Legalized prostitution works in many countries, including Canada, most of Europe, most of South America, most of Mexico, Brazil, Israel, Australia… the list goes on and on. It’s easier to note in which countries prostitution is illegal – chiefly in the United States. Yet the divorce rate has skyrocketed in the U.S. in the past few years. According to Jennifer Baker of the Forest Institute of Professional Psychology in Springfield, Missouri, 50% of first marriages, 67% of second marriages, and 74% of third marriages in the United States end in divorce. These statistics are staggering, and leads one to wonder: would legalized prostitution change everything?
Let’s take a look at Nevada, the one state in the United States where prostitution is legal. Well, when looking at the divorce rate in Nevada, it’s the highest of any state, at 6.4 divorces per 1000 people. Guess that blows the theory that legalizing prostitution saves marriages.
Well, there are other things that legalizing prostitution could help, if not marriages in trouble. Legal prostitutes are safe from crime, and are constantly tested for disease. This prevents the spread of sexually transmitted diseases and keeps the prostitutes safe. In other states where prostitution is illegal, prostitutes are often victims of crime and even more often than that, disease carriers and spreaders.
Legalized prostitution would not necessarily mean that streetwalkers would be boldly out in the street at all times of the day (well, we see that now in many areas of the U.S. with illegal prostitution!) Rather, the normal way legalized prostitution is handled is that the prostitutes work out of a brothel, where they are kept free from public view. These brothels are said to be safe places for the women to work and for the men to visit.
Would legalizing prostitution help to rid the world of online predators? Possibly. If these guys could get some, legally, out in the open, would they really turn to pretending to be someone else online and going after helpless adolescents and teens?
Legalized prostitution could actually make money for the government, as well, if it was taxed properly. We all know how badly the United States government needs money to climb out of the hole we’ve dug ourselves into – this would be the perfect solution!
Even if you are against legalized prostitution because of your religious views, you can’t deny that there are some good arguments for legalizing prostitution. Just the fact that it’s legal almost everywhere else should be a clue to us Americans that we’re still viewing sex and sexuality in a taboo fashion. The idea should at least be brought onto the table and seriously considered.
