Prostitution is a topic that is often taboo in society, and can be a hot button issue. A person selling their body is seen in a negative light by just about every corner of society. Personally I believed that if someone wants to willingly become a prostitute, then it is their right to do with their body as they please. But then with the subject of prostitution comes Human Trafficking. At first I did not exactly know how the two were related, but I did know that often times people who were trafficked turned into sex slaves. Previously I had been pro legalization of prostitution. If someone wants to consensually sell their body they should be able too. Also, studies have shown that legal prostitution helps combat STDs because the industry is regulated. But after doing research, I found that legal prostitution actually made human trafficking more common. A Harvard study found that:
"Criminalization of prostitution in Sweden resulted in the shrinking of the prostitution market and the decline of human trafficking inflows. Cross-country comparisons of Sweden with Denmark (where prostitution is decriminalized) and Germany (expanded legalization of prostitution) are consistent with the quantitative analysis, showing that trafficking inflows decreased with criminalization and increased with legalization."
(https://orgs.law.harvard.edu/lids/2014/06/12/does-legalized-prostitution-increase-human-trafficking/)
After reading this, my mind completely changed on the legalization of prostitution. There is no arguing that human trafficking is terrible. Often the victims of it are people who are trying to go to other countries to better their lives, but fall victim to traffickers. But it is proven that prostitution leads to increase in trafficking. This makes sense, because if it becomes legal the demand for prostitutes would increase which would mean that there would be more trafficking. The data in class showed that a high percentage of people who are trafficked end up as sex slaves.
I think that this was a subject that previously I was not well informed about. I went off of assumptions that were not grounded in fact. I believed that since it would be regulation in prostitution there would be no way for people to put sex slaves into brothels. But after class, I realized that this simply is not the case. People are able to find loopholes now, and they would certainly find loopholes if prostitution became legal.
I think it is interesting that the data that you found comes from countries that are developed. Do you think the result would be the same in a country like India or China where they are not as developed as European nations? These countries also have a different cultures which I think plays heavily into the view of prostitution. Sweden, Germany and Denmark all have extensive respect and rights for women. This is not the same in China and India. How would that play into your view? Should we expect the same of these very different nations?
ReplyDeleteI think the study you found is interesting and relatable to some of the case studies we read about in class. It is interesting building upon some startling facts we learned about in class such as how democratic governments have a higher inflow than nondemocratic countries. A question that I wonder is do you think democratic countries have a higher inflow, according to this study, because it is harder to get a uniformed response and legislation on the issue of human trafficking and prostitution?
ReplyDeleteI like that the date you found comes from democratic and developed countries. I think we often forget that these countries are in fact not immune to these issue. I know that demoacracy isn't always the answer, and we have seen a large number of victims in these countries, but we don't often see them as the origin countries, if democracy would help in developing more meaningful responses?
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