Prostitution Essays (1341 words) - Sex Industry, Prostitution Law

Prostitution What is prostitution? Prostitution is the After one year from the ratification of this article the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited. This is from section one of the eighteenth amendment of the constitution, making alcohol illegal in the United States. To this day it is still the only amendment ever to be repealed. Why didn't prohibition work? Because you can't take away the publics right to sin and to live there lives the way they see fit. The same thing can be said for prostitution, which like alcohol consumption or gambling, is a victimless crime. Many say that one of the main reasons prostitution is illegal is because it might bring a bad element to the area that it takes place in, but if we look at other countries and cities that allow it this couldn't be further from the truth. Rollin M. Perkins author of the book Criminal Law, sites that while our government fights the war on prostitution attempting to make it completely illegal, other major countries such as England and Scotland only regulate the industry. Does this make crime run rampant in these other countries? Well England's crime rate is significantly lower than that of the United States, in fact a recent study showed that there are more murders in New York city in one day alone, than in all of one year in England. Contrary to popular belief prostitution is illegal in only forty-nine of our countries fifty states. In Carson City and Reno Nevada prostitution is legal but still regulated. There are houses on the outskirts of these two cities often referred to as brothels in which soliciting prostitution is as legal as going out to eat for dinner. The government requires that these houses be licensed, taxed, and even given a health inspection just like a restaraunt, and once a month a government appointed official will test every employee for Aids and other major sexually transmitted diseases. Every customer must use protection, and each brothel is protected by security guards as well as video cameras on the outside of the house, to insure no harm to the customers or the girls. Now I ask what is wrong with this? Crime in these two cities is no greater than in that of any other, and while many may have moral objections to these businesses, it is still every American's constitutional right to create there own opinion of what is right or wrong. Instead our Government has decided to continually fight prostitution even if it means ignoring its citizens right to due process. Recently a thirty-year-old Minnesota man was arrested for allegedly soliciting prostitution. Despite the fact that he hasn't even been convicted yet or even gone to trial, the St. Paul Police Department posted his name and picture on the Internet for all to see. (Which included his family, co-workers, and neighbors) Columnist Courtney Macavinta believes that this is a very controversial act: For law enforcement agencies, the Net provides a new venue to increase public awareness and deter crime through, among other things, humiliation. In addition, local newspapers increasingly publish daily stories online, including crime headlines. Still, cyberspace also makes this local information instantly global, sparking some debate over accused and convicted criminals' privacy. Perhaps more significantly, the trend brings up old questions about how crime reports should be handled in order to minimize harm to those who haven't been proven guilty, while making public information truly accessible. The issue of public record information being put online is probably the most difficult policy decision we will face. It presents choices between privacy rights and First Amendment rights. I'm not convinced that the (prostitution-related arrests) are situations in which we need to make the information global. There is a real potential for damage to a person's reputation when we're talking about arrest information. Our government is completely contradicting itself. It says we have freedom of religion and to decide our own moral beliefs, as well as the right to due process. Yet when it comes to prostitution our government throws these rights, right out the window. Even recent