Argumentative essay
Should Sex Work be legalized?
If we go back in history, we can see that sex work is one of the oldest professions existing
in the World. However, prostitution is still considered illegal and punishable by law. Many
people, women, and men, who chose to practice this work are scared of the law. They should not
be afraid; they should have the chance to trust the justice system. If prostitution is legal, many
issues can be fixed, and many benefits can be developed. Suppose the government legalizes
prostitution, the violence towards prostitutes will go down. In that case, sex workers will feel
safer, and the percentage of health risks will go down. Lastly, by legalizing prostitution, the
government will tax their income, which leads to more tax revenue.
First, by legalizing prostitution, laws can be created to protect them. As the author of the
article Prostitution- A personal choice mentions: “Violence against prostitutes goes unpunished
because victims who live on society’s margins are unlikely to seek justice, or to get it.” With
legalizing prostitution, people who decide to practice this work will feel safer. They will not be
scared to report violent and abusive clients; they will know that someone is there for them and
will protect them. Also, in the article Prostitution- A personal choice, we can read that the
government should focus on punishing the abuser more than the people who decide to sell their
bodies. As Cecilia Hofmann states in her work Is prostitution a human right: “For the pro-
prostitution advocates, foremost among the human rights principles invoked in defense of the
“right to a prostitute” is the right to self-determination.” We live in times where every person
should be free to choose his path, and every person should feel safe and protected. Nobody
should live in fear of being judged for the choices he/she makes of using his/her body.
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Prostitutes do not have the same easy access to health care as most people. As we can
read in Prostitution – A Personal Choice: “The prospect of being pressed to mend their ways
makes prostitutes less willing to seek care from health or social services.” Some organizations
provide health care to people who work in the sex industry, but many people do not feel safe to
accept that help. If prostitution becomes legal, all those who work illegally now will benefit from
having better access to care. According to the article Prostitution a Personal choice: “When
Rhode Island unintentionally decriminalized indoor prostitution between 2003 and 2009, the
state saw a steep decline in reported rapes and cases of gonorrhea.” This statement proves that if
prostitution is legalized, people in this industry will not be scared to see a doctor. The percentage
of sexily transmitted diseases will go down. The worker and clients will be more protected and
safe.
The third benefit of making prostitution legal is that the government will collect many
income taxes that they are losing today. As we can read in the article of The Economist,
Prostitution- A personal Choice: “Although prostitution is illegal everywhere in America except
Nevada, old figures put its value at $14 billion annually nationwide; surely an underestimate.” If
the government legalizes prostitution and takes it out of the grey economy, it will be considered a
job, and it will be under taxation. Taxing the income from prostitution will bring significant
revenue to the government, which can be used towards more successful sex education and more
efficient health care for people working in this industry. For the benefit of decriminalizing
prostitution, we read again in the article Prostitution- A personal choice: “. More recent
calculations in Britain, where prostitution is legal but pimping and brothels are not, suggest that
including it would boost GDP figures by at least £5.3 billion ($8.9 billion).” Also, with all the
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revenue from taxing prostitution, the government can prevent “the ugly results” (Prostitution- A
Personal choice)
Finally, with all being said, the government should decriminalize prostitution. Accepting
sex work as equal to any other profession government can make people in this industry feel safer,
not be scared to visit a doctor, and pay taxes on their income. Altogether, those changes can play
a significant role in people’s lives and government yearly revenue. Decriminalizing prostitution
will not stop the violence and human trafficking in the future, but it is a beginning towards
fighting it and make people who chose this profession to feel safer.
Work Cited:
Cecilia Hofmann, “SEX: From human intimacy to “sexual labor” or Is prostitution a human
right?” CATW- Asia Pacific, August 1997
“Prostitution- A personal Choice,” From The Economics, August 9, 2014
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