Legalization of Prostitution:
An Attempt to Help Stop Trafficking and the Spread of Diseases
Human trafficking is one of the greatest problems the world is facing today and there have been many attempts to help stop it and yet it continues to grow in many countries. Human trafficking is a violation of human rights that also affects the country as a whole by increasing crime levels, causing political instability, social breakdown, terrorism, as well as the spread of many sexually transmitted diseases.
Human trafficking is different than smuggling as it is done without the consent of the victims who are usually tricked or forced and then enslaved. Women, usually from very poor countries, are “lured and deceived by false job offers” and are forced to service men to make money for their “owners” (Malarek, 2003). These women are exposed to sexually transmitted diseases including HIV/AIDS as well as psychological abuse, rape and torture.
Many debates have arisen on the most effective ways of stopping human trafficking, one of which concerned legalizing prostitution. Many argued that legalizing prostitution would make the problem even worse as it would be like giving men the right to abuse women without being punished; many actually believed legalizing prostitution might help. The problem was that many “equated prostitution with trafficking despite evidence to the contrary” (Feingold, 2005). There is a big difference between trafficking (which usually consists of women that are being enslaved to do sex work) and prostitution (women who sell sex not necessarily without consent).
According to Kate Butcher in her article “Confusion Between Prostitution and Sex Trafficking”, selling sex is a pragmatic response to a limited range of options. Many women living in miserable conditions often find that selling sex is the only way for them to generate money, and so they become prostitutes. The government was hoping to stop women from becoming prostitutes by making...