I wonder if a lousy economy might make it more likely that prostitution would be legalized.

[raccoon]

I'm not holding my breath, just curious.

After all it is in Nevada, where there have never been many manufacturing jobs. (not that there are many of those anywhere in the US anymore).

[Donnachaidh]

1. at the rate prisons are being privatized - I'd say no

There's money in jailing those hoes....

[mmonk]

2. Doubt it since the religious right is connected to those destroying our country.

[orpupilofnature57]

3. It already is ,if your an agency or the Supreme Court.

[seabeyond]

4. i would hope there would be some factual balance in this discussion of legalization

Even in the Netherlands, women and girls who sell their bodies are routinely threatened, beaten, raped, and terrorized by pimps and customers. In a recent criminal trial, two German-Turkish brothers stood accused of forcing more than 100 women to work in Amsterdam's red-light district (De Wallen). According to the attorney who represented one of the victims, most of these women come from families marred by incest, alcohol abuse, and parental suicide. Or they come from countries in Eastern Europe or Southeast Asia and have fallen victim to human trafficking, lured by decent job offers or simply sold by their parents.

These women are Amsterdam's leading tourist attraction (followed by the coffee shops that sell marijuana). But an estimated 50 to 90 percent of them are actually sex slaves, raped on a daily basis with police idly standing by. It is incomprehensible that their clients are not prosecuted for rape, but Dutch politicians argue that it cannot be established whether or not a prostitute works voluntarily. Appalled by their daily routine, police officers from the Amsterdam vice squad have asked to be transferred to other departments. Only this year, the city administration has started to close down some brothels because of their ties to criminal organizations.

According to a study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, the average age of death of prostitutes is 34. In the United States, the rate at which prostitutes are killed in the workplace is 51 times that of the next most dangerous occupation for women, working in a liquor store. Other studies show that nine out of ten prostitutes urgently want to escape the job. Almost half have attempted suicide at least once.

In 1999, the Swedish government decriminalized the sale of sex, but made it an offense to pimp or to buy sex. Under Sweden's so-called "Sex Purchase Law," paying for sex is punishable by fines or up to six months in prison, plus the humiliation of public exposure. According to the Swedish authorities, the number of prostitutes in Sweden has dropped 40 percent as a result. Human trafficking rings tend to avoid Sweden, because business has gone sour.

Norway, a country that has a reputation to lose when it comes to women's rights, carefully compared the Swedish and Dutch models and concluded that Sweden's was the one to follow. It has now changed its legislation accordingly.
http://www.policyinnovations.org/ideas/commentary/data/000107

[elocs]

6. Thank you. What an informative and readable post.

It provides some valuable balance and insight into the issue. The Swedish "Sex Purchase Law" does seem sensible.

I'm pretty sure that most little girls don't dream of being prostitutes when they grow up and neither is that the hope of most mothers and fathers for their daughters.

[raccoon]

7. Thanks for the info. nt

[HappyMe]

5. Good grief! I would hope not.

I'm thinking it is going to take some time, but manufacturing jobs will be coming back.

The last damn thing we need is to encourage women to choose whore as a profession. I'm no sexual scaredy cat/puritan but that's just wrong.

[raccoon]

8. To clarify, I wouldn't wish that on anyone. But public opinion changes, sometimes.

Years ago, the idea of a state lottery would have been unthinkable in some areas.

[TomClash]

9. "Christians" would object

Don't you know your Bible? Jesus jailed Mary Magdalene. :sarcasm:

[slackmaster]

10. That is entirely up to the state legislatures

Federal law is silent on prostitution in general (other than on federal property and Indian reservations.)