Should prostitution be State controlled? If so, why and what measures should be taken? If not, why not?

Prostitution is a problem society can’t turn its back. It has always existed and now the time has come for society to do something. The best alternative would be legalizing prostitution.

When we say that prostitution should be legalized, we have to specify what kind of prostitution we are talking about, for we know there are many types of it: street/ house prostitution, adult/ child prostitution, call girls (female escorts), gigolos (male escorts) and so on.

The prostitution that we think the State should legalize is the prostitution of consenting adults. There would be many advantages in controlling this activity.

First of all, the identification of the sex workers. Giving them an identity, the State can control their ages. For we don’t want to encourage child prostitution, the State should fix an age limit so that individuals under age 18 aren’t allowed to sell their bodies.

Moreover, getting prostitutes off the streets and offering them a place to work would  improve their safety. Street walkers are vulnerable to physical assaults; giving them a safe place to work in (a sort of brothel controlled by specific regulations, for example) would reduce the risk of aggressions and rapes. Legalizing prostitution implies an improved safety for the clients too. In fact, prostitutes would be health tested in order to avoid the transmission of STD (sexually transmitted diseases).

There would also be the possibility of birth control (we know that infanticide is very common among the sex workers): prostitutes may be given devices to prevent pregnancy.

Legalizing prostitution gives female prostitutes the possibility to choose whether they want to have children: if they do, they should be given a maternity leave, that is a paid time off work to care for their babies .

Controlling prostitution also means eliminating the pimp, that is to say a reduction of the organized crime.  If the adult consenting prostitution becomes a legal job, then prostitutes will be obliged to pay taxes. This will increase the State revenues.

In addition to this, prostitution can be defined as a public service. Sometimes it is the only way disabled people can have a sexual intercourse. But not only people with disabilities need to pay for sex: the number of people who go to prostitutes because they’re afraid of being judged is growing. Society is putting us under too much pressure and this has consequences on our private lives. We don’t allow ourselves to fail, we don’t want our partner to see we’re weak, because we always have to be on top of the situation. But a prostitute doesn’t expect anything from us, so we can’t disappoint her/ him.

To sum up, prostitution is the world’s oldest profession and it will probably exist forever. The time has come for the State to open its eyes and face this matter of fact. The best solution would be monitoring  prostitution, that is legalizing it.