A further link from Ginmar to Alas, a Blog which has information about what happened in Australia when they legalised prostitution and its not pretty. The result leads Ginmar to conclude that legalisation is a bad idea. I sympathise but tend to disagree because I think that the legalisation has been partially botched. Probably the main reason for the botching is that there is a lack of follow through. Just because prostitution is legalised does not mean that all activities in the sex trade are legal. Coercion, illegal immigration, drug-pushing etc. are still illegal and any brothel owner or pimp that does these things should be severely punished. Personally I reckon this is a case for public physical punishment. Stick them in the stocks and let the public do what they please to them would be a good way to reduce the enthusiasm for this sort of behaviour. Especially since in many cases it seems like these lowlife scum get a kick out of the powerlessness of their hookers.
However this excellent comment makes a good case for banning it:
Why should men be allowed this form of "entertainment" when it is clearly so very detrimental to the people involved as well as to all male perceptions of all women's worth? Using prostitutes is a male leisure activity, it is a very destructive one, and I don't understand arguments that place men's all holy right to shove their penises in and out of women's bodily holes over the rights of the UN's estimated 3-4 millions children, women and men held in sexual slavery and raped repeatedly for profit in a year.
I certainly agree that use of a prostitute typically indicates that the user is not au fait with the concept of the dignity of women or even the concept that women have feelings. I agree that this is bad but...
Supply vs Demand
The problem is that banning it doesn't alter the number of men who don't respect women. As I see it is the isuse is that, legal or not, the demand for sex services exceeds the supply of willing volunteers ready to receive money for services rendered. As a result, women are forced into the business through a variety of illegal methods. As I say above the legalisation of prostitution needs to go hand in hand with a dramatic increase in the punishment for those who coerce and public humiliation would be a good way to do this. Branding them with PIMP on the forehead might also help. If you make it so that the penalty for getting caught is a big deterrant and you increase the policing so that the chances of being caught are high then you will reduce the abuse. If you don't do this then I agree that legalisation is not good. The problem here is that enforcement of these rules is similar to the enforcment of rules against employment of illegal aliens and the like - i.e. universally spotty. If you want to stop the abuse you have to consistently apply the rules and do it sufficiently often that breaking them is not commercially viable. Moreover you have to set up incentives so that people are willing to rat on the scum and hence so that the law enforcement community doesn't have to do all the legwork.
Education to Reduce Demand
Bu the main way to reduce prostitution is to reduce the demand. John TV and so one may help but surely an even better way to do it is to try and teach the Johns or potential Johns why what they are doing is bad. As I said in my last post this needs to be done in school but it also needs to be repeated elsehere. One example that could be usefully studied is the way that HIV infection rates were dramatically reduced in Uganda. Since HIV is generally passed on by sex with strangers and this is generally a taboo topic, it took a great deal of courage for the Ugandan government to support the public education programs that explained in detail how and why such activities passed on HIV. I have no doubt that some Johns are callous scum who will not change their minds based on any advertising, but I also believe that many are in fact ignorant about how their lusts affect the hookers they use. It seems to me that in the way that modern society has generally made prostitution taboo it recognises that prostitution is a bad thing. The problem is that because it is taboo we are unwilling to have the reasons why it is bad detailed in poublic where everyone can see them. This is a bad thing.
Feminists and Christians Unite
Historically the people most willing to try and help prostitutes and censure their clients have been the (primarily evangelical) christians. I fear that the radical disagreement over things like abortion would make it hard for an alliance of Feminists and Evangelicals to work to together but I suspect if they did it would be a good thing for them (because they both might find out more about why the other side believes what it does) as well as for society as a whole. There would be significant benefits to such an alliance. After all an issue which unites people with such widely differing beliefs would be vound to get significant press coverage as people would be curious to know why each side was willing to "sup with the devil" as it were.
I believe that a campaign that used the plight of prostitutes as a centerpiece could change people's minds about just how unacceptable use of a prostitute is without further crimminalising the poor prostitutes themselves. I think that both Feminists and Evangelicals would agree that the prostitute is in the majority of cases "sinned against" and is therefore the victim. What the campaign really needs to do is to firstly debunk the myths and secondly make even the most hardened insensitive male understand what it is like ot be on the receiving end. I don't know precisely how to do that - but I guess that comparing it to a low paying tedious and unpleasant job where you are explited by your bosses might help. A third thing that the campaign ought to do is generally mobilise the decent majority. Most people dislike discussing sex and prostitution and hence shy away from expressing their disapproval of the clients of the sex trade, but a concerted campaign could make this much the same as drunk-driving. Something that is considered sufficiently beyond the pale that you won't let your friends do it.