With the death of an infamous resident, the
However, I don’t think an outright ban on prostitution is an effective way to protect society, assuming that is the intent of the ban. A ban on prostitution creates a black market where coercion, violence and desperation are used to create a supply of sex workers who are unable to escape from the high risks and presumably low pay offered by the individuals forcing them to work. For every sex worker making hundreds of dollars an hour in an upscale neighborhood, there are dozens in places as close as Route 1 in Jessup risking their lives. Quite frankly, the police and judicial resources spent on Brandy Britton were wasted. Mrs. Britton is obviously someone who, for whatever reason, has chosen prostitution as a profession. She was not the victim of coercion and did not need the “guidance” of the State to make informed decisions. Most likely, government regulation contributed to her unfortunate fate.
A better approach to the regulation of prostitution would be governmental licensure. This would allow police to keep an accurate census of who is legitimately working in this industry and decrease the likelihood that violence and desperation are factors of those seeking licenses. Sure, this will never happen in our lifetimes, but it would allow people who have voluntarily chosen this profession to be segregated from the folks who are being taken advantage of.
7 comments:
How do you regulate "desperation"?
Licensure vs. an outright ban may make it easier for the government to spot the illegal trafficking of sex trade workers. However, I believe that we can agree that a large percentage, i.e. most if not all, do not "choose" to be prostitutes. If not physically forced into service, many purveyors come from damaged backgrounds and "choice" may not factor into the equation.
Ask yourself this: What would you do for $50? If any of the acts performed by a prostitute don't come to mind, then consider the factors that may drive another person into prostitution. Will your government licensure address those factors?
The only things that can prevent someone from becoming a prostitute against their will is education and the availability of other economic opportunities. When these elements are lacking, it is easy for women to be put to work in this profession against their will. The worst possible scenario, in my opinion, is that these women are put to work in a black market. Licensure might not address these underlying causes, but it will make the industry safer. Would the sex workers would be better off fearing the police or perceiving the police to be allies?
This industry, free market or black market, is degrading, demoralizing, dehumanizing, and treads the line of emotional and physical abuse, even in the best scenarios (not unlike my previous employ in corporate tax compliance).
Licensure may reduce the suffering (abuse at the hands of their "business managers", or reduce certain dangers (disease, for example) but I think overall, the nature of business is fraught with human suffering. The Brandy Brittons of the world, middle-class moms making $2,500 a day, are the exception, not the rule. A free market will not transform the hookers working the boulevard into high-class call girls. It'll just make sure they wear condoms and pay sales tax.
FM:
Just when you're sounding more and more conscious, you vaporize and pass through the barrier of reasonability.
The glaring omission in your post amounts to the very item that makes these women unbearably vulnerable and not something over which behavior modification can rectify: mental illness.
And for men to take advantage, paid or not, or to indulge in jokes about this woman, mother, sister, daughter, even prior to the final tragedy, infuriates people like me and makes a permanent record of lack of intellectual caliber.
Licensure would provide the means to identify mental illness, the salws tax, the means to provide treatment.
This is not a question of intellectual calibar.
This is a lack of moral fiber.
We learned to teach values in religious institutions, and in schools.
We need to teach values in the worlds of business and govenments.
The teaching needs to occur with the goal of providing substance and understanding, in order to achieve deep and enlighten reasoning of it's importance.
The wonderful pleasures of sex have their true and lasting values when coupled with love, respect, and an understanding.
Anon 7:39- I don’t think I have vaporized and passed through the barrier of reasonability. That is just your condescending and self righteous way of saying that you disagree with me. It may be the case that some prostitutes (certainly not all, as you imply) are mentally ill. If so, licensure would aid in identification and therefore put the applicant on a path to treatment. Additionally, employers of sex workers (not wanting a reputation of exploiting people) would likely try and gauge the mental health of those in their employ, adding a further layer of protection not provided by the black market. For those men and women who are mentally healthy and want to be prostitutes, licensure makes sense for the reasons mentioned in the post.
Thus, I don’t see how the possibility of mental illness among sex workers should make us want to ban prostitution. Sex workers, mentally healthy or not, are better off with prostitution legal.
Make no mistake, the prohibition against prostitution has NOTHING to do with helping the prostitutes, and EVERYTHING to do with one segment of society enforcing its moral values on everyone else.
The authorities always give a very nice song-and-dance about how prostitution isn't a victimless crime, and how the women are universally coerced into the trade. Fine. Then why don't they expend some resources going after pimps? (They seldom do; any pimps arrested are almost always caught by accident.) If they are so concerned about women who are forced to be prostitutes, why do they go after independents like Britton who are homeowners and are obviously resonsible citizens? And why is it that they always go after the low-hanging fruit with their sting operations?
Answer: It isn't about helping the 'victims' of prostitution. It's about making headlines, protecting their budgets driving up arrest statistics. Vice cops are lazy, incompetent under-achievers who can't make it going after real criminals.vrbhp
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