Should prostitution be legalized?

Today, even in 21st century, when society has expanded social views and made moral principles as much as flexible, prostitution is still seen as a taboo theme. It is considered in many different ways, mostly negative, from many different aspects, such as cultural, historic etc. Through history, there were a very small number of civilizations that respected or honored woman as human beings. In majority of civilizations women were treated as objects and trophies. And so, placed in that position, some woman decided not to follow the rules of society. If their choice is right, or to put it in other context; social acceptance is not questionable. We have created society that should not question each persons choice as long as it does not have negative effect. This leads to the main theme of this essay, should prostitution be legalized or not? In my opinion, it should be legalized because while illegal it makes more harm than good. One of the benefits of legalization of prostitution is the fact that legalization will facilitate already overloaded legal system. The law nowadays is much unorganized and does not function properly. A great amount of money is spent on enforcement efforts to catch prostitutes and their customers. The police stations are encumbered with the paperwork, and courtrooms are overloaded. Furthermore, once prostitutes are caught they have to pass through an expensive legal system. In most cases, the verdict is pretty much the same; the prostitutes are released with bail, leaving the court officers deal with the expenses and paperwork. Another positive aspect of legalization of prostitution is that underground prostitution would be prevented. The violence and horror that prostitutes have to go through should be stopped. Procurers (pimps) today are criminal figures who treat their employees brutally. If the

prostitution is legalized, it could gradually stop the violence, and women, or men who decide to make the profession out of it would have a secure working environment. Moreover, if the prostitution is legal, government can tax it as a profession. That is to say, instead of losing great amounts of money on prosecuting prostitutes and their customers, the government could easily earn a greater amount of money for state treasury. By legalization of prostitution many health safety problems could be solved. If prostitution were legal, it would mean that certain laws should be established. Health care laws should be one of the most important laws established. In that way, many sexually transmitted illnesses could be better controlled and eventually reduced. Sexually transmitted diseases originate from unsafe sex. Underground prostitution brings exactly that, unsafe sex that later causes many health care issues. Many prostitutes are being forced into their position, and do not have proper health care, or any care at all. By legalization of prostitution, government should establish laws and rules for the safety of customers and prostitutes, similar to the laws in Amsterdam. Such as obligatory protection, regular inspections of the working spaces, obligatory permits etc. The legalization would put a stop to that problem, as well as to the problem of coercion of women to prostitution. Most prostitutes ting are forced to do it by pimps. The profit they make is in most cases forcibly taken by them. They are becoming prisoners of criminals who are taking their liberty away. It is a process that subtracts some of the h as liberty of main human rights, such as liberty of choice. Although nowadays the moral values are pretty flexible in some aspects of life, they are still pretty conservative in others. Prostitution belongs into the group ofothers and that is why it is illegal in most countries. But moral principles are not preventing the existence of

prostitution, or the horrors it can bring. People are still trying to fight something that cannot and will not be rooted out. Instead of fighting something that cannot be fought, society should try to find the best way to deal with it. In my opinion, the best way to deal with prostitution, no matter how immoral it is considered, is legalization. In that way, society can control and prevent a lot of the negative aspects of prostitution, while is illegal, brings with it. Legalization could immediately abolish some of the worse negative aspects of prostitution, such as underground prostitution, compulsion and violence, not to mention the health care issues. Health care issues could in a longer period of time bring highly positive results. The progress of this problem or better to say, the solution of this problem will succeed only if society stops to question decisions of people who would choose prostitution as a profession. We are trying to build a community where each person can have its own liberty, and deliberately make decisions, as long as they do not harm other people. And that is why prostitution should be legalized, because while is illegal, it brings more harm than good.