Decriminalize Sex Workers

What is a sex worker?

A sex worker is an individual who receives money or good in exchange for consensual sexual activities or erotic performances, either regularly or occasionally. In other words, most people use the word prostitute or prostitution; a person who engages in sexual activities with someone to get a payment. 

The Word Decriminalization 

Decriminalization refers to the action or procedure of suppressing something as illegal or as a criminal offense.

The reduction of illegal activities for "marketing" (either buying or selling) sexual deception, especially organized as prostitution.

Prostitution is extraordinarily dangerous for the women (mostly) involved because it leads to sex/human trafficking, sexual assault, physical abuse, forcibly drug addiction, and rarely death or for the individual (sex worker) to have post-traumatic stress disorder.

Why Is It Important To Address This Problem?

• Employees” have been robbed, beaten, and/or raped

• Missing women/children/men

• Humans have been murdered due to being a prostitute or sex trafficked

• Minors are forced child labor

• Separate victims from their family members and members

• Threatening to shame victims by revealing their businesses/circumstances to their family

• Transmitted diseases

  Young adolescents and children are being exposed to inappropriate women in the street. Prostitution is seen as a modern-day slavery. Which plenty of the victims are either abused or raped. Relating to sex/human trafficking, minors are being forced to children labor or sexually abuse. This is important because it creates normalizing violence and prostitutes are being objectified.

  
  

  Why Prostitution Should Become Illegal?

  Countries with legalized prostitution are associated with higher human trafficking inflows than countries where prostitution is prohibited. The scale effect of legalizing prostitution, i.e. expansion of the market, outweighs the substitution effect, where legal sex workers are favored over illegal workers. On average, countries with legalized prostitution report a greater incidence of human trafficking inflows (Harvard Law School 2014). 

  
  

  This illustrates that if the U.S. and other countries were to legalize prostitution it will lead to an enlargement of marketing prostitution along with increasing the cases of human and/or sex trafficking. Prostitution will become a sex/human trafficking movement causing an individual to be endangered. Majority are being forced to do these sexual activities with either men or females. These individuals are being sold to others and losing their dignity, which affects their psychological trauma, physical health, and mental health tribulations, such as depression and suicide. 

  
  

  Do Sex Workers Have A High Chance Of Going Through Sex Assault? 

  There are no comprehensive, up-to-date statistics on how many sex workers in the U.S. have experienced sexual violence. One systematic review of research found that globally, sex workers have a 45% to 75% chance of experiencing sexual violence on the job (Samantha Cooney 2018).  There’s a high percentage of sex workers being sexually assaulted due to “their job.” In other words, prostitutes get sexually assaulted because the consumer(s) believe it’s okay for them to be treated this way due to them selling their “bodies or themselves.” This doesn’t justify for sex workers to be treated this way, although sex workers' “job” is to please the buyer.

  This is important because this reason either way doesn’t justify a sex worker being sexually assaulted. It is important to understand although the sex worker's profession is to please the consumer, the perpetrator is the one to take the fault. The sex worker isn’t responsible for the sexual violence happening, the perpetrator (consumer) should understand if the sex worker isn’t comfortable with doing any action they’re being told or a simple no is enough. Actions like this can further cause rape, physical harm, psychological trauma, or even for the sex worker to die. 

  
  

  Prostitution Makes An Individual Prone to Physical Abuse

  As adults in prostitution, 82% had been physically assaulted; 83% had been threatened with a weapon; 68% had been raped while working as prostitutes (Farley M. and Barkan H. 1998).  The quote illustrates a sufficient amount of sex workers have either been physically abused or abused with weapons, including the amount of sex workers who’ve been raped. Prostitution is violent! That is to say, sex workers are prone to physical abuse, clearly, violence is brutality and normally for women who are sex workers. They often go through rape, verbal abuse, physical abuse, harassment, and thrash or torture.

  
  

  Substance Abuse & Prostitution 

  It is not clear whether substance abuse is one of the factors that pushed these women into prostitution (as noted earlier, 55% of the subjects reported being addicted prior to their prostitution involvement) or whether it was prostitution that caused their drug involvement (30% became addicted following and 15% concurrently with their prostitution involvement) (Silbert M. H., Pines A. M., Lynch T 1982).  Most sex workers have been addicted to using drugs while “working” after, or before. They may use drugs to either cope with their lifestyle, deal with physical and emotional stress, improve their experience with clients (consumers), and increase their confidence and energy level. Which have a negative consequence on the sex worker because it can lead to mental and physical health diminishing.

  
  

  Why Do People Murder Prostitutes?

  The main reason prostitutes get killed is probably because they are uniquely vulnerable, which means that their killers may have a better chance of escaping justice…They’re like runaways and street people, in the sense that nobody will miss them if they disappear. These are marginalized people who tend to steer clear of the police and their disappearance is therefore unlikely to be reported (Health24 2015).  The quote is trying to say that sex workers get killed because the individual is likely to be on the street often and nobody will notice if they’re missing or has disappeared. This is important because it’s a very serious issue for someone to be murdered and not be noticed. That is to say, prostitution should be prohibited because sex workers are dying to get paid to “sell themselves.” The outcome of this is tragic and devastating to know that there are individuals missing due to giving someone contentment and getting profit, to end up dead.

  
  

  Transmitted Diseases Are More Rapidly Spread By “Sex Money”

  Persons who exchange sex are at increased risk of getting or transmitting HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) because they are more likely to engage in risky sexual behaviors (e.g., sex without a condom, sex with multiple partners) and substance use (CDC 2022). 

  
  

  People who are involved with prostitution or prostitutes can get a sexually transmitted disease if they both don’t use protection. HIV and STD are very dangerous, STD is a serious illness that can be treated with antibiotics, unlike HIV which can't be treated or cured and can cause death if the illness is too serious or impacted by the individual. It is transmitted through sexual orientation and can spread if one or another has it. That is to say, prostitution should be illegal. 

  

  
  

  What Could Be Done To Solve This Problem? 

  I. Focus on aressting and prosecuting the purchasers of commercial sex II. Report @National Human Trafficking Hotline (1-888-373-7888), if you see something III. Seen prostitutes out in the street can get a ticket. Also, customers IV. Illegalize prostitution in U.S. V. Sex/Human Trafficking awaerness VI. Educate communities VII. An anti-trafficking organization & Fundraiser VIII. Suspend driver’s license of customers IX. Petition of illegaling prostitutes X. Seen prostitutes in the street can get a ticket, including customers

  
  

  Neighborhoods are being exposed to too many prostitutes out on the street. There are half-naked women on the street doing sexual activities with people for money. These few solutions can prevent sellers from getting away from the crime. Also, will prevent victims from getting taken away or going through rough trauma. In addition, it’ll prevent sexual diseases from spreading. Furthermore, most importantly children are growing up and witnessing in their neighborhood women being “sold” out to the community for having a sexual orientation with others and making these innocent children believe it’s okay to do this kind of action. Therefore, we should decriminalize sex workers. 

  References: 

  Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (March 16, 2022). Sex Workers.

  https://www.cdc.gov/hiv/group/sexworkers.html  

  Cooney, Samantha. (February 13, 2018). Sex Workers Say They're Being Left Out of the

  #MeToo Movement https://time.com/5104951/sex-workers-me-too-movement/

  Harvard Law and International Development Society. (September 09, 2014). Does Legalized

  Prostitution Increase Human Trafficking?

  https://orgs.law.harvard.edu/lids/2014/06/12/does-legalized-prostitution-increase-human-trafficking/

  Health24. (n.d.). Why Men Murder Prostitutes

  https://www.news24.com/health24/columnists/why-men-murder-prostitutes-20150825

  Libaires. (March 25, 2016). 9.4 Prostitution- Social Problems.

  https://open.lib.umn.edu/socialproblems/chapter/9-4-prostitution/

  National Injustices of Justices. (August 31, 2016). Initatives to Reduce for Prostitution and Sex

  Trafficking in the U.S.

  https://nij.ojp.gov/topics/articles/initiatives-reduce-demand-prostitution-and-sex-trafficking-us

  United States Department of States. (January 31, 2020). 20 Ways You Can Help Fight Human

  Trafficking in 2020.

  https://www.state.gov/20-ways-you-can-help-fight-human-trafficking/

  Women & Health. (n.d.). Prostitution, Violence, and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.

  https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9698636/

  Youth.gov. (n.d.). Human Trafficking: The Problem.

  https://youth.gov/youth-topics/trafficking-of-youth/the-problem