operate out of brick and mortar setups. This danger of working on the street drives the need for protection from pimps who are often more abusive than any customer would be.
Despite the tens of thousands of arrests each year, the market has found a way to provide the service of sex using safer solutions. In spite of the laws, sellers of sex have found ways to safely conduct business by setting up "massage" parlors, using phone books, and, of course, the internet.
Besides being an immoral gang of thieves, the state is also relentless. They have deep pockets of extorted tax dollars of which to dig in to enforce their distorted will on the people.
Despite prostitution arrests dropping from 2001 to 2010, the cost of arresting people for sex remains staggeringly high. Individual cities continue to spend up to $23 million a year stopping people from having voluntary sex.
Meanwhile, involuntary sex goes uninvestigated at an alarming rate. Hundreds of thousands of rape kits are sitting in police departments across the country - collecting dust, as cops petition the government to allow them to have sex with prostitutes so they can then bust them.
Reader Comments
This intrusion extends far beyond the pretext of prostitution because the real reason prostitution is illegal has simply to do with the ability to make money which isn't traceable. If the law makers can't cut their way in to taking cut of the action then they make it a crime, and we the people should then raises an issue about the scope of lawful authority to levy taxation.
Americans need to focus on the un-restricted powers of legislators creating laws which steal the working peoples money under false pretexts, and whom create criminal offenses where none exist simply in order to fill the pockets of the state.
Consenting adults engaging in barter services is none of their damned business plain and simple. When it becomes something else with people being exploited then that's another matter.
I'm working in the field of prostitution as a social worker, and usually, the studies that show all the benefits of ***consensual paid sex*** are brought in by brothel lobbies. Keep in mind that prostitution, with drugs and weapons, is the the goose that lays golden eggs. Prostitution cashes out trillions world wide, and very little to the sex workers, by the way.
Now it is quite well known in the field that contrary to what's being said here, countries that are tolerant with prostitution, or those who have legalized it, have more rapes issues then the others. And there's a solid sociological ground to explain it : in countries where males go currently to the brothel in order to have fun with ladies they can treat as slaves, these guys show little concern for women in general, as they were grown up in a environnement where money is the big deal, not the person, and not the relationship either. Life in the vicinity of large brothels in Europe, Spain's Putti Club for instance, have become a nightmare for all women. Inside, ladies are obliged to have dozens of clients per day, and often must undergo sex without protection, if the client requires it.
Now to go further in that direction, it seems to me that all the STD (AIDS included) should have gone down as the gonerhea did, according to that study, and at the same pace as it would be for the same reason. The results of that study sound like a fraud. Remember : the autorities like to being told that legalize prostitution will cut down Health expenses. They love it so much they WANT to believe it. That's how convenient this study is.
Regarding "the oldest profession of the world", as a french man turned it : a job protects your dignity, in this regard, prostitution shall never be a "profession".
My own personal comment : from the people I've been working with for 7 years, the wreckage & havoc prostitution is responsible of, I hope it will fully be regarded as a SLAVERY, just as today we can't even question the fact that every job should be paid, and that slavery is an evil. Hopefully we will grow up enough to be abble to see what prostitution really is, and how it destroy women's lives and those of their families.
Question yourself : if women were given proper trainnings and well paid jobs, how many prostitutes would left on the streets ?
Of course we got to talking; it turned out she was going to work, downtown.
The conversation wandered around a bit with her eventually saying to me, "You must think badly of me . . . " .
I said, "No, I have more respect for you than I expect you can imagine. How you can do the job you do and not lose your mind is beyond me." all the while thinking about the the dross and the dregs, the lonely, the faithless, the drunk and and the hateful she'd deal with that night, and every night.
She went silent . . .
Dropping her off outside a cowboy bar I said, " I mean it, take care of yourself . . ."
She worked up a halfway sort of a smile as she shut the door . . .