Don’t prosecute prostitutesRe ” ‘D.C. Madam’ found hanged,” May 2As a lawyer who defends women arrested for prostitution, I see how devastating it is for a woman to be convicted for crimes that should not be regarded as violations of the law. I am not surprised that a conviction with a six-year prison sentence, for activities that hurt no one, could drive someone like the “D.C. Madam” to take her own life. Deborah Jeane Palfrey has now become a martyr in the cause of expanding personal freedom. Laws criminalizing prostitution among consenting adults are among the most hypocritical and oppressive in the criminal justice system. Just look at the high-ranking political figures who were among Palfrey’s clients. How much time should they do behind bars? Does society want to drive these men to commit suicide too? The best lesson to take away is that prostitution among consenting adults should no longer be a punishable crime. No more women or men should ever again hear the jail doors slam shut because of buying or selling adult sexual pleasures. Edward Tabash
Our own Eddie Tabash had this published in the LA Times, and it got me thinking. I’ve often asserted that gay rights, death with dignity, and abortion rights all mainly stood under the umbrella of the Separation of Church and State. I wonder now, as I think about it, if prostitution (as described above) also falls into this category.
alatham,
Prostitutes don’t make society look down upon them.
rna2dna,
Ok, fine. “Make” was not the right word. But I’m sure willing prostitutes are fully aware of just how unloved their chosen profession is before starting it. My criticism of Peter’s comment stands.
Prostitution is actually quite the rewarded business in the Bible, as in, kill the whole town but spare the prostitutes. It happened in the OT.
QF’s blog: http://irrationaltheorist.blogspot.com/
alexatheist:
Did you remember to put the forward slash in the closing blockquote tag?
</blockquote>
Recently I watched a doc on the History channel about Prostitution during the Civil War. It mainly discussed one Union camp in Tn. The began having huge issues with STD (about 70% had one) and begun to try to stop the prostitution. They tried arresting them at one point even loaded a 1000 onto a steamboat and shipped them away. The result, 1000 new prostitutes moved in and then the 1000 that left came back resulting in double the amount of prostitutes.
Finally a radical plan was hatched.
legalize prostitution. They made ever prostitute be certified each month by a Dr. Those showing signs of STDs were admitted to a hospital for treated. This reduced the std to incredible lows.
Yup, I’ve been using blockquotes daily for years so I don’t know whats wrong. Here goes again…
Anyway, the Netherlands has a similar legal prostitution plan where it is regulated by the government and there are checks on health and safety of the sex workers which seems to work out just fine over there. Like anything, when you enact prohibition and attempt to drive it underground it only results in crime and chaos.
Only some of them. It might be easier than trying to unseat them through elections.
alatham,
Peter wasn’t specific enough in his comment for me to be sure what he was referring to.
Personally, I think I respect women and men about equally. Although I will admit to being attracted to women so that occasionally causes an unfair advantage for the women (I’m not proud of that unfairness).
Society can’t be trusted to make unbiased judgments. In this case we can do a rough comparison. Christian preachers exploit people emotionally and as we have seen they also use their postion to take advantage of children and adults sexually. However, society thinks christian preachers are lovable.
I’m not intending to criticize your observation but, I do criticize society for the double standard. Even worse society gives the preacher tax exempt money for exploiting people. Not to mention overly lax reporting requirements.
Now, if the women are prostitutes unwillingly then, that is of course not acceptable.
I think we should tax it and use the taxes to pay to study STD’s.
*OT*
British Airways bans beef on flights to avoid offending hindus
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23483255-details/British+Airways+takes+beef+off+the+menu+to+avoid+offending+Hindus/article.do
Just one more reason I am thankful everyday that my family left the UK for America-religiously based political correctness is raging totally out of control over there. Can’t eat beef/pork because of silly religious restrictions? then don’t choose it when flying on the national airline but don’t use your personal superstition to deny those who would eat beef. Mark my words, it’s only a matter of time before alcohol is banned on BA to avoid causing offence to the muslims.
British common sense is now officially dead.
I thought this wanker was banned.
Rna2dna,
I agree.
Religion is just BA’s excuse. The skyrocketing price of beef is the real reason.
what this tells me is that America is like ripe fruit ready to be plucked.every customer in her records should be exposed and punished.i suspect most are married respected pillars of the coummunity.as for legalization what age of consent for workers,customers where do you allow it,how do you tax it sales or income tax or both.my point is that legalization may not be as simple a solution as we think.
I think prostitution in the US is a tax problem as a result of a religious one. Many states have difficulties taxing this industry because of their laws based, to some extent, in biblical ideas and myths and to conform with some religious groups. By the way, it is disturbing to see the amount of prostitution taking place in the bible itself; and it is punished horribly.
Rusty Shackleford:
Isn’t it Norway, or Sweden?
Peter:
I’m sorry, but what exactly does decriminalization/legalization of prostitution have to do with respect towards anyone? If anything, making it illegal is decreasing (real and imagined) respect towards both men and women working as prostitutes. Not only do you punish them, you also brand them as criminals, and thus label them with a social stigma.
If you mean to imply that prostitution in and of itself is disrespectful towards women, the only way out is to make sure there’s no more prostitutes. And making prostitution illegal is obviously not the right way.
And until you, or anyone else, can figure out how to solve that issue completely, I’d rather be on the side that doesn’t throw those men and women in prison, forces them to take drugs and commit suicide and stigmatizes them.
quantum_flux:
What is a pimp?
Someone mentioned that prostitution is legal in Nevada. Penn & Teller showed a brothel in one of their Bullshit! episodes. A brother that has prostitutes, as well as an owner. Now, would you call that brothel owner a pimp, just based on his/her position? How does that differs from any business owner or employer?
Or would you define a pimp by the way he acts (those things you described)? If so, then legal status of prostitution is irrelevant, and the problem is in that person commiting things already illegal independently of prostitution. And, come to think about it, don’t you think that prostitutes would be more keen to report such a person, if they weren’t threatened with a prison sentence themselves?
Karen,
Palfrey’s death was the second suicide associated with the case. A woman who worked for the escort service, former University of Maryland professor Brandy Britton, killed herself in January 2007 before she was scheduled to go to trial on prostitution charges.
Makes it hard not to wonder.
All of the blog comments so far have been so women-centric as far as the prostitutes go. Gay men and women who want sex with men for pay rarely have legal options. Why no sympathy for the hustlers out there — and their customers? If you’ve seen the show Pleasure for Sale, you’d see that all the women are very good at making decisions and sell themselves for lots of money. They don’t get my pity. It’s the ones who can’t afford to leave their families to move to the ranches and have to walk the streets to make a buck that I feel pity for.
One thing not mentioned here is that not all people can find a person willing to become a spouse, even if they wanted to. Severely-disabled persons really face a challenge in that regard. Why should our laws practically ensure that severly disabled people not receive sexual pleasure and relief when they are physically able without paying the premium price caused by legal restriction / limited access? The disabled community should really rise up.
And finally, why is everyone so down on pimps? Pimps and madams, in a legal scenario, provide a valuable service by conducting the business and security end of things. Priests and pastors do the same thing for religiously-inclined folks. Here are the rules, and here is the enforcer.