Running head: A CASE FOR THE LEGALIZATION OF SEX WORK
A Case for the Legalization of Sex Work
Name:
Institution:
1
A CASE FOR THE LEGALIZATION OF SEX WORK
Introduction
Sex work or prostitution is commonly referred to as the world's oldest profession. For
thousands of years, people have exchanged money and goods for sexual favors. This goes back
to the earliest civilizations of the world. The public views the buying and selling of sex as
degrading, dishonorable, despicable and there is a belief that is deeply rooted that prostitution
has been and will forever be a taboo (Weitzer, 2012). Sex work is officially regarded as one of
the ‘six vices' of the world along with gambling, drug trafficking, human trafficking,
pornography, and superstition. Due to this perception of sex work by the public, sex workers are
often mistreated and abused by members of the public including their clients and police officers.
A human rights report titled, ‘Abuses against Sex Workers in China' (2013) put into perspective
the various human rights violations that sex workers go through almost on a day to day basis.
Although sex work is illegal in most parts of the world, people who engage in sex work have the
same rights and freedoms as all the other people of the world. Some of the severe abuses that sex
workers go through include police brutality, discrimination, arbitrary detention, among others.
Punitive charges that are imposed on adults who engage in consensual and voluntary sexual
relations is a violation of the human rights that are internationally recognized such the right to
privacy and the right to personal autonomy.
The purpose of this paper is to argue a case of the legalization of sex work. Legalization of
prostitution has many benefits, and these benefits will be elaborately discussed in this paper. This
paper focuses on the number of reasons as to why sex work should be legalized and these
reasons are reduced violence against women, improvement in the health status of the health
workers and acquisition of workers' rights by the sex workers.
2
A CASE FOR THE LEGALIZATION OF SEX WORK
Reduced Violence against Women
Prostitutes all over the world are incredibly vulnerable to violence especially violence
that is done by their clients, pimps, and managers. Farley M. and Barkan H. (1998), in a study of
the prostitution in the city of San Francisco, California in the United States of America found out
that 82 percent of the prostitutes had been physically assaulted, 83 percent of them had been, at
