this post was submitted on 19 Mar 2024
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Prostitution will just objectify women
I mean, objectification is already a thing women have to deal with. It won't make that problem worse.
Every study on places where it's been decriminalized have shown that it results in an increase in prostitution, an increase in trafficking, and better safety and recovery routes for those involved.
Greatly reduced harm to a slightly increased group of people.
The questions I have are about the increase in human trafficking. Could it be because of an increase in reporting? How many cases of human trafficking go unreported? Is it more so in countries where prostitution is criminalized?
It's possible that a country with decriminalized prostitution may have a better reporting system for human trafficking with victims more willing to come forward without worry of repercussions. Either way, I'm leaning towards decriminalization rather than legalization for prostitution for v4.
https://orgs.law.harvard.edu/lids/2014/06/12/does-legalized-prostitution-increase-human-trafficking/
I know there's a handful of studies out there, but this one is fairly comprehensive.
It's difficult to know for sure the answer to your question. The authors theory is more that due to economic reasons, the demand following legalization grows faster than the domestic supply, because demand grows higher in countries with high wealth because they can afford it, and supply is lower because wealth people are less likely to become prostitutes.
They then look at a bunch of countries to put specific numbers on those trends and see if they balance out to an increase or decrease in trafficking.
The evidence gives weight to their theory, which would sidestep the specifics of how enforcement was conducted.
It's also important to note that their study was independent of the harm reduction aspect of decriminalization, which is increasingly well accepted.
What I'd be curious to know is if decriminalization results in a global increase in trafficking, or just local.
If someplace decriminalized prostitution, and that just diverted trafficked persons there instead of elsewhere rather than causing more people to be trafficked, then you could potentially be doing a net good making sure that people who ended up trafficked ended up in the lest harmful place that could happen to them.
The problem with this are in places where prostitution is legal, police can search a brothel and as long as everyone there is scared enough not to tell them it's a trafficking situation, there's basically nothing they can do. In countries where it is illegal, they can arrest them, then get them somewhere safe, and then find out it was trafficking and help them out.
If people are too scared to tell the police, they'll be too scared in either case. Police can also arrest people for suspicion, they just can't press charges.
In jurisdictions where it's illegal, the vastly more common occurrence is that trafficked persons are afraid to talk to the police because they're doing illegal things and fear legal penalties.
Actual evidence suggests that outcomes for trafficked persons are better when it's decriminalized, even though it happens more often.
I don't think that's a fair exchange
Okay.
From the metrics in the study referenced above trafficking accounts for roughly 25% of prostitutes, regardless of legality. When it's legal, they have workplace protections and get normal workplace benefits like retirement plans.
When it's illegal, they have little legal protections, and are subject to abuse because while victims, they're also criminals and are punished if caught or saved.
Personally, I think better outcomes for the majority of people is preferable to markedly worse outcomes for a smaller set.
It's harder to arrest someone who's currently being trafficked. Right now in countries where it's illegal, if they suspect someone is being trafficked, they arrest them for prostitution, get them to a safe place then figure out they were actually being trafficked and get them help.
The idea behind decriminalizing it is that it is an acceptance of the fact that people will objectify women (as they already do), in exchange for significantly reducing the exploitation of women.
The objectification and exploitation already exist, the point is that it significantly reduces the exploitation
How? At what point will it be seen as "oh, don't have enough money? Just resort to prostitution". Capitalism will always capitalism. If it means giving less benefits to women because they can just be prostitutes, it will happen. Right now this pro-prostitute agenda is likely being peddled by the same ones who want to take advantage of it.
Because if its legal then the industry can be regulated to insure the safety of women working in it. But as long as it's illegal there are no regulations, and no one sex workers can go to for help because they're working illegally. It's also known as the worlds oldest profession; its not going anywhere. And as someone who knows a lot of people who are pro-prostitution legality, they aren't the people you seem to think they are. They're all kinky queer folks. The folks I know who are most ardent supporters of the idea are women, some of whom are sex workers themselves just producing content rather than working as prostitutes.
Its an industry that always has, and always will exist, and if you legalize it you can protect the people working in it.