How does the criminalization of prostitution affect the sex industry?
Many areas all over the world have mostly criminalized prostitution. Many are against legalizing prostitution because they believe that it is demeaning, harms human dignity, is a crime against women, and makes women more susceptible to violence and rape. Sex work is also considered to be the modern-day version of slavery and should not be legalized. Conditions of the job are horrible as well. There is no overtime pay, health insurance, sick leave, and many are forced to turn tricks to work off crushing debts while having unprotected sex. Prostitutes are assaulted by customers, pimps, and partners on a regular basis. Abuse is very common because illegal prostitutes fear the police which prevents them from being able to report those cases.
Perspective of Police Officer
Joe Vargas, MA, former Captain of the Anaheim Police Department who has worked with many ‘working girls’ in his police career believes that the legalization of prostitution would just put lipstick on modern-day slavery and call it another step in the liberation of women. He believes that sex work is demeaning and cruel to women as well and that it is the act of oppressing women to satisfy the sexual appetites of men. He argues that he does not see anything healthy about an environment where this is legally allowed. Prostitutes are known to have shown a high rate of childhood sexual abuse and emotional trauma. Surveys report prostitutes are assaulted by customers, pimps and partners on a fairly regular basis. Many prostitutes have been forced or coerced into sex trafficking by abusers. He claims that legalization won’t prevent that and male abusers still will profit from trafficking their victims in legalized locations facilitated and regulated by the government itself.
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Perspective from an interviewer of a John.
The journalist had come across a sign advertising a ‘beer, blood sausage, and as many girls as you can manage’ as a lunchtime deal for €60 in Berlin. He believed that prostituted women are marketed alongside food and booze and had become nothing but a consumable item in the mind of the john. He had interviewed several johns and was able to gain insight on what johns think about the women. Many johns convince themselves that the women enjoy it. Some even see themselves as saviors. One john admitted to paying for sex with a prostitute who looked 'poor' and that 'she can feed her kids and buy them shoes,’ Another said, ‘If women could give full satisfaction to husbands and boyfriends, then men wouldn’t go to prostitutes'. One john had even started paying for sex when he was merely 12 years old. He had bragged about paying less because he came quite often and said, 'Most of the women have pimps or lover boys, but who is going to do anything if they are unhappy? Nobody will.’ The journalist argues that johns feel perfectly entitled to buy their way into women’s bodies; therefore, there can be no ‘human conditions’ or ‘health and safety’ involved in prostitution.
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Perspective of a judge
A judge who works in the constitutional court had rejected challenge to the country’s ban on sex trade and is taking part in the uphold in the ban of prostitution in South Korea. He believes that the growing trend to liberalize and promote openness in sex doesn’t condone or justify its commercialization, insisting prostitution should not be protected because it harms human dignity. He claims that nothing harms human dignity more than a threat to survival. Prostitution in South Korea has always been illegal but many turned a blind eye to it because 'decriminalizing prostitution would encourage sex industry and further degrade sexual morality’; however, the approach changed when 14 young prostitutes died in a fire. Despite the criminalization, the red light districts of South Korea have been prospering since.
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